One of Our Thursdays in Missings

Thursday Next makes nothing more than a cameo appearance in this most recent book in the Thursday Next series. Instead her "written self" is the protagonist. She finds herself mysteriously engaged in a quest to resolve a cab crash, find the "real" Thursday and prevent a book world war. The story takes places almost entirely in the book world, with only a brief sojourn in to the "real" world. (Hmm, I guess this had to be done to keep the plot from getting too far off.)

Alas, the story devolves to a fairly standard mystery, with only a slightly bizarre setting (the book world) and a bit of self-awareness to set it apart. It lacks some of craziness of the early books in the series and seems to be an attempt at moving the series to a more serious branch. It is not bad, but not nearly as original as the earlier books. Perhaps he has just ran out of originality and just stuck with a slight twist on the existing world.

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.

Something Rotten

This Thursday Next book provides more back-story and could "stand alone" better than some of the earlier novels. The narrator takes time to give us her background and briefly explain why she is in certain situations.

Thursday Next continues on her time-traveling, alternative history, literary detective work, all while taking care of her two-year old son (who was born in spite of his father being eradicated.) Eventually she gets the husband back, though he flickers in and out of existence for a bit before he is fully restored. And she also discovers that her "granny" is actually herself far in the future, living out the terms of a punishment. And a 13th century saint appears to cash in a bet for accurate predictions, including a seemingly impossible croquet match victory. Neither the author nor the characters understand how or why some of these things happen, they just happen. (Can you really call this science fiction? I dunno, but avoiding the explanation does keep things interesting.)

Ffforde also takes plenty of stabs at politicians and business. There are shows where the political figures earn points for evading questions, answering with half truths, and doing all the things that they are so good at doing. (Does this make it a post-modern world where people are fully aware of their idiocy? Or does the fact that they still vote based on the perceptions mean that they are not self aware? Or are they so self aware that they feel obligated to vote that way? Does it even matter?)

One politician (Kaine) is attempting to proclaim himself dictator. In attempt to whip up support, who has made the Danish in to enemy number one. Atrocities committed a millennium ago by the Vikings are used as means of building up anti-Danish sentiment. The people all fall in line with the propaganda stream. Soon they are all willing to burn books by Danish authors and restrict rights of anyone Danish. Could xenophobia run this rampant in the real world? (It does seem that most successful empires have had a multitude of ethnicities. If an enemy has a hope of joining you, then he may be less willing to fight. However, if your people have no hope of becoming one of the enemy, they have even more incentive to demonize and destroy.)

Kaine is actually a fictional character from a self-published romance novel written by a Danish author. Thus, by destroying all the books, he also has a means of preventing people from "discovering" him and sending him back to literature. Do two wrongs make a right?

Kaine is also partnering with the Goliath Corporation to obtain power. They both use a proximity mind-control device in order to control the masses. (Hmm... we could call this charisma.) Kaine readily awards no-bid contracts to Goliath. The big corporation, however, is undone by the return of the old saint. After Swindon wins the croquet cup, the saint wins his bet, and ends up with majority ownership of the company. However, he had been hit by a bus, so the ownership ended up going to the toast marketing board, and Armageddon was avoided. And there was also the Minotaur infected with slapstick who ends up accidentally saving the heroine, and "limbo" which is a rest area off a motorway, and plenty of other goodness.

The book is a product of an imagination gone wild. Many of the bizarre premises seem to follow quite logically from the other bizarre situations. There are a few serious messages in there, but those could even by seen as accidental in the face of the very British form of humor.

And with the title and Danish demonizing, do I have to mention that a self-doubting Hamlet plays an important role in the book?

The Well of Lost Plots

This third book in the Thursday Next series introduces many of the characters and themes from Fforde's nursery crimes series. In this novel, the protagonist is in "hiding" in the book world, as her husband has been "eradicated" in the external world. In the book world, she participates in a character exchange program (where she meets up with the nursery crimes characters.) She also completes her training for a book-world police force (under the apprenticeship of Great Expectations Miss Havesham.) In the process, she manages to defeat the mind manipulations of Hades's sister and regain the memories of her eradicated husband. She also helps to defeat the "new" improved book version, which, among other deficiencies uses "robo-written" stock characters and has a "three-read" limit. Hmm. This seems to be a not so subtle hit on the evils of digital rights management and the deficiencies of widespread information availability. With so much information readily available today, it is easy to go directly to what you know you like. Unfortunately, this also means you miss out on many instances of serendipity where you discover something different than you were seeking. The digital rights controls (and even digital encoding mechanisms) also make it more difficult for you to share. (If you and I both read English, I could let you borrow my book. However, even if Amazon permits it, I couldn't let you borrow my kindle book unless you had a device that could read it.) DRM makes it even worse, restricting the sharing that could be done. The result is that you get stuck in the narrow realm that you are familiar. Writers are encouraged to churn out content similar to what has sold. I've read multiple works by authors that I found to be "good". They weren't great, but were decent, and it was easily possible to get all their works. The ease of getting at it actually made it more difficult to discover others that were possibly better. Back to the story, this novel further blurs the line between "real" and "fiction". Characters jump around novels and move from novels to real life. The characters in novels have personalities and lives outside the novel. and sometimes want to change things. There are also "misspelling" viruses, word storms and punctuation thieves. All provide plenty of action for the literary police force. And then there are auctions of characters from torched manuscripts, generic characters, and real people hanging out in the fictional world. It all makes for plenty of fun.

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.

The Eyre Affair

I enjoy reading Jasper Fforde books, yet feel no urgency to read more. The books have plots, but they are not particularly engaging. The characters have their interesting points, but they are not the types you would want to get to know better. The strength of the books lies in the style. This makes them fun to read, but doesn't leave an urgency for more.

In the Eyre affair, the characters inhabit the "real" world, however, a few things are different. Britain is still fighting the Crimean war. Wales is an independent republic. Certain people can travel in time (or make time stand still.) And their are also some inventions, such as a machine that lets people travel in books. Of course, the bad guys get hold of this and use it to remove characters from original manuscripts, thus changing the novel.

There is also a giant corporation that dominates the control. It seems to play the role of nuisance. And of course, the hero has a love interest, a father that pops in and out, and plenty of other side interests.

However, all of this stuff is secondary to the bizarreness of "life" in the universe. I'm often stuck wondering - "is this a real event?" or "is this how the novel really is?" Historical fact and fiction are weaved in and out of the novel. Characters often bear names of "pop-culture" objects, whether they be games, scientific procedures or expressions. It makes for plenty of fun bits in the Monty Python/Douglas Adams tradition, but alas doesn't quite maintain interest.