Lost in a Good Book

Synopsis: Thursday Next, literary detective and newlywed is back to embark on an adventure that begins, quite literally on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. The sinister Goliath Corporation wants its operative Jack Schitt out of the poem in which Thursday trapped him, and it will do almost anything to achieve this - but bribing the ChronoGuard? Is that possible? Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday must battle corrupt politicians, try to save the world from extinction, and help the Neanderthals to species self-determination. Mastadon migrations, journeys into Just William, a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies, and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan. But whose? and why?

Review: Excellent. If anything I loved this more than the first book. I think they get more and more addictive. Extremely inventive writing, I just loved Jasper's version of Miss Havisham, who, when no-one is looking, dons her training shoes and listens to her I-pod. In this story Miss Havisham is acting as mentor to Thursday as she attempts to enter fiction without the Prose Portal. Full of puns, wit, running gags and wonderful imagery, Jasper's Nextian world is somewhere you can happily lose yourself in and it was great too to read about these slightly surreal versions of places that are so familiar to me such as Swindon, South Cerney, Stratton and Cirencester (which is actually where I'm moving to.) It helps to have a good knowledge of literature as there are so many references. I haven't particularly so I probably missed some of the subtleties. But great stuff like petitions for Tess Durbeyfield to be acquitted and Maxim de Winter to be convicted, a character assessment of Mr and Mrs McGregor (Beatrix Potter) and a delicious piece of nonsense concerning Thursdays ancient granny and the ten most boring classics that she has to read before she is allowed to die (only one problem, she doesn't know which they are and so is canvassing opinions.) Thursday engages in some book-jumping and along the way bumps into (amongst others) Marianne Dashwood, the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen and Miss Havisham of course. If you read 'The Eyre Affair' then you will know that Thursday had to defeat the evil Acheron Hades and in this book his sister Aornis is seeking revenge. Also in the last book Thursday imprisoned Goliath Corporations Jack Schitt in Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven', they want him back and until Thursday can return him they have deleted Thursday's husband Landen from his current timeline, so, for the time being, he lives in her memory only. Reminiscent of the glorious wordplay and humour in Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams books and equally as fantastic.