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Title: One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
Author: Jaspar Fforde
Genre: Comic meta-fantasy (sixth in on-going series)
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: In previous installments, Jurisfiction/SpecOps agent Thursday Next has jumped in and out of books to save the world, both real and fictional. She's foiled megacorporations, tangled with time travel, and rewritten the end of Jane Eyre. This latest book stars not Thursday herself, but the fictional Thursday from the books about Thursday who must leave her books when the original Thursday goes missing. Confused yet? So's Thursday. Also, Thursday.
Thoughts: Jaspar Fforde is one of the most relentlessly creative writers I've had the privilege to read. Most authors would write a book about alternate histories, or a time-travel mystery, or create an entire world inside linked books; they certainly wouldn't try to combine them all into one book, and throw in a bunch of bad puns as well. "Zany" and "madcap romp" get overused, but they apply so very well to the Thursday Next series.
The latest offering is clever, witty, and appropriately twisty. However, I think perhaps he's explored this world a little too thoroughly. It doesn't have quite the same level of new surprises as have been thrown around in previous books. There's an entertaining new geography in the BookWorld, but it's rather similar to maps I've seen on the Internet for the past couple years. The fact that he doesn't even use the original Thursday makes me wonder if he's growing tired of this particular series but hasn't managed to stand up to the publisher and refuse to write any more.
Also, the Thursday that we follow for most of the book is the hippie Thursday from First Among Sequels. She repeatedly reminds us that she wasn't tough enough for her Jurisfiction exam and that she's the kinder, gentler Thursday that the original Thursday wanted to be presented as. While she may say this over and over, she pretty much seems to act like Thursday to me. I don't know if the author intended for her to not realize how similar she is to the original, or whether the author just slipped into writing the original by accident. It's kind of difficult to tell, which isn't exactly a compliment.
The book's a hoot, if you've already read all the others and want another dose. Very enjoyable. But incomprehensible if you haven't read the rest of the series, and not really up to the same level as some of the earlier works. Have fun, don't expect miracles.
Author: Jaspar Fforde
Genre: Comic meta-fantasy (sixth in on-going series)
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: In previous installments, Jurisfiction/SpecOps agent Thursday Next has jumped in and out of books to save the world, both real and fictional. She's foiled megacorporations, tangled with time travel, and rewritten the end of Jane Eyre. This latest book stars not Thursday herself, but the fictional Thursday from the books about Thursday who must leave her books when the original Thursday goes missing. Confused yet? So's Thursday. Also, Thursday.
Thoughts: Jaspar Fforde is one of the most relentlessly creative writers I've had the privilege to read. Most authors would write a book about alternate histories, or a time-travel mystery, or create an entire world inside linked books; they certainly wouldn't try to combine them all into one book, and throw in a bunch of bad puns as well. "Zany" and "madcap romp" get overused, but they apply so very well to the Thursday Next series.
The latest offering is clever, witty, and appropriately twisty. However, I think perhaps he's explored this world a little too thoroughly. It doesn't have quite the same level of new surprises as have been thrown around in previous books. There's an entertaining new geography in the BookWorld, but it's rather similar to maps I've seen on the Internet for the past couple years. The fact that he doesn't even use the original Thursday makes me wonder if he's growing tired of this particular series but hasn't managed to stand up to the publisher and refuse to write any more.
Also, the Thursday that we follow for most of the book is the hippie Thursday from First Among Sequels. She repeatedly reminds us that she wasn't tough enough for her Jurisfiction exam and that she's the kinder, gentler Thursday that the original Thursday wanted to be presented as. While she may say this over and over, she pretty much seems to act like Thursday to me. I don't know if the author intended for her to not realize how similar she is to the original, or whether the author just slipped into writing the original by accident. It's kind of difficult to tell, which isn't exactly a compliment.
The book's a hoot, if you've already read all the others and want another dose. Very enjoyable. But incomprehensible if you haven't read the rest of the series, and not really up to the same level as some of the earlier works. Have fun, don't expect miracles.
