Tuesday, April 29, 2014

The Eyre Affair / Jasper Fforde

The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde
Thursday Next (1)

humour, steam punk science fiction

copyright 2001
read in April 2014

rated 9: really, really good

I read and reviewed the eighth Thursday Next book, The Woman Who Died a Lot. Enjoyed it so much that I looked for the start of the series... And enjoyed it just as much. Perhaps even more !

Book eight had a whole host of "familiar" characters, characters with whom I was not at all familiar :-)  It made no difference, they were introduced well enough for a first-time reader.

In this first book, it's fun to meet "new" characters -- and to realise that I already know a little bit about them !

Better yet, if a character is "nice" then they really are nice. They may be funny, or apparently weak, or even downright peculiar -- but they all do their dependable best. Within the limits of their limitations.

I think I compared Fforde with Wodehouse ? Absolutely !

Thursday Next is beginning her rise to fame and fortune. She fights for literary justice -- and wins. With, as the blurb tells us, time to figure out who really wrote Shakespeare's plays... Time paradox ? Forget it !

The basis of the plot is literary. Jane Eyre, in fact... in case you have not already guessed. And a sign off how much I enjoyed this book: I have a newly developed ambition to read Jane Eyre !

I read it. I enjoyed it. I need to read more Thursday Next.

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