The Woman Who Died a Lot

August 27, 2012
Fforde (One of Our Thursdays is Missing) continues to show that his forte is absurdist humor in his seventh crime thriller starring Thursday Next, a member of the Literary Detectives division of Special Operations in an alternate-universe Britain. This time, itâs 2004, and Next is about to have a crowded week, even by her standards. As she puts it, it âbegan with a trip into Swindon in order to find myself a job and ended with a pillar of cleansing fire descending from the heavens, a rethink on the Wessex Library Service operating budget, and my son shooting Gavin Watkins dead.â Meanwhile, Britain is attempting to manage a stupidity surplus: âhe nationâs stupidityâusually discharged on a harmless drip feed of minor bunglingâhad now risen far beyond the capacity of the nation to dispose of it in a safe and sensible fashion.â Toast has become the newest fad food, spawning a popular chain of topless toast bars known as Tooters. Such details help flesh out this endearingly-bizarre fantasy world limited only by Ffordeâs impressive imagination. Agent: Will Francis, Janklow & Nesbit U.K.

September 1, 2012
The seventh romp through time, space, and literary arcana for beleaguered superheroine Thursday Next (One of Our Thursdays is Missing, 2011, etc.). Thursday's going through a bad patch. She's walked with a cane since a botched assassination attempt. She's lost the chance to head up SO-27, the Special Ops Network, to Phoebe Smalls, and has been made chief librarian at the Wessex All-You-Can-Eat-at-Fatso's Drink Not Included Library Service instead. She frets over the kidnapping of her daughter, Jenny, who's nothing more than a mind worm planted in her memory by her nemesis, Aornis. Her son Friday, who expected to be one of the Chronoguard elite and repeatedly rescue civilization, has received a Letter of Destiny telling him that he'll kill Gavin Watkins and spend the next 40 years in prison. Her genius child Tuesday is having difficulty producing a shield that will annul the asteroid-smiting scheduled to descend on Swindon in a day or so. And every so often, Thursday realizes she isn't herself anymore, but a Day Player, one of several synthetic replicas of herself let loose by Krantz in violation of the Unlicensed Nonevolutionary Life-Forms on the Mainland Act. Are Goliath, the scourge of the world conglomerate, and Jack Schitt, intent on planetary domination, responsible for any of this? Not the immediate problem, as Thursday must first figure out why racy 13th-century novels of St. Zvlkx are being vandalized, deal with Enid Blyton aficionados who favor the very unpolitically correct versions of her works, and escort the Righteous Man to the smite zone, where his presence will skew the incoming smite further out of town. Looming on the horizon is the dreaded confrontation with the Dark Reading Matter. Literary know-it-alls will cackle over the reappearance of Millon de Floss, the Hay-on-Wye reference, and the notion that books and their upkeep really matter. Those less addicted to puns, time warps, and intergalactic humor will reach for the Excedrin.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2012

In her next outing, seventh in Fforde's outrageously inventive series, Bookworld enforcement officer Thursday Next returns home to Swindon to recuperate after an assassination attempt. But all is not well with her children. Wistfulness with the fun; the ten-city tour says it all.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2012
Feeling her age after the attempt on her life in One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (2011), Thursday Next has left the BookWorld for the RealWorld, where she accepts a job as head of the Wessex All-You-Can-Eat at Fatso's Drinks Not Included Library Service. Life as a librarian is far from dull, however: her old nemesis, Jack Schitt, is stealing pages from books written by St. Zvlkx, the patron saint of Swindon; her son, Friday, a laid-off ChronoGuard worker, is destined to murder someone, which could prevent him from saving the world in the future; and, in the present, downtown Swindon is scheduled for a smiting by a recently revealed, all-powerful deity (yes, it's a He)unless Thursday's daughter Tuesday can finish the Anti-Smite Shield in time. Matters are further complicated by a mindworm, a half-dozen Synthetic Thursdays, and the possible existence of Dark Book Matter. As always, Fforde makes this wacky world perfectly plausible, elucidating Ffordian physics with just the right ratio of pseudoscientific jargon to punch lines. It's a dazzling, heady brew of high concept and low humor, absurd antics with a tea-and-toast sensibility that will appeal to fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse alike. Fforde is ffantastic!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2012

Still recovering from injuries received in the line of duty, literary cop Thursday Next is anticipating a promotion in this seventh series entry (after One of Our Thursdays Is Missing) but instead finds herself being put out to pasture as--gulp--a librarian! However, this is Fforde's book-mad alternative England, where few are as respected as the heavily armed librarians in charge of the nation's tomes. But some woes are universal, and Thursday must face massive budget cuts while also contending with problems at home with her children (one of whom doesn't actually exist), a continuous stream of doppelgangers trying to replace her, and the reappearance of her archenemy, Jack Schitt. Together, the Next family struggles to prevent not only the destruction of their hometown via an actual religious smiting but also an apocalyptic event not due for another 37 years. Strap in and hang on tight, because the timeline is as linear as a wet noodle. VERDICT Another winner for fans and lovers of sf, time travel, puns, allusions, and all sorts of literary hijinks. [See Prepub Alert, 4/16/12.]--Devon Thomas, DevIndexing, Chelsea, MI

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.