General | Lost in a Good Book

The Well of Lost Plots (#3) by Jasper Fforde

01 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General, Science Fiction, Thursday Next Series Tags: fantasy, five stars, jasper fforde, science fiction, speculative fiction, thursday next

Published: January 19th 2004
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 360
Format: Book
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Pursued by a sinister multinational corporation and an evil genius with a penchant for clothes shopping and memory modification, literary detective Thursday Next is on the run. Not an ideal situation considering she is pregnant by her husband who is presently suffering a non-existence problem.

Taking refuge in the Well of Lost plots – the place where all fiction is created – Thursday ponders her next move from inside an unpublished novel of dubious merit entitled Caversham Heights. But in Thursday’s world, trouble is only ever a page away, and when a succession of Jurisfiction agents are killed, only one woman is up to the job of unmasking the villain responsible.

Will Thursday ever be able to enjoy the quiet life again, or is she about the lose the plot completely.

Inside the Book World, the Well of Lost Plots is where fiction is created. Not only the ideas, but the unpublished, rejected and snippets of stories that have ever been thought of. It is wonderful place, and it is here that we find Thursday Next, hiding within an unpublished Caversham Heights. So welcome to February, and welcome to book number three in the Thursday Next series!

We left book number two with Thursday’s great idea, and this has led her back into the world of literature. Hiding within a novel does not mean a time of rest as Thursday must play her part in the novel as cover, accompanied and with the help of her partner DCI Jack Spratt. As we follow Thursday’s story we learn more about The Great Library and the ins and outs of the Book World we know, but we also get to see the workings of The Well. Inside The Well is where the unpublished books, characters and stories exist, ever hoping to one day be published. The Well has been mentioned in previous books as part of the many sub-levels but this is the first time we get to really see what it is like.

As the narrative explores Thursday’s time down in The Well, Miss Havisham returns and continues Thursday’s training to become an agent. Woven into all the other plots and drama we follow them as they venture around the world solving everyone’s dilemmas, with Miss Havisham being delightfully fun to read about as per usual. Along with Miss Havisham there are many people I adore in this book but Granny Next is definitely a strong favourite. She joins Thursday in the Book World to help her cope, and help her remember what she needs to remember. With Granny Next we are given parts to her story as well, something I find amusing because I am sure it is offending someone in the world somewhere. Personally, I think the moments with Granny Next and Thursday are the best moments to read about in the grand scheme of things, but there is so much going on and so many funny moments you can’t truly pick one. Though Humpty’s drama gets a special mention because I was so pleased with myself when I understood something it made me feel rather special.

What I think is the most enjoyable aspects are the ongoing narratives through this series. Of course there as probably hundreds of little things that make it wonderful as well, but the underlying story that has structure and consistency makes it that much greater. Naturally there are things that are raised and solved within each book, but by having the same stories, the same issues, and the same people pop up as the books in the background throughout gives an added sense to the real world feeling. Things take time, and ongoing political and global issues are going to still be there no matter what is happening that week, month or year. So by having these issues from past books return, along with new faces, old faces, bureaucratic issues and just plain old murder (which is never as plain as it appears), Jasper is giving us everything we would ever need to create a simply beautiful and spectacular book to read that makes life that little bit more interesting.

I’ve just about given up trying to list all the books Fforde mentions, whether in passing or as a major contributor, so I won’t. Just know there is something for everyone. We also see a greater connection to Jasper’s other series The Nursery Crimes in Lost Plots too. Something that will, naturally, make you want to read them as soon as possible as well. The footnoterphone returns which is always a fun experience, there are grammasites, the mispeling vyrus, and BOOK V8.3 is getting an upgrade. There is also the glam affair of the 923rd Annual Fiction Awards, a mysterious trial, and a lot of waiting! There really is no end to the excitement. The Well of Lost Plots does progress Thursday’s story, but it also spends a lot of the time expanding our view of the Book World rather than the real one. We gain more understanding of how detailed and intricate this world really is, and just how simply reading a book can cause all sorts of emotional, physical and bureaucratical stress. You will never look at books the same way after this novel, I promise you.

