Into the Forest discussion

So this BBC adaption of the novel (which has fairy tale influences) has been shown on BBC and starts on BBC America tomorrow. If you have On Demand, you can preview the first episode.

I saw this on IO9.

This is either going to be really, really good, or really, really bad.

I have not read the book because I had no compelling reason to do so. The Napoleonic era rarely interests me and it's very long. I'll at least check out this miniseries.

Well I watched the first episode. It's not bad.

I think I am one of the few people who did not like the book that much. Didn't hate it, but also didn't love it. I might still watch the episodes if I get a chance.

I was just eh on the book too, but I feel like I might enjoy it more as a miniseries. I will definitely, eventually, watch the first episode!

I gave the book 4 stars, I think, but I was not ga-ga over it the way a lot of my friends were. Still, I think a mini-series might be fun. I have it saved on my Netflix queue. Thanks for letting us know about it, Chris!

Welcome. It's always been one of those books where I find some reactions to be strange. For instance, my father who really isn't into fantasy loved it. My friend, who while not into fantasy either is more tolerant of it in fiction than my dad, didn't like it.

I think it's one book that you have to like historical fiction from that era to enjoy. Most fantasies, even if they have a pseudo-medieval setting, are written in a more contemporary style/have more contemporary characters.


I've probably told this story half a dozen times by now, but I read it in the MMPB version that has minuscule font for footnotes. I bookmarked one of the pages that was just one very long footnote and whenever anyone remarked on how long the book looked, my response was "It is long and see how small the font is?" Their reactions were quite amusing.

I like historical fiction and am interested in the Napoleonic era and have enjoyed a number of books set there. I think with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norwell, it was the absence of interesting female characters as well as the over the top magic that prevented me from liking it as much as I could have. The footnotes did not help either.

I like historical fiction from that era--the part with Jonathan Strange on the war front was my favorite--but I know some people who didn't like it for that reason. I thought the characters weren't complex, although I think I gave it 4 stars as well. Some interesting things happened, and it's a cool concept that was probably difficult to pull off, especially for a first novel.