What do you think?
Rate this book
Thursday Next #3
The Well of Lost Plots
Protecting the world's greatest literature — not to mention keeping up with Miss Havisham — is tiring work for an expectant mother. And Thursday can definitely use a respite. So what better hideaway than inside the unread and unreadable "Caversham Heights", a cliche-ridden pulp mystery in the hidden depths of the Well of Lost Plots, where all unpublished books reside? But peace and quiet remain elusive for Thursday, who soon discovers that the Well itself is a veritable linguistic free-for-all, where grammasites run rampant, plot devices are hawked on the black market, and lousy books — like "Caversham Heights"— are scrapped for salvage. To top it off, a murderer is stalking Jurisfiction personnel and nobody is safe — least of all Thursday.
381 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Jasper Fforde
51 books12.5k followersFforde began his career in the film industry, and for nineteen years held a variety of posts on such movies as Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro and Entrapment. Secretly harbouring a desire to tell his own stories rather than help other people tell their's, Jasper started writing in 1988, and spent eleven years secretly writing novel after novel as he strove to find a style of his own that was a no-mans-land somewhere between the warring factions of Literary and Absurd.
After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.
Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.
Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.
In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.
His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.
Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.
Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)
Series:
* Thursday Next
* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey
After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.
Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.
Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.
In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.
His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.
Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.
Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)
Series:
* Thursday Next
* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,156 reviews
July 12, 2020
The continuity is big in this one and the later parts of the series keep referring to the happenings before, just that it gets more complicated than usual because of the parallel world theme.
The title alone says much about the idea of the reality of created universes and how, in this case the satirizing of the crime genre, it can be put in scene. It shows how conventions ruled genres over decades, that there once were strictly written conventions for everyone who wanted to get published and that we are just now coming to a point were genre lines are becoming more and more flexible to explore new dimensions of literature.
A highlight was the idea to create devices to control reading, plotting, and creating, changing, and imagining books to a dimension that is some kind of a fantasy AR/VR experience with fantasy elements and realism that goes a bit too far because it can get dangerous.
Imagining to be really able to enter those worlds, to have authorities that control the borders to those parallel universes, is something many might have already dreamt of, but Ffjorde was one who used it for world building and not just as an element of a stereotypical story. How he plays with the living tools of creative writing as characters is of such ingenuity I could just jay about it all day.
I could go on fanboying about all the creativity, innuendos, depth,… but I will instead just speak out a very heavy reading recommendation, as this series is even getting better and better and although the entry is a bit difficult because it´s so unconventional, it´s totally worth it.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
The title alone says much about the idea of the reality of created universes and how, in this case the satirizing of the crime genre, it can be put in scene. It shows how conventions ruled genres over decades, that there once were strictly written conventions for everyone who wanted to get published and that we are just now coming to a point were genre lines are becoming more and more flexible to explore new dimensions of literature.
A highlight was the idea to create devices to control reading, plotting, and creating, changing, and imagining books to a dimension that is some kind of a fantasy AR/VR experience with fantasy elements and realism that goes a bit too far because it can get dangerous.
Imagining to be really able to enter those worlds, to have authorities that control the borders to those parallel universes, is something many might have already dreamt of, but Ffjorde was one who used it for world building and not just as an element of a stereotypical story. How he plays with the living tools of creative writing as characters is of such ingenuity I could just jay about it all day.
I could go on fanboying about all the creativity, innuendos, depth,… but I will instead just speak out a very heavy reading recommendation, as this series is even getting better and better and although the entry is a bit difficult because it´s so unconventional, it´s totally worth it.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
April 30, 2023
Book Review
3 of 5 stars to The Well of Lost Plots, the third thriller and mystery book in the "Thursday Next" series written in 2003 by Jasper Fforde. For those new to the series, it's a detective story where crimes occur inside books, and real-life people can jump inside the book to fix the problem or solve the crime. In book 3, things take a bit of a turn... Thursday, the main investigator, needs some down time, and goes to the "Well of Lost Plots," where unpublished books go to die. But crimes and murders start happening there too... and it's confusing poor Thursday because she doesn't understand who would care about a book that hasn't been published yet having its story changed! (Not sure how I feel about that as a writer myself...) But then she's trapped inside a story she doesn't know much about. That can be scary. The series is complex, full of fantasy and drama you never quite understand. The concept of the well of lost plots is delicious, but it made things even more complicated. It was here that I decided to stop reading the series as it started going over my head a little bit. I felt silly and inept! I may go back soon to pick it up again, as I've never read another series of books like it... and this one takes the cake of all 3 I've read to date. Hope you enjoy.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.
