I know that I am very late coming to Fforde’s Thursday Next books – but I have finally read the first one!
Thursday lives in an alternative England (namely Swindon) where there are skirmishes on the borders with the Socialist Republic of Wales, the Crimean War has never ended, people can move in and out of novels and backwards & forwards through time, and Jane Eyre has a totally different ending.
Someone has stolen the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and Thursday has been drafted in to help track down the chief culprit, Acheron Hades – a criminal mastermind who is a former tutor of Thursday’s, with her being one of only a handful that know what he looks like.
There are some fantastic ideas and scenes in the book that literally had me giggling to myself, or wishing that *I* could transport into the story myself – for example, I would LOVE to attend the rather boisterous and raucous version of Richard III that is put on by a Swindon theatre, that has run for many years and sounds a bit like The Rocky Horror Show at The Prince Charles Cinema!
Fforde has really let his imagination run wild, with timeholes, real bookworms, amusing names (like Braxton Hicks) – however, as this is the first of a series, there are a lot of building blocks, which mans that there were some ideas which didn’t really feel fully explored. But I can forgive this small misdemeanour as the story is action-packed, intelligent, extremely funny and rather addictive!
My London Life In Reviews 
So glad you enjoyed this – one of my favourite series. Yes the ideas are developed more and you will continue to giggle. Part of me wishes I hadn’t read them all so I could go round again, but knowing the plotline means a second read would not be as fun *sigh*
After I wrote this I went away and checked and find that since I finished what felt like the last book (No 4) there have been two new books so at some point I will be fitting books 5 & 6 into my schedule …
I’ve read the first Nursery Crime one too – The Big Over Easy, about Humpty Dumpty – and enjoyed that too.
hopeeternal !
I’ve read The Big Over Easy too https://normalinlondon.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/the-big-over-easy-jasper-fforde/
But my absolute favourite of the three ‘firsts’ is definitely https://normalinlondon.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/shades-of-grey-jasper-fforde/ which was fabulous!!!
I found Fforde some years ago via Esther and I just zoomed through them all. This book made me even read Jane Austen, to know how the ‘proper’ Jane Eyre book went – well, let’s say I read the Austen one diagonally 😀
The last one, ‘One of our Thursdays is missing’, I now have on Kindle, you can’t find any decently priced English books here…
http://valentinasomon.wordpress.com/ HEY, I ve Been Reading your blog! And I INVITE YOU to know my ! I just a normal girl too… HOPE you like it