is it crunchy? do kittens like it?

[ironymaiden]

i dunno. i went home from work today feeling decidedly crappy and slept solid from 3pm until 8pm. need to stay awake now to sleep through the night and feeling very sad about missing another rehearsal.
i'm about halfway through Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and i'm plodding on with the grim determination that i applied to The Witching Hour - i can see the edges of something great here, and i'm sure that if i read on i'll be rewarded. right? right?*
meanwhile, i've got a list of other thick novels i'd like to read. i'm tempted to ditch it for other things, but i've put in the time now and i know that if i stop i won't remember enough to pick it up again without starting over.

so, peanut gallery...
[Poll #628625]

*The Witching Hour never paid off. i can't believe i actually tried reading the sequels in hopes of the story i wanted appearing. those are hours of my life i'll never get back.

Comments

[joyful-storm.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned, I was seduced into it after seeing Susanna Clarke read from a footnote she would have liked to include, but instead was forced to use the time it would have required to finish the book instead. Priorities, priorities. I think I like her better as a short story writer than a novelist.

I found the set up to be much more interesting than the conclusion (so if you're bored already, look out!). It doesn't end cleanly, rather it maunders into one of those nebulous sequel-foreshadowing "endings" - really, it more just stops. I don't know which is worse, the idea of a sequel or the idea that in the decade it will take to be published that I will have forgotten the aggravation of the original and might attempt to read it.

It's kind of reminiscent of Vanity Fair, but in a world with magic, and without characters like Becky Sharpe.

I disliked it less than Iron Council. I enjoyed Quicksilver more, but that hits on a lot of obscure pet topics of mine. I haven't read any George R. R. Martin.

(FWIW, I read Lasher first, felt like I was missing a lot of backstory, and went and read The Witching Hour. Didn't help, it's just missing.)