[polldaddy poll=9729544]
[polldaddy poll=9719251]
3 of 5 stars to The Well of Lost Plots, the third thriller and mystery book in the "Thursday Next" series written in 2003 by Jasper Fforde. For those new to the series, it's a detective story where crimes occur inside books, and real-life people can jump inside the book to fix the problem or solve the crime. In book 3, things take a bit of a turn... Thursday, the main investigator, needs some down time, and goes to the "Well of Lost Plots," where unpublished books go to die. But crimes and murders start happening there too... and it's confusing poor Thursday because she doesn't understand who would care about a book that hasn't been published yet having its story changed! (Not sure how I feel about that as a writer myself...) But then she's trapped inside a story she doesn't know much about. That can be scary. The series is complex, full of fantasy and drama you never quite understand. The concept of the well of lost plots is delicious, but it made things even more complicated. It was here that I decided to stop reading the series as it started going over my head a little bit. I felt silly and inept! I may go back soon to pick it up again, as I've never read another series of books like it... and this one takes the cake of all 3 I've read to date. Hope you enjoy.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.
[polldaddy poll=9729544]
[polldaddy poll=9719251]
May 17, 2008
I’m sad to say I didn’t enjoy this book anywhere near as much as the first two in the series. While I think Fforde’s choice to set the action almost entirely in the Bookworld was an intriguing one, I also got the sense he was in over his head.
Like many of the partially completed books in the Well of Lost Plots, there is a great amount of creativity on display here, but also a lot of half-baked ideas and poorly developed characters. The action took place in so many different settings and with such a huge cast of characters that I never felt entirely grounded within either the story or the people in it. The book just seemed to be going in too many different directions at one time, and while a good chunk of the tale was resolved by the ending, there were enough loose ends left lying about I couldn’t tell what had been set up for the next book and which he had just sort of forgotten about.
That said, I did still enjoy the copious literary references, the smart humor, and Fforde’s unusual way of musing about the process of creating books. But the experience was unsatisfying enough I’m not sure I’ll continue. Die-hard Next fans: does the fourth one get any better?
Like many of the partially completed books in the Well of Lost Plots, there is a great amount of creativity on display here, but also a lot of half-baked ideas and poorly developed characters. The action took place in so many different settings and with such a huge cast of characters that I never felt entirely grounded within either the story or the people in it. The book just seemed to be going in too many different directions at one time, and while a good chunk of the tale was resolved by the ending, there were enough loose ends left lying about I couldn’t tell what had been set up for the next book and which he had just sort of forgotten about.
That said, I did still enjoy the copious literary references, the smart humor, and Fforde’s unusual way of musing about the process of creating books. But the experience was unsatisfying enough I’m not sure I’ll continue. Die-hard Next fans: does the fourth one get any better?
October 4, 2021
① It is a scientifically proven fact that if you love books, literature and words but haven't yet read this series then your life is naught but a slightly huge failure.
② I promised my little nefarious self that I wouldn't share every single glorious, Super Extra Creative (SEC™), hilarious, Most Supremely Witty (MSW™), original idea featured in this book, but I failed miserably, so there. You are, of course, quite welcome and stuff.
Miss Havisham 😍😍 + St Tabularasa's Generic College for basic character training + the Character Exchange Program + 'Does sarcasm work with other things or is it only fish?' + outlanders vs bookpersons + St Zvlkx™ + Jurisfiction + mass junkfootnoterphones + getting Oedipius off the incest charge + Agatha Christie finishing school + backstories built to order (painful childhood a much sought-after specialty), ReadZip™ + Courrier Bold speech + stolen freeze-dried Plot Devices + Emperor Zhark and his devastatingly destructive death rays + shops that sell dastardly plans for world domination, and fresh ideas for murder, revenge, extortion and other general mayhem (a dream come true that) + dismal failures at verb resource management + has anyone seen Godot, by any chance? + Great Expectations and the little strumpets in it+ Verminators and Verbisoids and Converbilators, oh my + anchovy trifle (don't ask) = Sorry, what? You need a break, you say? Oh, sure. No problem and stuff.
