The Woman Who Died a Lot

I've had a lot of fun reading this series and I'm sorry to see the end of it. I love this heroine and her quirky, offbeat family and friends. Every book has provided humor and entertainment and lots of literature and pop culture related jokes. Kind of nerdy, but I liked it.

This was a fine conclusion to the story (for now?). I love how the quality of these was maintained throughout the series.

I've read and loved the rest of the books in the Thursday Next series, but somehow in my earlier readings of the series, I never made it all the way to this one. And starting out, I really didn't think I was going to like it – I thought that Fforde had jumped the shark a bit. But as usual, the further along I made it into the book and the more absorbed into the Nextian universe, the more I enjoyed it. I wouldn't say this is my favorite in the series, but I ended up liking it much more than expected.

However, one of my favorite things about this series is the world-building that Fforde has done, and there were a number of inconsistencies from previous books that threw me off. For example, in First Among Sequels, a major plot point is that Friday wants to prevent the invention of time travel. Then in this book, the dis-invention of time travel is presented as more of a mistake from another time traveler. It's almost as if Fforde regretted that he wrote out the ChronoGuard, so he reinvented his own book's history to make up for it. In addition, my favorite of the Thursday Next books are the ones that involve both the Outland and the BookWorld, so I also was missing the BookWorld in this one.

Take the fact that I have given every book in this series as huge praise for it. Few series manages to keep the same characters fresh while not letting the plots get too overcomplicated. Fforde does a beautiful job dancing around cliché while never stepping on it, and the series has a feeling like good improv, where you can tell that he's making it up as he goes along, but you can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

You know that exquisite fresh feeling you got from reading [b:The Eyre Affair 27003 The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1) Jasper Fforde http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309201183s/27003.jpg 3436605]? Don't expect it here. This one felt forced, even awkward (very mild spoiler: first-person narrative does not lend itself well to alternate-timeline and memory-manipulation storylines. I would guess that Fforde realized this about 1/3 into his writing.).Fforde is brilliant. He keeps proving it over and over: [b:The Big Over Easy 6628 The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1) Jasper Fforde http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309287709s/6628.jpg 2504943], [b:Shades of Grey 2113260 Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1) Jasper Fforde http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327563734s/2113260.jpg 2118671], even [b:The Last Dragonslayer 13316328 The Last Dragonslayer (The Last Dragonslayer, #1) Jasper Fforde http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346791460s/13316328.jpg 13380425]. Not merely creative, but able to tell stories with his ideas.We all go on autopilot sometimes. Even geniuses are human. This one had its fun moments, but I still feel disappointed.

As usual, I couldn't wait to dive into another of Thursday Next's adventures. And while Jasper delivers wonderfully quirky ideas, well-written sub-plots and hilarious dialogue, I missed the BookWorld and the literary references. My favorite sub-story is by far the Jenny plot line (awesomesauce!) but other than that I found the ending(s) slightly anti-climactic.
Still, this is Jasper Fforde we're talking about here. So overall, I had a LOT of fun with this book and it comes highly recommended.
Read my full review over at SFF Book Review