Lost in a Good Book (A Thursday Next Novel)
by Jason Fforde, Penguin Books, February 2004...if you are open to some fantasy mixed in with a love of classic literature this is a wonderful series.
Lost in a Good Book is the second in the Thursday Next fantasy detective series. The story picks up where The Eyre Affair 
left off - Thursday, a Literary Detective Special Ops agent, is married to Landen and expecting their first child. Sounds normal right – not a chance!! Things immediately go wrong for Thursday; she runs afoul of the Goliath Corporation, her fame from the Eyre Affair haunts her, her husband is eradicated from the time line to force her to work for Goliath Corporation, an unknown villain is trying to kill her by coincidence, and oh by the way the world is scheduled to end in five days!
Word play and puns are the norm in this author’s fiction. Some of it works well (doomed detective pairs Phodder and Kannon; Walken and Dedman) and some of it is bothersome (enough with Jack Schitt,). This series is really bonbons for literature lovers. Thursday escapes some of her pursuers by delving into works of fiction where she is recruited for the Jurisfiction team, an elite group of fictional characters who protect and maintain the integrity of all the world's books. She is apprenticed to Miss Havisham of Dickens’s Great Expectations fame, complete in tattered wedding dress and with a crotchety personality. We encounter the Red Queen, the Cat (as in Cheshire) and from the Arthurian legend King Pellinore and the Questing Beast. We attend a Kafkaesque trial and private conversations between characters are conducted in the footnotes using the footerphone.left off - Thursday, a Literary Detective Special Ops agent, is married to Landen and expecting their first child. Sounds normal right – not a chance!! Things immediately go wrong for Thursday; she runs afoul of the Goliath Corporation, her fame from the Eyre Affair haunts her, her husband is eradicated from the time line to force her to work for Goliath Corporation, an unknown villain is trying to kill her by coincidence, and oh by the way the world is scheduled to end in five days! I am sure you will not read a more ridiculous plot summary than the one I’ve just written but if you are open to some fantasy mixed in with a love of classic literature this is a wonderful series. Despite my poor plot summary these stories hold together very well. Thursday Next is an engaging heroine and Fforde’s originality and creativity is over the top. Read this series in order; it adds to the fun and titrates the fantasy in acceptable doses!
I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia
2 comments:
I love these books and have read all of them. I am hoping that FForde comes out with another one soon, but he seems to be going in a different direction with his new book, Shades of Gray. He also has the Nursery Crimes series out there, but that is only two books, I think. I haven't read them yet, but do have the first one. Wonderful review, I am glad to hear that you liked this one!
Zibilee, thanks for the comment, I have not read his other series but am sure I will as I've enjoyed these so well.
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