"Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell"
You read "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" and you wonder: how can the first book of a new author be so good? And how can it be so unconventional, going places that other SF&F writers have not gone to? I will admit that I have not read the recent Neal Stephenson's Baroque cycle though, so I cannot compare Strange with it. But other than that, I have not seen any attempts to write a Dickensean and Austen'esque fantasy novel. Susanna Clarke captures the mood and approach quite well. The drawback is that such novels are slow and boring and dull by design. Although I love movies based on Austen, I have never read through any of her novels. "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" was not that slow and boring, but still the action gets rolling very slowly and the pieces fall in place for a real page turner somewhere by the end of two-thirds of the book. It does not help that the cover seems to suggest the book being something like Harry Potter - a teacher magician and his pupil - or like "Star Wars" where teacher and the pupil part ways and become arch enemies. Neither of those associations can be farther from truth: Jonathan Strange meets Mr. Norrell as a grown-up and their relationship is very different from the magic schools we have become accustomed to. Even the fallout and the rivalry - this might be a spoiler, but then it's mentioned on the book cover - is very different with few moral white/black separations.
The strong parts of the book is its style and the overall plot. The weakness is some slowness and somewhat character development. We remain quite separated from the main heroes watching their lives and strugles as if on a stage of old theater. Not a bad way to pass time, but still somewhat lacking. 7/10.