That bad, huh? After only a few miserable lines? You sure don't have the most resilient of dispositions, puny humans.
So. Back on track let's get.
Holesmiths and bloopholes + unionized nursery rhyme characters (aka pains in the whatsit) + the Text Sea Environment Protection Agency and dangerously low reserves of the letter "U" + punctuation theft and the last chapter of Ulysses + OralTradPlus and ClayTablet V2.1 + the gentle comedy of manners known as Titus Andronicus + Procrastination 1.3 and Writer's Block 2.4 viruses + where the bloody fish is Godot, anyway?! + Wuthering Heights rage counselling sessions + subtext classes + the Council of Genre Plot Adjustment Subcommittee + Ultraword™ and PageGlow™ and SpineTitle™, oh my + small armies of Mrs Danvers + carrots that misspell into parrots + you need another break, you say? Well that's just too bad, isn't it? + the Narrative Continuity Code + serial ad-libbers + the Tom Jones index (not this Tom Jones, in case you were wondering) + Rabbit Grand Central and Eject-O-Hats + the Anti-Misspelling Fast Response Group + “Vonnegut does it all the time” + Miss Havisham getting fed up of pussyfooting around =
👋 To be continued and stuff.
· Book 1: The Eyre Affair ★★★★★
· Book 2: Lost in a Good Book ★★★★★
· Book 4: Something Rotten ★★★★★
· Book 5: First Among Sequels ★★★★
· Book 6: One of Our Thursdays is Missing ★★★
· Book 7: The Woman Who Died a Lot ★★★★
· Book 8: Dark Reading Matter - to be published
[June 2013]
I just read The Well of Lost Plots for the second time and I loved it as much as I did when it first came out. Fforde seems to be having an idea a minute and the book is as wacky as the other instalments and packed with creative ideas. Definitely one of my favourite in the series!
[November 2005]
Thursday Next's wacky adventures in the BookWorld continue, a brilliant book!
② I promised my little nefarious self that I wouldn't share every single glorious, Super Extra Creative (SEC™), hilarious, Most Supremely Witty (MSW™), original idea featured in this book, but I failed miserably, so there. You are, of course, quite welcome and stuff.
Miss Havisham 😍😍 + St Tabularasa's Generic College for basic character training + the Character Exchange Program + 'Does sarcasm work with other things or is it only fish?' + outlanders vs bookpersons + St Zvlkx™ + Jurisfiction + mass junkfootnoterphones + getting Oedipius off the incest charge + Agatha Christie finishing school + backstories built to order (painful childhood a much sought-after specialty), ReadZip™ + Courrier Bold speech + stolen freeze-dried Plot Devices + Emperor Zhark and his devastatingly destructive death rays + shops that sell dastardly plans for world domination, and fresh ideas for murder, revenge, extortion and other general mayhem (a dream come true that) + dismal failures at verb resource management + has anyone seen Godot, by any chance? + Great Expectations and the little strumpets in it+ Verminators and Verbisoids and Converbilators, oh my + anchovy trifle (don't ask) = Sorry, what? You need a break, you say? Oh, sure. No problem and stuff.
That bad, huh? After only a few miserable lines? You sure don't have the most resilient of dispositions, puny humans.
So. Back on track let's get.
Holesmiths and bloopholes + unionized nursery rhyme characters (aka pains in the whatsit) + the Text Sea Environment Protection Agency and dangerously low reserves of the letter "U" + punctuation theft and the last chapter of Ulysses + OralTradPlus and ClayTablet V2.1 + the gentle comedy of manners known as Titus Andronicus + Procrastination 1.3 and Writer's Block 2.4 viruses + where the bloody fish is Godot, anyway?! + Wuthering Heights rage counselling sessions + subtext classes + the Council of Genre Plot Adjustment Subcommittee + Ultraword™ and PageGlow™ and SpineTitle™, oh my + small armies of Mrs Danvers + carrots that misspell into parrots + you need another break, you say? Well that's just too bad, isn't it? + the Narrative Continuity Code + serial ad-libbers + the Tom Jones index (not this Tom Jones, in case you were wondering) + Rabbit Grand Central and Eject-O-Hats + the Anti-Misspelling Fast Response Group + “Vonnegut does it all the time” + Miss Havisham getting fed up of pussyfooting around =
👋 To be continued and stuff.
