Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next Books, #2)

by Jasper Fforde

Thursday Next, literary detective and newlywed, is back to embark on an adventure that begins, quite literally on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. The sinister Goliath Corporation wants its operative Jack Schitt out of the poem in which Thursday trapped him, and it will do almost anything to achieve this - but bribing the ChronoGuard? Is that possible? Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday must battle corrupt politicians, try to save the world from extinction, and help the Neanderthals to species self-determination. Mastadon migrations, journeys into Just William, a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies, and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan. But whose? And why?

• ISBN10: 0340874325
• ISBN13: 9780340874325
• Publish Date: 18 July 2002
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Out of Print: 20 April 2005
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

‘Bad boy!’ she added in a scolding tone. The Tasmanian tiger looked crestfallen, sat on its blanket by the Aga and stared down at its paws. ‘Rescue Thylacine,’ explained my mother. ‘Used to be a lab animal. He smoked forty a day until his escape. It’s costing me a fortune in nicotine patches. Isn’t it, DH-82?’

This is such a clever book and there ere are so many quotable passages, but the problem is that may favourite parts contain spoilers of either this book or of pretty much any classic work of literature worth reading.

I really admire the level of detail and research that Fforde put into this book, but I didn't think it lived up to the enjoyment of the first book, The Eyre Affair, tho. Maybe the novelty of Thursday's world has worn off a bit already, maybe the incessant puns and jokes were just a bit too much.

However, Thursday is still one of the best protagonists out there - kickass and kind.

The only real problem I have with this book is that it was so obviously written with the idea to continue the story in book #3 and therefore doesn't even attempt to be a standalone story - which makes me feel somewhat cheated and tricked into having to get the next book to find out what happened to my favourite characters.

I NEED TO KNOW THAT THE EGG IS OK!

Seriously, not cool, Mr. Fforde. But I guess, now I know how Scott's or Dickens' readers must have felt when they had to wait for the next installments of their stories.

And, yeah, I obviously am still in denial that Harry Potter worked the same way - except that I wanted to read the other books for their own sake, not to find out what happened to one particular character.

Ugh.

(Changed my mind about the rating and going to go with 3*, not 3.5*.)

[Eve1972]

Another great read, I even think I may have enjoyed this one a bit more then the first and I LOVED that one!! Looking forward to books three through five of this series!!