Review: The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next 03) by Jasper Fforde

3Cover of The Well of Lost Plots

• Paperback: 375 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143034359
• ISBN-13: 978-0143034353
• Target audience: basically everybody who likes reading
• Genre: sci fi, horror, detective, litpunk (with elements of steampunk)

Synopsis:

Thursday Next is on the run. The evil Goliath company, outsmarted by her in the first part, haven’t settled the score with her yet and, being truly evil, they are trying their best. They eradicated her beloved husband, Landen, and now they are hunting for her. The problem is that Thursday is pregnant so a showdown must wait a bit. She decides to go into hiding. Could you find a better place than in a section of BookWorld called the Well of Lost Plots? It is a place where reside unpublished novels – very safe, very cozy, slightly strange but it is fiction, isn’t it? As soon as Thursday gets her bearings, though, she finds that ‘something is rotten in the state of the BookWorld’. It is connected to a new software, to be implemented very soon, called 'UltraWord™. In order to provide higher profits to publishers it might cause libraries close down overnight and second-hand bookshops becoming a thing of the past. What’s more, Thursday finds out she has one more and a very personal enemy – Aornis Hades, the sister of Acheron, killed by her in ‘Jane Eyre’. Aornis is a mnemonomorph – she can invade your brain like a nasty virus, distorting, changing and deleting memories. Will Thursday manage to prevent the worst? Will she find her husband or, at least, remember his name? Will she save the BookWorld in the process?

What I liked:

The plot was original to the extreme but it was a likeable extreme. I enjoyed many beautiful, intriguing moments while meeting characters from many classic books (Mansfield Park, Macbeth, Enid Blyton stories, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick and so on) but perhaps the best was the Anger Management Treatment all Wuthering Heights characters had to undergo

( I knew it! I knew it! Now imagine my happy anachronistic dance) and the way the author solved the mystery of Heathcliff’s sudden wealth. Definitely I agree with this version (but, as I am cynical and evil, I won’t say anything more – read the book and find out on your own!).

Thursday was as kick-ass as usual, despite being pregnant. Her tutor in the BookWorld, Miss Havisham (what Dickens book she reminds you of?), was even funnier. Overall it was a sequel which was better than the first part – a rare thing indeed - neat and trim, without unnecessary black holes. 

What I didn’t like:

The book was too short. I got addicted and now I must have the next installment.

Final verdict:

If you haven’t read any of this series yet treat yourself to it asap. You won’t regret it. Good news is that you can even start with the second part – you will miss some info but not too much; this one can work as a stand-alone novel without any problems.

I decided to post several quotes below as teasers:

“But you know, sometimes, just afterwards, you know, when

there is that really nice moment and I'm in his big strong arms and feeling sleepy and warm and contented, I can feel there is something that I need just outside my grasp – something I want but can't have.'

'You mean love?'

'No – a Mercedes.'”

“'Who are we waiting for?' asked the Bellman.

'Godot,' replied Benedict.

'Absent again. Anybody know where he is?'

There was a mass shaking of heads.”

“There aren't enough minutes in the day for one Solomon – as soon as he did

that "divide the baby in two" thing, everyone and his uncle wanted him to arbitrate, from corporate takeovers to playground disputes. So he did what any right-thinking businessman would do: he franchised. How else do you think he could afford the temple and the chariots and the navy and whatnot? “

“'Insider trading: Slang term for Internal Narrative Manipulation. Illegal since 1932 and contrary to Item B17(g) of the Narrative Continuity Code, this self-engineered plot fluctuation is so widespread within the BookWorld that it has to be dealt with on a discretionary basis to enable it to be enforced at all. Small manipulations such as dialogue violations are generally ignored, but larger unlicensed plot adjustments are aggressively investigated. The most publicised flaunting of these rules was by Heathcliff when he burned down Wuthering Heights. Fined and sentenced to 150 hours' community service within Green Eggs and Ham, Heathcliff was just one of many high-profile cases that

Jurisfiction were prosecuting at that time '”

ETA: I almost forgot my badge:

fully deserved!

50th review - The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next 01) by Jasper Fforde

I've never ever imagined I would be able to write 5, let alone 50 reviews, but here you go! Thank you, my dear visitors, followers and friends for every encouraging word !

The readers of this blog have chosen The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde to be reviewed as the 50th book. I couldn't agree more - I wished to read it ever since my dear friend Tracy had mentioned this series on her excellent blog Addicted to Books. Without further ado let me start this special review of mine.

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780142001806
• ISBN-13: 978-0142001806

Genre:  sci fi, horror, detective, litpunk (with elements of steampunk), urban fantasy -  no kidding!

