An instant New York Times bestsellerThe latest standalone novel from Jasper Fforde, the bestselling author the Thursday Next series and the forthcoming standalone The Constant RabbitEvery Winter, the human population hibernates.During those bitterly cold four months, the nation is a snow-draped landscape of desolate loneliness, devoid of human activity.Well, not quite.Your name is Charlie … desolate loneliness, devoid of human activity.
Well, not quite.
Your name is Charlie Worthing and it’s your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses.
You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artefact born of the sleeping mind.
When the dreams start to kill people, it’s unsettling.
When you get the dreams too, it’s weird.
When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.
But teasing truth from the Winter is never easy: You have to avoid the Villains and their penchant for murder, kidnapping and stamp collecting; ensure you aren’t eaten by Nightwalkers, whose thirst for human flesh can only be satisfied by comfort food; and sidestep the increasingly less-than-mythical WinterVolk.
But so long as you remember to wrap up warmly, you’ll be fine.
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Jasper Fforde, author of the popular Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series employs his signature wit and creativity in the new standalone novel, Early Riser. This fantastical story presents an alternate reality in which people hibernate during the winter every year. In order to ensure survival during this time, they prepare by adding weight and taking medications to make sure they do not regain consciousness too early. A small number of individuals are selected to remain awake to keep things running smoothly and protect the sleepers from the many strange creatures that might prey on them. The biggest threat is from those who wake too early and are caught between states- the Nightwalkers that transform into cannibalistic zombies. The narrator of Fforde’s imaginative story is Charlie, a young man embarking on his first waking winter season. He is serendipitously recruited to enter a special fast-track management program due to his excellent memory and rash willingness to risk almost certain death. Charlie is a witty character, a real “fish out of water” who bumbles his way into an awkward adventure. He tries to cope after he is stranded in a remote district that is subject to extreme weather and assaults by creatures thought only to exist in myth. In trying to learn his way, follow his conscience and simply survive, Charlie uncovers a secret conspiracy that could endanger the world and enslave many of its people. He unwillingly becomes the expected hero and his efforts and reflections are hilariously unspooled by Fforde’s great writing. Early Riser is at times confusing and rambling, but always entertaining and engaging. A truly unique story with endearing characters, Fforde’s new offering provides a fun ride that will thrill fantasy fans from start to finish.
I’ve been reading Jasper Fforde’s books for over a decade. He’s a British writer who deserves a genre all of his own. He writes surreal stories set in worlds that are very like ours but oh so different. Stories where books are so real and dangerous that they need ‘literary detectives’ to go inside them and protect the plots. Stories with evil and pervasive corporations who are frighteningly similar to ones around us today, and worlds where rabbits are as big as humans and can talk. He is an incredible writer, and reading one of his books is like taking a magical mystery tour.
‘Early Riser’ follows the story of Charlie Worthing, who has just won a job as a Winter Consul, someone who stays awake during winter, as the rest of the world hibernates, to make sure all is well. It’s a tough job, made even more dangerous by the weather, and the fact that people’s dreams seem to be killing them. It’s a brilliant introduction to Jasper Fforde’s writing, style and humour and I thought it was fabulous. I am aware that his books may be Marmite, but I bloody love them and I’d love you to give them a go too.
Jasper Fforde creates believable words and this one is no exception. In this case a world where the human race (or an evolved variant of) has to hibernate through winters focusing on an out of his depth protagonist stranded in Wales. One to re-read because I know I missed things the first time, or only spotted them halfway through and want to go back and see if there were earlier mentions.
Early Riser is my first encounter with genre-smashing Jasper Fforde and it will not be my last. I enjoyed this whimsical mash-up of wintry dystopia, fairytale dreamscape, and zombiepocalypse. The intelligent if rather hapless hero bumbling his way through was a charming protagonist I rooted for despite smacking my head against the pages many times in laughter. For me, having a clueless newbie barely surviving a dangerous job by dumb luck- and know it- made for fun reading and surprising twists. If you are looking for something truly different to read and don’t mind spending a couple of chapters getting immersed in a world icily different from ours, I thoroughly recommend this book.
This story was not at all what I expected and very difficult to try to describe, which I should be used to by now with Jasper Fforde! It’s about an earth that is so overcome with harsh winters that its citizens mostly have to bulk up in the fall and hibernate to survive. The story centers around Charlie Worthing, a novice Consul, one of the brave ‘overwinterers’ who stay awake during the harsh winter to keep things running smoothly and protect the hibernating population and the early risers who, for some reason or other, can’t sleep through the winter. The story was so odd that I had to push through the first few chapters, but kept reading, knowing that things are rarely as they seem in one of Fforde’s stories. I’m glad I did. I became engrossed in the story and delighted and surprised at the unpredictable ending. I also enjoyed the pop culture references and similarities of some of the places and policies in the world of the story to our world.
Jasper Fforde does an amazing thing in his books and this one is no exception. He takes a premise and makes it real… in this case the premise is the people of this world hibernate as a protection from the deepest cold and weather of the winter. The reason this is so amazing is because in the worlds he creates, they all have a sense of reality to them, a heady mixture of absolute truth and ridiculousness that we all often experience in our own lives, yet tweaked to be fantastically unreal and yet completely believable at the same time. His characters have souls, his worlds have souls, his story has a soul. I can only imagine then, not having met the man myself, but having read most of his books, following him on Instagram (yes, I’m somewhat of a stalker of sorts, unapologetically however) that Jasper Fforde must have an excess of soul as well. I can’t recommend this story enough.