Lost in a Good Book: A Thursday Next Novel

Rating:
Summary: These books just keep getting better and better
Review: With Lost in a Good Book author Jasper Fforde takes his charecter Thursday next into the world of fiction helped along by various charecters from Charles Dickens and Alice in Wonderland. It is at this point that the serise proves just how fun it can be. Once you realize how good the plots are plus the knowledge that with fiction as his backdrop Fforde can never run out of ideas there is nowhere to go from here but up. Each book in the serise gets better. Even if you don't like the general plot occassionally Thursdays crazy family will make an appearence and you cannot help but love them.

Overall-Wonderful book, my favorite in the serise in fact

Rating:
Summary: Ffantastic Ffun
Review: Someone gave me Lost/Book and I jumped into it without having read the first in the series. I have to agree with all the reviewers who rate this segment 4 or 5 stars. Part of the fun is seeing favorite characters in new settings and situations. Miss Haversham, usually interpreted as a psychological disaster, is a delight in Lost. The wit, the puns, the rapid pace all combine to make this reading a whirlwind experience. Thursday's stream of consciousness narration is entertaining, a sort of Bridget Jones on speed. Not the smoothest or most elegant of plot presentations, but exhilarating. Now to catch up on The Eyre Affair.

Rating:
Summary: More Fun from Fforde
Review: Thank you Mr. Fforde! Finally I have a whole series of intelligent, engaging books to look forward to.

I read The Eyre Affair early last year not realizing it was the first in a series. I devoured it and was sorry when it was over. This summer I was browsing in my favorite book store and low and behold...more Thursday Next! I was DELIGHTED!

Lost in a Good Book easily lives up to The Eyre Affair. Thursday continues to fight the injustices of the evil Goliath Company, who eradicates her husband but leaves her memories of him (and their unborn child) intact. Oh, and she saves the world from total destruction by pink goo.

Fforde's wit and play on words is fantastic and laugh-out-loud funny. I hope the series lasts until Thursday's grandchildren insist she retire into a good book of her choice.

Rating:
Summary: Welcome to Jurisfiction
Review: In this follow up to "The Eyre Affair", Jasper Fforde proves that he's no flash in the pan, his witty prose continuing to add sparkle to a delightful storyline. The names of his characters are again imaginative and amusing, and his concept brilliant.

We rejoin our reluctant heroine Thursday Next, as she opposes the Goliath Corporation in a quest to restore her husband, who has been maliciously erased from the pages of history.

Just to make it more challenging, she's pregnant, and with this new turn of events she isn't sure who the father is. The rent is also due, and she has to contemplate doing a moonlight stake-out to make ends meet.

"Simple" you say - but nothing's simple in Jasper Fforde's world. A multitude of strange, possibly deadly coincidences, the discovery of a new play by Shakespeare, and the little secret that the world is going to end in a sea of pink goo in a few days makes things a bit more complicated.

"Is that all?" you ask - Nope, she's also supposed to learn how to bookjump with the Jurisfiction group, with training from the feisty Miss Havisham of Great Expectations, and venture without permission into Poe's dangerous classic poem "The Raven" to retrieve a well-lodged Schitt. She also has to battle an enemy even worse than Acheron Hades, while at the same time appearing as a defendant in a SO-1 hearing and attend a trial within a literary classic.

It's all in a day's work for our Gal Thursday, even though she's now hearing voices in her head, but this time she's got to get lost for a while until the heat dies down, and we look forward to Mr. Fforde digging her out and dusting her off in the next episode.

Amanda Richards, September 22, 2004


Rating:
Summary: Review for the unabridged CD version:
Review: I am a landscaper and I love to listen to audio books while I work. I have listened to some utter trash to entertain me through the day, so it is always a real pleasure to find an unabridged audiobook of such high quality.

The narrator, Elizabeth Sastre, has the perfect light British accent to narrate Thursday and her cohorts, so much so that when I read the book on paper, I hear her voice and accent in my head. Her reading is unobtrusive and adds so much to the book.

This, the second Thursday adventure, is every bit as fun as the first.

The unabridged CD version runs for 11.5 hours and is on 10 CDs, and is excellent quality. My only gripe is with the CD holder inside the box - it is floppy and difficult to get the CDs out of, and I would much rather a different style of case was used for the next one. However, once you get the CDs out, this is sure to be one of the best listening experiences you will find.