Nothing to do with Mars, just a little public service announcement. If you're thinking of reading Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" -- and it's something I'd certainly advise you to think about reading -- don't read the review in the New York Times first. Not only does it tip a major plot point, it also gets a crucial part of the plot flat wrong. A reader coming across this review first would read the novel in a state of misprision that would harm the experience a lot, and then get very confused at the end. Do not be that reader.
Thank you for that useful announcement! I bought Strange & Norrell yesterday (I thought it wasn't going to be in the shops for weeks, and here it was, in a department store in my hometown in Holland! Yay!) and am already enjoying it immensely. Are you one of those fortunate people who are in some mysterious way close to the author and have already read the book?
Posted by: Marrije | September 06, 2004 at 01:54 PM
I've met the author once, at a party, and we have a lot of friends in common, which is why I was alert to the book quite early on. But getting an early copy was just due to walking into Murder One, on Charing Cross Road, a couple of months ago and seeing a stack of five advance reading copies for sale at about the hardcover price. I now realise I should have bought them all and put four on to ebay, but instead I just bought the one and loved it.
Posted by: Oliver Morton | September 08, 2004 at 05:00 PM