Rating: 
Summary: Witty sci-fi
Review: The Eyre Affair is set in a parallel world where time travel is commonplace and literature is held in high regard. Thursday Next is an operative in the Special Operations Network's Literary Division. When Thursday is recruited to help capture high profile criminal, Acheron Hades, she's thrilled at the chance for career advancement. However, Acheron comes up with a devious plot to kidnap literary characters and forever change the novels they come from. I picked up this book because Jane Eyre is one of my absolute favorite books. I couldn't pass up the chance to see familiar characters in new situations. I was pleasantly surprised that the entire book, not just the Jane Eyre parts, were highly enjoyable. The setting is quirky and interesting and Thursday is a heroine I'd gladly keep reading about. Fforde could certainly get a lot of mileage out of this series before it gets stale. The writing is witty and full of literary jokes. A good portion of the book is purely Sci-Fi so people who can't stand that genre may want to skip it.
Rating: 
Summary: Bedazzle
Review: Thursday Next is a Special Operative in literary detection in an England of 1985 where time travel is routine for some and altering literature is a serious offense. A man from Thursday's past named Acheron Hades is quickly gaining attention for his heinous crimes, especially after he steals the original manuscript for "Martin Chuzzlewit". Thursday's uncle has created a machine through which one can enter books, and Hades has kidnapped him. After killing off a minor character in the book, Next and her fellow operatives know Hades means business, and when he next steals the original "Jane Eyre", Thursday takes it personally because it's her favorite book. In this wildly imaginative thriller, Jasper Fforde keeps readers dazzled with his quirky tale that references pop culture, literary classics, and historical alternatives. "The Eyre Affair" is a witty book that will delight many bibliophiles and will leave many heads spinning.
Rating: 
Summary: Shallow, predictable, and too clever for its own good.
Review: I stumbled upon "Well of Lost Plots" at a bookstore, and it looked intriguing. I wanted to read the series from the beginning, so I waited (and waited) for "The Eyre Affair" at the library. I was expecting something witty, intelligent, and fun. I found it shallow, predictable, and too clever for its own good. First, a confession-- I'm not a fan of mysteries. That said, I love Edna Buchanan's Britt Montero and Peter Hoeg's Smilla Jasperson not because of their cases (I read "Smilla's Sense of Snow" 3 times, and I still had to watch the movie to figure out who the killer was), but because they're complex and interesting. Thursday Next is predictable, dull, and very one-dimensional. Fforde explains her family, losses (romantic and otherwise), and traumas, but doesn't do a single thing to make the reader care about them. The book has caricatures, not characters. Thursday is a The Tortured Detective Who Lives For Her Job. She's also Almost 40, Single, and Lonely. Her family consists of Bratty Brother Who Became An Upstanding Citizen, Brother Who Died Tragically, Bitter Mother, Father With A Mysterious Job, Shrewish Aunt, and Brilliant Uncle Whose Invention Imperils His Loved Ones. She's injured while fighting Pure Evil and His Minions. On assignment in The Hometown She Tried Desperately To Escape, she gets a Quirky But Valuable Partner. In a pub, she encounters The Ex She Still Has Feelings For. And so on. Even though I *hated* "Jane Eyre", I loved the literary references. Anyone who paid attention in British Literature (or any high-school Lit class) will get them. I found the self-aware "Jane Eyre" characters interesting. And I liked the idea of a society that values literature over all else. But the book seemed too self-conscious. When I encountered some things (like the character Jack Schitt), I could see Fforde saying "Ha! I'm so clever!" It's as if being clever overrode all attempts at character development. Cleverness is fine, but it only goes so far. The book also has some puzzling plot holes. She spends 38 years in a temporal anomaly, yet she doesn't age? Nobody outside aged either? In short, this book was a massive disappointment. I might read "Jane Eyre" again, but I'll leave Thursday Next alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't Finish It
Review: I was excited to read this book. It sounded imaginative, fun and different; especially when somebody compared this to the works of the late Douglas Adams. Instead, it was just boring. I read about half this book and it just did not grab me. No, I'm sorry, not at all. I've since decided to move on to something different.
Rating:
Summary: A wild trip into an alternative universe.
Review: Jasper Fforde has a rich imagination that moves in wacky directions, an off-the-wall sense of humor that never quits, and a deep knowledge and love of literature which give shape and substance to this hilarious "thing" he's created. Not really a mystery, sci-fi thriller, satire, or fluffy fantasy, this wild rumpus contains elements of all these but feels like a completely new genre. Fforde combines "real" people from the "historically challenged" world of his plot with characters from classic novels, adding dollops of word play, irony, literary humor, satire--and even a dodo bird--just for spice. With "real" characters who can stop time or travel back and forth in it, hear their own names (the names here are really terrific!) from 1000 yards away, appear in duplicate before themselves to give advice, travel inside books, and change the outcome of history, the reader journeys through Fforde's looking glass into a different and far more literary universe than the one we know. Thursday Next, a SpecOp-27 in the Literary Detective Division of Special Operations, is looking for Acheron Hades, who has stolen the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and killed one of the characters in it, thereby changing the story forever. Thursday and the Literatecs are trying to prevent him from getting inside Jane Eyre and committing further murders. If you have not read Jane Eyre recently, your pleasure in this book will be greatly enhanced if you look up a brief plot summary on-line before proceeding too far--the ending of Jane Eyre as we know it is different from the ending of Jane Eyre as Thursday Next knows it, and the differences themselves become a delightful part of this plot. Though some readers seem to feel that the book would benefit from a bit of pruning in order to strengthen its conclusion, that suggestion seems to me to be too much like Acheron Hades changing Martin Chuzzlewit or Jane Eyre--if you do that, something is irreparably lost--and this book is so much fun that I'd hate to lose even a single word!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Clever, but....
