Thursday, May 28, 2009

First Among Sequels

First Among Sequels is the latest (fifth) book in Jasper Fforde's brilliant Thursday Next series. I read the first four years ago so really should have re-read them before moving on to this one, but I didn't, so there.

I won't say too much about the plot, but I will say that if you love books and haven't read this series then you're really missing out. Thursday Next lives in a world where moving between reality and fiction is possible - she can literally jump into a book and hang out with the characters. Cool eh? The stories always include some trouble in the book world - someone has kidnapped Jane Eyre, someone is trying to kill Sherlock Holmes etc.

All the books are also a commentary on various aspects of our modern world - including politics, war, consumerism and the decline of reading. This latest one also includes some thoughts on reality tv, which were hilarious. And a bit scary, because they're so close to the truth.

Fforde's use of language is delightful - loads of plays on words and clever phrasing. I think many of you book bloggers would love these books! Highly recommended.

Challenges: Numbers Challenge

5 comments:

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I just read the first one not too long ago and really look forward to continuing in the series. Are they all closely related or did was the big time lapse between readings not a big deal?

joanna said...

Hi Trish - it's not really a big deal, you still get everything, but I really didn't remember anything of the first couple books and could have used some background... Depends on how much time has lapsed, I'd say!

Lezlie said...

I haven't read this series, but I love Fforde's Nursery Crimes books.

Lezlie

Mari said...

I love this series! So much fun. The Nursery Crimes books are great too. :)

Kailana said...

It's taking me so long to read this series that I should probably reread before carrying on... but, I probably won't!