Dark Tower 7 (& Other upcoming reviews..)

[po silvertop the rogue]

Hail, All!
Again- for the Northeastern PA readers... Tomorrow's Weekender book review (with attendant 2 copy giveaway) will be Dark Tower 7: The Dark Tower.

I suspect that they'll be running my reviews of "Jonathan Strange" and "Stupidest Angel" in Dec. -and the Eric Garcia "Anonymous Rex" in Jan (to tie into the upcoming SF Channel original movie)

Enjoy!

S.

[Dranaan94]

May I ask what you thought of Norrel and Strange?

Dranaan

[po silvertop the rogue]

Quoth Dranaan:

May I ask what you thought of Norrel and Strange?

I enjoyed it, though I *did* feel it was approximately 40% longer than it needed to be..

The lush, dense text *works* from the standpoint of setting the mood and enviornment, but I'm afraid that most readers will find the length daunting- and worse than that, the pace starts slow and doesn't pick up speed until more then halfway into the book. I would have been more enthusuastic about recommending it to readers if it *grabbed* the reader earlier/quicker...

If you'd like, I can post the full text of my review...

S.

[Dranaan94]

That would be great. I'd love to see it.

Dranaan

[po silvertop the rogue]

OK.. Here you go.. (This is currently running on our website, and in the in-store newsletter, and is scheduled to run in the local newspaper sometime early Jan [at which time i've got 2 freebie copies to give away...])

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susannah Clarke (Holtzbrinck)

Where has all the magic gone?
More importantly, What will happen to the prim and proper Victorian England upon Magic's return? *That* is the focus of Susanna Clarke's lovingly crafted fantasy "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell". In an age where magic is merely the stuff of legend, where charlatans and mountebanks hope to convince the populace that their penny curses and ambiguous fortune-telling routines are real- what can one expect when real, actual magic makes a sudden resurgence? Mr. Norrell is a gentleman hermit, happily hidden away in his rural English estate, collecting volume after volume of rare Magical books... content to explore (and perhaps renew) English Magic from the viewpoint of a scholar, using research and organization (as opposed to actually *using* Magic, except perhaps as a last resort). Jonathan Strange is a headstrong young man, with quick wits and an adventuresome spirit- and while diametrically opposite Mr. Norrell in disposition, Strange finds himself “apprenticed” to Norrell. Strange’s willingness to experiment with real magic, and to pass boundaries that Mr. Norrell *publicly* insists should not be crossed, brings the two magicians to a parting of the ways. Can even a country as big as England contain two opposing philosophies? Complications both easily predicted and completely unexpected evolve and ensue.

Clarke has painted a vivid tapestry in minute detail. It is easy (eventually) to lose oneself in the richness of this world. One hopes that this lush, fully-realized landscape will be home to many more stories to come. It would be a shame to have invested this much imagination for just a single tale. A full cast of intriguing characters (both human and otherwise) run rampant through Clarke’s imagination, only to take up resident in the reader’s mind. If I were pressed to admit a single less-than-perfect facet to “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” it is that like a film by Terry Gilliam this book is overwhelming in scope. Having made the stylistic choice to write a fantasy in the English “period” mode (think Jane Austen, or better still Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Clarke captures the feel of a period novel including character dialogue and the frequent use of footnotes to advance not only the actual plot but to illuminate this world-creation as well). A thick weighty brick of a book (well over 700 pages) that I’m afraid to say *does* start a bit slowly before picking up speed- Clarke rewards persevering readers with an incredibly enchanting tale. Rarely has a first novel generated such interest in the author’s next release...


S.