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Summary: Wonderfully imaginative book; good narrator on audio version
Review: Elizabeth Saztre does a very good job reading the audio version of this book. I especially enjoyed the voice of Miss Haversham. The book and the series are wonderfully imaginative, and a refreshing change from other fiction.
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Summary: Do you think you can write a book ?
Review: Fforde is a fantastic writer ! Like they say: a true original ! His imagination is bottomless... his explanation terrific.
Maybe you are under the impression that you could actually write a book ? Read Fforde and you will discover that it is quite impossible ! It all happens in the Well of lost Plots and they just make the "author" believe he invented it all himself...
Read about the inventions that made reading possible: OralTrad, SCROLL, BOOK,...
Escape in a whole new world, and try not to get lost...
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Summary: Hilarious Send-Up of Literature and Writing
Review: From the first chapter of Jasper Fforde's third novel, you can tell that the author had a blast writing this satiric mystery that explores the creation of fiction. Thursday Next - pregnant by her eradicated husband, haunted by a Hades sister intent on destroying her memory, and a Jurisfiction apprentice to none other than Miss Havisham of Dickens fame - takes refuge in a poorly written and unpublished crime novel called Caversham Heights. Thursday expects to rest there until the birth of her child, but she and Miss Havisham discover that the death of another agent by a Minotaur attack might not be the accident it seems. Meanwhile, nursery rhyme characters threaten a strike for not being treated like other fictional characters, two generic characters living with Thursday begin to become more well-rounded, and Thursday tries to save Caversham Heights from being destroyed by the Council of Genres for being so hopelessly bad.The more you know about literature, the more hilarious you'll find this fantasy. Characters are being manufactured in record numbers because Vikram Seth is planning a new novel, and no one wants a return to minimalism simply because of a character shortage. Heathcliff, Catherine, and the rest of the characters from Wuthering Heights attend anger management classes, and Mr. Toad is relentless in his competition with Miss Havisham for the fastest driver in both the Book World and the Outland. And if you're interesting in writing, you'll gain tips for keeping your novel out of the Text Sea, as Fforde pokes fun at hackneyed writing and incomplete character development. Because this is my first Fforde novel, I started reading this without any knowledge of what has happened previously in the series, but the author provides enough of a synopsis in the beginning to give a new reader the proper bearings. Despite this, there remains a disjointedness at times as so much satire is pumped into the book that does little to advance the plot. Sometimes Thursday seems to be there purely as a straight man, raising the question that perhaps Fforde should have heeded some of his own lessons in fiction writing. Fortunately, these lapses are few and don't hinder the enjoyment of the novel as a whole. This relatively long novel is not demanding and can be read more quickly than the page count might indicate. As a literary joke, The Well of Lost Plots is a triumph. As a mystery/fantasy, it is less successful. Readers will nonetheless delight in Fforde's imagination as he takes them through the land of the unpublished and the more solid, though more turbulent, ground of the classics.
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Summary: Worst book of the series
Review: I loved the first two books of the series but this book not as much. The Well of Lost Plots was as imaginative as the others but the pace was very slow. It seemed to drag and ramble on without any excitement. There was a lack of interesting story lines and action. The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book were full of many fun adventures and unexpected twists and turns. Well of Lost Plots dealt mostly with Thursday dealing with minor problems and had very few surprises. I had a hard time finishing the book because the slow pace could not keep me interested in it. The only reason I would recommend this book is that it contains many details important to understanding parts of the next book, Something Rotten.
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Summary: Phantasik Fanthaci Phfunnnn!
Review: I read relatively little fantasy because authors usually make it too much work . . . and not enough fun. Jasper Fforde has exceeded my expectations for fun, and kept me chuckling for hours. Although I have not read the earlier two books in the series (a mistake I'll be sure to remedy quickly), I had no trouble picking up the story line and following the continuity. If this book were to be graded solely on the fantasy world that was created, this book would be about a seven star effort. The subplots could have been trimmed (especially Lola, Randolph, Captain Nemo and the nursery rhyme characters), and this would have been an outstanding book. Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite fantasy books, and The Well of Lost Plots clearly borrows from that inventive work while adding unique elements relating to how fiction is written, read and understood. Fans of Alice will enjoy meeting the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the King and Queen of Hearts and the Gryphon. The book also borrows heavily from the Wizard of Oz in its story of conflict between good and evil in a magical land where characters live according to the limits of their development. As a writer, though, the book had me spellbound in its concoctions to pick up on all of the tasks that writers go through to create books. I often felt like I was traveling through my own mind rather than reading a book. The book had me chuckling at the same time as a reader. There are constant references to important characters in fiction (such as Miss Havisham and Heathcliff) and plot devices used in those works. What's the story then? Well, Thursday Next has left the real world for the Well of Lost Plots (the 26 floors of subbasement beneath the Great Library where all English fiction books are shelved)) where all stories are developed and protected. She's pregnant by her husband who was eradicated at age two in an earlier book. She's looking for temporary refuge from the threat to her life. While there, she finds she's been infected with a memory virus that is sapping her recollections of her husband. Miss Havisham is to be her guide, and helps her find a role filling in temporarily for another character in an unpublished book, Caversham Heights. Miss Havisham directs her towards becoming a Prose Resource Operative for Jurisfiction, those who help maintain the integrity of fiction. In that role, she's soon confronted with mayhem, death and a sinister plot that threatens fiction to the core. By book's end, she's made some progress in counteracting those influences, but clearly there's a fourth book to come in the series. I sincerely hope that English teachers will seriously consider assigning this book to help their students appreciate the true potential of fiction to stir the imagination, inform, influence and intrigue.
