Tesla A > Recent Status Updates

The change in POV worked magic and injected much needed steam to this series whew

I have no idea where this is going and the quirkiness has lost its novelty. What was the point of the book again? It’s becoming so self-indulgent in its own grandiosity that I am squinting to trace the path forward. Anyway, let’s see where we end up

I’m waiting for the brilliance that this book has been touted for, because, so far, I’m squinting to find it.

lol this is so unhinged! Like what i listening to 😂😂

The first half has lots of moments of hilarity that I don’t think I noticed that dearly first time round. More importantly though, I cannot believe I missed the very obvious US-Soviet Union analogy here. The sci fi as metaphor stretched schpill in Ursula’s intro makes so much sense! There’s so much in the anthropological observations that is obvious as a parallel. …

Okay, so far enjoying this better than my first foray but I forgot how much Genly despised women 🫠

Alright, the whole book is not going to be about her killing him, right? It was fun in the beginning but now, it’s feeling a little draggy and repetitive. It’s also a bit predictable so I want the plot to move on…

Damn! I loved the ending and I’m glad my dear Arabella got to enjoy the world away from the book in the nose in darkness guy. I see what Susanna did there. What I love love is that despite this being about strange and Norrell, they did not save anyone and just got stuck in their little bubble while magic was being done in the most unexpected places to them. I see it, Susanna!

Above update was for here

This is like a live tweet at this point but did Susanna “fridge” Arabella for this? It can’t be, right? I came to understand the sense of Arabella affliction as the catalyst for Strange’s foray into greatness + expansion of English magic. But now, it can’t just be that she went through all that for this?! Also, is the gentleman the only faerie in this business because of Norrell? If not, why him?

Commercial break: if this were romantasy, they would have Stephen swooning all the way to high heaven for how much the gentleman searched high and low, killing, and maiming just to find his name so that he can bestow it upon him.

PS: less than 100 pages to go and I’m feeling some of the mysteries about faeries and the other otherlanders are going to be left unresolved.

Before I binge this to the end, I just want to note that Strange’s conceitedness and arrogance have come to fore so much. He’s so concerned with himself and loves his assumptions that he’s not paused once to ask others or listen to them properly. He’s also so obsessed with Norrell and it’s interesting to see how he’s inadvertently absorbed Norrell’s behaviour. PS: British East India Co. magic — gagg

I’m really enjoying the whimsy of introducing a whole set of new characters and developing them for three whole chapters just to set up a scene. It’s endearingly extravagant! There are also many allegories going round now but I think I’m just about to grasp the whole point of this undertaking beyond just whimsy (not that whimsy alone would not be enough). PS: They’ve met finally!!

Arabellaaa! Wait, what? There must be more, right?

… while I wish that we got more of Arabella’s viewpoint, it’s totally understandable given the fidelity to the time period that the book has endeavoured to build. There’s a subversive streak in the curious case of Lady Pole, Stephen Black, Arabella, George III that’s also ironically going on with “the gentleman with thistle-down hair” and I find these passages highly intriguing…

Ooh, that book review was damn fire and it was such a good way to solidify the fault lines that have or may be showing up. I love that we are getting to the good turn into the so what of English Magic. PS: poor Drawlight - didn’t much like him but that was a wild exit. PPS: we could write essays about Arabella and the peculiar role she’s playing. Wish we got more into her perspective.

Whoa, the war has ended! Excited to see how Strange and Norell have developed away from each other? Whats the pathway forward without the war for our magicians? I am loving how all our side characters are so deeply developed that I can now grasp them. So many threads to unravel since we encountered some… how will they connect?

I’ve inevitably hit that part of a chunky book where the story is rebuilding itself again and I’m wondering: “where are we are going again?” If I did not know that Napoleon is defeated in 1815, I would be completely unmoored otherwise. Still, this is just conjecture to keep me grounded at least because: “where are going?” Trying to apply Arteta to trust the process…

I’m loving all the tropes of Georgian (Regency?) period, but all somehow turned on their heads. Glad the black servant is not royalty for “how cultured they are” - don’t have much love for that trope. I feel like I’m being woven into a net of something bigger - is it leading to Jonathan strange? I’m waiting for it with bated breath and sad that work is getting in the way of my binging.

I am so in love with this and I glad I had the whimsy to randomly pluck it from my shelf where it had been sadly snoozing for a year plus. It’s just so randomly whimsical and I cannot believe how complete the world building, including the footnotes, is. I, at the same time, want to take it slow and savour every sentence but also want to consume it all since it’s so addictive

Chunky book season is here and this is mightily funny

Unspoken packs a punch. Not even sure what do with it, damn

I was almost worried but that was a banger of a first story