· Book 1: The Eyre Affair ★★★★★
· Book 2: Lost in a Good Book ★★★★★
· Book 4: Something Rotten ★★★★★
· Book 5: First Among Sequels ★★★★
· Book 6: One of Our Thursdays is Missing ★★★
· Book 7: The Woman Who Died a Lot ★★★★
· Book 8: Dark Reading Matter - to be published
[June 2013]
I just read The Well of Lost Plots for the second time and I loved it as much as I did when it first came out. Fforde seems to be having an idea a minute and the book is as wacky as the other instalments and packed with creative ideas. Definitely one of my favourite in the series!
[November 2005]
Thursday Next's wacky adventures in the BookWorld continue, a brilliant book!
August 3, 2010
5.0 to 5.5 stars. I liked this book so much that when I finished it I had to really wonder whether I should go back and re-read the first two books in the series (which I have 4 stars and 3 stars respectively). The writing was absolutely superb, the plot was engaging and very original and the literary references hysterical. I found myself more than once jumping to Wikipedia to find out from which book a particular character or reference originated.
A few fun examples (1) a rage counseling session for the characters of Wuthering Heights, (2) Miss Havisham from Great Expectations in a contest with Mr Toad (from The Wind in the Willows) to set the land speed record and (3) King Solomon as head of the Jurisfiction's Arbitration Department.
In a world of cookie cutter fantasy and science fiction, Jasper Fforde has created something that is truly original. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!
A few fun examples (1) a rage counseling session for the characters of Wuthering Heights, (2) Miss Havisham from Great Expectations in a contest with Mr Toad (from The Wind in the Willows) to set the land speed record and (3) King Solomon as head of the Jurisfiction's Arbitration Department.
In a world of cookie cutter fantasy and science fiction, Jasper Fforde has created something that is truly original. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!
October 3, 2010
In which my irritation at this series reaches a boiling point.
I had an odd reaction to the two previous Thursday Next novels, a curious mixture of subtle enjoyment and distinct annoyance. The enjoyment came from the fact that I’m a man who loves books and they were distinctly literary reads. But there was also a huge amount of quirkiness (never a quality I particularly like) and an arch ‘oh-isn’t-this-soooo-clever!’ self-satisfaction to the proceedings. There were points in the previous books where I laughed, but also points when I wanted to hurl my copy hard into the nearest brick wall. It’s rare that a series can walk such a fine tightrope, but ‘The Well of Lost Souls’ marks the point where I – at least – fell off.
The previous books split Thursday Night’s adventures between the real world (which is in fact a fantasy version of our world) and the world of books – where she can interact with great characters from fiction. The ‘real world’ stuff contained most of the plot, while the stuff set in books worked as amusing little sketches. In this volume however it’s all set in the book world, so its sketch after sketch, knowing reference after knowing reference, beloved character behaving oddly after beloved character behaving oddly. There is no grounding, nothing to reign in the silliness – it’s just wackiness built on wackiness until I really wanted to scream.
One of the most irritating things is how lazy it all seems. You have to hand Fforde bouquets for his inventiveness, but the clever jokes and ideas he comes up with are never developed into anything else. So we have Mr Toad in an automobile race against Miss Haversham; rage counselling sessions in ��Wuthering Heights’; and ‘Macbeth’ retold for Yeast. All very silly stuff which doesn’t really go any further than those brief descriptions I’ve just given you. There are numerous instances of sketches revealing their points in the first few lines, but staying on for page after page and hammering those points to death. Probably the nadir is a retelling of the trial scene from ‘Alice in Wonderland’, which lacks all of Carroll’s true invention and adds absolutely zero to the original. (After awhile it reminded me of those little comic asides in the cartoon series ‘Family Guy ‘ – a show I remain ambivalent to. They are pointless, silly and not even half as funny as they would like to be.)
And yet within this superficial silliness, Fforde actually asks us to care. But how can one really care when the Miss Haversham of this book finds herself in jeopardy? All we have to do is open ‘Great Expectations’ and there she is again. And the Miss Haversham of this novel isn’t so well developed as a character away from Dickens that a reader would come to care for Fforde’s version instead. She – and many other literary figures – are just tossed in as throwaway jokes, but so little else is done with them that they remain pencil sketches of other author’s characters.