Synopsis:

This book is about what can happen when your favorite book comes to life... literally. It is set in a surreal (even bordering steampunk) version of Great Britain, somewhere around 1985. The UK is a place where time travel is old news (done that, been there, got a t-shirt), you can clone a long-extinct animal pet of your choice (like a dodo) and corner Will-Speak machines will quote Shakespeare at you. What's more, you are in literature fans' paradise - reading is as natural as breathing, literary pilgrimages seemingly commonplace and proselytizing groups try to convert others to their belief that, say, Francis Bacon or Christopher Marlowe actually wrote Shakespeare's plays. It is only the beginning of fun. Russia never had a Soviet revolution, and is still run by the Tsarist royal family; England and Russia have been fighting the Crimean War for 131 years now, the entire thing turning into a Vietnam-like  mess that neither side can politically walk away from anymore. Oh, and the Republic of Wales is an independent country and has turned into a soviet state for a change.

Our main character, a woman called Thursday Next , is one of Crimea war veterans (her dad is into time travel thus the name). Currently she works for SpecOps (Special Operations) 27- the Literatec division in London. Officers from that division are like literature detectives, trying to catch those miscreants who dare to steal manuscripts, publish fake originals and generaly cheat faithful readers making money all the way.  When the original manuscript of Dickens's  Martin Chuzzlewit vanishes, Thursday leads the investigation. The theft proves to be far more complicated than anybody could have predicted - it brings Thursday into another case involving her old Uni professor, Acheron Hades, now a master-mind criminal  and Goliath, a big evil corporation which in fact rules the whole country.

Hades's plan is fairly simple: using the brilliant invention of Thursday's uncle, Mycroft, called a Prose Portal, he can kidnap characters from manuscripts and hold them to ransom or even kill, changing the classic stories' plotlines forever. Literature being as important as it is in this world, you can bet he can demand millions and they will be paid. When his Chuzzlewit  scenario doesn't go quite as planned Hades steals the manuscript of Jane Eyre instead. It is serious - Jane Eyre happens to be one of Thursday's favourite books; when she was a child she visited the plot once, meeting Rochester and Jane; then Rochester saved her life. Now the whole novel is being endangered by Hades who, you can be sure of it, will stop at nothing. In The Eyre Affair the plot of Jane Eyre is a bit different - at the end Jane goes with her cousin, St John Rivers, to India.  Everyone agrees it's a disappointing ending, not least of all Rochester himself. Will Thursday be able to save her beloved characters from virtually indestructible Hades and greedy Goliath thugs? Will she be tempted to change the ending of her beloved book? Will her involvement influence her private and professional life?

What I liked:

This book provided me with the literary escape I needed - it really can be an awful lot of fun, not only for English lit geeks who cherish their classics.The central idea of 'The Eyre Affair', that the world and characters of fiction can cross over into the real world, and vice versa, has great potential. The plot is fun, adventurous and as fast-paced as I like. The world building is truly intelligent and creative and the main character - very likeable (sometimes reminding me of Bridget Jones). Not only her. With lines like "My name is Schitt. Jack Schitt." you will love the baddies as well. By the way Jack Schitt appears quite a lot and I couldn't help giggle every time I read his name. 

To tell you the truth the wry, intelligent sense of humour kept me smiling most of the time. There's more than a hint of satire but I found it done with gentility most of the time . Even if I didn't understand some of the references  I could still appreciate them.The People's Republic of Wales? Richard III being staged like Rocky Horror, with the participation of audience? Surrealists rioting on the anniversary of their legalization? Visiting a vet with your own dodo, cloned using a do-it-yourself kit? A a vampire called Stoker (yes, there are vampires and werewolves in it)?  Hilarious and very refreshing! Some of the epigraphs, starting every chapter, weren't bad either!

Part of the allure of "The Eyre Affair"  is that Fforde asks the hard questions about literature and answers them in a funny but not entirely flippant way. Believe me or not but I waited for his explanation of the Shakespeare autorship problem (here I got a bit disappointed but still ) as impatiently as for the way Thursday would defeat Acheron and save her beloved Jane Eyre. 

What I didn't like:

This book is absolutely packed with literary and historical references - it's a warning, not a fault. I admit I felt a bit lost from time to time but I found out that The Eyre Affair works best if you just go with the flow and don't try to figure out every tidbit presented in the background. Don't worry too much - even us poor illiterate savages can enjoy it :-)

The other thing is that time travel and book travel, as presented here, were a bit patchy business. I mean the book doesn't really explore these complicated ideas deep enough, leaving some big logical gaps (in my opinion - too big ) to be filled by your imagination. Not to mention such a difficult problem as a black hole which was solved in a simply childish, highly unprobable way. 

Finally not all people will like this kind of humour. I suppose if you can tollerate Monty Python and Douglas Adams, the book will work fine for you.

Final verdict:

Book for book people who want some clever entertainment. Despite some faults I am very eager to read other parts of the series!

Quotes:

"So often Mr Right turned out to be either Mr Liar, Mr. Drunk, or Mr. Already Married."

"I'm not mad, I'm just... well, differently moraled, that's all. (Acheron Hades)" 

"They had two chances- fat and slim."