Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Meta, meta, meta. Meta-humor abounds in this Next book, my first exposure to Thursday's adventures, though it's well into the series. This is a good thing, though, since it gave Fforde the chance to gloss over details that regulars to the series would know and understand. The tendency to over-explain slowed down [b:The Big Over Easy|6628|The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1)|Jasper Fforde|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309287709s/6628.jpg|2504943], but [b:First Among Sequels|27002|First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5)|Jasper Fforde|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1338467549s/27002.jpg|948585] moves at a pretty solid pace. My biggest criticism -- and the loss of a star -- is that the book doesn't go far enough in any one direction, choosing instead to jump into multiple directions at the same time. Thursday's life is complex, and perhaps there's a lot of loose story threads that she's accumulated over the course of the series, but there are a number of plot elements that lead nowhere in particular: not red herrings, since they don't redirect from the central mystery of the book... more like digressions that don't pay off in the end. As a result, the tone of the chapters tends to swing wildly from domestic bliss, to professional tedium, to wink-wink-nudge-nudge meta (book) humor, to actual thriller. The tension is vented frequently enough, though, that there's no real sense of danger or peril for Thursday. At no point do you truly feel that she's out-thought or out-plotted. An enjoyable read, but uneven.
The fifth book felt particularly lacking in the pizazz that fairly burst from the pages of its predecessors. A bit of a let-down.
adventurous
fast-paced
This is the fifth installment of the delightful Thursday Next series and I enjoyed it quite as much as others in this series. It is better than [book:The Well of Lost Plots] (my least favorite in the series) but perhaps not as mindbending as the earlier novels in its exuberant creativity, mostly because by this time you as the reader have already read 4 of these books and the conglomeration of time travel, alternate futures, and literary fantasy is not quite as astonishing. I found this a satisfying, up-to-par next installment of this story and look forward to reading more, given how this particular one ends. These books always make me wish I knew more about literature and history than I do because I often feel like there are even more jokes and funny details than the ones I notice, but that doesn't stop me from highly recommending these to anybody who loves books. And Fforde finally got around to using my particular favorite as a setting, [book: Pride and Prejudice].
I loved it! I missed Thursday since I haven't read about her in a few years. We're left with a cliffhanger ending. So I guess that means more of Thursday for us. Maybe some Tuesday and Friday too. Although there no Jenny. LOL
The events of this book pick up 14 years after those of the previous one. Thursday is now 52 and settled into her life as a wife and a mother of three. SpecOps has been officially disbanded, but Thursday's job as a carpet layer is really a cover for doing SpecOps work, which is really a cover for continuing her duties in Jurisfiction.
read more...
read more...
The shtick is getting a bit old. I liked the first in the series, loved the next three, had a hard time finishing this one. They're like highbrow Monty Python in print, but somehow this one just isn't as funny or original. Except for one scene--the one inside Pinocchio, with the cricket and his stunt double.
the first half was just unnecessary filler and the whole big reveal/ climax at the end was kind of meh. it’s still a really great book, just not as great as the ones that come before it.
No, come on. What happened?! It was like reading a bad fanfiction of the Thursday I came to love. It was slow, redundant, and I really didn't feel respected as a reader at all.
Maybe some things are just meant to end at some point, and you shouldn't try to resurrect them.
Maybe some things are just meant to end at some point, and you shouldn't try to resurrect them.