Amph I Fell Into the Well of Lost Plots- Jasper Fforde Ffans

July 2007

First Among Sequels

It is fourteen years since Thursday Next pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and the Special Operations Network has been disbanded. Using Swindon's Acme Carpets as a front, Thursday and her colleagues Bowden, Stig and Spike continue their same professions, but illegally.

Of course, this front is itself a front for Thursday's continued work at Jurisfiction, the Policing agency within the bookworld, and she is soon grappling with a recalcitrant new apprentice, an inter-genre war or two, and the inexplicable departure of comedy from the once-hilarious Thomas Hardy books.

As the Council of Genres decree that making books interactive will boost flagging readership levels and Goliath attempt to perfect a trans-fictional tourist coach, Thursday find herself in the onerous position of having to side with the enemy to destroy a greater evil that threatens the very fabric of the reading experience.

With Aornis Hades once again on the prowl, an idle sixteen-year-old son who would rather sleep in than save the world from the end of time, a government with a dangerously high stupidity surplus and the Swindon Stiltonistas trying to muscle in on her cheese-smuggling business, Thursday must once again travel to the very outer limits of acceptable narrative possibilities to triumph against increasing odds.


- from Jasper Fforde's website

Sounds delightfully insane. I'm looking forward to it.

 

Ooo fun!!! Thomas Hardy, "funny" *snickers* I just read Hardy . . .

 

The departure of comedy from the once hilarious novels of Thomas Hardy. I'm laughing already.

 

The Fourth Bear Cast:

Peter Wingfield as Jack Spratt

[image=http://www.peterwingfield.com/images/PeterWingfield1.jpg]

Nothing's changed, Madeleine. I'm still the same Jack Spratt.

You might have told me you weren't real!

I am real! In a collective-consciousness, post-modern zeitgeisty sort of way!

Paul Bettany as Constable Ashley

[image=http://www.movieguide.co.nz/images/pics/Paul%20Bettany.jpg]

If you're trying to invite me home for sex on a first date, I don't have a penis, so you might be a bit disappointed. Then again, you haven't got a 1010111010101, so I might be too.

Kate Winslet as Mary Mary

[image=http://eur.i1.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/xp/premiere_photo/20050905/20/2412093256.jpg]

No, no, you've got it all wrong. Paul Peck is the Palmer Park Peck; Peter Peck is the pockmarked Peck from Pembroke Park. Pillocks. I'd placed a pound on Pippa Piper picking PC Percy Procter from Pocklington.

It seems a very laborious setup for a pretty lame joke, don't you think?

Yes, I really don't know how he gets away with it.

Dominic Monaghan as Charlie Baker

[image=http://spinstersandlunatics.50megs.com/images/monaghan_thedavenport.jpg]

The sniffling's nothing. Do you want to see my rash?

Rachel Weisz as Gretel Brown-Horrocks

[image=http://z.about.com/d/jewelry/1/7/2/8/rachel_weisz.jpg]

Gretel.

What?

You're a woman . . .

I know this.

 

Jim Broadbent as Alan Mandible

[image=http://www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/jimbroadbent/jimprof1b.jpg]

I'm sorry, when I said 'nuthouse,' I meant 'secure hospital.'

Hugo Weaving (voice) as The Gingerbreadman

[image=http://www.freewebs.com/hugoweaving/main.jpg]

Eight paces, then.

You said ten earlier.

Did I?

Yes.

Well, let's not be small about it. Ten it is.

Sam Neill as Superintendant Briggs

[image=http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/media/R/richardandjudy/guest_gallery/guest_gallery/sam_neill.jpg]

This isn't a plot device number twenty-seven, is it?

Jude Law as David Copperfield

[image=http://www.bloggers.it/CARRIE/itcommenti/Jude%20Law%204.jpg]

The other three orderlies who accompanied him are critical in the hospital.

Critical?

Yes. Don't like the food, beds uncomfortable, waiting lists too long - usual crap.

Sharon Small as Madeline Spratt

[image=http://www.metroactive.com/metro/09.06.06/gifs/inspector-0636.jpg]

Punch and Judy are . . . PDRs.

I thought they might be.

You did? How? How did you know? What, was it something they said? The way they walked? What?

It was probably something to do with their heads being made of painted papier-mache.

 

I'm sorry, when I said 'nuthouse,' I meant 'secure hospital.'



What's Hugo Weaving been in?

 

He was Smith in The Matrix and Elrond in the Lord of the Rings.

 

Elrond!! That's where I saw him

 

I discovered Jasper Fforde last October. I read the four Thursday Next books in two weeks. They are incredibly entertaining and bizarre and funny. I read The Fourth Bear next because my local library didn't have The Big Over Easy. Then I finally found a copy at another library. These books are so great. His website is great, too.

I can't wait until the next thursday next book comes out. In July, right?

 

I believe so

 

The release of First Among Sequels now has set dates:

July 5 in the UK
July 23 in the States

I can hardly wait. I just hope I can find it.

 

Ooo, I need to catch up, then.

 

I hope my local library gets a copy of First Among Sequels soon.

