About this title: Literary sleuth Thursday Next is once again out to make the world safe for fiction in the fifth installment of Fforde's wildly popular series. Packed with word play, bizarre and entertaining subplots, and old-fashioned suspense, Thursday's newest adventure will be celebrated by fans and critics alike.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780786298433ISBN:078629843X
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Good. 0670038717 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780670038718ISBN:0670038717
Description: Very Good in Good jacket. Very nice clean ex-library copy with dust jacket! Pages are clean and the binding is tight. Some books may be ex-library books. read more
Description: Good. 0143113569 Standard used condition-Same quality you would find in your local bookstore. This is a new unread book that received the above wear during its handling. Has remainder mark. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780143113560ISBN:0143113569
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 363 p. Contains: Illustrations. Thursday Next Novels (Penguin Books). Audience: General/trade. read more
"Jasper Fforde is a master of wit. The entire Thursday Next series is a wild romp through literature. If you are someone who considers yourself well read, and who loves puns and literary references, these are the books for you.
The stories take place in an alternate universe where the "real" world exists side by side with the book world. Books are very important in this alternate universe. In fact, literary beliefs (such as who really wrote the Shakespeare plays) are less academic pursuits than religious choices.
In the book world, fictional characters can exist both within the pages of their respective books and outside of their books. On occasion, fictional characters can even cross over into the real world.
Thursday Next is a literary detective. She polices crimes against literature, manages to freely move between a very strange iteration of England and the even stranger book world. Her friends in the book world include the Cheshire cat (of Alice fame) and Miss Havisham.
I couldn't explain the plots, even if I wanted to, because they are so complicated and (quite honestly) nonsensical. But I mean that in a good way. I found the books highly entertaining. I'm sure that you will too."
"Probably my favorite of the series so far; certainly the most tightly written in a while. This entry takes Fforde's meta games to new heights with a clever, Don Quixote-ish twist: the previous books in the series -- The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, and two more -- all exist within the Thursday Next world as fictionalized stories about her (she sold the rights). Weirder still, since the Thursday Nexts in those books are fictional characters, the "real" Thursday can interact with them in her Jurisfiction work. It's head-spinning, even before it turns out that these versions of the books have no resemblance to the books of the same titles out here in the real world, and that there's a fifth book (The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco) that we've never seen. Pretty ingenious stuff."
"Absolutely superb! With impressive consistency Jasper Fforde does it again. More bizarre situations, even bizarrier (as Brunel would say) ideas and another healthy dose of mystery, intrigue and cheese.
As always the first chapter opens with a stonking great idea - that the country has an excess of stupidity and no way to deal with it. From there the book just spirals into the madness that we've come to expect from Thursday's adventures... Including forays into her own books!
My only gripe with the book (and indeed series as a whole) is the inclusion of pictures as 'extras'. Thursday exists in text and works in text. I feel there was no need to depict her at all. Or Spike. However, as gripes go this really is minimal, and really quite easy to avoid, so I probably needn't have mentioned it at all, but there you go.
The last half of this book was truly unputdownable. Twists, turns and shake-ups to really spin your head. 'Nough said.
I finished it, and I didn't finish it, which is typical of the strange paradoxes running through this book which I didn't care enough to invest myself in figuring out. The whole time travel paradox lost me, and I guess I could have sat and tried to wrap my mind around it but by page 50 I was already skimming and the skimming grew increasingly careless and superficial as I plowed through the rest of the book (hence the finished/unfinished dichotomy).
I give Jasper Fforde a lot of credit. He's incredibly creative, literate, clever, funny, etc., and was able to keep me reading for more than four books -- longer than many other series authors. I really don't know why I bothered to finish this one, though. I highly recommend the first two books in this series; it goes downhill from there and I wish I could have that time back."
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