Jasper Fforde’s beloved New York Times bestselling novel introduces literary detective Thursday Next and her alternate reality of literature-obsessed England—from the author of The Constant RabbitFans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse will love visiting Jasper Fforde’s Great Britain, circa 1985, when time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and … resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously: it’s a bibliophile’s dream. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë’s novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde’s ingenious fantasy—enhanced by a Web site that re-creates the world of the novel—unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix.
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A complex, but hilarious read set in an alternative timeline, but which constantly pokes fun at itself. There’s a police mystery, departmental bickering, time travel without over-worthiness, several bodies and some terrific dialogue. And Tuesday Next is a heroine to follow.
Jasper Fforde is one of my favorite authors. This book starts a wobderful series. Thursday Next is a one of a kind detective.
Wonderfully unexpected romp for anyone who has lost themselves in a book!
This book may describe my perfect job goal: to be able to enter a book and meet the characters, ensuring they are following the author’s original intentions and not “on-the-loose” due to some sort of villain. How amazing would that be? Awesome kick start to this series… I read the first 4 then started to get a little disenchanted, but I’ll go back one day! All book lovers need to give this first one a chance — you’ll undoubtedly love and hate parts of it!
This is a fun and entertaining cross between fantasy, mystery thriller, and action-adventure. It is rich with literary allusions that will tease your mind.
This is one of those stories where the crazy makes it fun.
Though the book takes place in a world that a parallels our own–allowing for many, many references–it is nothing like ours. Time travel is somewhat normal, people use at-home kits to recreate extinct species, and the public treats topics of literature with the severity and extreme range of reactions that we give to topics like abortion and genetically engineered food.
The main lead, Thursday Next, has the tendency to take everything going on around her in stride and is proactive in trying to solve the story’s problems. Events happen to her about as often as she causes them to occur, which leads to a nice balance of her actions leading the story and the story shaping her actions. If I have one complaint about her, it’s that she’s a bit too confident, never second guessing her choices as a normal person would. Though, this could be considered a “normal” part of her character dynamics, as nearly all the characters in this story have something about them that make them a little odd in a pleasing way.
Overall the writing is good, though there are times when one too many convenient coincidences happens too close together, particularly within the last chapter or two as the story is wrapping up. Some characters act a bit stupid compared to normal, some conclusions are drawn from hints that are just a bit too vague, and some issues (none of them too important to the overall story) get swept aside.
I’d recommend this book to someone with an open mind willing to put up with not fully understanding what is going on, but knowing enough to follow along on the important parts. The book doesn’t baby you by explaining everything, so sometimes you have less information than you’d like, though rarely in regards to anything important–it’s the details of this story that lack the details. There are a few points that are better accepted and moved on from than seriously thought over–especially the time paradoxes. Yes. Plural. Paradoxes. While it won’t suit everyone it’s something worth trying simply because it is something very different.
If you like this one, hang on. The ride has just begun. Several sequels maintain the same high quality of wit and whimsy while skewering corporate greed and government incompetence in an alternate Britain of the 1980s and onward. Does time travel really involve the physics we’ve been led to believe? Can you really get into a good book? This is a place to find out.
Well paced, could have done with more world building, but fun characters and idea
This is the intro book to the Thursday Next series. Loved the tongue in cheek character names! It is a highly entertaining story that moves quickly and keeps you engaged throughout.
Literature leaking into the mundane everyday, and people leaking back into literary worlds. What a unique new fantastical universe!
Very unusual, but gripping once you get into it and become part of story. Original characters and style of writing as well as the setting and plot. I’m anxious to read more of this author.
Not for everyone–you need a certain amount of familiarity with literature to appreciate all the references. But if you’re fairly well-read and in the mood for something different, this is very rewarding. It’s offered here as a mystery; the library might very well classify it as science fiction, which I don’t read, as it deals with alternate reality, but it’s really in a class by itself. I couldn’t begin to describe it, except to say that the protagonist, Thursday Next, is an Operative Grade 1 for SO 27, the Literary Detective Division of the Special Operations Network centered in an alternate 1985 England, now a police state, and one in which literary crimes are taken very seriously indeed. Her latest case: someone is kidnapping literary characters from their books, and she must enters “Jane Eyre” in search of its kidnapped heroine. Not your usual mystery. Of sci-fi. Or romance. Or Gothic. Or fantasy. Or anything else.
Loved this series so much! This author’s imagination is unmatched – his characters are original and the whole series is so unique…
A change from the norm. Makes plays on literature while being an entertaining novel. The world building was unique and mystifying.
I enjoyed it. I was a literature major so this kind of book really appeals to me. Jasper Fforde is a clever writer and I look forward to reading more Thursday Next books.
My favourite book of my favourite series of all time. Thursday Next is a treasure.
This is one of my favorite books
Good story very original
I love this book and this series (this is the first book). If you are an avid reader who enjoys quirky humor and strange parallel universes, get this book and anything else by Jasper Fforde.
Great series – I highly recommend. The world is totally original. Great characters and plots. Hard to categorize: maybe detective/mystery fiction, maybe fantasy.