Rating: 
Summary: What a Wild Ride
Review: Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair is a must read for all you bibliophiles out there. It is a wacky, genre-busting novel that takes place in a barely recognizable recent past. The year is 1985 and we are in an England where literature is taken very seriously, so seriously that there is a special branch of the government policing its integrity. That's where Thursday comes in, Thursday Next, out heroine in this wacky novel. She is trying to track down a vicious killer and manipulater of respected literature. She somehow winds up inside Jane Eyre and if Fforde is to be believed, we have Thursday to thank for the satisfying ending of that novel. Throughout all this novel, we have Thursday's time traveling father popping in and out at various times for comic relief and various other amusing subplots. This novel is a lot of fun. Place your toungue firmly in your cheek and give it a whirl.
Rating:
Summary: smart and funny with a bit of everything
Review: "The Eyre Affair" is a wonderful read. Set in an alternate history where literature, philosophy, and art inspire passionate debate and even rioting among the general populace, the book tells the story of literary police agent Thursday Next. In Thursday's world, time travel is possible and the line between fiction and reality is blurred. Using his unusual powers, the aptly named Acheron Hades has managed to hijack Jane Eyre - the woman, and thus the book. Thursday must set the world of literature right, capture the evildoer, and save her own skin.Everything about this book is likeable. It has elements of many several - detective, science fiction, literary references, even a romantic subplot. The characters, while underdeveloped, are quirky and entertaining. The story is readable and absorbing. It's not classic literature, and it's written with the bare nonchalance of many detective stories, but it sets out to delight and surprise and entertain, and it succeeds. It's the perfect Saturday pastime for any lover of books.
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Combination
Review: All I can say: Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series are the books everyone has been searching for. It combines a realative herione and the antogonist, the quirky charachters and details, romance, suspence, and imaginative ideas. You will find it's an honor to read such a fine crafted novel as this.
Rating:
Summary: Quirky, fun, and full of puns----
Review: This was such a fun book. Just like a previous reviewer, I laughed out loud often. The puns are hilarious and I am sure I missed some. The more you have read, the more you get out of this,i.e the discussion about "Love's Labour Won"? How could you not chortle? However, it was not just a bunch of puns strung together. In fact, most were subtle. No, it had a plot with a beginning, a middle and an end. How nice. I have already bought book two, and am looking forword to delving into it.
Rating: 
Summary: Delicious
Review: I have just finished reading "The Eyre Affair" and was delighted and very satisified. The storyline is witty with dry humorous overtones (I would concur with past assertions that it is "Douglas Adamesque", although not to that level). I will also agree with past reviewers that I could not give it the full five stars due to incongruencies in the book. For example, a machine is invented that allows one to go inside any book. There is discussion of a weapon that does not work, but because it was written about where it did work, it was discussed that one could go into that book and bring out a working weapon. A tad too much omnipotence for my taste. That being said, the story is very clever. I found myself reaching for my copy of Jane Eyre (which I read just over a year ago) and delighted in how Fforde concocted the ending to Jane Eyre that we all know (which, according to Fforde, is not the real ending.) Jean Rhys in "Wide Sargasso Sea" has certainly met her match in coming up with alternate explanations of Jane Eyre. You do not have to be a science fiction junkie or a fan of the classics to appreciate this work, although it does help. I certainly am going to verse myself with "Great Expectations" before reading the sequel. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: An Affair to Remember
Review: Some books are memorable because they're well-written. Some books are memorable because their plot leaves you breathless. "The Eyre Affair" is neither of these. But it is indeed memorable on the strength of Jasper Fforde's original, witty version of an alternate world. It's a genre-bender to be sure. Because it involves time travel and alternate reality (the book takes place in a 1985 UK no one will recognize, only partially because England is at war with Russia), it's a SciFi/Fantasy novel. Kinda. But because Thursday Next, the protaganist, chases an ultra-baddy (Archeron Hades) to a final showdown, it's a Detective Thriller. Kinda. Also, because it's filled with witty in-jokes ranging from literary references to character names (yes, there's a character actually named "Jack Schitt"), it's humor. Kinda. Well, mostly. While