I read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell some years back, and what I recall about it most was that it felt extremely...indulgent. Like, the author wasn't necessarily so interested in telling a story as she was spending time in this alternate-England, with these characters, and imagining various historical figures and how they would have related to said characters, and writing in the tone of a book of the time (which in places works marvelously well and in others just feels ridiculously twee), and creating a sense of atmosphere. So I suspect how much you enjoy it will align strongly with how much all of that appeals to you. I enjoyed the worldbuilding and the atmosphere a lot, but without a strong plot thread or much in the way of three-dimensional characters to inhabit it, it felt more like a kid showing off their very fancy dollhouse than an actual story.
That said, I'm watching the series now and I think it may be stronger - so far it feels like they've done a good job maintaining the atmosphere and setpiece scenes whilst excavating and refocusing on the plot. We'll see, though - I'm only a few episodes in.
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Date: 2017-02-22 04:36 pm (UTC)That said, I'm watching the series now and I think it may be stronger - so far it feels like they've done a good job maintaining the atmosphere and setpiece scenes whilst excavating and refocusing on the plot. We'll see, though - I'm only a few episodes in.