I enjoyed reading this book even more than the first. I find the storyline and the setting absolutely fascinating and fun as well. What is intriguing me the most is that Mr. Norrell is constantly and variously described as a disagreeable fellow, and Jonathan Strange is thought of as a pleasant gentleman who is always willing to help honest people. Yet, when the quality of magic is described it is said that Jonathan Strange is the one performing more and more dark magic. I find that a rather interesting contradiction that will hopefully get more and more interesting in the last book.

I still give this book 5 thumbs on a hand and recommend that all people young and old pick up a copy of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell before it comes out in the theaters next year!

I loved this book and I look forward to reading the other two volumes! The writing is excellent, I had no problem imagining myself at one of the many society parties that Mr. Norrell visited. There are equal parts humor and drama interwoven in the book so well that one cannot help but be charmed and clamoring for more!

What really captured me was the characters themselves. Mr. Norrell is a peevish man who is a loner and feels very threatened by any competition. He feels so threatened that he buys all the magic books that he finds and secrets them away so others cannot read them. He is far from heroic, but he tries to be a decent person. In other words, instead of seeming larger than life he seems like the guy next door. While he has a special gift he himself is not special.

Often in books Magicians are defined first as Magicians, as if they have lost some or all of their humanity by becoming a Magician. Mr. Norrell is clearly human first, and Magician is but an aspect of him. This care in portraying all the characters as human first is applied to everyone in the books. Or at least all the humans. When non-human characters are introduced they are set apart by both description and actions.

There is so much more to this book, like the manservant who is much more worldly than his master and the two society leeches who attach themselves to Mr. Norrell’s coattails and feed off his successes. I encourage everyone who loves read a good fantasy novel to start reading this book, you will not be disappointed!