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.
