Lost in a Good Book

This novel has a plot - something about saving the world from destruction and finding a kidnapped husband. But as with other Jasper Fforde books, that is only of minor importance. What matters is all the tidbits and sideplots that flow in and out. Thursday Next is a special agent that inhabits an alternate world, similar, but different to our own. In the previous book, she was married. Now she is pregnant. But, the Goliath corporation does not like some things that she has done so they had some time travelers erradicate her husband. She also finds herself constantly in trouble at work and with the law. However, she has also apprenticed herself with Great Expectations Miss Haveshim and is getting better at traveling in and out of books. She also runs in to other coincidences, does some time traveling and even traps a supreme bad being. She does not manage to find her husband. However, she can have conversations with him in her thoughts. Unfortunately, she also sees an olf bad guy (Hades) that she destroyed there also. Hades sister had plotted to destroy the world by letting a nanotech sweetmaker get lose. This thing will, alas, consume all organic matter to produce the sugary topping, thus destroying the world. Luckily, Thursday's father comes in to take it away to the beginning of the earth where it helps start life. And there are also bits about the restoration of a lost Shakespeare manuscript and the Chesire cat, a Kafka-esque court, and plenty of other bizarre goodness. Each scene could stand on its own. However, there is plenty of "glue" and continued experiences that add to the entertainment value.