An 800-page monster

(Though-- because it's an ARC version-- mine is the trade paperback edition.)

How heavy is this bastard? Well, I tried reading the first couple of chapters using only one hand to hold it up and I pretty much strained it doing so.

So what's it all about?

Well, here's an article from the New York Times on what the fuss is all about though as usual, you need to be registered in order to read it.

Some snippets:

The novel is being compared with abandon in the press to the ''Harry Potter''
books, but it is not for children, unless they are children who really, really
love footnotes. It is nearly 800 pages long, but in some ways that number feels
arbitrary, as if the novel consisted of just those pages Clarke chose to show,
and that she might have easily chosen another 800 from those she kept in
reserve. She has lived in the world of the novel for more than a decade after
all, carefully charting the false history of English magic and documenting it
with citations from a fastidiously false bibliography. What did not make it into
the main story is alluded to in copious notes that make up sort of a second
novel at the bottom of its pages (when they do not take over the pages
altogether).

... and...

A fantasy novel used to be able to rely on perhaps 7,500 dedicated hardcover
readers. Nearly that many advanced readers' copies (of the book) have been circulated already, a select number of them wrapped in paper and sealed in wax with an image of a raven. They have been selling for more than $100 on eBay in England, a fact noted with some awed amusement by (Colin) Greenland (Clarke's companion).

Interesting, no?