Rating: 
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.
Rating: 
Summary: This next Next book gets ponderous
Review: It's rare that a new author can build a franchise immediately, but this is exactly what Japser Fforde has been able to do with his Thursday Next book adventures. But is he able to pull off the trifecta with his third in the series, "The Well of Lost Plots"?Not many authors are able to boast a wholly original idea and create a unique world out of it; Fforde has. Readers follow his heroine Thursday Next not only in her books, but into books themselves. In "WOLP," we find her pregnant and hiding away from the Microsoft-like Goliath Corporation, a monolithic, über-corporation none too happy with how she foiled their latest attempt at world domination in the previous book, "Lost in a Good Book." With the ability to actually jump into the storyline of a novel, Thursday has stolen into an unpublished, hackneyed, detective potboiler. There she expects to have her baby in peace, even as she fights to remember the husband the Goliath Corporation erased from the timestream. But all is not well in the Well of Lost Plots inside the Great Library, the repository of all books ever written. Her hideout book is threatened with being dismantled and sold for scrap ideas. As she tries to become a Jurisfiction agent (charged with keeping storylines pure), she watches her future colleagues--themselves characters from various novels (including "Great Expectations" and "Alice in Wonderland")--killed off one by one. And to top it all off, her memories are being erased by supervillain Aornis Hades, the Minotaur goes on a rampage, and the upcoming upgrade to UltraWord (a new way of improving the book-reading experience) may instead destroy the book world. Toss in two housemates struggling with going from generic characters to fully realized, starring roles in their own novel, and Thursday finds her peaceful escape coming apart at the binding. For fans of the Next novels ("The Eyre Affair" is the first in the series), coming back to Thursday's adventures is a breath of fresh air in a formulaic marketplace. And yes, another book will come after "WOLP." But this third book has some problems that make it less enjoyable than the previous two--problems that will hopefully be rectified by the fourth novel. Like so many novels today, it is too long by almost twenty percent, yet the battle against Aornis Hades ends abruptly and with few details. But perhaps most hurtful of all, Fforde's clever world within books has become overrun with too many characters. This makes it hard to keep track of who's who. And the author's attempts to further develop his world leaves readers with almost TOO much detail. Like many books that do this, the flow of reading is interrupted while the reader scurries back to previous novels in the series or to an earlier chapter to doublecheck info. Lastly, "WOLP" takes far too long developing its complex storyline. A third of the way in and virtually nothing has happened. This makes "WOLP" more tedious reading than the earlier books. Jasper Fforde has conjured up an enjoyable sci-fi/fantasy series that takes us into the world of books like no other before it. Its wacky vision makes it noteworthy. But let's hope that in the next Next book will have more story, better writing, and a whole lot less of everything else or else readers are going to need a shelf of reference books dedicated to the series in order to follow it.
Rating:
Summary: Lost plot?
Review: Jasper Fforde is as clever as ever in further developing Thursday's world, but for much of this book things feel seriously off track. The plot meanders and there were several times that I came dangerously close to putting this book down and not picking it up again. Instead of being sucked into Thursday's story I was content to pay the occasional visit and enjoy Fforde's latest clever concoction, but I never felt the compelling need to pick the book up and see what happened next. I wound up returning this book late to the library _ evidence enough that WOLP lacked the can't-put-it-down quality of the previous two outings.
Rating:
Summary: Person I'd currently most like to lunch with
Review: Jasper Fforde is currently the person I'd most like to have lunch with -- that is, if there's any chance he's as funny, erudite, and entertaining as his novels. The action is a bit slower in The Well of Lost Plots than in the previous two Thursday Next novels, but Fforde makes up for this with creative detail and sly wit. I love the Star Wars reminiscent pub scene which brings many of my favorite frightening literary creatures to life-- all in one place. A slight aside -- what's up with the U.S. edition's cover? I was given a U.K edition of the novel, which has a bold, colorful, and graphically interesting cover. The U.S. cover makes the book look like a high-end romance novel.
Rating: 
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
Rating:
Summary: delightful satirical fantasy
Review: Literary detective Thursday Next requests R&R not to recover from assignments like saving the ending of Jane Eyre, but suffers from morning sickness having become pregnant by a dead Crimean War veteran. Thursday applies for a vacation assignment in the Character Exchange Program, which is approved. She travels to THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS, the sub-basements beneath the Great Library. There she will replace Mary Jones, a detective's Friday in the unpublished police procedural Caversham Heights. Thursday feels she has a quest when she learns how much plot and character selling goes on in the black market beneath the Great Library. While she tries to do the right thing and assist her Noir-like partner without landing in the Text Sea, UltraWord is launched as the "Last Word" in Story Operating Systems. Here in the subterranean world of terrible plotting, pathetic characters, and stolen dreams, the idealistic Thursday realizes that the book world and its anti-matter opponents are as ruthless as the recycled protagonists sold on the black market. Although not for everybody, the third Thursday Next tale is a delightful satirical fantasy that tears into anything and everything. The story line is the usual bewildering confusion that is so much fun to follow. The side plots add irony as wrong turns might be sold on the literary black market. Jasper Fforde is at his lampooning best as nothing is sacred for readers who appreciate sharp slapstick syntax-slaughtering stories snd will want to get LOST IN A GOOD BOOK. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Next!