Though perhaps the most irritating thing of all is that throughout this book there seems to be a smug belief that this one of the cleverest and funniest novels anyone could ever read. The witty allusions, the literary knowledge and the endless, endless puns – you can almost hear the author slapping his back in congratulations at his own brilliance. Unfortunately this reader just found the whole thing incredibly tedious, and so even though the series goes on from here, I have now disembarked.
I had an odd reaction to the two previous Thursday Next novels, a curious mixture of subtle enjoyment and distinct annoyance. The enjoyment came from the fact that I’m a man who loves books and they were distinctly literary reads. But there was also a huge amount of quirkiness (never a quality I particularly like) and an arch ‘oh-isn’t-this-soooo-clever!’ self-satisfaction to the proceedings. There were points in the previous books where I laughed, but also points when I wanted to hurl my copy hard into the nearest brick wall. It’s rare that a series can walk such a fine tightrope, but ‘The Well of Lost Souls’ marks the point where I – at least – fell off.
The previous books split Thursday Night’s adventures between the real world (which is in fact a fantasy version of our world) and the world of books – where she can interact with great characters from fiction. The ‘real world’ stuff contained most of the plot, while the stuff set in books worked as amusing little sketches. In this volume however it’s all set in the book world, so its sketch after sketch, knowing reference after knowing reference, beloved character behaving oddly after beloved character behaving oddly. There is no grounding, nothing to reign in the silliness – it’s just wackiness built on wackiness until I really wanted to scream.
One of the most irritating things is how lazy it all seems. You have to hand Fforde bouquets for his inventiveness, but the clever jokes and ideas he comes up with are never developed into anything else. So we have Mr Toad in an automobile race against Miss Haversham; rage counselling sessions in ��Wuthering Heights’; and ‘Macbeth’ retold for Yeast. All very silly stuff which doesn’t really go any further than those brief descriptions I’ve just given you. There are numerous instances of sketches revealing their points in the first few lines, but staying on for page after page and hammering those points to death. Probably the nadir is a retelling of the trial scene from ‘Alice in Wonderland’, which lacks all of Carroll’s true invention and adds absolutely zero to the original. (After awhile it reminded me of those little comic asides in the cartoon series ‘Family Guy ‘ – a show I remain ambivalent to. They are pointless, silly and not even half as funny as they would like to be.)
And yet within this superficial silliness, Fforde actually asks us to care. But how can one really care when the Miss Haversham of this book finds herself in jeopardy? All we have to do is open ‘Great Expectations’ and there she is again. And the Miss Haversham of this novel isn’t so well developed as a character away from Dickens that a reader would come to care for Fforde’s version instead. She – and many other literary figures – are just tossed in as throwaway jokes, but so little else is done with them that they remain pencil sketches of other author’s characters.
Though perhaps the most irritating thing of all is that throughout this book there seems to be a smug belief that this one of the cleverest and funniest novels anyone could ever read. The witty allusions, the literary knowledge and the endless, endless puns – you can almost hear the author slapping his back in congratulations at his own brilliance. Unfortunately this reader just found the whole thing incredibly tedious, and so even though the series goes on from here, I have now disembarked.
November 10, 2022
Achtung, Spoiler für alle, die Band 1 und 2 noch nicht gelesen haben
Nachdem ihr Ehemann im letzten Teil „ausgelöscht“ wurde, versteckt sich Thursday Next im „Well of Lost Plots“ in einem unveröffentlichten Krimi. (Wie abgefahren muss sich das für Leute anhören, die diese Welt noch nicht kennen?) Natürlich kann sie dort nicht wie geplant in Ruhe ihre Schwangerschaft abwarten, bevor sie Landen rettet. Es geschehen alarmierende Dinge. Mehr möchte ich gar nicht über den Plot verraten, es ist wie seine Vorgänger ein beeindruckendes Zeugnis der Fantasie und Kreativität von Jasper Fforde, der es wohl nie müde wird, seiner literaturdominierten Welt weitere Aspekte und Details hinzuzufügen, die zusammen einen vergnüglichen Plot ergeben. Der dritte Teil kommt nicht ganz an The Eyre Affair ran, hat mir aber etwas besser gefallen als Teil 2. Die Reihe ist wahrlich ein Vergnügen, insbesondere für Bibliophile.