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Summary: "Crack it open and, pow, the story goes off at a tangent."
Review: In his previous two novels, Fforde created a wacky, fictional universe in which "real world" characters could transport themselves into books, associate with the characters there, turn back the clock, and even change the endings. Heroine Thursday Next, has saved Jane Eyre from disaster, imprisoned Jack Schitt in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," and ended the Crimean War, but she has also made enemies of some powerful criminals, one of whom has gone back in time and killed off her husband when he was just a small child. Now, pregnant, she is the only person who can remember him as an adult, and her memory is failing. Anxious for a rest, she decides to go with her dodo Pickwick to visit the Well of Lost Plots, where all book characters, plots, and settings reside until they are chosen for novels. In this most literary of Fforde's three novels, Thursday is an apprentice agent-in-training for JurisFiction, the policing agency that works inside books, her mentor and guide being Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Living inside an unpublished crime thriller, Thursday explores the Great Library, where the Cheshire Cat is librarian, sees the workshop for backstories (some used, some not), meets generic characters ("human canvases without paint") and "orals" (nursery rhyme characters), tours available settings (high-capped mountains, arched stone bridges, ruined castles), and watches as Miss Havisham joyrides in "Chitty Bang Bang." Holesmiths work there fixing holes in narratives, grammatacists try to prevent grammacites (gerunds) and mispeling vyruses from infecting novels, and pace-setters, moodmongers, and plot speculators work on new creations. As the Well considers installing the UltraWord operating system, which will expand the basic eight-plot architecture into thirty-two plots, Thursday tries to preserve the memory of Landen, fight against her enemies, and win her trial for a fiction infraction. Fforde pulls out all the stops here, creating a carnival ride through books and the creative process with surprises and delights on every page. Less plot-driven than the previous novels, this novel is episodic, with scenes ranging from a Star Wars-type bar scene to a group counseling session for the characters in Wuthering Heights. While Thursday's exact role is not always clear, Fforde's ability to free the reader's imagination and keep him/her involved in the literary world with its infinite possibilities is daunting. Full of satire, parody, puns, literary jokes, and word play, this latest in the Thursday Next series provides hours of entertainment for anyone interested in books and how they "work." Mary Whipple
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Summary: A bit uneven, but still inspired
Review: In the third installment of the Thursday Next series, Fforde continues to embellish his amazing world inside books, with amusing and intruiging characters, outlandish places, and unpredictable plot lines. Some of the chapters seem a bit flat, but then you encounter an truly inspired one, like the anger management session with the cast of Wuthering Heights, led by an out of control Miss Havisham. Almost everything and everybody in the novel exist in their own right, and also as a humorous literary reference, like reading Joyce, except here you laugh. I read this book with my two sons, who enjoyed every word, and protested whenever I put the book down for the night. We look forward to reading Something Rotten next.
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Summary: Behind The Scenes in the Great Library
Review: KEY INFORMATION: This book should be viewed as the third installment or volume of a four part serial novel. (This fact is not only my opinion; the interrelated and sequential nature of the four books was emphasized by the author at a book discussion which I recently attended.) The first novel is THE EYRE AFFAIR (review 4/14/04), an introduction to the fictional literary special operative Thursday Next and the closely parallel universe of 1985 England which she inhabits. The second volume is LOST IN A GOOD BOOK (review 5/10/04) and the final volume is the just published SOMETHING ROTTEN. The novels are unique and defy classification, involving elements of science and science fiction, fantasy, humor, mystery, biography, mythology, wordplay and allusions too numerous to list. They are uniformly both thought provoking and incredibly enjoyable. The only advice which I would choose to give to individuals who have not read the earlier books is that when you are in the mood for a lighthearted adventure unlike any that you have ever experienced, introduce yourself to Thursday Next but start with THE EYRE AFFAIR and read them in order. While this book can be read on a standalone basis, you will miss the power of the story and not fully understand many of the allusions.
