Dragonslayers and Quarkbeasts

Jasper Fforde is, in my opinion, an author for which rereads are pretty much a prerequisite before moving on in a series when it has been a while since the last read. His complex worlds can always reveal more on a reread and there is no exception for this series, Fforde's first middle grade/YA outing. I first read The Last Dragonslayer in 2011 and thought it was very good but maybe not quite as satisfying as his adult novels, mainly due to the lack of complex wordplay and historical reference. But this didn't mean that it was not still a smart story and that's what I found again this time through. From the brave and imaginative Jennifer Strange to her unique Quarkbeast to the enigmatic dragon Maltcassion, there were a lot of fantastic characters that I remembered and was happy to meet again. But the parts I didn't remember as well--governmental corruption, rival wizards and the Transient Moose--ended up being both amusing and essential bits that tied nicely into ...

The Song of the Quarkbeast (out in September in the U.S.). This story picks up right after the first, weeks after Jennifer Strange has played her role as the Last Dragonslayer. Things aren't all magically rosy in Hereford even though magic is slowly gaining in strength again. But with rival factions of wizards fighting for government contracts and the same ridiculously corrupt king in power, Jennifer is going to have to do a lot more than just fulfill her destiny to save her friends (and even her enemies).

This is such an incredibly fun and unique series. Like I said after I read the first book, this isn't necessarily a youth series except for the age of the protagonist. The story is pretty complex, as are the personal relationships. I have yet to dislike a Fforde series (as you may have noticed) but this is probably my second favorite after the Thursday Next books. They stretch my imagination and have a plethora of moral and physical conundrums that have me already awaiting the third book -- and the requisite rereads of these two!

Feeling the magic,
K

RIP VII Read #8: New Release: The Woman Who Died a Lot

Will it surprise you if I tell you I loved Jasper Fforde's latest, The Woman Who Died A Lot? No? I've made my love of the Thursday Next series too obvious? Well, though this one had a little bit of a slow start, it picked up quickly and was a strong story of an aging action hero. I'm really not sure what else to call Thursday. She's fought vampires, a minotaur, the Hades family and, well, Jack Schitt. She's saved the world from pink goo, fictional weapons and the most evil of corporations. And she's managed to have a family of three -- er, two somewhat-adjusted children. So, if there weren't synthetic Thursdays running around town, things would almost be pretty good for her. But, as always, things aren't perfect and Thursday's on the case.
Sometimes I wish that Jasper would just write one of these a year. I love this series so, so much. This one was pretty heavy science fiction with barely any Book World and I still loved it! Okay, I've used the word "love" four times now so I need to end this. Please, please read this series. I'll be your best friend.

Preventing a smiting by the Great Fforde,
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 6 and Wrap-Up: One of Our Thursdays is Missing

And that's it for my Fforde-a-Thon (which turned into Fforde August). It took about two weeks longer than I thought it would but it led up to a wonderful ending. One of Our Thursdays is Missing is interesting and funny and smart and absolutely one of the best of the series, even considering the real Thursday Next is only in it for a couple of sentences at the end. If you're a fan of this series, you've got to get to this sixth book. Once you're done, I don't think you'll ever read a book the same way again.

Thanks to everyone who commented throughout the month on your own love of this series (especially Tracy and Karen) and the many strange thoughts it spawns and thanks to Tif for finally giving The Eyre Affair a read. I can't wait to see your thoughts on it! And, of course, a million thanks to Jasper Fforde and his endless imagination. To write books that stand up to as many re-reads as I've given some of the books in this series and to have them still offer up something new each time is quite astounding.

Totally stuck on what to read next that isn't Thursday Next,
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 5: Thursday Next in First Among Sequels

Thursday Next in First Among Sequels is easily my least favorite in the series. It feels "phoned in" in a way. There's a lot of recapping and repeating that becomes even more evident while reading the books all in a row. The plot doesn't even pick up until the middle of the novel. Luckily, the start of the sixth book is quite good so far so it seems that Fforde will redeem himself in One of Our Thursdays is Missing.

