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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Jasper Fforde

14:55 / 09.08.02

Don’t recall seeing any posts about this chap’s books on the ‘lith, so thought I’d start something. Apparently his first novel was something of a bestseller, and as I’ve just started in on the second one, thought it might be the time….

Anyway. His first novel was ‘The Eyre Affair’. To simplify it to an appalling degree, it dealt with literary detective Thursday Next and her attempts to track down arch-villain Acheron Hades, who has started kidnapping characters from the original manuscripts of fiction, thus removing them from all other copies of the works. Added to this, Next has to deal with interference from the blatantly corrupt Goliath corporation (whose logos etc appear on the title page of the book itself), and problems with her time-travelling father, as well as various discussions of who wrote Shakespeare’s plays. Oh, and did I mention that all this takes place in an alternate 1980s timeframe, where literature is revered as celebrity is in our world, and where the Crimean war still goes on to this day? Well, that too.

Can’t tell you too much about ‘Lost in a Good Book’, the follow-up, yet, as I’m only 65 pages in, but I’m enjoying that just as much. There are some nice lines (one about the government anti-vampire squad accidentally staking a goth struck me as oddly plausible), and some almost Monty Python moments : “…you see, Shakespeare never wrote on lined paper with a ballpoint, and even if he did, I doubt he would have had Cardenio seeking Lucinda in a Range Rover” (p.31).

People have made Douglas Adams comparisons, but with the anti-corporate stuff, and subplots about Wales (where the author lives) being an independent state, I think there’s a bit more of a political edge to it, not to knock Adams.

Anyway : anyone else read any of these ? What did you think ?

DBC

17:10 / 09.08.02

I loved both, as light amusing reading.

But they are NOT sci-fi, and I get extremely infuriated with the comparison to Adams. OK, so Adams is hardly doing sci-fi - but there have been several people on Fforde's forum complaining that it's not very much like Adams.

It's not meant to be. Yes, the alternate timeframe is most amusing, etc, etc, but it's the literary gags that make it. There's an especially good one-liner about Tristram Shandy in the second one that made me laugh an unseemly amount, purely beacuse, well, I know exactly what he means. And I just feel a lot of people the books are being marketed to are going to miss many of the best gags, especialy in the second one. The second one's a lot more refined - subtler jokes, more interesting concepts, and fantastic pacing. I can't spoil it as Dave hasn't finished it, but basically, the second one throws lots of things up in the air and doesn't come at you with the pace of the first one - it's a lot cleverer than that, and resolves some plots whilst leaving several others hanging. Unlike, say, Harry Potter, which has an urge to tidy up after itself all the time.

I strongly recommend Fforde's website, simply because of its forums, links to SpecOps and Swindon Tourism Board sites, and the remarkable photos Jasper gave away as freebies at book signings - photos of missing dodo signs, the Goliath chocolate spanner, etc. Oh, and Thursday's car, which he actually owns (a sixties Porsche speedster decorated in red green and blue Escher chameleons).

So yes. They're rather fun, especially if you're the kind of person they'll appeal to. It's only like Adams in its "quirky peculiar British take on alternate realities and humour". It's not as irksomely quotable, thankfully. And there are lots and LOTS of things left for repeat reading - picking up on stuff like all the characters names (the staff at Swindon SpecOps, in case anyone didn't notice, have a roll-call like the Shipping Forecast - it's all very silly but neatly not-too-obvious). Jurisfiction, the big thing of the second book, is marvellous - it just takes a while to get to it. And the escape from the bank vault is genius. Finally - notice there's no chapter 13...

Very fun, if you like your classic fiction, then, but not going to be a bombshell, and I fear many people miss out on the full experience.

08:28 / 12.08.02

Many thanks for not spoiling it; appreciate that – and the link to the website, which is a lot of fun, as you say.
And you know, I hadn’t noticed the absence of Chapter 13 at all…

DBC

10:49 / 02.09.02

I just read the first one on hols and am about 100 pages into the follow-up.

Thought The Eyre Affair was pleasantly diverting, a bit silly, but quite intelligent. Some good concepts, and a nice "fictionverse" plot always gets me going.

Absolutely appalled by the crap punny character names, though, to the point where they get in the way of the story. Mr Kannon and Mr Phodder? Dedmen and Walken? Millon De Floss? Fer fuck's sake.

First book tightly-plotted and fun. Second one so far strikes me as some agent saying: "Hey, this book's selling well! Bang out another one in three weeks if you can, JJasper."

