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The Well Of Lost Plots (book 3 of Thursday
Next stories) by Jasper Fforde. check out website: www.penguin.com and www.thursdaynext.com
Thursday takes her pet dodo and memories of her husband who has been eradicated by Goliath Corps in a previous novel. She is the only person that remembers that her husband ever existed, with good reason as she is pregnant with his child. There's no peace here though and soon Granny comes to stay to help her 'cope'. Staying on a derelict flying boat/houseboat is all very well but her two resident generic characters start to develop an irritating line in sarcasm and cooking and to top it all somebody is trying to kill her!
As the plot thickens, with the addition of some Bisto I imagine, Thursday, too, starts to forget her husband. Gran is on hand to help but there is so much happening I'm amazed anybody can remember what's going on. Thursday tries to help the novel she is staying in by suggesting a few plot changes. The hard-boiled loner detective suddenly develops a settled home life but will it be too sudden a plot twist? All the characters could soon be reduced to text and recycled if Thursday can't help out. She also has other problems and must aid her boss, Miss Havisham, in solving further mysteries for the Jurisfiction Agency. Losing yourself in a good book has been a phrase bandied around for many years. How clever of someone like Jasper Fforde to use this as a basis for a whole series of intriguing detective stories. There are just enough literary allusions to either make you feel stupid or smug. Certainly cross-genre, it defies categorisation which is why it has ended up in my sweaty palms. The story moves along at a good pace and has many funny laugh-out loud moments. It is well stuffed with ideas that seem so simple once on the page but have obviously come from a very twisted brain! With the addition of literary greats such as Miss Havisham, Uriah Heep and Mr Toad and the veritable padding out of plot with walk on parts this is an unexpected chocolate box of treats. My favourite soft centres are Heathcliff vying with Jude Fawley and Hamlet for the Most Troubled Romantic Lead (male) at the 923rd Annual Bookworld Awards. There is also a Microsoft-type plot to introduce Ultraword-the software that IS the future of the book! Read it if you like Science Fiction (soft), fantasy and crime fiction (in a non hard-boiled and ever so slightly clichéd way). This novel pretty much sends everything up, including the literary world. Mr. Fforde has a wonderfully eloquent style and he clearly enjoys showing off, making him an ideal novelist. Having sustained his creative genius for three novels, there must be plenty more to follow. Indeed, the next instalment follows in August of this year. I can't wait and so must go backwards in time to read the two previous instalments. You may also like to visit www.thursdaynext.com There you will find special features only accessible if you know the password. I could tell you the password but then I'd have to kill you. What you will find there, if you read the book and get the password, is all the extra stuff you get on a DVD but as Jasper helpfully points out in here, it's free! There are deleted scenes and various explanations about how, why, when and did I say what? The website is a great extension to the books and worth a look on its own merits. I really, really hope there is to be a film of this. The world needs more fun and less po-faced drivel. Good luck to you Mr Fforde. Sue Davies
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OTHER REVIEWS - May 2004
Non Fiction Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross Futures: 50 Years In Space The Challenge Of The Stars by David A. Hardy and Patrick Moore Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon: Second Edition by Brian Roseberry DVDs Babylon 5: The Complete First Season: Signs and Portents Fantasy Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson The Siege Of Mithila by Ashok K. Banker Broken Crescent by S. Andrew Swann The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick The Weavers Of Saramyr by Chris Wooding The Iron Grail by Robert Holdstock Faerie Tales edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davies Darknesses by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Slipstream Changing Of Faces by Tim Lebbon Karloff’s Circus by Steve Aylett The Well Of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde Science Fiction The Golden Globe by John Varley Market Forces by Richard Morgan It Came From Outer Space screenplay by Ray Bradbury A Gift Of Dragons by Anne McCaffrey Different Kinds Of Darkness by David Langford Felaheen The Third Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Absolution Gap by Adrian Reynolds The Line Of Polity by Neal Asher The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley Natural History by Justina Robson Horror Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris Magazines
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Thursday
Next, trainee operative for SpecOps, has decided to take some time
out. To this end, she is staying in a poorly written novel which
is currently residing in the Well of Lost Plots, where all the potential
books are kept until they are either published or broken down into
text again.
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