Full-contact croquet and the fate of the world
As a treat to myself, I decided to pick up a book I've been wanting to read for a while - Jasper Fforde's Something Rotten. Fforde is quite possibly my favorite author of all time, and his latest entry in the Thursday Next series pretty much confirms that view. I'll do my best to describe it, but it's almost impossible to do his work justice.
Exhausted after two long years policing the inner world of books, Jusifiction head Thursday Next is eager to hang up her hat and take her son Friday back to the real world. She's bound and determined to get her husband Landen Parke-Laine back from the mists of time - the evil Goliath Corp. eradicated him from memory as punishment. Unable to stand it any longer, Thursday returns to Swindon and her old job at Spec-Ops 27 (Literary Detection) to reunite her family.
Of course, Thursday quickly finds that there's major trouble brewing in the real world. Yorrick Kaine, an obscure fictional character of unknown origin, is running for President on a platform of anti-Danish sentiment and threatens to turn England into a police state. Goliath Corp. is attempting to transform itself into a religion to avoid all those pesky corporate rules and regulations. And she still can't find reliable child care for Friday.
As she reconnects with old friends and allies, Thursday embarks on a wild race through England and Wales to find her husband and put a stop to evil scheming. Too bad Swindon has to win the Superhoop croquet championship to do it....
Fforde's books are wild and imaginative, and I think that's why I like them so much. It's almost impossible to compare him to anyone else, because he's created a fictional world that's so different from almost any other I've encountered. Fforde's work is so chock-full of literary humor and punchy one-liners that you can't help but giggle as you read. But most of all he knows how to put together a good story. I'm eagerly awaiting Thursday's next outing.
Exhausted after two long years policing the inner world of books, Jusifiction head Thursday Next is eager to hang up her hat and take her son Friday back to the real world. She's bound and determined to get her husband Landen Parke-Laine back from the mists of time - the evil Goliath Corp. eradicated him from memory as punishment. Unable to stand it any longer, Thursday returns to Swindon and her old job at Spec-Ops 27 (Literary Detection) to reunite her family.
Of course, Thursday quickly finds that there's major trouble brewing in the real world. Yorrick Kaine, an obscure fictional character of unknown origin, is running for President on a platform of anti-Danish sentiment and threatens to turn England into a police state. Goliath Corp. is attempting to transform itself into a religion to avoid all those pesky corporate rules and regulations. And she still can't find reliable child care for Friday.
As she reconnects with old friends and allies, Thursday embarks on a wild race through England and Wales to find her husband and put a stop to evil scheming. Too bad Swindon has to win the Superhoop croquet championship to do it....
Fforde's books are wild and imaginative, and I think that's why I like them so much. It's almost impossible to compare him to anyone else, because he's created a fictional world that's so different from almost any other I've encountered. Fforde's work is so chock-full of literary humor and punchy one-liners that you can't help but giggle as you read. But most of all he knows how to put together a good story. I'm eagerly awaiting Thursday's next outing.
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