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Jack Spratt and Mary Mary return in their second Nursery Crime adventure.--From publisher description.
Great book, sad the third one never happened
Quote of the book would be Prometheus speaking about protecting democracy in Vonnegutian terms
Reading this one felt faster than the first one because the world building wasn't so hard to navigate anymore.
It's a wonderful book, I can't get enough of Fforde.
How did you know that whatever I have wasn't infectious?
I didn't.
An astonishing, hotly anticipated new novel from the great literary fantasist and creator of Thursday …
Fforde can be like Adams, Fforde can be like Orwell. Extremely powerful worldbuilding and writing in the expedition part. I was shocked and felt very strong emotions.
Quote of the book, in line with my personal history:
'No one's ever liked me before, she said, 'so you'll excuse me for becoming suspicious.' 'Jabez liked you.' 'Jabez liked my nose.' 'I like your nose.' 'Yes, but you don't only like my nose. There's a big difference.'
An astonishing, hotly anticipated new novel from the great literary fantasist and creator of Thursday …
Holy. Fuck.
The Bookworld's leading enforcement officer, Thursday Next, has been forced into semiretirement following an assassination …
And yet, a five star from me.
Is he naive and too fascinated by russia? Yes, but so are most westerners.
Can I certainly say that he read das kapital / communist manifesto? No. But then again, even those who did in the west don't have a lived experience of communism, so I empathise with them falling for barely grounded populism.
And even yet it's a great book! Perhaps the best in the series. It's weird at every corner, includes scrupulous worldbuilding and a ton of calculations. And while we may have the opposite ideas about marxism, we do share unapologetic and relentless sense of anticapitalism. Which, under western labels makes me an intersectional communist, I guess, but western labels can sod off!
Anyway, the book is FUN. The characters are WEIRD. Fforde is an amazing writer.
If you crave Douglas Adams, but ran out, and don't want to make …
And yet, a five star from me.
Is he naive and too fascinated by russia? Yes, but so are most westerners.
Can I certainly say that he read das kapital / communist manifesto? No. But then again, even those who did in the west don't have a lived experience of communism, so I empathise with them falling for barely grounded populism.
And even yet it's a great book! Perhaps the best in the series. It's weird at every corner, includes scrupulous worldbuilding and a ton of calculations. And while we may have the opposite ideas about marxism, we do share unapologetic and relentless sense of anticapitalism. Which, under western labels makes me an intersectional communist, I guess, but western labels can sod off!
Anyway, the book is FUN. The characters are WEIRD. Fforde is an amazing writer.
If you crave Douglas Adams, but ran out, and don't want to make a run to the book store, you can always rely on Fforde to deliver!
It is a time of unrest in the BookWorld. Only the diplomatic skills of ace …
A couple of amazing passages here.
Sadly, my lifestyle doesn't let me carefully review the books at the moment.
I loved Thursday's companion and "psychological thriller" nature of the book.
Was torn between 3.5 and 4, certainly the weakest of the series so far.
"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities …
AS YOU DEPART FROM CHLOE, you know deeper than skin and deeper than heart, that the collection of momentary glances or that train which passed right in front of your face, altogether only promising to suck you into the thin air, lacking a slightest chance to do so, shift the plates of your soul more than an hours-long conversation with a friend or an enemy in a bowl of sugar floss whiped by streams of air.
Content warning Fan-hypothesis
A great book with a lot of loops and callbacks. This time it’s clean and logical without plot-holes and such.
I’m fairly certain that the book together with some other moments from other books make me think that the reality in the books is happening in a book.
For example, there is a clear note in this book that the bookspace is speculated to have variants and parallel spaces.
Quote of the book is, sadly,
Keep the “now” long, mom.
We failed to, as a society. “Now” is shorter than ever. We’re sorry, Mr. Fforde.
Something Rotten is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. It …
I understood one of the mysteries of what happened when the incident happened closer to the end, but I have so many questions as for why.
I can't criticise the book without spoilers, but I will say that the big baddie didn't get anything out of their kindness, the henchperson didn't get anything of their screw-ups, the most resultive evil character, on the other hand, felt really too keen.
That said, it's an extremely astute book, and another study of trumpian fascism.
It was – of course – inspired by German nazism, but it is striking how, if you add a little bit of modernity and neoliberalism to hitler, you get trump.
To solidarity with Danes! (Oh how unintentionally modern)
Finally, there was a proof that the real world in the Next series is happening in the real book world, which has a book world inside it! We know it …
I understood one of the mysteries of what happened when the incident happened closer to the end, but I have so many questions as for why.
I can't criticise the book without spoilers, but I will say that the big baddie didn't get anything out of their kindness, the henchperson didn't get anything of their screw-ups, the most resultive evil character, on the other hand, felt really too keen.
That said, it's an extremely astute book, and another study of trumpian fascism.
It was – of course – inspired by German nazism, but it is striking how, if you add a little bit of modernity and neoliberalism to hitler, you get trump.
To solidarity with Danes! (Oh how unintentionally modern)
Finally, there was a proof that the real world in the Next series is happening in the real book world, which has a book world inside it! We know it from the dialogue with Hamlet about the steamroller as well as the reunion 4th-wall-breaking scene.
Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the …
I was walking down the street yesterday and did my thing where I look up the books people read.
Normally it's an utter disappointment, silly light reads or thrillers (don't get me right, I love silly light reads myself).
This time my expectations were low – a white bald guy, wearing a teal T-shirt, how good could the book be.
Well... It was this one.
Thank you, white bald guy wearing teal t-shirt.
And let's all hope that Palestine shall be reclaimed.
Something Rotten is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. It …
Jasper Fforde may be a time traveller. The series start with Crimean war and continue (by book four) with a trumpian figure. 2004, mind you.
Present day: Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when local fortune …
I really wish it was less ludicrous. Why didn't the person main hero meets in the beginning tell more? Why did one other character does what they did?
It's such a shame that such a magnificent writing and such a well-written and well-clued story just lacks that final cleanliness of a great fair play.
That said, I hope that there will be another book in this series, but I doubt that there is much more to extract from this.
Present day: Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when local fortune …
This is some ITV4 Poirot level stuff. Superb.