First Among Sequels focuses on Thursday's interactions with two of her fictional selves -- one that was "unauthorized" and is super violent and slutty and then the one she has written to correct that but who turns out to be a bit too new agey and meek.


If someone wrote a fictional account of your life, what traits would they exaggerate to draw in readers? I'm not sure I want to answer this question myself! I hope the author would decide to take me from average honors student to super genius. Maybe my time cleaning fish tanks at the Seattle Aquarium could be turned into an awesome, death-defying animal rescue plot line. I just wouldn't want my introvertedness magnified into full-blown agoraphobia or something!

Off to find a missing Thursday,
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 4: Something Rotten

In the next book in the Thursday Next series, Something Rotten, Thursday returns to the real world after spending almost three years in the BookWorld. One of the things she has to do when she gets back is track down a Shakespeare clone (which she didn't previously know existed) who can help reverse the merging of Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor into The Merry Wives of Elsinore before the plays become irretrievably intertwined.

If cloning of historical figures were possible, who would you hope would be copied? Or is cloning humans something that should never happen? Would the world be better off with a couple hundred Mother Teresas back on the job? Should we clone a few John Adamses to straighten out politics again? Could we ever have too many Cary Grants?

Considering the options (just in case),
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 3: The Well of Lost Plots

In the third Thursday Next book, The Well of Lost Plots, Thursday has to move into a novel to hide from the nefarious Goliath Corporation. She ends up in Caversham Heights, a novel that was abandoned. She gets to live on an old converted house-plane. Her bedroom is in the nose of the plane and she falls asleep each night to the gentle rocking of the house.

Thursday was put into this novel because it wouldn't ever be read so it didn't matter so much if she did things out of the normal narrative flow. But wouldn't it be much more fun to get to choose a published novel to live in? Which novel would you choose to settle down in for a year or two? You might be filling in for an established character while they go on vacation (you would have to deliver their lines and live in their home) or you might just be hiding out in the backstory. I would consider choosing to be Martha, the maid in The Secret Garden who invites her brother Dickon to play with the unfortunate Mary. Or I might spend some time as Trillian (a.k.a. Tricia McMillan) in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, traveling the stars in a unique ship. Or maybe I would just settle in as Madame Rosmerta, spending my time serving butterbeers in The Three Broomsticks to the youngsters from Hogwarts.

Daydreaming about impossible travel,
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 2: Lost in a Good Book

Lost in a Good Book steps up the word play and silliness of this series but there's one idea that gets me thinking every time.

It was time to go and visit the closest thing to the Delphic Oracle I would ever know: Granny Next.
...
"Do you want to know a secret, young Thursday?" she asked ... "I am cursed to eternal life!"
...
"I got mixed up with some oddness in my youth, and the long and short of it is that I can't shuffle off this mortal coil until I have read the ten most boring classics."
I looked into her bright eyes. She wasn't kidding.
"How far have you got?" I replied ...
"Well, that's the trouble, isn't it?" she replied ... "I read what I think is the dullest book on God's own earth, finish the last page, go to sleep with a smile on my face and wake up the following morning feeling better than ever!"
"Have you tried Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene?" I asked "Six volumes of boring Spenserian stanza, the only saving grace of which is that he didn't write the twelve volumes he had planned."
"Read them all," replied Gran. "And his other poems, too, just in case." (page 134-135)

..."can you think of any books that might be included in the 'ten most boring classics'? I'm about ready to go."
"Gran!"
"Indulge me, young Thursday!"
I sighed.
"How about Paradise Lost?"
Gran let out a groan.
"Awful! I could hardly walk for a week afterwards--it's enough to put anyone off religion for good!"
"Ivanhoe?"
"Pretty dull but redeemable in places. It isn't in the top ten, I think."
"Moby Dick?"
"Excitement and action interspersed with mind-numbing dullness. Read it twice."
"A la recherche du temps perdu?"
"English or French, its sheer tediousness is undiminished."
"Pamela?"
Ah! Now you're talking. Struggled through that when a teenager. It might have had resonance in 1741, but today the only resonance it possesses is the snores that emanate from those deluded enough to attempt it."
"How about A Pilgrim's Progress?"
But Gran's attention had wandered. (page 234-235)

