Thursday Next

Lost in a Good Book and The Well of Lost Plots [Audiobook Reviews]

Michelle5 Comments

It’s two-for-one day here on the blog. I have reviews of the second and third audiobooks in the Thursday Next series. As with all reviews of later-in-series books, they will be a little spoilery if you haven’t read the previous books.

Lost in a Good BookTitle: Lost in a Good Book
Author: Jasper Fforde
Narrator: Elizabeth Sastre
Genre: Fantasy (?)
ISBN: 1565117573
Pages: 399
Audio: 11 hours 6 minues
Year: 2002
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Source: Library
Rating: 4.5/5

Somebody is manipulating coincidences, Thursday’s husband has been eradicated yet she remains pregnant with his child, and she must join Jurisfiction – the policing agency in the Book World, to get him back and avoid a catastrophic end to the world.

Fforde once again creates a complicated and intertwined plot with intriguing characters and nonstop action. Lost in a Good Book feels a lot like a set-up for the rest of the series. There isn’t one overarching story but it is still able to stand alone. This is where we meet Mrs. Haversham and the rest of the Jurisfiction agents, learn how books are really made, and continue to be flummoxed by the impossibilities of time travel. This book promises a lot more fun in the rest of the series.

I was a little put off at first with the narrator change from the first book but once I got into it, I very much enjoyed Sastre’s narration. I was happy to see that she also narrates The Well of Lost Plots.

The Well of Lost PlotsTitle: The Well of Lost Plots
Author: Jasper Fforde
Narrator: Elizabeth Sastre
Genre: Fantasy (?)
ISBN: 0143034359
Pages: 375
Audio: 12 hours 12 minutes
Year: 2003
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Source: Library
Rating: 4.5/5

Still husbandless, Thursday has retired to the unpublished story of Caversham Heights for the remainder of her pregnancy. But she finds anything but peace in her book world vacation. Yorrick Kane has surfaced again and together with Text Grand Central is pushing for the implementation of Ultraworld, a new BOOK version, that seems too good to be true. On top of this, Thursday must handle her normal Jurisfiction caseload and fight an old enemy inside her mind.

This series just gets better with each book. Fforde can weave a story better than anyone. With twists and turns that you can’t see coming yet fit perfectly into the story, The Well of Lost Plots continues to please its readers. With he hilarity of Heathcliff Protection Duty, the sadness of the loss of a good friend, and the dirty tricks both real and fictional politicians play, The Well of Lost Plots is anything but boring. Throw in all of the references to novels that any literature lover will adore and you once again have a wonderful book.

The Eyre Affair [Audiobook Review]

Michelle9 Comments

Title: The Eyre Affair
Author: Jasper Fforde
Narrator: Susan Duerdan
Genre: Yeah…not sure on this one
ISBN: 0143145703
Pages: 384
Audio: 12 hours 14 minutes
Year: 2002
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Source: Library
Rating: 4.5/5

Summary:

It’s 1985 in a world that reveres literature (among other differences). Someone has stolen the original Martin Chuzzlewit manuscript. It is up to Thursday Next, a Special Operative in the Literary Tech division (SO-27), to figure out who. Along the way she encounters fictional worlds, vampires, time travel, politics,  family, long lost love and more. Can she do it all?

My Thoughts:

The sixth Thursday Next book will be released in March (on my birthday actually) and in preparation, I wanted to go back and reread the first five books. There is a lot of stuff happening in these books and it’s easy to forget so I decided I needed a refresher. After Emily from Books, the Universe & Everything recommended the audio, I decided to give it a try.

I loved the reread both because of the book itself and because of the audio production. I’d forgotten most of the plot to The Eyre Affair. I think I read it back in 2005. It was like reading it for the first time but with some characters that I already knew well.

I was afraid that some of the fun and word play would be lost in the audio but it wasn’t. It was still a lot of fun. Susan Duerdan did a wonderful job with the narration. She sounded like Thursday Next to me but was able to slip into and out of the other quirky characters with ease. I do think that if it weren’t a reread, it might have been easy to get a little lost since the plot is so insane.

These books are a little bit of everything: fantasy, mystery, romance, satire, science fiction, adventure, you name it. I highly recommend this series to everyone who loves books.

Other Reviews: Things Mean a Lot; If You Can Read This

Buy It Now: IndieBound; Powell’s; Book Depository; Amazon

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

Michelle2 Comments

First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde is the fifth book in the Thursday Next series.  These books are ones that always take me a little while to get into but I consistently end up enjoying.  Like its predecessors, First Among Sequels is an entertaining read full of adventure, quirky humor, and word play.

This story takes us quite a few years into the future (giving us a 50-year-old female protagonist which is not really that common if you think about it).  Thursday still has her dual role at SpecOps and Jurisfiction and has added a third at Acme Carpets as yet another cover.  She is also involved in the illegal cheese market and a mother to 3 children (reading this made me tired).

When I first started reading this book, I felt that too many things were going on at once.  She is parenting a lazy teenager, being visited by ghosts, training new Jurisfiction cadets, purchasing illegal goods from Wales, and much more.  But once the story took off I relaxed and enjoyed it. I always like the stories that take place in the Book World best and this one was no exception.

One of the things that I love about this series is that reading is as popular in Thursday’s world as television is in ours.  However, in First Among Sequels, television has taken over and people are no longer reading.  I didn’t want her reality to become our reality.  I like the idea of a parallel universe where people care more about who Shakespeare really was than who the next American Idol will be.  But I must always remember that things are not always what they seem and there is an explanation (even if it is completely thought out) as to why things are the way they are in Fforde’s books.

I don’t want to discuss the plot any further because I don’t want to spoil anything for those who have yet to read the first four books.  If you are reading this post, I assume you love reading.  And these books are meant for those who love reading.  The first book in the series is The Eyre Affair and I highly recommend checking it out (it’s currently 50% off at The Book Depository).

Now that I am caught up on the Thursday Next series, I must start Fforde’s Nursery Crimes series.