From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 18:28:53 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Drew Bittner" <drewbitt at yahoo.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 1:29 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

> --- Michael Nelson <nelson_mr at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
> >
> > Ugh, I finally finished reading this boat anchor
> > disguised as a book -- which I started reading last
> > December -- because it's on this year's Hugo Awards
> > ballot.
> >
> > One of the most boring books I have ever dragged
> > my eyes through... and I've read The Silmarillion.
> > ;-)
> >
> > I look at all the great reviews for this novel
> > and wonder if Michael slipped me some powdered
> > sugar instead of the real goods.  Did any of
> > these people even finish reading the book or is
> > this the Emperor's New Clothing?  Do people say,
> > "Well if Neil Gaiman loved it, I must be too
> > stupid to really appreciate it," and so they
> > gush about how great it is?
> >
> > Definately a "love it or hate it" book.  Can I
> > get my money back, Michael?
> >
> > Michael Nelson
>
> Having read it not too long ago, I can agree readily
> that it is not to everyone's taste. Just because Neil
> Gaiman likes it, after all, is no guarantee that it
> will necessarily appeal to anyone else.

In all my contacts with Gaiman (admittedly, not many) I found him to be an
overhyped fraud.  When asked to write a foreword to a friend's book, he
supplied a piece which was implicitly all about him and literally said
nothing about either the book or its two creators.  It was all "Look at me!
I'm Neil Gaiman!  Look at me!"

I think he'd willingly blurb a book he hadn't read or didn't like, just to
get his name on it in some manner.  "Look at me!"

--Ted White