So, what books would you try if you were trying to identify the "ten most boring classics"? Or have you read one already that you're sure should be on the list? I know many of you would choose Dickens but I have yet to read one of his novels that I would put on the list. Maybe I've just avoided the boring ones so far! I think I probably would try Don Quixote -- I wasn't able to get through that one when I tried it last. The Grapes of Wrath would be on my list as well. 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas is redeemed by a few interesting scenes but the majority of that one gets the big BORING stamp on it. And oh, to have my lifespan determined by which books I chose to read ...

Falling into The Well of Lost Plots,
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 1: The Eyre Affair

Ten Things I Love About The Eyre Affair

1. The breeding of extinct animals as pets.

"I ... took Pickwick for a waddle in the park. I let him off the leash and he chased a few pigeons before fraternizing with some feral dodos who were cooling their feet in the pond. They splashed excitedly and made quiet  plock plock noises to one another until it was time to go home."

2. A world where there are still airships.

"I took a small twenty-seater airship to Swindon. It was only half-full and a brisk tailwind allowed us to make good time. The train would have been cheaper, but like many people I love to fly by gasbag."

3. Officer Spike Stoker

"--SpecOps-17: Vampire and Werewolf Disposal Operations. Suckers and biters, they call us. ... By way of explanation he tapped a mallet and stake that were clipped to the mesh partition."

4. The Global Standard Deity

"'Does the GSD encourage such blatant personal attacks?' I asked.
Joffy shrugged.
'Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't,' he answered. 'That's the beauty of the Global Standard Deity--it's whatever you want it to be. And besides, you're family so it doesn't count.'"

5. Landen Parke-Laine

"His voice sounded the same. The warmth and sensitivity I had once known were still there. ... He had gone slightly gray but he wore his hair in much the same manner. There were slight wrinkles around his eyes, but they might just as easily have been from laughing as from age."

6.Translating carbon paper

"'We'll start with a plain piece of paper, then put in a Spanish carbon, a second slip of paper ... then a Polish carbon, more paper, German and another sheet and then finally French and the last sheet ... there.' ...
'Write something on the first sheet. Anything you want.'
'Anything?'
Mycroft nodded so I wrote: Have you seen my dodo?
'Now what?'
Mycroft looked triumphant.
'Have a look, dear girl.'
I lifted off the top carbon and there, written in my own handwriting, were the words: ¿Ha visto mi dodo? 'But that's amazing!'"

7. SO-27 Operative Bowden Cable

"He led me around one of the desks to where Bowden was sitting bolt upright, his jacket carefully folded across the back of his chair and his desk so neat as to be positively obscene."

8. Mycroft Next

"It certainly looked impressive, but not all Mycroft's devices had a usefulness mutually compatible with their looks. In the early seventies he had developed an extraordinarily beautiful machine that did nothing more exciting than predict with staggering accuracy the number of pips in an unopened orange."

9. Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester!

"He silenced the dog with a shout and then stopped to feel his leg; it was obvious that he had hurt it quite badly. I felt sure that a man of such dour demeanor must surely be very angry with me, yet when he espied me again, he smiled kindly and gave me a broad wink, placing a finger to his lips to ensure my silence. I smiled back, and the rider turned to face the young woman, his brow furrowing once more into a grimace as he fell back into character."

 10. Thursday Next (of course)

"I opened the drawer of my desk and pulled out a small mirror. A woman with somewhat ordinary features stared back at me. Her hair was a plain mousy color and of medium length, tied up rather hastily in a ponytail at the back. She had no cheekbones to speak of and her face, I noticed, had just started to show some rather obvious lines."

What is your favorite thing about The Eyre Affair? Have I convinced you yet to give this book a try? (If you've read it recently, leave a link to your post about the book!)

Taking refuge in a Good Book,
K


Support our site and buy The Eyre Affair on Amazon or find it at your local library. I bought my own copy of this book and have put it to good use!

