July reads

[birdienl.livejournal.com]

The woman who died a lot by Jasper Fforde 4/5
After an assassination attempt in the BookWorld (subject of One of our Thursdays is missing), literary detective Thursday Next is forced into a semi-retirement and made head of the local library. But life is never simple in Thursday's world as the city of Swindon is scheduled to be struck by a divine smiting in a week's time, her eternal enemy Goliath is trying to replace Thursday with a synthetic version of herself at multiple occasions and her family seems to think Thursday has three children, while there are really only two.

Welcome back to the crazy world of Jasper Fforde, which seems suspiciously like the world we live in, but is different around every corner. In this seventh book of the Thursday Next series, there is again a great deal of adventures, tongue-in-cheek jokes, fun with literary allusions etc. Every time again I'm surprised by Fforde, how does he pull of all his crazy ideas and make them seem even likely? Thursday Next is a memorable character and I loved how in this book you really get a look at the loving relationship between her and her husband Landen. Fforde's best work and the best parts of the Thursday Next series however, take place in the BookWorld and The woman who died a lot does not go there... So even if this is a super-fun read, it's not Fforde's or Thursday's best adventure.
(Also, the storyline about the divine smitings could bother some people. Though I didn't mind too much, I would've like Fforde to keep his wit out of the religious terrain)

( Read more )