No worries, Ben -- your optimism is quite refreshing. I really didn't mean to imply that it wasn't.

Haddayr read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell a few years back and enjoyed it quite a bit. I'd actually been looking for it earlier this fall to read it but apparently it's been loaned out or else misplaced. Whenever I find it, I do plan on reading it. As to the Raven King, that's the first I've heard mention of him, though my knowledge of mythology is far from exhaustive (and in any case, is far more limited to Greek and Roman).