Lost in a Good Book (#2) by Jasper Fforde

31 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General, Science Fiction, Thursday Next Series Tags: fantasy, five stars, jasper fforde, science fiction, speculative fiction, thursday next

Published: July 18th 2002
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 372
Format: Book
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Thursday Next, literary detective and registered dodo owner begins her married life with the disturbing news that her husband of only a month drowned thirty-eight years ago, and no one but Thursday has any memory of him at all. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. Could it be the ubiquitous Goliath Corporation, who will stop at nothing to get their operative Jack Schitt out of ‘The Raven’ — the poem in which Thursday trapped him? Or are more sinister forces at work in Swindon?

Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday heads back into fiction to search for some answers. Along the way she finds herself helping Miss Havisham close narrative loopholes in Great Expectations, struggling for a deeper understanding of The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies and learning the truth about Larry the Lamb. Paper politicians, lost Shakespearean manuscripts, woolly mammoth migrations, a flurry of near-fatal coincidences and impending Armageddon are all part of a greater plan.

But whose? And why?

Time for another rave about the Thursday Next series. I am very much and a little cross with myself for not reviewing this when I finished it last year because I have lost that feeling and recall of exactly what happens and how I felt. Of course I remember a lot, not all of which I’ll tell you because it spoils the glory, but it is the little things and funny lines that make you laugh. So maybe when one has time for a reread I may find more but for now this will suffice. Lost in a Good Book takes place three months after The Eyre Affair fiasco and Thursday has become a celebrity of sorts, though slightly out of favour with the Bronte Federation, with good reason. Naturally Goliath Corp attempt to censor a lot of Thursday’s story and with a determination to repair the damage Thursday caused at the end of The Eyre Affair, they fight to get back what they want; but this time it’s personal on a whole new level. The consequences of the previous book’s actions are a strong narrative puller, but there is a lot more going on as well.

Issues around Shakespeare return in book two with a discovered lost transcript being investigated. As the best in the business regarding these matters, Thursday and her partner Bowden Cable try and determine if this really is the lost copy of the play Cardenio. This of course is connected to bigger and better things, as everything always is.

Thursday’s father makes another appearance in this book which is always fun. I do like him, you never know what is going to happen when he pops in. It messes with your head as you try to figure out what is going on, but it is just too fun to be bothered by any of it. The literary world also plays a much larger role in this book than The Eyre Affair. We discover more about the Book World, about the Great Library and we learn about Jurisfiction – the police force of literature (both fiction and non-fiction division).

What was wonderful about this book was not only the range and imagination of this world and the mass of literary knowledge and complex genius that just works (don’t ever question it), but it is also the fact that Fforde can do this with mystery and twists and unexpectedness that can be masterful when you deal with a world as surreal and insane as this. What seems odd to us is normal for them, so when strange things happen to them, you know it is going to be wonderful.

You really get to see that the characters in a book are as real as any of us, and are people who have their own lives to lead. Entering Jane Eyre showed us that but Lost in a Good Book takes it to a whole other level, which isn’t even every level, not even close. Reading about all these books: Shakespeare, Dickens, Kafka, it just makes you want to rush off and read them as well, but you can’t because you can not put down what you are reading.

There are hints and clues through these books as Fforde prepares us for the future and what we need to know. We don’t know it at the time but when we find out something clicks and we realise we already know. It is very much like getting the answer before the question is given, and you don’t even get told which answer goes to which question, but somehow you know.

Once again Fforde uses brilliant literary characters and insight to create yet another fantastic story of surreal but highly believable reality. There are new threats and enemies in this book, revenge, shoes, laughs, and more dodo than you could want (which is never enough). Just simply another great display of this alternate world of theirs, which even without the literature would be just as fantastic. There is more SpecOps, more Daphne Farquitt, lethal coincidences and the oncoming apocalypse, what more do you want? I applaud you Mr Fforde.

