I loved this 2nd in the series, even better than the first!

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2009/12/l... ( )

This book manages to be not quite as engaging as The Eyre Affair but still very enjoyable. Perhaps it's simply that it no longer concentrates on one of my favourite books. Perhaps it's the fact that really it's not even a whole book in itself: when you get to the end you know you'll have to read the next book(s) to find out what happens. I suspect a bit of both, plus just the fact the whole idea is no longer as new and as fresh. Still fun. ( )

After her husband's eradication, Thursday Next decides to take up an apprenticeship with Ms. Havisham (from Great Expectations) and live in an unpublished novel in the Well of Lost Plots until she gives birth. As she learns the ropes of Jurisfiction duty, she discovers that someone is trying to kill her, that a icky pink substance is going to destroy the (real) world in a month's time, the book she's currently living in will most likely be torn apart for scrap if it doesn't get more interesting, and the only way to uneradicate her husband is to get a war-mongering corporate lackey out of the prison she made for him inside a copy of Poe's "The Raven."

After introducing the world of Thursday Next in the first book, Fforde decided to create an even more fantastical and unbelievable world in the sequel. With the Goliath Corporation and the head of the Swendon SpecOps after her for the incidents of the first book, she moves to the fictional world of an unpublished mystery novel to figure out her next moves. It's a good build on the second novel, but doesn't have that spark of newness that made the first one so fantastic. With the addition of a cast of literary characters from classic (and not-so-classic) works, there's enough intrigue to go around and the end-of-the-world scenario brought to her by her time traveling father just makes it that much more over the top (in a good way). ( )

This makes MUCH more sense after reading [book: The Eyre Affair].A quick, fun read. Couldn't put it down! ( )

Reviewed by Mrs. Foley
From library catalog - Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection in a time-altered Great Britain in which messing with the classics is a punishable offense, sets out to find out who drowned her husband of a month thirty-eight years ago while interacting with classic literature.

I just love Jasper Fforde's books. You really have to be able to let go of reality as you will be traveling in and out of books and living in a world were dodos and neanderthals have been reactualized. But the literary references he makes and the way he parodies government, etc. are just wonderful. Read "The Eyre Affair" first and then the entire series if you want! ( )