The Fourth Bear

The 2nd book in the Nursery Crime series, The Fourth Bear. It could very easily be argued that this book is even better than The Big Over Easy, which was amazing on its own.

The story follows Jack Spratt & Mary Mary as they attempt to find out what happened to Henrietta "Goldilocks" Hatchett. Meanwhile, there is the fact a mentally unstable killer (the Gingerbread Man) has escaped... and despite being a Nursery Crime Division case, it is given to David Copperfield instead of Spratt... with Spratt having received a lot of negative attention when The Big Bad Wolf was able to eat Little Red Riding Hood & her grandmother.

Spratt is unwilling to attend counseling to be declared 'mentally sane', so he is given time off, with Mary Mary taking over the NCD. Of course, Jack is not going that easily, and is helping Mary in the search for Goldilocks, though they also have a couple of unplanned run ins with the Gingerbread Man.

What happened to Goldilocks? Will Copperfield be able to catch the Gingerbread Man? And what is the relation between those 2 and the death of a couple professional cucumber growers (who grow them for sport, not to eat)?

Another great read by Jasper Fforde.

Thursday Next | First Among Sequels

And it's back. All the awesomeness that I thought was lacking in Something Rotten is back in full force in Jasper Fforde's most recent Thursday Next book... Thursday Next | First Among Sequels.

14 years have passed since the end of Something Rotten. Thursday has her husband back, has a couple of kids, and has a ton more problems. Her son, Friday, is supposed to join the ChronoGuard and more or less save the world. The problem... he's your average "I'm not interested" teen that would much rather sleep all day or, when not sleeping, be in a band. Then you have the fact that she's seeing the ghost of her already dead uncle. Back in BookWorld, she's training 2 apprentices... both of them being Thursday Next (v.5, and v.1-4).

There are upset politicians who want change. There is the issue of TV having supplanted books. Sherlock Holmes has been killed. And there is cheese...

The book is, in a word, awesome! I loved it

The Big Over Easy

After reaching the end of the first part of the Thursday Next series (Jasper Fforde started another set of 4 a bit later... currently it is 1 book in, with 1 more expected out in August 2010), I decided to read some more of Fforde by picking up the first book in the Nursery Crime series... The Big Over Easy. Let me just say... it's as amazing as his previous ventures.

Unlike the Thursday Next series, this book gets its mystery right away (in The Eyre Affair, for example, the main plotline didn't really seem to show up until you were half way through the book)... Humpty Dumpty dies in chapter 3. That said, it's not that easy... they don't actually know it's murder until chapter 16. Fforde does a nice job keeping you interested until that point... at which point it takes off as they set out to solve a murder.

The story follows long time Nursery Crime Detective Jack Spratt, coming off of a failed case where he tried to get 3 pigs convicted for the death of a wolf, and his new partner, Mary Mary... who's goal is to get a promotion away from NCD to work with Friedland Chymes, one of the best detectives in the world and constantly being published in Amazing Crime Stories, which is an achievement that is highly regarded by all. They ended up getting stuck together (Spratt & Chymes used to be partners, but stuff went bad and now Spratt hates Chymes) and quickly get the case of Humpty Dumpty. It all looks straight forward, complete with a note admitting guilt... until an alibi pops up. And then the bodies start piling up, and it becomes obvious that the murderer is still out there, and will stop at nothing to get away.

It's a great book. Totally worth the read. So go read it.

Something Rotten

The 4th book in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde brings the one thing I expected to come much earlier... a let-down.

Not by much, but still... I don't think it lives up to the first 3 books. I'm not sure why. It's the same set-up... where random events happen until about half-way through, when she finally really gets set to take on the bad-guy. Maybe it was the time spent on seemingly unimportant things throughout the book. Or the seemingly too many times where something would click for Thursday, but it was never explained. Or maybe it was just that the ending wasn't what I wanted to read at 1 AM. Who knows...

Thursday is out to get her husband back, and ends up getting the okay from Goliath. But as he flickers between eradicated & uneradicated, she's stuck with other jobs... taking down Yorrick Kaine, managing the croquet team & finding 5 more players, "finding" books that Yorrick wants destroyed, helping actually smuggle books out of England, surviving multiple assassination attempts, avoiding her personal stalker, and, most importantly, finding a good baby-sitter.

Solid read, even though I don't think it lives up to the other 3 books.

The Well Of Lost Plots

The 3rd book in the amazing Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde.

As a cover, Thursday is inside a never published book, taking the role of the main actress in the book. She slowly makes it her home, with the help of her grandmother and 2 undistinguished "generics". Things aren't right in BookWorld though... the impending release of UltraWord is causing issues. And then people start dying, led by Perkins, who is killed by a Minotaur... and the tracks are covered by the mispeling vyrus. Who's behind this, and what are they trying to hide?

Meanwhile, Thursday continues to fight Aornis Hades in her mind, as Hades plays with her memories and tries to drive her insane. Luckily for Thursday, her grandmother is there, or she'd have no memories of before. But can she finally defeat Hades?

I loved this book. Even more than the first 2.
The comedy in this book, in my opinion, was much better than in the first 2, and it made the story even better... even with the sad deaths.

Must read!

Lost In A Good Book

Somehow, Jasper Fforde took a great 1st book... and didn't lose anything when writing a sequel!

Like the first book, it's a bit weird at first... the main plotline doesn't really take off until you're halfway through the book, but that's part of the charm.

Thursday Next has pissed off the wrong people by trapping Jack Schitt in The Raven, and they end up taking their revenge by eradicating her husband. That leaves Thursday, now pregnant by a guy who doesn't exist, off to go complete their demands (release Jack, and they'll bring the husband back) on her own. She has to find a new way to travel through books... and ends up finding a way with some help. She's under the tutelage of Miss Havisham (Great Expectations), who helps her learn the art of jumping books.

And then it's on to bring back her husband. The question is... will Goliath keep their word?

Great book... well worth the read!

I Have Books!

I just got 2 books from the library! It feels great... I haven't read a book since I finished Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong on March 13. And before that, The Associate on February 21st. And before that... just scroll down a bit... I was on a tear between semesters. I miss that... I need to read more.

Anyhow, I've got 2 books now... The Case Of The Missing Book by Ian Sansom and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I get to read!

Curious

I just put The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde on hold at the library. Has anyone read it? Recommendations? Should I have read Jane Eyre first?