Do tell. What did you think of it? (And did you hate War and Remembrance as much as I did?)

I posted a brief review here. [link]

And this is what I ended with: This isn't a novel about the glory of war; neither is it a heartwarming story about how the villagers all pulled together to save the Jews. It's about redemption, and broken people trying to make the right choices. About choosing the right path when there is no right path.

Because I didn't feel the novel was about how bad Hitler was: it was about what people do. What people actually did. Yes, terrible things happened, and yes, the action scenes weren't. But that wasn't the point of it. The point really was about the small grace moments when people reached out to one another, risking their lives and their families, to do the right thing. And about the price they paid for that, and about how even well-meaning people can do terrible things -- like the Allies, like Schramm, like Renzo, like the Jesuits in The Sparrow.

I found it moving and heartbreaking and hopeful while also being ultimately very very sad. I don't know that I'd reread it anytime soon, and Russell's narrative choices aren't the ones that I would make, but I don't think that makes it a bad book.

I've never read any Herman Wouk, and the last Leon Uris I read was many years ago; Trinity, I think. The last WWII novel I recall reading is Edith Pargeter's trilogy, written while the war was going on, which makes it particularly interesting. I should probably go back and find that; she's really really good.

I just finished the first book in Tad Williams's Otherland series. I found it irritatingly dense and vague for the first 2/3, and then when it started to pick up, ended. Which has the effect of making me want to read the next one, stat, so I'm reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell since that should give me sufficient time to cool down.

Has anyone read further into the series? I notice there are three more books. Am I setting myself up for more stress?

I read it years ago, ita, and liked it a lot, but it certainly is a big sprawling story. If I remember correctly, you're past a lot of the setup now, so you should get some more forward motion.

I really enjoyed the series, ita. I agree that Williams did play things a little too close to the vest early on, but the revelations come thick and fast from book 2 on.

Thanks guys. Does it end after four?

I didn't feel the novel was about how bad Hitler was

No, me neither. But I would have cut both prologue and afterword, and lectured the author nastily about them.

The point really was about the small grace moments when people reached out to one another, risking their lives and their families, to do the right thing.

I could see that that was the intention; but the execution came across very pedestrian and obvious and -- repetitive of all the other WWII epic novels I've read, and not new. I think it was a tactical mistake to kill people off, near the beginning, in subordinate clauses of sentences; if I'd been able to care about the characters as characters, I might have been willing to buy into the story for their sake. Instead, I was distanced from the start, and when I realized that the author really didn't have anything new up her sleeve, I was pretty annoyed.

I just finished the first book in Tad Williams's Otherland series. I found it irritatingly dense and vague for the first 2/3, and then when it started to pick up, ended

That's about what I recall. I read and enjoyed #2; #3 made me laugh but was too long and I forgot who was who and didn't finish it. Williams does tend to suffer from logorrhea, although some of the imaginary worlds he put together were awesome.

I think it does end after 4.

Yeah, it does.

Okay, if it ends, I can try. After Norrell/Strange, and perhaps after Adrian Mole And The Weapons Of Mass Destruction which I also started, but am creeped out by a bit. We've always been around the same age, but it's much less cute now.

There's another Adrian Mole book?!?

Wait. Maybe I already knew that, and forgot.