And I notice that the back of the second book advertises a third. Ack.

Second one slow moving so far, but I'm willing to stick with it.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

15:06 / 02.09.02

Interest declared: Jasper's a mate.

I love 'em.

15:42 / 03.09.02

If he's your mate, perhaps you could drop a word in his shell-like about the fact that he shouldn't be capitalising the first F in his surname (unless it's a joke about poncy surnames, in which case I apologise).

16:01 / 03.09.02

And why not invite him here to get involved in the other thread?

We're The Great Old Ones Now

07:19 / 04.09.02

KCC: I tend to think that if Jasper wants to spell his name with a silent 'Q', that's his business. And I'd really rather not get into the 'toff' surname thing, if you don't mind. It's not a discussion I'm terribly enthusiastic about.

Sax: have you actually read the title of this thread? Barbelith can be a little raw. But since I've mentioned the place to him in the past, it's possible he reads us occasionally.

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:55 / 04.09.02

KCC: I tend to think that if Jasper wants to spell his name with a silent 'Q', that's his business...

Although the possible mispronunciations of "FFQorde" might suggest it to be tactically unwise....

We're The Great Old Ones Now

09:26 / 04.09.02

I never said it was pretty.

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:17 / 06.11.02

Have just started The Eyre Affair. I got copies of it and Lost In A Good Book from work, as nobody here seemed to want them. More fool them. Light stuff, yes, but enough Knowing Wink stuff to make it fly.

And come on! The crap names are good!

15:52 / 07.11.02

I had to read both books after Nick posted this - sorry, this - and enjoyed them both a great deal. The ideas and a lot of the situations are great, and I love the way the mundane and the absurd or fantastic are combined, especially when the fantastic has nothing to do with either magic or sci-fi.

On the down side, I think I either expected or wanted something a bit drier, perhaps slightly more downbeat and less throw-away, and I would have liked to have seen some of the ideas expanded upon, to have had the world described more fully. And I thought that too many characters shared the same personality: 'posh but chummy, robust and down-to-earth' - think Two Fat Ladies. The way everyone took just about everything with a pinch of salt; that became quite irritating. I don't know whether it was the writing style or the characters but I was reminded many times of Hugh Grant comedies, or anything which features well-spoken people swearing a lot. But for someone who is more interested in the ideas than the character or style, these are minor complaints, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

[nosey sod] So, Nick, just how close are you, as friends? And how come? [/nosey sod]

22:50 / 07.11.02

Plock.

07:33 / 26.06.03

Well, I've just got The Well of Lost Plots, the third Thursday Next adventure. Only a few pages in, and mostly it's just recapping at the moment, but expecting more of the same fun.

Some nice Jurisfiction ads at the back of the book, along with a page promising "Thursday Next will return in July 200$".

Oops. Belated spoiler alert. I guess Thursday doesn't die in this book then. But we kind of guessed that.

19:10 / 29.06.03

Sax, I hate you. Jealousy. Jealousy. Feel the jealousy.

The Return Of Rothkoid

11:18 / 30.06.03

See, I really liked the Fforde books. Then I read English Music by Peter Ackroyd and got the Big Tony "eeey... waitaminute!" feeling...

Hmph.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

13:01 / 30.06.03

I don't suppose we could change the title of this thread? I sort of shudder every time I read it.

13:00 / 01.07.03

Well, it's been changed. Ah well, that'll teach me... something.

Anyway, the third one is out ? Paperback ?

14:48 / 01.07.03

Trade paperback. Tenner. Actually, not sure if it's out just yet, because as a Smug And High-Ranking Grand Wizard Of The Fourth Estate I got an advance review copy.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

14:59 / 01.07.03

Sorry, Sax, but it's in your shops now - and £2 off at Books Etc. ...

20:06 / 01.07.03

Have you read it yet, Nick? Given your "special relationship" with the author?

We're The Great Old Ones Now

21:45 / 01.07.03

*grin*

No - bought it this morning, but am just a leetle busy until the 9th, so I ought not to read it until the deadline has passed; on this occasion, I really cannot fuck about, the time's very tight.

Sorely tempted, though.

Still sulking because I told Jasper he didn't have to write anything funny in my copy of 'Eyre Affair' - so he didn't. Gosh darn it. Mind you, Chris Manby wrote something so bizarre in my copy of "Flatmates" that I can't remember what it was, God help me. Almost as bad as that photo shoot in 'Red'...