Have you read...can you recommend...

[Inanna]

He could be doing hula-hoops with it, for all I care. If its not OUT, it's not OUT. Sniff.

No, I am not annoyed by the loooong gap. What makes you say that?

[Impenitent]

The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde

Anyone read it? It was recommended by a couple of people on the Victorian Editors page I frequent, and it sounds like it would be right up my alley, but I'd prefer a recommendation from someone who's literary preferences I know and understand. Hence, my question here

There's an elaborate review on Wikipedia, which makes it sound like a hoot and a half:

"playfully irreverent," "delightfully daft," "whoppingly imaginative," and "a work of ... startling originality"

The "genre-busting" novel spans numerous types of literature, with critics identifying aspects of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, satire, romance, and thriller.] This led one critic to jokingly suggest that Fforde "must have jotted a bundle of unrelated ideas on slips of paper", and, "instead of tossing them in a hat and choosing a few topics as the focus of his story, [he] grabbed the whole hat." Fforde's quirky writing style has led to comparisons with other notable writers, most frequently Douglas Adams,for similar "surrealism and satire", and Lewis Carroll, for similar "nonsense and wordplay". Reviewers have also made comparisons with other authors, including Woody Allen, Sara Paretsky, and Connie Willis. One critic wondered if Fforde was more "Monty Python crossed with Terry Pratchett, or J.K. Rowling mixed with Douglas Adams."

The novel was praised for its fast-paced action, wordplay, and "off-centre humour." However, some reviewers did criticise it for "convoluted" plots and "dangling details", as well as inconsistent dialogue that "can veer from wittily wicked to non-sequitur" and minor characters that "drift in and out of scenes". Mary Hamilton of the The Guardian described the experience as "the page opens like a trapdoor and you simply fall through. The Eyre Affair takes that feeling, the moment you lose the sense of yourself and become engrossed in the story, and creates high adventure and wild drama around the porous boundaries between fiction and real life."

Has anyone read it? Should I take the plunge? It's the first of a series, so it would be a commitment...

[Frelga]

I never heard of it but that Wikipedia article sounds a bit too much like a PR piece. Still could be a good book, of course.

[Impenitent]

I agree, Frelga, which is why I'd like a recommendation from here

Failing that, I'll see if the sample download is adequate for an evaluation. I'll let you know!

[Jude]

I love the book, and the whole Thursday Next series. It has moments of sheer brilliance, and other times where he looks like he's just showing off his own cleverness, but those bits don't seriously detract from my enjoyment.

[Impenitent]

Thank you Jude! I'll queue it for reading as of now.

Posting on phone via Tapatalk

[Inanna]

Frustrated by not finding the books I want to read I am re-reading Amelia Peabody.


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Please bear with my typos & grammar mistakes. Sent from my iPhone - Palantirs make mistakes too.

[Impenitent]

That seems perfectly reasonable.

Posting on phone via Tapatalk

[Túrin Turambar]

There is a book that I heard great things about and had been meaning to read for a while, Beneath the Darkening Sky by Majok Tulba. Tulba came to Australia as a refugee from the civil war in Sudan in 2001 unable to speak English, and ten years later wrote this critically-acclaimed and prize-nominated novel about the experience of a child soldier in the war (there’s an article on the book here).

I found it at a second-hand bookshop today and began to read it on a long train trip, and I read almost the entire thing in one sitting. ‘Powerful’ is an over-used word when describing literature, but I really can’t find any other way of describing the effect of unimaginable horror being described through the simple perspective of a child. It is not an easy book to read, but I live in an area with many Sudanese refugees so I felt that I needed to read it to understand the challenges they have faced.

The book was published by Penguin, and as a curious connection, when I looked through the acknowledgements I saw that the same publishing director who accepted my book for publication was responsible for accepting this one.

[Nin]

Impenitent, I did not see it at the time, but I love the Thursday Next series! I read them all in German, though and wonder how it must be in English because the witty use of language in the German translation is short of marvelous. This is one book of which I doubt I might be able to read in English and fully understand it. But I read another Fforde book in English: Shades of Grey - nothing to do with 50 shades!!!!!!!!! I absolutely adored this one too, but there is still no sequel. I regularly check for the sequels, as plan to read them as soon as possible - that might mean that my next Thursday Next book might be in English.

The Wikipedia Summary does not do the book justice, imho. (And yes, FForde does sometimes show off. But I think his mind is just so overflowing with imagination that he can't sop himself.)

Someone I enjoy almost that much is a German fantasy author, Walter Moers. I don't know how the translations are. He is a genius.

[Jude]

I agree about Shades of Grey - it's totally unlike anything else he's ever written: a completely serious book about a dystopian future. He's named the next two books in the series, but I keep waiting for him to produce the next sequel.

It's good to hear that his unique style translates well into German.

[Impenitent]

I didn't think to come back earlier to report on Thursday Next; I have read it and also the next one, Lost In a Good Book, and have just downloaded The Well of Lost Plots, but currently reading To Shape The Dark, which I'm enjoying enormously (but frustrated that these are short stories...I like my stories to be very looooooong ), so clearly the Thursday Next books get an enthusiastic thumbs up!

Túrin, that sounds like an engrossing read, though very dark. I think I'd need to read it in summer - in winter, the gloom of shorter days and less light oppresses my spirits and I turn to reading matter that can lift me (or at least distract me).

I enjoy memoir very much, and most of my editing work is with memoir, so I'll note it for the future.

[Jude]

Anyone read Stephen Baxter? I read a blurb from Pratchett calling him "the UK's finest writer of hard SF". High praise indeed coming from Pratchett.

Also, what is "hard Science Fiction"?

[Alatar]

Its pretty much SciFi where they've done the maths and can logically prove their science.

[Maria]

Or... more concerned that the techno babble makes sense and less than usual concern for character development.

[Primula Baggins]

Actually, there are quite a few SF writers turning out great hard SF that also has well-developed characters. I'd recommend Greg Bear and Kim Stanley Robinson, among others.

I'd define it as SF that contains no technology or phenomena that are inconsistent with the currently accepted (by scientists!) understanding of physical reality. That certainly excludes my published SF, and any I'm likely to publish, because it essentially excludes any form of interstellar travel that's useful in an adventure story—meaning that people can travel from one star to another well within their own lifetimes, and the story can be set on more than one world.

But I really respect the writers who play with the net up.

[Inanna]

I've only read "long earth", nothing by Stephen Baxter alone. Although that series does not read much like Pratchett....

[Jude]

Based on Pratchett's quote, I guess that he chose to collaborate with him because he had such a high respect for his writing. So I'm wondering whether to check out any of his books that were not a collaboration with Pratchett. It seems that no one here has read any of those?

[Primula Baggins]

Not me. He's written a lot, but it hasn't come up on my radar for some reason.

[Impenitent]

Nope, I haven't read anything by him beyond the Long Earth series (which I found unsatisfying, to be honest. Writing is good, characters are rounded, the world building is interesting, but it felt...thin).