Saturday, October 22, 2011

First Among Sequels



This takes place more than a decade after the previous book. Thursday Next is now a middle-aged mother of teenagers. The government is functioning well, though people are worried about the stupidity surplus. There is also some crazy time travel stuff going on. (Time travel has not yet been invented, but it is used because people know it will be invented.)

While this book has plenty of Fforde's zaniness, it is more of a "thriller" than the other books in the series. Thursday spends much of the book battling with her evil "fictional self". This fictional self even assumes her identity, leading to some confusing interactions. Fforde continues to do a create job blending "real" and "fictional" characters, with an all around self-awareness. There is also plenty of the not-explained paradoxes (like time travel) that are explained just enough for them to work in the story, even without having much of a chance of being really feasible.

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