Rating: 
Summary: "Anything is possible in the BookWorld."
Review: "The Well of Lost Plots," by Jasper Fforde, is the third in a series of books about literature come to life. The lead character is a young woman named Thursday Next, who has been through some harrowing adventures that culminated in the eradication of her beloved husband. She is pregnant and needs some time to regain her peace of mind. Surely, the place to relax is "The Well of Lost Plots," which consists mostly of unpublished books that will never make it into print. Thursday takes up residence in a badly written and boring crime thriller named "Caversham Heights," a book that is generally considered to be beyond repair.Alas, Thursday is unable to enjoy her newfound serenity for long. She needs to study for her Jurisfiction Entrance Exam, and it is a tough test. Jurisfiction is a policing agency that works inside books to uphold their integrity. Thursday is studying under the guidance of her strict but kind mentor, Miss Havisham. When a murderer begins to knock off members of Jurisfiction, both Thursday and Miss Havisham risk their lives to apprehend the perpetrator and bring order back to the world of reading. Fforde has created a new and imaginative world, which in some ways resembles a Harry Potter for adults. BookWorld is replete with a whole host of curiosities. For example, there are "TravelBooks" that enable Jurisfiction agents to move smoothly and quickly from one book to another, and "generics," creatures that are created with no personalities and no history, who will eventually be fleshed out so that they can become characters in books. "The Well of Lost Plots" is a bibliophile's delight, with its cunning and satirical allusions to such classic works as "Anna Karenina," "Lord Jim," "Gulliver's Travels," and "Moby Dick." Fforde is both paying homage to and making fun of these great works, and his humor and wit are a joy for anyone who loves the written word. Thursday is an amiable character and her adventures are engaging and lighthearted fun. On the downside, "The Well of Lost Plots" is too long. It slows down considerably in the middle, and I had to struggle to make my way to the end of the book. This novel would have been much more readable had the author pared the narrative down to its essentials and not padded the story with so many characters and subplots. Still, I tip my hat to Jasper Fforde for creating a delightful, inventive, and clever series.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Fforde Masterpiece!
Review: (Warning: Reading this book without having read the first two is extremely hazardous to mental health!) Thursday Next is back! Hoorah! Being in grave danger from the Hades girl and having been unsuccessful in the recovery of her eradicated husband, she has left the real world (a/k/a the Outland) to spend her gestation period in the Book World. Thanks to her position as Jurisfiction apprentice, she takes advantage of the "character exchange program" to hide out in Caversham Heights (a not-very-good, detective novel that is still under construction in the Well). Thursday mistakenly assumes that this will give her a peaceful year in which to be pregnant, have the child of a man that never existed, and decide just how to get that man's existence back. Jurisfiction (the policing agency of the fiction world) turns out to be much more exciting than anticipated, what with the Pro Catherine faction trying to kill Heathcliff, the Minotaur disappearing and something odd and dangerous going on with the new UltraWord testings--not to mention the everyday adventures of training under Miss Havisham! On top of that, she's billeting two Generics in her home, attempting to defeat a memory thief, studying for her Jurisfiction exam, having morning sickness, presenting the Bookie for "Best Chapter Opening in the English Language" and giving advice to a lady gorilla. Sure, the storyline's a bit unbelievable, there's a lot to keep up with, and I didn't always get the jokes, but all in all The Well of Lost Plots is another gem! Fforde keeps the funnies coming so fast, it's hard to breathe in between them. His Douglas Adams-esq humor, literary jokes and just darn good writing skills make this an A-1 book! But remember, you MUST read The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book before attempting this one. If you ignore this warning, it'll be like reading Macbeth for Yeast* and not at all the pleasant experience it was for me. *"///..//..///// ......///// .../ ./ .......// ..// ..// ./// ...///////"
excerpt from Macbeth for Yeast, translated by ..//// ..///..
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the first two
Review: Although this book was clever, it was not as engaging as the first two. I actually got bored -- something I could not have imagined reading the first two which I could not put down.
Rating:
Summary: Another Satisfying Thursday Next Novel
Review: Author Jasper Fforde continues to prove himself as one of the more creative, clever and original authors of our time with his third book in the Thursday Next series, The Well of Lost Plots. At the end of the last book, Thursday had escaped from the evil corporation Goliath by entering the Book World, the secret universe that exists inside books where fictional characters are more real than the Outsiders who read about them. She is hiding out in the Character Exchange Program, living inside a rather awful, unpublished detective novel. She is hoping to simply have her baby and remember her non-existent husband. (He was eradicated by Goliath.) Things seldom work out as Thursday plans, however, and she soon finds herself being drawn out of her restful existence. Things start to turn when she is asked by the characters in her book to help them save their novel from being scrapped for salvage. Then there's the dangerous would of Jurisfiction agents. She is still apprenticed to Miss Havisham, of Dickens fame, and her final exam looms. Before she can become a full agent, several other agents are murdered in a ghastly fashion, and it seems that only Thursday and Miss Havisham are willing to seek the truth. Soon, they find that they are targets as well. Will they be able to solve the murders before they end up victims? Will Thursday be able to save the book she has come to call home? And what about those cryptic prophecies from the three witches? As Thursday tries to answer those questions-and more-she journeys from book to book, everything from Sense and Sensibility to Wuthering Heights to Alice in Wonderland. In the end, though, all she really wants is to return to the real world with her life, baby, and husband...and her memory. As in his first two books, Fforde maintains a brilliantly witty tone throughout the whole story. I laughed out loud so many times I lost count. The Well of Lost Plots feels less structured than his earlier books, and actually reads more like a series of short stories that are loosely connected at best. While it's not as well-plotted as The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book, it is still a deliciously fun read, especially for fans of literature. He sprinkles his narrative with so many inside jokes that I'm sure I only caught a small fraction. He also offers up a sharp satire of the publishing world with the Grand Text Central's proposed upgrade to the suspicious UltraWord™, a system that promises to be "the ultimate reading experience" but may be something less than advertised. Jasper Fforde has proven himself once again to be a truly original fantasy writer. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The best of the three
Review: Contrary to many of the other reviews - I liked "The
Well of Lost Plots" even better than the previous
Thursday Next novels. Fforde keeps getting more and
more creative - and this novel - which takes place
almost entirely in the book world - is simply a joyous
explosion of imagination. (I think Jurisfiction would
arrest me for that sentence.)
