Thursday, August 17, 2006

so hard to define and yet so easy to love




The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
"A combination of fantasy, comedy, science fiction, Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, Lewis Carroll, Monty Python, and even 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'." (The New York Times)"Lovers of great literature with a fondness for light genre fiction...will feel instantly at home in The Eyre Affair." (The Los Angeles Times)







Lost in a Good Book-Thursday Next book 2
"Inventive, witty, and uniquely original novelist Jasper Fforde sends his literary sleuth on another wildly imaginative journey through time and literature. Thursday Next faces a sinister global multinational corporation represented by Mr. Schitt-Hawse, beats the magistrate from Kafka's The Trial at his own game, and trains for her next assignment by apprenticing herself to Miss Havisham. Thursday then accepts the ultimate challenge: capture Acheron Hades, the murderer of characters from the classics." audible.com



The Well of Lost Plots-Thursday Next book 3
When soon-to-be single parent Thursday Next emerges from her comfortable life inside an unpublished book, she steps into a new age of fictional narrative. The entire book world is abuzz with anticipation of an improved Text Operating System that moves from the 8-plot to the new 32-plot story system. But danger lurks when Jurisfiction agents keep turning up dead...The Well of Lost Plots, the place where all fiction is created, is an exhilarating romp through literary classics, an insightful look at how books are made, and a jewel in the long tradition of British nonsense."audible.com


Something Rotten-Thursday Next book 4
"After spending her time chasing a stray Minotaur into pulp Westerns, filling in for Joan of Arc, and raising her infant son, Friday, Thursday needs a break in the real world. But her return to Swindon is far from relaxing. Rogue fictioneer Yorrick Kaine and the evil multinational Goliath Corporation are trying to rule the world, and a deadly assassin called the Windowmaker is tracking Thursday's every move. To top it all off, her husband is still missing after being eradicated from the timestream before they met."audible.com

(click US cover on the left for audio sample/ click UK cover to purchase UK edition)

Jasper Fforde has a unique mind and thank god for that. He has created a alternate reality where imagination and reality are extremely fluid. They are full to bursting with literary references, alternate historical realities, a python-esq humor, and a sharp self deprecating whit. I was instantly hooked on these books from The Eyre Affair's debut, through to his Jack Spratt Nursery Crime series which is now two books in. If you find pleasure in sifting through wildly imaginative plots and continuing threads that are full of mystery and humor then please please please pick up the Eyre Affair. Do not make the mistake of starting out of order!

Thursday Next returns in
War of the Words
July 2007

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