Review: Nextian devotees undoubtedly appreciate Jasper Fforde's playful use of the English language; leave it to a Brit to give us a good linguistic chuckle. The Well of Lost Plots is no different in this regard and is, perhaps, a device used even more so in Book Three. The word play that provides much of the novel's banter is quite clever (note how many times Fforde gets away with using the word "that" consecutively in a single sentence), and the author's choice of characters and plot devices exposes his devotion to stodgy British literature as delightfully campy (even if you hated Anna Karenina the first time around, it may appeal when the reader gets to eavesdrop on the story, recounted as a phone conversation rife with gossip, pushed into the margins of the novel's footnotes). Alas, so much of the book is clever that the story never gets beyond its own wit. The sharp tongue of the story's heroine (and the sharp wit of its author) have iced us a rich cake in the first two novels, wheras all we're left with this time around is the icing. As such, the third installment of the Thursday Next series does not measure up to its predecessors. Of course, any fan of the Fforde series will want to read this Next story (pun intended), but there is an unfortunate and unintended irony to the title in that the story is itself a lost plot. The world-not-unlike-our-own circa 1985 that Fforde has been painting for us made The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book novels that readers would devour with all the voracity of the latest Harry Potter, whereas The Well of Lost Plots abandons said world for that of Jurisfiction and the meta-realities of the written word. While Jurisfiction provided the backdrop for much of the story's wit up until now, it is the primary setting of Thursday's adventures here and readers may find themselves sorely missing Thursday's Swindon - the one populated with genetically re-issued species and airships and Rocky Horror-esque productions of Richard III. Instead we are lamming it with Thursday as she explores a crossroads of fiction, primarily British, in which characters are mysteriously dying. Characters, I might add, that are simply re-created upon their deaths (not quite like their former selves, but the possibility of replacement certainly diminishes the stakes inherent within the very basic instinct of survival). The rules of this new environment aren't terribly clear and the motives of its inhabitants confusing if not absent (they are, after all, fictional characters and seem to have a kind of reprogrammed id). Again, fans won't want to miss this one, and if you've read this far you may as well press on (the promise of returning to Thursday's old life in which she clashes with Goliath, that corporate monstrosity we love to hate, holds for future novels), but don't expect the calibur of previous installments. Rather, enjoy this for what it is: clever.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious tour through the Well
Review: Spec Ops agent Thursday Next, still pregnant and husbandless, is taking a well-deserved respite from her adventures in "Lost in a Good Book" by participating in the Character Exchange Program in the Well of Lost Plots. She takes up residence in a poorly written detective novel and gets an in-depth look at the operations of the Well, where all books are created and maintained. She also becomes an apprentice in the Jurisfiction Department. But its agents are being exterminated one by one, and Thursday fears she is next. Having described Thursday's alternate universe and the activities of Spec Ops in past books, Fforde now turns to an in-depth look at the mechanics of book construction. He takes us on a tour of the Well, leading us through the footnoterphone conduits, past the Text Sea where obsolete books are demolished and their letters recycled, and along the bustling streets where books are born. He introduces us to the tradesmen who support book creation, such as the chapter ending specialists, plot device, action sequence, and backstory vendors, holesmiths, and moodmongers. He describes the education of generic characters. He cautions of the dangers of grammasites and the mispeling vyrus. He lets us view the storycode engines and demonstrates the latest version of the Book Operating System, called UltraWord, which looks suspiciously like a familiar PC operating system. He invites us to the 923rd Annual BookWorld Awards, with such unusual categories as "Best Dead Person in Fiction Award" and "Most Used English Word Award." Fforde has a wicked sense of humor and an incredible gift for spoofing and word play. Clever literary allusions abound. Although it is not necessary for readers to be knowledgeable about literature, the more they are conversant with the classics the more they will appreciate the witticism here. While performing her apprenticeship duties, Thursday jumps into such books as Wuthering Heights, Alice in Wonderland, Sense and Sensibility, and Shadow the Sheepdog. She meets a wide range of literary characters, including Sir John Falstaff, Humpty Dumpty, the Minotaur, Mr. Toad, Miss Haversham, the Cheshire Cat, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. This American edition contains a bonus chapter, not included in the original British edition, where a WordStorm rages through BookWorld and threatens to wreak havoc in some treasured classics of literature. This brilliantly written book is a joy to read, although the plot is more convoluted than those of its predecessors. The reason I did not give it 5 stars is because the story line that was left hanging in the previous volume in the series has still not been resolved. Instead, this book appears to be setting the stage for the next one by providing the background of BookWorld and the Well. Since the next book will be not be published until March of 2005, it will be a long wait! I do recommend this creative and entertaining book to those who have read the previous books in the series. Eileen Rieback
Rating:
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: The Third Thursday next adventure
Review: This series of books just seems to get better with every new one published. It just amazes me that the author can come up with the outlandish plots that he has, not to mention the many side characters who come and go at will. It certainly helps to have a good grounding in Literature to get some of the more obscure references (such as a land with many rabbits, where one character says Lennie likes to come on his day off). One of my favorite fictional characters makes a brief appearance in this book: J. Thaddeus Toad of Toad Hall, and that alone was worth the price of the book! I look forward to many more of the adventures of Thursday Next, and may they all be as funny as the ones before!
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