The Woman Who Died A Lot (Thursday Next #7) Review

The Woman Who Died A Lot (Thursday Next #7)

Jasper Fforde

Publisher: Hodder

The BookWorld's leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following an assassination attempt. She returns home to Swindon for what you'd expect to be a time of recuperation. If only life were that simple.
Thursday is faced with an array of family problems - son Friday's lack of focus since his career in the Chronoguard was relegated to a might-have-been, daughter Tuesday's difficulty perfecting the Anti-Smote shield needed to thwart an angry Deity's promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth, and Jenny, who doesn't exist.
And that's not all. With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, the prediction that Friday's Destiny-Aware colleagues will die in mysterious circumstances, and a looming meteorite that could destroy all human life on earth, Thursday's retirement is going to be anything but easy.

I love Jasper Fforde’s sheer inventiveness and ingenuity when it comes to situations and plots. A single book from him has enough ideas to keep five lesser authors busy for their whole careers, but he just drops delightful ideas and wordplay like breadcrumbs and hopes you will keep up and follow him home.

This is the seventh book starring Thursday Next and instead of jumping into books, this time she faces an enemy she can’t outrun, outshoot or outthink: old age. Recovering from an accident, Thursday finds herself unable to ‘read herself’ into the Bookworld anymore and has to live entirely in the ‘real’ world – although her old enemies Goliath and Aornis Hades are up to something, Spec Ops has been reformed, her son has no motivation anymore and God has sworn to smite Swindon on this Friday...so it’s not exactly a relaxing week. Where Jasper Fforde excels is pulling together layered plots and sub-plots and making them work. Some of the plot line don’t have much in common other than Thursday and her family, but somehow that doesn’t matter much – it is the world building that ties everything together. It's nice as well to see our heroine aging and struggling with health - it makes her feel real especially if like me, you've been following her adventures over the last ten years. I've aged - why shouldn't my heroes!

I have to admit I enjoyed this adventure more than the last one as stories set entirely in the Bookworld just don’t seem to pop as much for me, fun as they were. This story doesn’t include any Bookworld characters and very few of Thursday’s old team, but has more involvement of Thursday’s family with Landen, Friday and Tuesday all given good development. Previously they hadn’t contributed much to the world, but here they round out Thursday as well as making their own impact on Swindon.

Overall, this is a fun read that is likely to make you scratch your head in confused enjoyment and just a joy to read. Pull up a chair, sit back and let Jasper Fforde take you to where he wants to go while you enjoy the scenery!

Recommended for fans of Tom Holt and Terry Prachett. 8 out of 10

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing Review

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next 6)

- Jasper Fforde

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

It is a time of unrest in the BookWorld.
Only the diplomatic skills of ace literary detective Thursday Next can avert a devastating genre war. But a week before the peace talks, Thursday vanishes. Has she simply returned home to the RealWorld or is this something more sinister?
All is not yet lost. Living at the quiet end of speculative fiction is the written Thursday Next, eager to prove herself worthy of her illustrious namesake.
The fictional Thursday is soon hot on the trail of her factual alter-ego, and quickly stumbles upon a plot so fiendish that it threatens the very BookWorld itself

This is the sixth book based on Thursday Next and her adventures in the bookworld, but this time the focus is on the written Thursday Next, who appeared as a main character in the last book – First Among Sequels. The written Thursday is a little different from the ‘real’ Thursday – she’s less sure of herself and her skills. She doesn’t know the real world and lacks some of the intuition that Thursday usually has. However, this means she is a little more vulnerable and naïve. With the exception of a short visit to Swindon, the majority of this story takes place in the newly rebuilt bookworld – which is now a sphere but on the inside – so you look up and see other islands of the bookworld.

One thing that you can’t escape is the sheer inventiveness of Jasper Fforde’s worlds. He has so many ideas and witty one-liners that I find it difficult to think of him ever doing anything normal. (I’m willing to bet he brushes his teeth with bark and mint leaves, using a pink elephant to rinse!) And this always makes his book a delightful journey – like getting off a long, boring coach journey to find yourself in a perfect 1950s diner complete with Elvis Presley performing (before he was famous) and the Fonz on a motorbike – it’s familiar, comfortable and yet completely surreal and unexpected all at the same time. I loved exploring the new geographical bookworld and meeting a lot of new characters. The written Pickwick is brilliant, and I loved Thursday’s new butler with the expressive eyebrow. It was fun to see some cameos of the ‘real’ people during a quick visit to Swindon as well, but on the whole this focusses on new characters and internal bookworld politics. This does mean that it is probably more accessible to new reader than other books.

However, as much as I am intrigued and love the bookworld, there is something a little flat about it. I felt the same way with The Well of Lost Plots which was also set primarily within books. I need some of the drama and intrigue from the real world Swindon to fully connect to the book and the characters. I like the bookworld to one of many courses rather than the whole dinner! That said there are some great character developments as the written Thursday has to deal with the shadow of the real Thursday always being held over her and adding some different angles to Thursday who has only ever been a first person narrator before now. I like the depth this gives to the character – both written and real.

Overall this is a fun book with so many different views of books and reading that it will make your head spin if you think too hard. There are some great ideas in the bookworld – the mime-field had me in stitches – and it is always good to spend some time with old friends – even if you’ve never met them before.

Recommended for fans of Tom Holt and Terry Prachett. 7.5 out of 10