Sharing time!

30 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Amy in General Tags: libraries

I know I am supposed to power on with the glorious final book review from the Wicked Lovely series but I saw this and had to share this from Flavorwire – The Best Fictional Libraries in Pop Culture.

I have to say I am not picky about my library but there is something pretty spectacular about the grand room with books to the ceiling. Though as The Shadow of the Wind shows (which is on the list, and yes I have been about half way through it for about five months, but with a strong promise to return to it I swear!) that they do not always need to be grand and marvellous. I often find brilliant books in small libraries and unexpected places. Though I think a lot of my appeal is the joy I am sure you would experience sliding across the shelves on the ladders ala Bedknobs and Broomsticks style. On a side note: if you have not seen this movie and do not get this reference then you must rush out immediately, it is a glorious and under appreciated film and also a pretty cool book as well.

I can’t offer up the best fictional libraries without offering some real ones with the 20 Beautiful Private and Personal Libraries. This is also from Flavorwire. I went with the personal ones over the public ones because while they too can be spectacular, private ones have more charm and seem more impressive I feel. I think it is probably some superficial reasoning I have that it’s because they aren’t a huge building set to cater for thousands of people made by the city. Having said that though, I do hate all of these people just a little bit for having the creativity and the space for such beautiful collections. As the wise Terry Pratchett said, if you have enough book space, I don’t want to talk to you. Where is my gallery of images for books piled on top of books, and books in cupboards and under the bed and in makeshift bookcases with shoe boxes? That’s my kind of private library collection.

Two of the more pleasing bookshelves belonging to yours truly

Rhyming Boy by Steven Herrick

27 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, General Tags: steven herrick, three stars

★ ★ ★ – 3 stars

Right, enough of this adult fiction, time to enter the children’s book. I would rather call this a children’s book than teen because it is in that weird area of age. It is not a teen book, or young adult certainly, therefore all that is left is children. Having just finished Rhyming Boy I feel you should all remember this day as the first fresh, brand new, shiny review that wasn’t originally anywhere else months ago. A small part of me wishes it was something more adult, but what can you do?

There is a quaint sort of charm about this book. There are certainly enough peculiarities about it, but there is a strange allure to these characters and their lives that keeps you reading.

Rhyming Boy is about a twelve year old boy called Jayden Hayden, who loves to read and lives with his football obsessed mother. The book opens with a very accurate depiction of the relationship between the pair, Jayden is trying to read and his mother keeps asking him what the football score is. She apparently is one of these mothers who likes to mock her son for reading a book when he should be focusing on the short careers of famous footballers and their sport. Reviewer’s criticism right there. She herself is strange enough and by the middle of the book her constant, and I mean constant, use of similes will either grow on you or you will cringe. Every. Single. Time. But yes, it all adds to the character and it does help show the little family and their relationship with one another. I will admit I had moments of hating these similes, some which made no sense whatsoever. But there was a great moment in the book when Jayden thinks of his mum and reflects fondly on her similes; that was touching. But they are trying sometimes despite my best effort to see them through a child readers eyes.

As a character Jayden is a straightforward kind of twelve year old. The language Herrick has written this in is very much the voice of a child, along with the thought process and rationale. What was a rather intriguing quality about Jayden is his love of facts and the Guinness Book of Records, again something which is seen as strange and different amongst this football focused book. What I did like though what that Jayden describes himself as a wordsmith, and every morning he likes to learn a new word and use it in conversation at some point during his day. He opens his dictionary, points to a random word, and learns what is means. I think this is a brilliant plan, and the execution works rather well, especially in the tone Herrick is after. They are very much the thoughts and experiences of Jayden put onto paper. With that being said, sometimes it is very clear he is a twelve year old.

The announcement of a Books and Boys and Breakfast throws a spanner in the works when boys are asked to bring their fathers, uncles, grandfathers or big brothers to come to school and read. As a result Jayden begins the quest to track down his dad with the help of his new friend Saskia. You can easily see why Saskia is introduced, and why they gel together so well as friends. Saskia is the same as Jayden and gives him a companion who likes all the things he does. Her house is filled with books, she helps him research and find his dad, and she is a nice addition to this boys teasing boys, rough football mentality the book has going on.

