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3.95 AVERAGE


Ben and I are reading this aloud, so it could take a while. So far, we are about half way through the book, and as usual, Fforde has dropped lots of cryptic clues about strange goings on, but not much has happened. I really like Thursday, and will persevere with this one, but in my opinion, the first two books are the best. Fforde just likes to throw too much stuff in, which was clever for a while, but gets a bit old after a while.

Update:
We finished this, and once the action got really going, it was pretty good. The chapter where Thursday is stuck in a moral dilemma was hilarious, especially for an ethics professor. Anyway, it is a pretty good book, but I wouldn't recommend that you start with it.

The most recent novel in the Thursday Next series, and despite a rather odd beginning turned into the usual fun with some really interesting twists and turns along the way as well as plenty of laugh out loud moments. A nice intermission before going back to the stuff for the Law and Literature workshop.

I love, love, love this series, but this book wasn't quite as good as the previous four. I guess that's bound to happen at some point. Hopefully Thursday Next has not completely jumped the shark.
adventurous funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Good, but earlier books in the series were better.

The fifth Thursday Next novel takes places 14 years after the close of the last book. Thursday and Langdon now have 3 kids, Friday, Tuesday and Jenny. Spec Ops has been disbanded and Thursday and her former Spec Op coworkers have gone underground, doing their work hidden behind the guise of a carpet company. Thursday has hidden her continued Spec Ops work and her position as a Literatec opperative from Langdon.

Filled with the same action, humor and sharp wit as the first four books, Fforde once again pulls off a great book. I was smiling and laughing throughout, just as enchanted with the characters and story as ever. The book ends leaving things wide open for another in the series and I can't say I'm sad about that. I'll be eagerly waiting for it!

This is a diabolically tricksy book. When I first opened my copy and saw the book list, I panicked. I've spent over 10 years collecting my copies so I could read them in order, and I was astounded to find a crossed out title on the list: "The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco", listed as TN #5. Did I miss one? Was it a special limited edition or charity project? Nope. This is a fictional book which doesn't exist in our world, but that makes this book (First Among Sequels) officially Thursday Next #6, not #5.

"Audacious" is the best word I think of to describe this book! What do you do when you're midway through a successfully established, highly creative, wackily wonderful series? Why, you blow it up! I don't know why I was so surprised, the exploding book on the cover really should have clued me in LOL

I was very confused and downright baffled and bewildered for the first 3/4 of the book but by the end I was able to grasp the gist of things. I think. It's like happily playing checkers only to find out that all along you were actually playing chess - and fiendishly complicated fourth-dimensional chess at that! Perhaps this is an example of Nextian Geometry applied to narrative?!

Either way, it's best going into this book knowing as little about it as possible (as I did) - you just have to trust Fforde and go along for the ride. Even the informational chapter headings have no attributions for the first time - the confusion, I'm convinced, is deliberate. It's just the type of manically clever writing Fforde excels at. There's even a very interesting passage (where Thursday is adrift between books in BookSpace, in the intergenre Nothing) where he pushes the textual limits of narrative and suspends text entirely in favour of telling the story in graphic panels instead.

Jasper Fforde really loves books, and writing, and word play. If this is your type of thing, you'll love this too - but make sure to read the series in order, starting with the first [b:The Eyre Affair|27003|The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1)|Jasper Fforde|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1445540555l/27003._SY75_.jpg|3436605]!

For readers wanting a little more information:

SpoilerIt's 14 years after [b:Something Rotten|26999|Something Rotten (Thursday Next, #4)|Jasper Fforde|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1479773726l/26999._SY75_.jpg|948606] and Thursday is happily married to Landen and raising their three children: Friday, now a sullen stereotypical teenager with acne and an addiction to heavy metal; Tuesday, a math genius of Mycroftian intelligence; and enigmatic Jenny. Thursday owns Acme Carpets and employs most of her friends from her SpecOps days, as the agency was disbanded several years ago.

Except the carpet business is a cover, kept afloat by proceeds from Thursday's illegal smuggling of exotic Welsh cheeses. While Bowden and Spike keep the real world safe (vampires, werewolves and Supreme Evil Beings are still on the loose) and laying the occasional carpet, Thursday spends most of her time in Jurisfiction, although book jumping is not coming to her easily these days.

But here's where it gets strange: In Thursday's world (the Outland), it turns out that she was also fictionalized in the BookWorld (and the subject of a very bad movie, in which she was played - against her wishes - by the legendary sex kitten Lola Vavoom). But those books are not the books we've read (which it took me WAY too long to figure out) - they are full of sex and violence and were greatly exaggerated, full of improbable adventures. Thursday herself had little input.

These four books are home to Thursday1-4, an "evil" badass in black leather. Meanwhile, Thursday did get approval for the fifth book - "The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco" - which was so bad that all copies were destroyed; BUT it created Thursday5, a second fictional Thursday, who is a touchy-feely, New Age, angelic hippie type. So we essentially have two angels on Thursday's shoulders, the "bad" Thursday 1-4 and the "good" Thursday5.

Drippy Thursday5 wants to be a Jurisfiction agent, and is Thursday's new apprentice (inspiring Miss Havisham levels of crankiness in the real Thursday, who wants nothing to do with her). Thursday1-4 wants to take over Thursday's life, and then the world. Chaos ensues.

My favourite part is the sequence about the Moral Dilemma ship, a fictional scenario from one of those impossible ethics seminars whose characters are tired of dying. Also, Kathy Reich's Dr. Temperance Brennan makes a credited appearance which is really cool - although Mr. Harry Potter does not, due to copyright issues (boo - Thursday5 was really hoping for his autograph!).



All in all, KAPOW. Mind blown.

Because I was so confused throughout I was thinking of rating this one at 4 stars. But the way it all came together in the end and the sheer authorial daring upped my rating. I've never read anything like this series and I can't wait to see where Fforde takes it from here!
adventurous funny lighthearted tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I loved it. The twists and turns Jasper makes always take me by surprise, and this time no less so.

The relationship between Thursday and Landon makes me smile, and shake my head... and then smile some more.