First Among Sequels

Although I still think The Eyre Affair is the best of the Thursday Next books, the series continues to delight me. What I especially enjoy is that the more you are immersed in this world, the more it makes sense. Time travel and bookjumping, mind worms and multiple Thursdays–all are more comprehensible the more time you spend in Thursday's world. I also love the little details that reference back to previous novels; they make me want to go back and look for those clues.

It's 14 years after Thursday Next kicked the win that staved off yet another apocalypse. Stupidity levels are high and if they don't find a way to dump the surplus dangerous things will happen. Friday has decided to become a normal teenager, laying around idle and sleeping the day away, instead of joining up and leading the ChronoGuard. Time itself may end and if Friday doesn't join up soon...the end of mankind is imminent.

The Book World is in equal chaos as Ecclesiastical and Feminist genres are battling it out with Racy Novel. Jurisfiction is low on help and recruitment is at an all-time low.

How will Thursday set this all straight? And without Landen knowing?

Another fun-filled book with nonsensical chaos and happenings that tickle the funny bone. I am really going to be sad when this series is done. Love where this author's mind goes. How in the world does he think this up?

This book is completely utter nonsense and I love it.

I enjoyed this latest installment in the Thursday Next series. I especially liked the interactions between Thursday and her previous incarnations, Thursday5 and Thursday1-4. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, One of Our Thursdays is Missing.

I thought the first of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels, [b:The Eyre Affair 27003 The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1) Jasper Fforde http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309201183s/27003.jpg 3436605], was fantastic. Funny, literate, clever - a wonderful book, especially for voracious readers. One of the funniest books I've read, and I recommended it to others, bought it for them, and just generally enjoyed it. While the next three books in the series weren't quite as magical, they were also a lot of fun.By the time I reached the end of [b:Something Rotten 26999 Something Rotten (Thursday Next, #4) Jasper Fforde http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1270782422s/26999.jpg 948606], though, I felt the joke had started to run thin. Not that there's not a lot more material to be used - there is - it just seemed that Fforde's particular approach to was losing its edge. Fforde may have felt the same, since the series paused for several years.I think both he and I were right. First Among Sequels, while showing all the same cleverness and literary in-jokes as the earlier books, feels forced. It's clever, but it's just not as funny as it should be.I felt somewhat the same about the first book of the Nursery Crime series - more clever than funny. I still think Fforde has a lot going for him; I expect to pick up the first books of some of his (many) other series. And I very strongly recommend the first Thursday Next quartet. This book, however, I think is best suited to true aficionados or to newcomers.