Review: A lot of credit has to be given to Jasper Fforde for creating a parallel universe that is quite quirky and very fun to explore. England is embroiled in a 130 year war with Imperial Russia over the Crimean Penninsula. There is tension along the British border with the People's Republic of Wales--a totalitarian regime. French Revisionists are apparently traveling back in time to wipe out British heros (Churchill, Nelson etc). Long distance travel is done by zeppelin. People keep extinct creatures as pets (our heroine has a dodo, version 1.2). Uncle Mycroft invents a device that allows travel into a literary work. The world's third most evil man pulls a character out of Dicken's Martin Chuzzlewit and assassinates him. Richard III is performed a la Rocky Horror Picture Show. In short, there is a lot of stuff going on in this book and the reader needs to pay careful attention. The first two-thirds of the book (the setup) is great fun. But the problem with the book is that Fforde cannot pull off an ending that equals the setup. Unfortunately, this seems to be a common woe of many "clever" books. It seems as though Fforde expended all his energy on creating this ultra-clever parallel universe and lost sight of the plot. I felt the ending was contrived and that is saying a lot in a book whose entire premise is contrivity. I wish I could give the book five stars because I really like it. Maybe Fforde will deliver a more satisfactory climax in the sequal(s).
Rating:
Summary: A Literary Wonderland
Review: Jasper Fforde has taken elements from a wide range of literary genres and combined them to take you on a trip that your English Professor never knew. You name it, he dipped into it, time travel, historical, crime drama, romance, but most especially satire. Thursday Next is the tough but vulnerable female protaganist in the story working the London LiteraTec office. After an almost deadly encounter with an old acquaintance, Acheron Hades (the 3rd most wanted villian in England when he's not presumed dead), the ride starts and doesn't slow down until the (possibly) happy ending. With Thursday's father a rogue agent from the time corp, events like happy endings can change without notice.
Wrap yourself tightly in your suspension of disbelief and be prepared to march the brain cells around to remember the details of great classic books and historical events.
Well written, characters with depth to them and a plot full of enough twists to be a 3 pipe problem for Sherlock Holmes. No, he doesn't appear this time but I'm sure Mr. Fforde has other Thursday Next adventures to share with us and I'm looking forward to them.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing
Review: Imagine if Raymond Chandler melded with Douglas Adams to produce a sci-fi hardball detective mystery replete with literary references, and you'd have something like The Eyre Affair. The book takes place in a strange version of 1980's England, where the Crimean war has been going on for over hundred years, where Baconians knock on your door to try to convert you to their view of Shakespearean authorship, where a special operations squad exists explicitly to investigate literary crimes, and where the Chronoguard has the ability to travel through time. The novel follows the adventures of Thursday Next, a LiteraTech who is caught up in the hunt for arch criminal Acheron Hades, who is determined to abduct and ransom fictional characters, notably Jane Eyre. The book is not at all academic in tone; it reads like a fast, enjoyable work of popular fiction, but you have to be well read to appreciate it. If you are familiar with the English classics you will have a good sense of what is transpiring, and you will be able to pick up on various clues and enjoy the "inside" literary jokes.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This is such a clever book! Fforde's style is fresh and original, his characters lively and interesting, and his writing apt and witty. I especially enjoyed the names of the characters in The Eyre Affair. I look forward to reading more of Thursday Next's adventures.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: Anyone with a love and appreciation of the written word will adore this book. I remember when it first arrived in the US in 2002. I thought it was such a wild concept and wasn't sure if I'd be ready to enter the unusual world Jasper Fforde had created. So I passed it by. But it stayed with me, and finally, two years later I took the plunge into "The Eyre Affair." And now I've been bitten, smitten, and totally swept away into Thursday Next's world. It's fantastic and filled with colorful characters - from the strong yet vulnerable Thursday Next herself, aptly named a female version of Dirty Harry, to Thursday's wonderful time-traveling dad, her mad-inventor uncle and mischievious aunt, her long-lost love, her pet dodo Pickwick, her fantastic car, her crazy co-workers at Spec-Ops (and watch out for those evil villains) and all of the rest of the people in this unusual surreal version of 1985 England. "Jane Eyre" fans will especially love the chance to "book-jump" with Thursday into Miss Eyre's novel and meet the wonderful characters of THAT world. Rochester! Sigh! Yes, it's all here, folks! Adventure, mystery, car chases, time traveling, romance, Shakespearean interactive theatre, conspiracies, vampires, kidnappings, daring heroics, and satisfying endings. Enjoy the ride!
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