Nachdem ihr Ehemann im letzten Teil „ausgelöscht“ wurde, versteckt sich Thursday Next im „Well of Lost Plots“ in einem unveröffentlichten Krimi. (Wie abgefahren muss sich das für Leute anhören, die diese Welt noch nicht kennen?) Natürlich kann sie dort nicht wie geplant in Ruhe ihre Schwangerschaft abwarten, bevor sie Landen rettet. Es geschehen alarmierende Dinge. Mehr möchte ich gar nicht über den Plot verraten, es ist wie seine Vorgänger ein beeindruckendes Zeugnis der Fantasie und Kreativität von Jasper Fforde, der es wohl nie müde wird, seiner literaturdominierten Welt weitere Aspekte und Details hinzuzufügen, die zusammen einen vergnüglichen Plot ergeben. Der dritte Teil kommt nicht ganz an The Eyre Affair ran, hat mir aber etwas besser gefallen als Teil 2. Die Reihe ist wahrlich ein Vergnügen, insbesondere für Bibliophile.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 19, 2016
This one took a bit more time to get going than the previous two. The point wasn't really clear until a third of the way through, but that's not awful. It's a lot of fun just visiting this strange world - even stranger since most of this one was in the book world, not the 'real' one.
The book world provides so many wonderful opportunities for fun & humor. Mrs. Havisham, the depressing spinster from Great Expectations, loves to drive fast so it only makes sense she has a rivalry with Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows street racing whenever they can promote fast cars & spare the time.
The jokes about the classics are fantastic, too. Someone stole all the punctuation from the final chapter of Ulysses, but very few noticed since not many get that far. The few who did either thought the lack was a stroke of genius or didn't find it any less comprehensible than the rest.
The book is rife with characters wandering around causing trouble, but Thursday has enough personal problems of her own & there is some heartache in this otherwise light story. There is a big reveal in this book that wasn't all that surprising, but important. It was barely mentioned, so stay sharp. I expect it will be even more obvious in the next book since it makes a rather pointless character a lot more important & changes things.
This is a series written in chronological order so don't read this book first. Start with the first & work forward. It's great as an audio book. Very well narrated by Elizabeth Sastre. Her voice is perfect for Thursday who tells us what happened.
The book world provides so many wonderful opportunities for fun & humor. Mrs. Havisham, the depressing spinster from Great Expectations, loves to drive fast so it only makes sense she has a rivalry with Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows street racing whenever they can promote fast cars & spare the time.
The jokes about the classics are fantastic, too. Someone stole all the punctuation from the final chapter of Ulysses, but very few noticed since not many get that far. The few who did either thought the lack was a stroke of genius or didn't find it any less comprehensible than the rest.
The book is rife with characters wandering around causing trouble, but Thursday has enough personal problems of her own & there is some heartache in this otherwise light story. There is a big reveal in this book that wasn't all that surprising, but important. It was barely mentioned, so stay sharp. I expect it will be even more obvious in the next book since it makes a rather pointless character a lot more important & changes things.
This is a series written in chronological order so don't read this book first. Start with the first & work forward. It's great as an audio book. Very well narrated by Elizabeth Sastre. Her voice is perfect for Thursday who tells us what happened.
April 29, 2015
3rd BOOK IN THE "THURSDAY NEXT" SERIES. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS TWO BOOKS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. NO SPOILERS FOR THIS VOLUME (#3)
Thursday Next is a war veteran. She has traveled into books. She has worked for Special Ops. She has fought a Supreme Evil Being. Her skills and smarts are legendary.
Thursday Next is pregnant. The father, her husband Landon, is dead - eradicated by those Goliath Corporation bastards. They traveled back in time and killed him as a 2-year-old. It's only by sheer luck that Thursday still has their (her's and Landon's) child inside her.
Where can she go? Both Special Ops and Goliath are hunting her down. Goliath wants to keep her locked up and run experiments on her, to find out how she can travel in and out of books and how they can exploit that to take over the world. There's only one place where she can be safe from them - inside a book.
So Thursday sets up house in a third-rate unpublished detective novel, trying to stay safe through her pregnancy. She misses her husband fiercely. She gets a job working as a Apprentice Jurisfiction Agent.
Jurisfiction polices books. They fix misspellings, keep characters from rebelling, help settle strikers, kill Grammasites, etc. etc. Thursday's beloved mentor, introduced in the previous novels, Miss Havisham (from Great Expectations) is helping her become a full agent.