It was interesting to see the world through this kid’s eyes, you can see as he looks for his dad how he constantly assess every one else and their fathers. Saskia’s dad is quirky, the kids next door’s father plays football with them to a hint of obsession, and there is the classic ‘let’s see why the bully bullies’ relationship as well. Those aspects alone I think were good because you can see how a child reading this could take so much from it about being from a single parent family, being teased for something you can’t change, or just feeling different. And the fact a child’s voice is telling you this story, you get the anger and hurt and inexperience as well. That was done rather well actually, angry Jayden thoughts and sarcastic Jayden were my favourite sides of him.

This is a fairly quick read and not a lot of story aside from the father hunt, and by the end of the book there is minor closure, in a strange and almost unsatisfying way. But you can see the reality of the situation and Herrick does not try and make anything seem too perfect. There is certainly turmoil as things never go to plan and it shows how easily a child can raise and lose his hope. What was good was that while Jayden was unique in a way, he is just like every other twelve year old. He tries to please his mum but he still wants answers, and he is very good and controlling what he can in his world and using his wit and intellect to deal with confrontation, though not in a smart arse way. Not out loud anyway. He makes things happen and he gets himself out of unintended trouble quite well.

Reading this and being out of its designated age bracket, you can easily see that Jayden doesn’t really need his father. He has pretty wonderful male role models and people around him, but you do also understand how seeing everyone else having something you don’t have makes you want one of your own as well. It is certainly a strangely written book but beneath this sort of organised chaos is a charming story, and I am rather glad it turned out as it did really.

Shade's Children by Garth Nix

26 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General Tags: five stars, garth nix

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Seeing as Australia Day is upon us I thought I would post a review of an Australian author and I am choosing Shade’s Children by Garth Nix. Another goodreads steal, originally from Sep 19 2012, this story gets us as far from WA and Melbourne as we can, with a story where the human race has been overtaken and enslaved by the Overlords.

This story is set in a dystopian future and begins right in the middle of the action as we are introduced to this strange new world piece by piece. Fifteen years prior a mysterious Change has occurred causing all the adults to vanish, and creatures now roam the city and all the remaining children are essentially raised for their parts and no one is allowed to live past their fourteenth birthday.

The story follows Gold-Eye, Ella, Drum and Ninde as they work for the revered, yet mysterious Shade to fight in this war. Their missions revolve around trying to help the children still trapped and under Overlord control and those who have managed to escape and are fighting for their lives on the streets. Nix has written this in segments, and each segment focuses on following the different characters around. By doing this Nix gradually reveals certain information, and certainly only as it is required, never more than he has to. There are the occasional report and archived transcripts placed throughout, along with comments and stories by various characters. I think this helps to piece together the world really well and you manage to see it from all angles so by the end of the story you know a lot, but somehow you still only know as much as you need to.

It is certainly very cleverly written and I think even though it is a known archetype of the dystopia, Nix takes it in his own hands and makes it something fantastic with such unique and appealing characters. Not everything is revealed in clear terms which I thought was part of the charm, and Nix is smart enough not to make everything sunshine and lollipops. It is still a war zone and casualties are to be expected. The honour, bravery and innocence of these kids is shown through Nix’s writing and expression of these characters. Because there are so many mixes of kids and histories you get to see those who have known nothing except these Dorms where they are raised and know of nothing else, but you also get to see the odd few who remember what is was like before the invasion. With no adults and their own lives in their hands, these young kids follow instinct and whatever training they have or have not had, guided entirely by Shade. There is a lot of suspense in this book, and you do find yourself always guessing and trying to jump ahead because it gives the impression that everything could change suddenly and change everything you have been trying to grasp. Those kinds of books are always a winner in my eyes. Once again Mr Nix has not failed his readers and produced another great story to add to his collection.