It took a while but...

I thought that this novel was amazing. That said, Susan Clarke took at LEAST 397 pages to set the story line up. I think that is slightly excessive, but after slugging my way through the first half of the book, I was hooked. Couldn't put it down. I thought that she did an amazing job of creating a world that was familiar, but which had its own complete history. I thought that her footnotes, even though at times they were difficult to follow, contributed a great deal to the realistic quality of the work. Each one was a story itself. I was completely drawn in by Johnathan Strange and just about hated Norrell for a while there. Both characters were very convincing. I'm glad that this is another cautiously optimistic ending. I think I would have been pretty disappointed if Strange had gone through all that for nothing. All in all I just really enjoyed reading this novel...at least the last 450 pages :)