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42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect, amusing and clever romp back into Thursday's world, July 4, 2007
This series is one of those unfortunate ones that is so, SO good that I want to pass them along to everyone I meet (I buy every used copy of the first one I can find, to give them away!), but when you try and tell people what the books are all about, you get blank stares - it all just sounds too odd. This latest in the series is no exception - clever, laugh out loud funny, and so fantastic that explaining it just doesn't do it justice. The literary humor is still hilarious (and explained well enough that those who haven't read the classics that the jokes come from can still get the jokes!) and Thursday's personal life and literary adventures are both well-written and enjoyable. I had found the last Thursday book, Something Rotten, a bit duller than the first three, and so was delighted to begin reading and see how good this one is. Fforde is back on form! Thursday's grumpy teenage son Friday, who speaks in teenage grunts, is destined sometime in the future to save humanity from extinction some 700 times, but right now is causing his parents to tear their hair out over his stereotypical teen behavior - sleeping late, listening to loud music, and being monumentally lazy. Thursday has a new apprentice, Thursday Five, who comes from one of Thursday's poorer selling books in which the author substituted her usual crime-solving and bacon-sandwich eating demeanor for one of a yoga-doing, lentil-eating peacenik who tries to set unruly and murderous literature-dwellers down for a nice cup of tea to talk things over. What will become of the lowered reading rates, and the government's dangerous surplus of stupidity, which must, somehow, be discharged? Will the Goliath Corporation, up to its old tricks, succeed in killing Thursday? Read this latest and find out.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"I say we place our faith in good stories well told.", July 28, 2007
The brilliant Jasper Fforde's "Thursday Next--First Among Sequels" is the latest zany installment in a highly original and imaginative series. Fforde's intrepid fifty-two year old heroine is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. She is still madly in love with her writer husband, Landen Parke-Laine (who, fortunately, is fully restored after his two-year eradication by the fearsome Goliath Corporation) and their three children, one of whom may not really exist. The oldest, Friday, is sixteen, and he has turned out to be something of a slug who grunts, plays in a heavy metal band, and sleeps well into the day. Although Thursday pretends that she spends her time peddling and installing floor coverings for Acme Carpets, she is actually still very much involved in the Special Operations Network, working unofficially and under cover. She has never broken her strong ties to Jurisfiction, the policing agency within books, a job which earns her no money and is dangerous to boot. However, Thursday loves stories and she cannot resist using her considerable skills to help "maintain the continuity of the narrative within the pages of all the books ever written." Using her trusty Travelbook, she jumps into and out of the world of the printed word to hunt down malefactors. Strange things have been happening lately. Thursday has a surreal conversation with her Uncle Mycroft, a brilliant inventor who has been dead for six years. He has no idea why he has reappeared as a ghost, but Thursday suspects that he has some unfinished business that involves her. Next, Thursday has to cope with two clones of herself who are cadets in training: one, Thursday 5, is a touchy-feely version who eats natural foods, believes in peace and love, and is so timid and nerdy that she is bound to get herself killed in short order. The other is a foul-mouthed, nasty, gun-toting version named Thursday 1-4, who is ruthless, violent, and intent on eradicating Thursday Next and taking her place. Looming over everyone in Jurisfiction is the specter of the dropping Outlander Reading Index. It seems that people in the real world (the Outland) no longer enjoy stories as they once did and the Bookworld is in danger of imminent collapse. This would be an incalculable loss for humankind. "First Among Sequels" is filled with Jasper Fforde's trademark wit and innumerable puns. He gleefully takes potshots at reality television, trendy and annoying fads, inefficient bureaucrats, lying politicians, and many more worthy targets. Fforde's narrative includes everything from philosophical speculation about literature and the nature of time to mind-bending flights of fancy and lowbrow scenes of slapstick and mayhem. There are even a few touching romantic interludes thrown in for a bit of variety. The plot is so complex that it defies description. Suffice it to say that the Thursday Next books are as challenging as they are entertaining and satirical. Consider yourself lucky if you don't get a headache as you try to keep track of the many seemingly unrelated threads that somehow all tie together in the end. The patient reader will be exhilarated and rewarded, however, since "First Among Sequels" is a treat for literature lovers with a wacky sense of fun.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What's next, Thursday?, September 3, 2007
It's a darned good thing that Thursday Next isn't showing any signs of wanting to slow down, because her life seems to get more and more complicated with each eagerly awaited installment of this brilliant series. First of all, the Special Operations Network has been disbanded, but that minor detail hasn't stopped Thursday and her colleagues from doing what they do best. Under the cover of a flourishing carpeting company, business continues as usual, except now it's strictly hush-hush. Thursday is also secretly working at Jurisfiction, and a large portion of this book deals with her exploits in the BookWorld. In the real world, Thursday hasn't yet told her husband that she does more than sell carpets. Her son Friday is a typical rebellious teenager, who flat out refuses to join the ChronoGuard, plays rock guitar and never, ever appears before lunchtime, his sister Tuesday is a math genius, and the other sibling Jenny promises to be the most normal of the lot. Between training un-trainable apprentices, wheeling and dealing with the Cheese mafia, sorting out the Moral Dilemma, finding the missing comedy from the Thomas Hardy novels and vanquishing demons, time is running out for Thursday to figure out how to save the world, with or without the help of lazy Friday. Add the Minotaur, Aornis Hades, Goliath's latest project, and ghostly visitations from her Uncle Mycroft, and you get an idea of the roller coaster ride that is "First Among Sequels". The unkindest cut of all however, is the plan to remake classic works into interactive novels, similar in principle to the dreaded Reality TV. It's all up to Thursday Next, and if she fails, you'll soon be glued to your television watching a Bennet sister getting voted out of Pride and Prejudice. A final warning to fans of this series - after reading this you may suffer acute withdrawal symptoms while waiting for the next installment. Rated: 4.5 stars Amanda Richards, September 3, 2007
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