While I read quite a bit - I cannot say that I am
well-read - yet I kept finding myself smiling or
laughing about a literary reference or character that
I recognized (and I am sure that I missed TONS more).
Fforde's description of how books are created,
revised, policed (!) and experienced by readers is
just fascinating. The only problem with this book was that while I was
reading it I kept laughing and it takes far too long
to explain to a non-reader of the book what is so
funny. (Another sentence that would get me in
trouble.) This was a GREAT book - and I can't wait for the next
one. I am THRILLED that I stumbled across this
wonderful series! (The only negative comment I have is
that the extra chapter included in the US version is
pretty useless and feels very tacked on.) Read and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: The best of the three
Review: Contrary to many of the other reviews - I liked "The
Well of Lost Plots" even better than the previous
Thursday Next novels. Fforde keeps getting more and
more creative - and this novel - which takes place
almost entirely in the book world - is simply a joyous
explosion of imagination. (I think Jurisfiction would
arrest me for that sentence.)
While I read quite a bit - I cannot say that I am
well-read - yet I kept finding myself smiling or
laughing about a literary reference or character that
I recognized (and I am sure that I missed TONS more).
Fforde's description of how books are created,
revised, policed (!) and experienced by readers is
just fascinating. The only problem with this book was that while I was
reading it I kept laughing and it takes far too long
to explain to a non-reader of the book what is so
funny. (Another sentence that would get me in
trouble.) This was a GREAT book - and I can't wait for the next
one. I am THRILLED that I stumbled across this
wonderful series! (The only negative comment I have is
that the extra chapter included in the US version is
pretty useless and feels very tacked on.) Read and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: The most amusing yet
Review: Each volume of this series is more amusing than its predecessors, and this is the best yet. Thursday Next, literary detective, is living in the manuscript of an unpublished detective novel, Caversham Heights. She becomes involved in the desperate efforts of the characters to make the book more interesting and therefore publishable, and to prevent themselves being (horror of horros) reduced to text. At the same time she is being tormented by the evil sister of her deceased archenemy Acheron Hades, who is trying to wipe out her memories. The funniest part of the book is when she is in Wuthering Heights, where the characters are beseiged by a group of outraged young Cathy supporters, determined to kill Heathcliff(an excellent idea, in my opinion). The most puzzling part of the book is where we learn that David Copperifled has murdered his first wife. Why on earth would he want to do that? She was fun, if he'd wanted to murder his dreary second wife it would make more sense. As the late Dilys Powell once said 'Every time Agnes Wickfield opens her mouth I want to slap her'Thursday's adventures are immensely enjoyable to read, except when she starts moping over her boring dissapeared husband (how I wish the tiresome man had been killed in the Crimea). The books would be more fun if Thursday was single,but they are fun anyway.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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...
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Imaginative
Review: For those who are late to Jasper Fforde's books, the quick overview is that he has created a brilliantly imaginative parallel world where Wales is a communist country, the Crimean War has been in progress for over 120 years, dodos and thylacines are household pets and it is possible for people to read their way into books. To get a better feel for his world and to appreciate this book more fully, it is strongly recommended that you read THE EYRE AFFAIR and LOST IN A GOOD BOOK first. While the first 2 books were set mainly in the real world with occasional visits into various classic novels, this one takes place almost exclusively within books and the result is a breathtaking expansion of what was already a superb creation. Thursday Next, heroine of the first two books is hiding out from the evil Goliath Corporation, among other enemies, inside The Well of Lost Plots. To be specific, she's hiding out in a dreary crime thriller called Caversham Heights where she takes over a role of Mary in the story as part of the Character Exchange Programme. The Well of Lost Plots is where all of those books that are still being written are kept, along with a wealth of plot devices, characters both good and evil who are waiting to be used and members of Jurisfiction who rule on problems within books and who generally maintain order. Thursday encounters various dangers while working as a Jurisfiction apprentice including a dangerous flock of grammasites, verbisoides in this instance, who attack and consume any stray verbs they could find. She also has terrible problems with a mispeling vyrus that threatens to reduce the story and it's characters to an unrecognisable shambles. But there is also a murderer in their midst and it's left to Thursday to work out who the murderer is and why the victims were killed. This really is an incredibly imaginative and entertaining book that expands Fforde's BookWorld to unbelievable proportions. It's left me fervently hoping that there are more Thursday Next stories still to come.
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