If you are a fan of Fforde's and are wondering about this third installment in Thursday's adventures, it continues the transition started in LOST (volume 2) from Landen's eradication at the conclusion of EYRE to Thursday's confrontation with The Goliath Corporation in ROTTEN (volume 4), where she will try to arrange for Landen's return and save the world from a possible Armageddon. While Thursday recuperates from her battles with Hades and Goliath, she needs to find a safe retreat while awaiting the birth of her child. She decides to use the Character Exchange program; she and Pickwick take up residence on a houseboat to allow Mary, a character in an unpublished novel titled CAVERSHAM HEIGHTS, to take a break from her role. This story is quite different from the first two volumes, because it takes place entirely within the realm of the Book World. This is composed of The Great Library, which has twenty-six floors (one for each letter of the alphabet) where the original living manuscripts of all published books are kept. There are also twenty-six subbasement levels, where unpublished books are constructed and kept until they are either aproved for publication or sent for salvage so that their elements can be recycled. This is THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS.
Miss Havisham and other characters such as The Cat (Formerly) Named Cheshire and Harris Tweed who we have met briefly are the chief protagonists in this story, and Thursday learns about the elements of fiction writing as she has numerous adventures in the Great Library on the way to becoming certified as a PRO (Prose Resource Operative). Of course, the fictional characters are fascinated by an Outlander in their midst, since it is the first exposure to one for most of them. This is an adventure story with the background consisting of details of how works of literature are constructed. For example, Thursday learns how level D generic characters can train for leading roles in the books which they inhabit.
It is not just all data gathering and interesting exposition , however. She is pressed into service to contain the potential havoc and destruction which is threatened by an attack by the grammasites; then when a Minotaur escapes the consequences are disastrous. Finally, the attempt by the Council of Genres to introduce Ultraworld Version 9 as the new standard for creating works of fiction during the Annual Book World Awards must somehow be subverted once the potentially disastrous consequences are understood. These parodies of the Oscars and the similarities to the machinations of a well known and feared software company whose stock symbol is MSFT are wonderfully done and truly hilarious. Interwoven with all these adventures is Thursday's attempt to improve the plot sufficiently to allow CAVERSHAM HEIGHTS to qualify for publication so that the friends which she has found in the book will not be destined for salvage. Finally, Granny Next visits to warn her of the retaliatory plot of Acheron Hades' mnemomorph sister Aornis as payback for Acheron's death.
As with the previous books, it is only possible for a reviewer to give an indication of the nature of this book rather than provide any type of real summary. However, this book is fully as clever as the previous two, and integral to the development of the story of Thursday's biography. (Admittedly, if you are looking for a self contained story, this only rates about three stars.) If you are a fan of Thursday's previous adventures, this next book in the Next series should definitely be high on your reading list. You'll wish that you could visit the Great Library with Thursday and explore THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS. In addition, as an added bonus the completion of this book means that you as a reader will now be able to savor the expectation of embarking upon the reading of the final segment of Thursday's adventures immediately, since it has now been published.
Tucker Andersen
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Summary: Beware - lost puns
Review: The third installment in the Thursday Next series took me longer to read than the other two put together. It seemed to me to be an expansion of "Lost in a Good Book", written to set the stage for "Something Rotten".
Stop shaking your heads - it's a good book, filled with adventure and incidental stories, but essentially Thursday's story doesn't advance very far from book two. She's still pregnant, Landon doesn't exist yet, and she's still hiding out in the BookWorld.
This time, Fforde takes us through the Great Library and Well of Lost Plots in much greater detail, and his imagination is as fertile as ever, making book lovers purr with excitement as characters from great works of fiction interact with each other.
The BookWorld is a fascinating place, where grammasites stampede around changing text, spam has infiltrated the footnoterphone system, and plot devices are sold like cheap Rolexes. Dangerous creatures abound, real and fictional, human, animal and half bred, and the vast Text Sea can change the flow of booklife at any time.
Thursday must overcome pregnancy limitations, the deaths of her coworkers in Jurisfiction, and insidious plots; deal with dodo rearing, training of generic characters, and saving her less than perfect book-home, and also rack her brains to defeat the memory changing Aornis Hades. The worst challenge of all is something even more terrifying - something that drives fear into the hearts of people everywhere - the dreaded computer software upgrade.
Jasper Fforde is still very clever, but this time he's not as punny.
Warning: Not recommended to be read without the benefit of the first two novels.
Amanda Richards October 16, 2004
Rating:
Summary: Not like The Eyre Affair or Lost in a Good Book
Review: The Well of Lost plots is the third in the series of Thursday Next novels, and the well of lost plots it certainly is. Unlike Lost in a Good Book or The Eyre Affair, the reader gets tired of Thursday?s character pretty quickly. In the first two, she was witty and interesting. Here, she is completely different. The novel gets so caught up in ?bookspeak? that we completely miss the main idea, if there was one to begin with. Its an interesting mix of fantasy and literature, but it didn?t do anything for me.
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