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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
This book was better than the first. Typical Jasper Fforde romp, punny and full of silly capers, but not lacking in heart. I look forward to the third.
What a fun world! Jennifer Strange is still managing Kazam and still managing to use her ingenuity get out of scrapes. This kooky world reminds me of Jean Ferris's "Once Upon a Marigold" series. Fun, clean, lovely and clever word usage and commentary about society and what is important. I like the fact that magic in this world is only good for mundane type tasks that no one else wants to do.
Summary: Magic has been in a sad state in the Ununited Kingdom for years, but now it’s finally on the rise, and boneheaded King Snodd IV knows it. If he succeeds at his plot, the very future of magic will be at risk! Sensible sixteen-year-old Jennifer Strange, acting manager of Kazam Mystical Arts Management and its unpredictable crew of sorcerers, has little chance against the king and his cronies—but there’s no way Kazam will let go of the noble powers of magic without a fight. A suspenseful, satirical story of Quarkbeasts, trolls, and wizidrical crackle!
Summary: Magic has been in a sad state in the Ununited Kingdom for years, but now it’s finally on the rise, and boneheaded King Snodd IV knows it. If he succeeds at his plot, the very future of magic will be at risk! Sensible sixteen-year-old Jennifer Strange, acting manager of Kazam Mystical Arts Management and its unpredictable crew of sorcerers, has little chance against the king and his cronies—but there’s no way Kazam will let go of the noble powers of magic without a fight. A suspenseful, satirical story of Quarkbeasts, trolls, and wizidrical crackle!
This is another solid effort from Fforde. This YA book (the heroine is a teenage orphan girl, after all) continues the adventure with Fforde's usual prose and sly wit. There's a little bit of Perils of Pauline and Nancy Drew in this one, along with a really amoral wizard and a magic showdown.
While this could just be another example of the plucky precocious orphan girl who is more than she seems, Fforde uses her as more of a foil for the other, stranger characters to play off of. The odd wizards, the lunatic king, the venal advisors are all good characters, and Fforde always throws in a couple of surprises.
It's a good book, and very suitable for young adults.
While this could just be another example of the plucky precocious orphan girl who is more than she seems, Fforde uses her as more of a foil for the other, stranger characters to play off of. The odd wizards, the lunatic king, the venal advisors are all good characters, and Fforde always throws in a couple of surprises.
It's a good book, and very suitable for young adults.
My adoration of Jasper Fforde continues to grow. This was even better than book 1, which I thought was fantastic. This really kept me guessing, as every time I thought I had things figured out, a twist got thrown at me that I wasn't expecting. I cannot *wait* for book 3!
So good. Fforde was meant to write YA. I love his snarkiness about current politics. This feels like a modern successor to Patricia Wrede's Dealing with Dragons, and I just really wish that the next installment was out in the US already.
I love this series. The humor is wonderful and the storyline a fun trip.
It's an occupational hazard that I read lots of different things for lots of different reasons. Don't get me wrong, they are almost all very good and I enjoy almost all of them, but there's the underlying awareness that I most likely wouldn't have read the majority of them if not for my job so they always feel just a little bit like work. Then there are books like this one that feel completely and entirely like fun.
Droll and witty in that particularly British way. Nerdily intellectual yet mocking of stuffy intellectualism at the same time; magic, computers, linguistic nimbleness, and bureaucratic exactitude are celebrated and caricatured in equal measure. (Phrases like a testament to the potential of wizidrical civil engineering projects are quite common, for instance.) Pacing is quick, with plenty of escalating tribulation and tension. Just enough mystery, suspense, and revelation. Just enough world building. While the book is not particularly focused on character building, the characters are each appealing in their own way. And it has a very satisfying ending. I may not have the best perspective having read the first in the series, but it seems to be this could easily be read as a standalone, as well.
Smart, silly, and simply entertaining.
A bit of an introduction from narrator and protagonist Jennifer Strange:
Droll and witty in that particularly British way. Nerdily intellectual yet mocking of stuffy intellectualism at the same time; magic, computers, linguistic nimbleness, and bureaucratic exactitude are celebrated and caricatured in equal measure. (Phrases like a testament to the potential of wizidrical civil engineering projects are quite common, for instance.) Pacing is quick, with plenty of escalating tribulation and tension. Just enough mystery, suspense, and revelation. Just enough world building. While the book is not particularly focused on character building, the characters are each appealing in their own way. And it has a very satisfying ending. I may not have the best perspective having read the first in the series, but it seems to be this could easily be read as a standalone, as well.
Smart, silly, and simply entertaining.
A bit of an introduction from narrator and protagonist Jennifer Strange:
While we wait for magic to reestablish itself, it is very much business as usual: hiring out sorcerers to conduct practical magic. Things like plumbing and rewiring, wallpapering and loft conversions. We lift cars for the city's clamping unit, deliver pizza by flying carpet, and predict the weather with twenty-three percent more accuracy than SNODD-TV's favorite weather girl, Daisy Fairchild.Except, with The Chronicles of Kazam, it's almost never business as usual. Things quickly get very involved and the stakes crucial. All to the delight of entertained readers.
But I don't do any of that. I can't do any of that. I organize those who can. The job I do is Mystical Arts Management. Simply put, I'm an agent. The person who does the deals, takes the bookings, and then gets all the flak when things go wrong--and little of the credit when they go right. The place I do all this is a company called Kazam, the biggest House of Enchantment in the world. To be honest, that's not saying much, as there are only two: Kazam and Industrial Magic, over in Stroud. Between us we have the only eight licensed sorcerers on the planet. And if you think that's a responsible job for a sixteen-year-old, you're right--I'm really only acting manager until the Great Zambini gets back.
If he does.
Every sentence is a fun read - the kind that makes you double back and make sure you read it right, it's so bizarrely funny.
Another homerun for Mr. Fforde. Song of the Quarkbeast was thrilling, suspenseful, a little sad, and super silly. So easy to read; I could barely put it down. I would recommend for adults and children alike!
Oh! And #longlivethequarkbeast
Oh! And #longlivethequarkbeast