Other prominent characters that might seem familiar - Falstaff, Cheshire Cat, Minotaur, Marianne Dashwood, Heathcliff, the Red Queen, and Count Dracula. There are also a bunch of characters from unpublished novels, which is basically Fforde playing off tropes.
Fforde has more fun than seems possible. He provides an onslaught of puns and literature jokes. These books are tailor-made to people who love books, reading, and literature.
Thursday Next is an AMAZING female character. She is human. Fforde never lingers on her looks, sex appeal, or outfits. She gets sh*t done. She is smart, decisive, quick-thinking, witty, and knows how to use a gun. In this novel she's pregnant - and also running around saving the (book) world. She is very capable and strong-willed. She's great - and not because Fforde is TELLING us she's great, it's just in every action and word of hers. Great job of showing, not telling, Fforde. A great example of a good female character written well by a male author...it CAN be done.
I highly recommend this book to people who love literature. Fair warning - if you haven't read the classics (Austen, Poe, Shakespeare, Bronte, Carroll, Stoker, etc. etc.) you will not get some of the jokes. That's the only reason that this didn't get five stars from me. You really have to be well-versed in classic literature to get the full power of what Fforde is doing here. But it's obvious that Fforde is extremely intelligent with an amazing sense of humor.
This series, in my opinion, is better than HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE because it is just as funny, but also has high stakes and makes you feel for the characters.
P.S. There is a great, subtle Stephen King reference on page 79 that cracked me up.
Thursday Next is a war veteran. She has traveled into books. She has worked for Special Ops. She has fought a Supreme Evil Being. Her skills and smarts are legendary.
Thursday Next is pregnant. The father, her husband Landon, is dead - eradicated by those Goliath Corporation bastards. They traveled back in time and killed him as a 2-year-old. It's only by sheer luck that Thursday still has their (her's and Landon's) child inside her.
Where can she go? Both Special Ops and Goliath are hunting her down. Goliath wants to keep her locked up and run experiments on her, to find out how she can travel in and out of books and how they can exploit that to take over the world. There's only one place where she can be safe from them - inside a book.
So Thursday sets up house in a third-rate unpublished detective novel, trying to stay safe through her pregnancy. She misses her husband fiercely. She gets a job working as a Apprentice Jurisfiction Agent.
Jurisfiction polices books. They fix misspellings, keep characters from rebelling, help settle strikers, kill Grammasites, etc. etc. Thursday's beloved mentor, introduced in the previous novels, Miss Havisham (from Great Expectations) is helping her become a full agent.
Other prominent characters that might seem familiar - Falstaff, Cheshire Cat, Minotaur, Marianne Dashwood, Heathcliff, the Red Queen, and Count Dracula. There are also a bunch of characters from unpublished novels, which is basically Fforde playing off tropes.
Fforde has more fun than seems possible. He provides an onslaught of puns and literature jokes. These books are tailor-made to people who love books, reading, and literature.
Thursday Next is an AMAZING female character. She is human. Fforde never lingers on her looks, sex appeal, or outfits. She gets sh*t done. She is smart, decisive, quick-thinking, witty, and knows how to use a gun. In this novel she's pregnant - and also running around saving the (book) world. She is very capable and strong-willed. She's great - and not because Fforde is TELLING us she's great, it's just in every action and word of hers. Great job of showing, not telling, Fforde. A great example of a good female character written well by a male author...it CAN be done.
I highly recommend this book to people who love literature. Fair warning - if you haven't read the classics (Austen, Poe, Shakespeare, Bronte, Carroll, Stoker, etc. etc.) you will not get some of the jokes. That's the only reason that this didn't get five stars from me. You really have to be well-versed in classic literature to get the full power of what Fforde is doing here. But it's obvious that Fforde is extremely intelligent with an amazing sense of humor.
This series, in my opinion, is better than HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE because it is just as funny, but also has high stakes and makes you feel for the characters.
P.S. There is a great, subtle Stephen King reference on page 79 that cracked me up.
May 20, 2023
Grandios!
Natürlich nimmt Jasper Fforde den Leser nicht an die Hand,
zeigt ihm nicht all seine Easter Eggs
und erklären tut er die dem Leser schon gar nicht.
