The reviews on the back jacket of this book are too good to believe, coming from such good authors as Neil Gaiman, and another reviewer uses the "T" word (Tolkien) to describe this novel.
First time English author Susannah Clarke does a nice job with this story of two English magicians who vy for the public attention and to bring back English Magic in a highly historical fictional early 1800s. The humor and the sketching of the society is pretty good, and the story is very interesting for most of the book. The history is a little thickly laid on, though, with numerous footnotes to the fictional history, and even one that makes the reader go back four chapters to find out what a word means.
I liked this book (it is HUGE) but the ending seemed kind of flat. It possibly leaves room for a sequel.