The Fforde-a-Thon Begins

Photo from thursdaynext.com

Well, I've turned the last page on my current read so it's time to walk over to my shelves and pull down Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair! I would guess that it's my fourth or fifth time reading the novel but it will be my first time with this copy of the book. A year or so ago, I found a pristine used hardcover copy and, as this was the only one in the series that I had in paperback, I upgraded.

So, if you wanted to join me in this first of six adventures with the amazing Thursday Next, grab your copy today! I'll be tweeting a bit about the book over the next couple of days (@webereading, if you don't follow me yet) and will be back with a post when I'm done. By the way, I'm not doing this in any sort of speedy, twenty-four hours of reading type deal, just a regular pace, so don't feel like you can't join in a day late!

Plock, plock,
K

Coming Soon: Fforde-a-Thon

Though I have a stack of books here waiting to be reviewed, my reading isn't slowing down at all these days. And now I've gotten to the point where I am almost free to begin my re-reading of the entire Thursday Next series, concluding with a long-awaited first read of the sixth novel, One of Our Thursdays is Missing.

I plan to start reading this weekend (likely Friday) and will probably finish a book every two to four days. So, if you haven't started this wonderful series yet, join in with The Eyre Affair. If you stopped somewhere in the middle, pick up the next book with me. If you still have the final book sitting in your TBR stacks as well, pull it out and let's get reading together!

The books in the series are (in order)
The Eyre Affair
Lost in a Good Book
The Well of Lost Plots
Something Rotten
First Among Sequels
One of Our Thursdays is Missing


I will post on the day I finish each book so that you know when to pick up the next one if you're joining in. Otherwise, just sit back while I try and convince you to try this hilarious and smart series.

Shortly departing to Swindon and beyond,
K

New Release: The Last Dragonslayer

I forget where I was searching but, at some point late last fall, I discovered the fact that a new Jasper Fforde YA novel had been released. I immediately went searching and found that it was not actually released in the U.S. Well, I wasn't about to let that stop me from getting it so I promptly ordered it from a not-so-prompt store in the UK right after Christmas and received it about ten weeks later. Thanks to the Once Upon a Time challenge, The Last Dragonslayer didn't spend as many weeks on my bookshelves as it apparently did in transit.

Jennifer Strange is a foundling, raised by nuns, who is now an indentured servant and temporary manager at the Kazam wizarding agency. The wizards have been slowly losing their power but even they can't miss the powerful premonition that the last dragon in the Ununited Kingdoms is about to die -- on Friday, to be exact. Jennifer has the feeling that the dragon and the magic of the land are linked and so she sets out to find the current dragonslayer (there's always just one) and to figure out how to save the livelihoods of her wizard charges.

As with many Fforde novels, this one is also set in a world that has one toe in the real U.K. and the whole rest of the body somewhere else entirely. And, just as with his other books, it takes a while to get situated in the world but, by the end, it's as familiar as our own. I would venture that the only reason this book is a YA novel, is that it features a young teen protagonist. Otherwise, I found it to be just as well done as any of his adult novels. It was a bit less heavy on the wordplay and literary references, which might actually appeal to some readers who are intimidated by The Eyre Affair.

I'm especially excited to find out that this is the first in a trilogy, with the second book tentatively scheduled for November (though long-time Fforde fans will know never to put stock in dates because his genius is never on a schedule). In the meantime, I will be embarking on a re-read of the Thursday Next series, finishing up with the newly-released One of Our Thursdays is Missing.

Fetching a tin of food for the Quarkbeast,

K

Support our site and buy The Last Dragonslayer on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy.

New Release: Shades of Grey

I held out as long as I could, trying to always have one more Jasper Fforde left to read, but as the rave reviews started being posted, I had to crack open Shades of Grey.  I loved it!

Told from the point of view of Eddie Russett, a Red, we are introduced to Chromatacia -- a world (possibly the future of our world) where vision has been changed to the point where individuals only see certain colors or sometimes none at all.  What color you see -- and how much of it -- determines your course in life.  Purples are the leaders and Greys are the manual laborers.  Everyone else falls somewhere in between.

