A novel with many rewards for those who are patient! Definitely not for you if you need instant gratification -say you much prefer USA Today to the Times, or you don't find Dan Brown's writing style choppy, or you never read non-fiction books-if that's you, don't bother picking this up, you won't be happy, so just wait for the movie.
Has a wonderful hypnotic quality to it, you can find yourself feeling you've been time travelling when you put it down. Don't give yourself a deadline reading this -it wants to be savored. I have been a great fan of old spooky tales by M.R .James for many years and I found this reminded me of his writing -has that marvellous old Antiquarian feel about it. The footnotes are almost a companion volume, in some sections I enjoyed them more than the main narrative, but those who want an easy read might be distracted. I actually "googled" John Uskglass at one point because I wasn't sure any longer what was based on lore and legend and what was created for this book -to me, that means the artist has succeeded in creating myth, how often do we get that? Perhaps that's the reason for the comparisons to Tolkien or J.K. Rowling, this success in creating a world -unless it's as I've heard and this is the first book of a planned trilogy -the ending definitely points to a continuation as well.
My only criticism is a small one-I did initially find all the exclamation points ("Oh!" a few or more times per page) a bit jarring. I felt at one point that even tho' it IS a book about magic it's a little wearing when they all seem to be in a constant state of mild shock. After some time I became used to it, but I do wonder how she got that past her editor. That said, I find short choppy chapters much more upsetting, tho' I am a huge film buff, there are screenwriters to translate stories to film sequences, I don't need or want film shamelessly pandered to on the page!
I think if you enjoy reading history, classic literature or M.R. James, James Peake, and H.P. Lovecraft and the Arkham House authors you will be sorry to turn the last page. Ms. Clarke has woven history, legend and the fantastic into a seemless whole and I would be happy to return to the England of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell -not to mention John Uskglass....