The Well of Lost Plots

In the real world Thursday is still being hunted by Goliath Corporation, who want to weaponize her ability to jump into books, so she takes refuge within a cheesy crime novel in the Well of Lost Plots - the place where all unpublished books live until they are published or tossed into the Text Sea. Her role in the book is minimal so she has plenty of time to continue her apprenticeship with Miss Havisham and study to become a full-fledged Jurisfiction agent. Also staying with her in the book are two Generics attending character school and her Granny Next, there to make sure Thursday doesn’t forget her temporally-erased husband or that she’s pregnant with his child. Things take a turn when the Minotaur is set free and Thursday’s show more fictional lawyer and friend Akrid Snell is trampled to death, and then Thursday’s emergency pack is sabotaged. Could someone be murdering Jurisfiction agents?

HOW, in 2003, DID JASPER FFORDE WRITE A BOOK ABOUT AI-GENERATED BOOKS???? (this is a bit of a spoiler but I can’t just not mention it!)
This is the book where the series really starts to come together. Without the distraction of Thursday’s “real world” - with its time travel, illegal cheese, and unending war in Ukraine - we can just focus on the intricacies of BookWorld, how stories are managed and constructed, and how delightful the characters are. Fforde does an impeccable job of blending real fictional characters with fictional fictional characters with archetypes so familiar you know them instantly. You don’t even have to have read Waiting for Godot,, Wuthering Heights, or Mill on the Floss to understand the story, though there are in-jokes galore if you have.
The grand finale is truly prophetic. Though Fforde was writing about the rise of ebooks at the time (which do have their faults but have not proved as devastating as predicted) he correctly extrapolated to generative AI being used to write books for readers on-demand, without the need for any creativity or human involvement. How does he do it??

I had forgotten quite how much death is in this book. Most of the characters we’ve grown to love are gone! Sure they could be replaced by Generics, but it’s never quite the same. On this readthrough I also appreciated the Generics Ibb and Obb as they grew from blank slates to develop gender and personality. show less

To avoid unwelcome attention from the Goliath Corporation and Aornis Hades, Thursday Next goes into hiding in the Well of Lost Plots, the part of the Book World where books are created before being beamed to the author's pen or keyboard. In return for this hiding place Thursday starts working for Jurisfiction, the Book World's police force, under the tutelage of Miss Havisham.

Although I shall resist the temptation to run out and buy Enid Blyton's "Shadow the Sheepdog", I suspect I might have to check up and see whether the anger management courses have improved life at Wuthering Heights and how accurate the gossiping Russians are about the goings-on in Anna Karenina.

Thursday Next retreats into the Well of Lost Plots to avoid getting into more trouble with Goliath and the Chronoguard in the real world. With a baby on the way and her husband Landen erased from everyone’s memory but hers, she wants to stay safe, and the best way to do that is to take up residence in a failing detective novel. Unfortunately, trouble finds Thursday even when she’s hiding, as she must battle the new book upgrade, save the novel she has moved into, and figure out why Jurisfiction agents are being murdered.

As with the other books I’ve read by Jasper Fforde, this one is a treat. My favorite part is unquestionably the many literary references sprinkled throughout the text. We visit Alice In Wonderland, Great show more Expectations, Wuthering Heights, and several other literary destinations as well as hints. For example, Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows has a never-ending battle with Miss Haversham to see who can drive the fastest. During a meeting, everyone present remarks constantly that they are waiting for Godot. Humpty Dumpty and his nursery rhyme cohorts need to be satisfied; their stories aren’t always written down and they want equal rights with book characters. I think it’s those sneaky hints and literary connections that make these books great.