Life in this world is based on a very restrictive set of rules and variance is not tolerated.  When Eddie plays a practical joke on another young man, he and his father are sent on a fool's errand to the fringe town of East Carmine where the rules are not so iron-clad and things that already seemed strange are even stranger than they seem.  Armed only with his natural born color-seeing skill and his spoon, Eddie sets out to do something that is forbidden -- ask questions and learn the truth.

This summary only scratches the surface of this fantastic dystopian comedy.  As with other Fforde novels, wordplay is important and this book will definitely require a re-read for me to catch more of his brilliant details.  The book was a bit confusing at the start because the world operates in such a strange way but it didn't take too long to adjust to.  Eddie is a wonderful character -- a thinker and a non-believer who is learning both the danger and the blessings of knowledge.  I can't wait to continue with his story through the remaining two books that Fforde is planning for this series.  Of course, I hope he manages to resurrect Thursday Next somewhere in there as well.  I miss the old gal.

Rather be grey than yellow any day,
K


Support our site and buy Shades of Grey on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy of this book.

"It was the week following Easter in Reading, and no one could remember the last sunny day."

After reading the entire Thursday Next series multiple times, I still wanted to read more from Jasper Fforde. I was wary of the Nursery Crimes series because it seemed just a bit too silly and I didn't really understand how it could be executed well but after finding a hardcover version of the first book, The Big Over Easy, at an unbeatable price, I decided to give the series a go.

This book takes place somewhat in the same England that Thursday Next lives in. However, in Reading, besides the normal crimes and normal police force, there are also "nursery crimes", investigated and solved by the Nursery Crimes Division, currently headed by Detective Inspector Jack Spratt. These are such things as the murder of Mr. Wolff by the three little pigs and a "spinning-straw-into-gold scam" perpetrated by Rumplestiltskin. These people all function in normal society but tend to fulfill their nursery-rhyme-foretold destinies. The main crime in this story is the death of Humperdinck "Humpty" Dumpty. Did he fall or was he pushed? Why was he amassing stock in a footcare products company? Why were the ladies so attracted to an egg? Okay, so that question isn't answered in this book but I wish it had been!

It took a few chapters to acclimate to Fforde's created world but the story was quite interesting and I'm rather glad I finally decided to read this one. I don't think this is a series for everyone because it's a bit far-fetched and silly but at the same time it's hilarious and imaginative. Just like the Thursday Next series, this is definitely something different than anything you've read before. The second book in the series is The Fourth Bear, which I also happened to find in a hardcover at a reasonable price and will probably be reading soon.

Mother Goose was framed,
K


Buy The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime on Amazon or find it at your local library.

"My father had a face that could stop a clock."

If you don't know about the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, you need to discover it. It started with The Eyre Affair in 2001 and has included four more books: Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten and Thursday Next: First Among Sequels.

The first book introduces us to Thursday Next, a sort of government agent, who initially works in the "Literary Detectives" division of the British Special Operations force and eventually works in the books themselves. We get to meet fictional characters like Mr. Rochester (of Jane Eyre fame) and Miss Havisham (from Great Expectations) as Thursday finds that she can actually travel into books. Unfortunately, she's not the only one that can do this and not all of the others who can have good intentions. Over the next four books we follow Thursday as she hides from psychopaths and corporate miscreants in the book world, fights vampires and ghouls with her friend Spike in the real one and has a son -- a major challenge in itself.

Jasper Fforde is a fantastic writer who has a sense of humor similar to Douglas Adams -- extremely silly and hilarious. He's very big on word play and double entendres when naming characters. The book is set in a slightly alternate universe in the 1980s where people travel by airship, croquet is a national sport (and quite a violent one at that), cheese is a black market commodity and a major corporation controls most of the government. The stories move quickly and they are some of the few books that actually make me laugh out loud each time I read them -- and I have re-read them many, many times. So take a chance and read them at least once ... you won't regret it!

Enjoy a book today,
K


Buy The Thursday Next Series on Amazon or find them at your local bookstore.