it delves into literary subject matter (works of Dickens, Bronte and Poe all play key parts in the story), it ain't literary. Fforde's prose is pretty lean and bare--too lean and bare, sometimes, but the charm of the story more than compensates. You should certainly like this if you enjoy imaginative, experimental fiction. You will probably like this if you enjoy thrillers with a dash of humor, or the idea of "jumping into" classic works of literature such as "Jane Eyre" seems interesting. You probably will not like this if you're a hardcore SF fan: you don't get any nuts-and-bolts explanations of how this alternate universe works. And if you're looking for a complex antagonist, forget it; Archeron Hades, Thursday Next's nemesis, might as well go by the name Snidely Whiplash and twirl his handlebar mustache. Still, the power of imagination conquers all in this book, and Thursday Next is someone most readers will enjoy getting to know.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: This is a tad bizarre, but still really good. The first few pages are confusing but DO NOT give it up, because you are giving up at something really good. You have to work at things if you want to be rewarded; you should definitely work at this. Thursday Next is a LiteraTech agent in the SpecOps, something like the police. She lives in England, but in the England of a different world where there are dodos and time machines. And evil villian by the name of Hades has stolen the book Jane Eyre. (In England, you must understand, there is a greater appreciation for the literal and theatrical arts than in America, and in this England there is an even GREATER appreciation.) You might think, so what, he stole a book. But he plans to take Jane Eyre out of the story with the Prose Portal, a special machine that allows one to go into books. And his copy of Jane Eyre is the original meaning all books will be effected. So Thursday has to stop him. I thought it was a brilliant book. There is much more to it than this plot, and in the sequel you get to meet other great literary figures like Miss Havisham (Great Expectations) and Marianne Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility). My only suggestion is that you read Jane Eyre before you read this. Of course The Eyre Affair can be read without any knowledge of Jane Eyre, but it tells you the whole story line of Bronte's novel and if you have already read Jane Eyre you'll feel more in touch, perhaps, with the characters. But all in all this book is "fab". And it's also got romance in it, and action, fantasy, sci fi, and lots of humor. Oh, and keep an eye out on the names, they usually mean something.
Rating:
Summary: A Fun-filled Adventure
Review: With the first page of this book, Fford caught my attention and held it fast until the last. I hated to see it end, but I was very happy to discover that it was only first in a series featuring Spec-Ops agent Thursday Next. Fford has created a blend of mystery, science fiction, and fantasy that is similar to Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently series. Fford's books even have the same irreverently sublime silliness, but with a decidedly literary bent. The books are set in an alternate universe, one where England is the world greatest super power, but is held under the control of a shadowy mega-company called Goliath. The year is 1985, but it's unlike any 1985 you or I might remember. Technology is both far advanced and far behind. The Crimean War still drags on and the world's biggest superstars are authors. A special crime enforcement unit has been formed to deal with crimes that fall outside the usual boundaries of police jurisdiction. Thursday Next works for Spec-Ops 27, the Literary Division. When the world's third most wanted criminal, Acheron Hades, finds a way to jump into the original manuscript of Dicken's MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT and assassinates Mr. Quaverley (a character you will only remember if you read the book before 1985), Thursday is assigned the case. It turns out that the assassination of Mr. Quaverley was only an example of what he was capable of, and when he jumps into JANE EYRE and kidnaps the title character, it's up to Thursday to save the beloved heroine...and the book. I'll warn you now that you'll have to suspend belief while reading this book. It should be read as a fantasy first and foremost. It deals with time travel (Thursday's father is a Spec-Ops agent as well, but in the Chronoguard), cloned dodo's (Thursday's marshmallow loving pet Pickwick, version 1.2), and Shakespeare's Richard the Third is performed with audience participation ala Rocky Horror. If you can get past some of the more absurd qualities of the book, you're in for a true literary treat. Fford writes assuming his readers will get his numerous high lit in-jokes, and while I'm sure I missed a few, he provided me with many laugh out loud moments. While his world is bizarre and occasionally hard to swallow, it's also amazingly imaginative and fun, Fun, FUN! Thursday is a strong, complicated, and entirely likeable protagonist and I'm sure we have a lot to look forward to from her.