I did wonder a little bit why Thursday wasn’t gung ho about finding Landen. She has to battle her own memories to keep him alive and that certainly means a lot to her, but she uses the excuse of the baby to stop going out into the real world. Of course, she’s in plenty of danger in the Well of Lost Plots, too, but I guess gigantic monsters aren’t as scary as the Goliath corporation. You could also say that one is expected and one is not, but, well, I’m nitpicky. ;)

Anyway, after reading this I feel I have definitely gotten back into the Thursday Next groove. This was a library book and I actually own book 4, but it’s at my parents’. So it’ll be at least July or so until I can read the next one, but I’m really looking forward to it.

http://chikune.com/blog/?p=971 show less

Another very convoluted and fun novel from the files of Thursday Next. I’m reading them backwards so it’s even weirder. This one is at the point where Thursday just catches pregnant and Landon just disappeared. She’s apparently been through some other things with Goliath corporation that caused her to leave Spec. Ops. and hide out in the book world. I forget how she knows/learns how to do this, but she decides to do a character exchange with some minor figure in an obscure novel. It’s here that she’s recruited to Juris Fiction and begins her internship with Miss Haversham.
In the end, Thursday unravels the true plot of the TGC to take over the book world and defeats them. This is the book where the Minotaur gets released and show more causes the death of another Juris Fiction agent.

It’s not great literature, but it is great fun. His imagination knows no bounds and I love going to the world he’s created. show less

This episode in the Thursday Next series finds Thursday in the Well of Lost Plots as an apprentice JurisFiction agent under Miss Havisham. Thursday's husband, Landen Parke-Laine, is still eradicated, and Thursday needs a retreat from the Outland as she prepares for single motherhood (unless she can succeed in having Landen uneradicated). Thursday has to contend with Aornis Hades' attempts to erase her memories of Landen. The BookWorld is preparing for the launch of UltraWord, but this new book technology seems to have some hidden features that will change literature, and not in a good way. As agents begin to die under suspicious circumstances, it appears that someone is willing to murder in order to ensure UltraWord's success.

I was show more slightly disappointed with the second book in the series, so I was happy that this one is as good, if not better than, The Eyre Affair. I love all the silliness and literary jokes and puns. The discussion of the “had had and that that problem” is as funny as the classic “Who's on first?” routine. Reader Elizabeth Sastre's delivery couldn't have been better. Then there is the BookWorld award ceremony with categories like “Most Troubled Romantic Lead (Male)”. I read the first Nursery Crimes book, The Big Over Easy, last year, and I was surprised and delighted to discover that it's connected to this book. I love the world that Fforde has created and I'm always a little sad to leave it. show less

After what is (according to Goodreads) my 3rd reading of this book, I'm pretty sure it is actually my favourite of the series. Thursday takes refuge in the Well of Lost Plots, which is sort of hard to explain but it's where fiction goes to be born and to die. She interacts with Generics--fictional characters under development--and Jurisfiction agents both human and fictional. Her personal priority is to remove a mindworm that is causing her to forget her eradicated husband, and her professional mission is to find out what is wrong with UltraWord, the new fiction reading system, and solve several high-profile murders. As usual, Fforde tells this story with absurd imagination and a healthy dose of social commentary. I believe this rounds show more out the initial trilogy quite nicely--my memory is that the series sort of declines a bit in subsequent volumes, but that might just be Aornis Hades, messing with my mind. show less

I'm revisiting the Thursday Next series and struck by how Fforde can keep at least five plots going simultaneously, interweaving them, and somehow bringing them all together at the end. First there's Thursday's apprenticeship with Miss Havisham at Jurisfiction and getting caught up in the Ultraword conspiracy. Then there's Aornis Hades, and Granny Next's efforts to help Thursday remember Landen. Then there's the plot within the book Caversham Heights where Thursday gradually reshapes a derivative detective novel into the setting for Fforde's Nursery Crime novels. And then there's the the hysterical evolution of the generic characters Lola and Randolph. There are no plots lost here. I was delighted to read this book again (in Emily show more Gray's voice) and surprised to look back at my original review when I didn't think too highly of this installment in the series. show less