 

Just finished it

Oh my lord. No spoilers from me of course I just didn't realise how much I had missed Thursday & Co. Seems to always happen that, no matter how busy things are, when the book is purchased it's finished just a few hours later. I haven't checked out all of the special bonus material just yet, however.

 

I loved it Working at a Booktastic! megastore myself, even funnier - we are now selling socks for goodness sake! Exploding cheese and vampire slaying! I love Spike.

 

*is incoherent with joy*
Perhaps the word I'm looking for is SQUEEEE! I adored the TN books from the first chapter of TEA, which I still think is the best of the series, but that is probably heavily influeced by my amazement that a novel could exist which makes postmodernism not only enjoyable but utterly hysterical. *cough*The character names*cough*
Unfortunately I lent TEA and WOLP to a fried who was studying them in English and they appear to have migrated very permanently to the Text Sea. If only I had a Prose Portal, so I could extract Acheron Hades and point him in the direction of my unfortunate friend...Or I could just move to Tursday's world for good, but I'd want my revenge first.

Rogue, your casting is giving me an intertextual headache - which is entirely a compliment. I essentially concur with everyon else on Dench, Brosnan, McKellen, Branagh (as Hamlet and Col. Next - "Time is out of joint! *grins*) etc. etc., so I won't repeat it. The computer generated ones are a challenge - it probably could be done and they are all so perfectly cast that suggesting an alternative is almost impossible.

What about switching Kate Winslet and Sharon Small? There is some logic to the madness: inverting the roles minimises he "typecast" issue of Small being in Inspector Lynley and would give Winslet a totally different role to the ones she usually plays. Also I think Fforde makes a very specific point about Thursday being perfectly ordinary in appearence, so that she doesn't fall into the attractive heroine cliche trap, which is more easily avoided using Small instead of Winslet. Of course the flipside of the argument is the need for chemistry between Thursday and Landen and Acheron, (not all three at once )which is much more credible using Winslet.
Decisions, decisions....

 

I just finished First Among Sequels. Sad to see the ChronoGuard go, but the book did not disappoint. Jasper gets funnier and wittier with each new novel. I was pleased to learn that FAS is the first of four new Thursday Next books.

X-14...hahaha.

 

I read First Among Sequels on my plane back from California a few weeks ago. I loved all the genreography talk, and the antics of Racy Novel. Truthfully, it got to be a little bit too self-referential for my tastes by the end, but it was still madly hilarious. Definitely worth reading.

I think that Jasper Fforde should write a TN book where she has to go inside a graphic novel. There have got to be some old Superman comics from like, the 40's or something that have passed out of their original copyright. I'm not sure how it all works, but I think it would be quite hilarious.

 

I was sad to see the whole SpecOps network demolished, but on the other hand it did bring some metaphorical fresh air into the series and was exactly the sort of major change Fforde needed to keep the books interesting. Since I'm studying astrophysics I was very fond of the Chronoguard and all their paradoxes. *sniff* No more time-travelling knight errant roles for Colonel Next...I mean Hamlet...no, wait. Damn Rogue's perfectly self-referential casting.

On the topic of self-referentiality, I thought it was clever to make the fictional Thursday books completely different to the actual ones, which avoided too much sentimentality. (Don't you always find that if an author suddenly starts referring to minor events in their debut novel it's an excellent indicator of lack of originality? *cough*HP7*splutter* Not so here!) All the same, I would have liked it more if Thurs5 had been the villain instead of 1-4. Does anyone else think that would have been plausible?

Four? Was this from Fforde's website, or is it just a rumour? I seriously hope it's true.

 

Apologies for double post - edit time expired.
According to Jasper's website:

So, which Thursday will be missing?

 

Unlocked and upped.

I finally finished The Fourth Bear the other day. Loved it. As usual, I was dazzled with Fforde's ability to tie such seemingly unelated strings together.

Fforde's next book, Shades of Grey, is coming out in July 2009.

Apparently this will be all original characters, no literary classics or PDRs. But still plenty of silliness.

 

I'll read anything by Fforde. This series sounds like it will be as zany as his other two series. Can't wait.

 

I read The Erye Affair several years ago but I never got any further, despite checking the other three out of the library. I want to go back and re-read now that I'm a few years older (and now that I've read Jane Erye, which should add to my enjoyment).

Are the other books in the series good? And what does everyone think of him writing more in the series - quit while you're ahead, or yay, there're more coming?

 

I reread The Erye Affair - I read it years ago, but never got around to the seequels (which I plan to remedy now). I know Crystena is reading Fforde as well - has anyone else? He's a really funny guy - not my usual cup of tea, but very enjoyable nonetheless.

 

Where to begin...I love Jasper Fforde's books!

The Eyre Affair is one of my favorite books. I remember reading it and going to the bookstore upset that there weren't more books out there like this.

I'm just finishing Well of Lost Plots and have the next book as well. Since it takes so long for his books to come out, I try to take my time.

I loved the Nursery Crimes series and read them before Well of Lost Plots, which made me enjoy that book even more.

I love those two series.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, after I was done with Shades of Grey, I wanted to physically take that book and punt it. I will not be continuing that series.

His new book - The Last Dragonslayer looks awesome. His notes about that book on the site are hysterical. Can. Not. Wait.