Rating:
Summary: Personally, I'd go inside some Victorian Erotica
Review: The Eyre Affair is a wonderful literary concoction. Creating a world where literature is king, Fforde has a masterful sense of style and setting that I haven't seen equaled in a while. It has everything from cloned dodos to time travelers to stories within a story. Only a sense of illogic about the history of the world in which Fforde writes mars an otherwise excellent novel. Fforde's imagination is breathtaking. While the characters are fairly mundane (with the exception of Thursday herself and Acheron a bit), the world Fforde has created is extremely novel and interesting. I'll deal with character first so I can get it out of the way. Next is a wonderful protagonist, full of intriguing idiosyncrasies, a biting sense of humour, intelligence and street smarts. The book is mostly told in first person from her point of view, though there are some passages that are in third person, almost as if they were told to her later. This makes an effective mix as the reader gets to hear about events that happen away from Next, but almost the entire book is coloured with Next's unique interpretation of things. Hades makes a really good villain, though he is a bit stereotypical. Then again, I think that's the point, as Fforde writes him deliberately over the top. He takes pride in his evilness, and even makes statements like "I haven't committed a despicable act in the last ten minutes!" He does have a bit of a third dimension, but he operates more as a foil for Next then as a true character. Thankfully, though, he doesn't suffer from "stupid villain" syndrome, where the villain is required to do something dumb in order to be defeated. Instead, a bit of luck and some good observational skills on Next's part do him in. He's a lot of fun, and the game that he plays with Next is entertaining to watch. The rest of the characters are quirky but don't get a lot of detail added to them. There's Next's father, a rogue ChronoGuard who is roaming through the timelines. There's Jack Schitt, the Goliath corporation man, who's as slimy as most corporation "villains" in books nowadays. There's also some of Next's partners, who get just a little characterization, enough to make them at least two-dimensional instead of just one. And, of course, there are the literary characters, such as Jane Eyre and her love, Edward Rochester, as well as Mr. Quaverly from Martin Chuzzlewit. Fforde does a bit better with Rochester, who is more involved with the ending and helps Next out when she really needs it. But as I said, this is not really a book about character. This is a book about images, ideas, and style, and this is where Fforde excels. He has truly come up with an interesting world to play in. Literature is almost everything, and the arts are first and foremost (except for wars, of course). Baconians go door to door to try and convince people that Francis Bacon wrote the plays the are credited to William Shakespeare. Surrealists are condemned, but then later made legal. When this happens, anti-Surrealists riot. There are kiosks at the blimp stations (blimps are the main form of air travel in this world) that give you snippets of Shakespeare. Next plays a five-minute snippet of Richard III while she's waiting for her flight. Imagine a performance of Richard III that's performed every weekend for fifteen years, where the audience members are the actors and there is a form of audience participation very familiar to Rocky Horror Picture Show fans. Most impressive of all, a machine is created that will allow people to enter a novel or a poem. If this happens in the original manuscript and things are changed, the changes are reflected in every copy of the book in existence. If it happens in just a copy, then other copies are unaffected. You can interact with characters in the novel, and if those characters are not "on-screen" in the novel, you can do anything you want. Since Jane Eyre is told in first person, Next has to avoid her when she's in the novel. But she can interact with Rochester as much as she wants, as long as Rochester is not interacting with Jane. It's a fascinating concept and Fforde presents it all very well. The world is different from ours in many other ways, too. The Crimean War between Britain and Tsarist Russia has been going on for 150 years with no end in sight (though there have been negotiations). It is implied that the French Revolution is fairly recent as well. The only fault in this world, and it really is minor considering how illogical the world is anyway, is that some of the history doesn't fit together. If the Crimean War is still going on and the French Revolution is recent, there is no way there should have been a big war with a Nazi Germany. The conditions that created Nazi Germany would probably not have existed in this type of world. Thankfully, this is just mentioned in passing before Fforde continues with his narrative. I loved everything about this book, though. I laughed at some of the absurdities (like the Baconians and the ongoing debate about Shakespeare's plays, which gets "solved" in a unique way that avoids treading on any of the real theories that are out there). The characters are just good enough to drive the narrative forward and present this wonderful world that Fforde has created. They do what they have to do. Fforde's writing is marvelous and his use of language is really impressive. When he writes scenes that take place in famous works of literature, they don't feel out of place. He's succeeded in writing an extremely literary novel that doesn't necessarily take itself too seriously. He has fun, and so will you. Check it out today. David Roy
Rating:
Summary: Jane Eyre with a twist
Review: Imagine a world where, instead of sports and movie stars, Shakespeare is IT. Dickens is the thing. Christopher Marlowe has practically his own cult, complete with door to door "salesmen."
where people travel by dirgible, and participate in Richard the III like they do with Rocky Horror. Time is all an iffy thing, too. Barely explainable and understandable, especially in this book. Then add Agent Tuesday on top---its a pretty interesting fantasy scenario. Not a grabber, but keeps us going along.
The Jane Eyre part was pretty interesting, and there was a subtle humor to the story. I still would've liked to know, then, if Hades couldn't die with bullets, ...Recommended.
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