Den Grips zum Verständnis all dieser Andeutungen gibt es leider nicht an der Abendkasse, den muss der Leser schon selbst mitbringen. Insofern kann ich nachvollziehen, wenn der eine oder andere das Buch unbefriedigt wieder zugeklappte. Ich jedenfalls genoss es wieder und freue mich auf den nächsten Band.
Die Drei-Leser-Warnung, was für ein köstlicher Hieb auf unsere digitalisierte Buchwelt!
Natürlich nimmt Jasper Fforde den Leser nicht an die Hand,
zeigt ihm nicht all seine Easter Eggs
und erklären tut er die dem Leser schon gar nicht.
Den Grips zum Verständnis all dieser Andeutungen gibt es leider nicht an der Abendkasse, den muss der Leser schon selbst mitbringen. Insofern kann ich nachvollziehen, wenn der eine oder andere das Buch unbefriedigt wieder zugeklappte. Ich jedenfalls genoss es wieder und freue mich auf den nächsten Band.
Die Drei-Leser-Warnung, was für ein köstlicher Hieb auf unsere digitalisierte Buchwelt!
August 26, 2011
I was surprised to see how many people didn't like this one as much as the first two. Personally, I loved it. Interestingly though, before I launched into the Thursday next books, I had already read the 1st 2 of Fforde's ' Nursery Crimes’ series, which intersects loosely with the book world setting of this 3rd novel, and for me a large part of the reading pleasure here was in the cleverness of that intersection, And so perhaps that has some impact upon the way I read the book.
Like the previous 2 in the series, The Well Of Lost Plots is, if nothing else, a light-hearted romp (and yes, I do apologise for the cliche,) in this one Jasper Fforde is clearly having fun with, and exploring fully, the potential of both the characters and world he's created. For the reader with a keen eye for wordplay, passing interest in science, literature, and crime writing, and a healthy sense of the absurd, this book ticks all the boxes.
Or, at least, it did for me.
Like the previous 2 in the series, The Well Of Lost Plots is, if nothing else, a light-hearted romp (and yes, I do apologise for the cliche,) in this one Jasper Fforde is clearly having fun with, and exploring fully, the potential of both the characters and world he's created. For the reader with a keen eye for wordplay, passing interest in science, literature, and crime writing, and a healthy sense of the absurd, this book ticks all the boxes.
Or, at least, it did for me.
September 10, 2018
More and more disappointing, this series. The whole story sounded like an enormous and finally quite annoying backstage gossip. I think I've had enough of Thursday Next.
January 9, 2019
Utterly delightful!
Loved every page. It might have helped somewhat if I'd known originally that this was the third book in the series, but that didn't impact my enjoyment of the story.
I felt the plot was utterly original, and the characters, and the sub plots, and the Grammersites...
If you love reading, then this is the series for you. My imagination was blown away by the author's creative imagining of what happens inside of Well of Plots, and the likely graveyard of discarded verbs and nouns.
Once again, this book was so delightful, I'm fairly annoyed that the local library (where I'm currently staying), doesn't open again until tomorrow morning! I want to read more by this author!
Note: It only took this long to read because I'm away on holiday, and when I first checked this book out of the local library to read back in October, I didn't finish it before I had to return to Auckland. So I've read it in two parts!
Loved every page. It might have helped somewhat if I'd known originally that this was the third book in the series, but that didn't impact my enjoyment of the story.
I felt the plot was utterly original, and the characters, and the sub plots, and the Grammersites...
If you love reading, then this is the series for you. My imagination was blown away by the author's creative imagining of what happens inside of Well of Plots, and the likely graveyard of discarded verbs and nouns.
Once again, this book was so delightful, I'm fairly annoyed that the local library (where I'm currently staying), doesn't open again until tomorrow morning! I want to read more by this author!
Note: It only took this long to read because I'm away on holiday, and when I first checked this book out of the local library to read back in October, I didn't finish it before I had to return to Auckland. So I've read it in two parts!
June 2, 2021
SO CREATIVE!! I love this book and I love this series. ♥
July 19, 2008
I seem somewhat doomed to find series via a book somewhere in the middle. I'm sure it happens to everyone, but it -feels- like it happens to me a bit more often.
So... Except for people who find it accidentally, who'd read a review of this book? Likely someone who's interested in perhaps reading it... Who, I'd guess, would be someone who's already read the first two. So, this review's probably useless. None the less....
This book (as I'm sure is true for the rest of the series) is meant as something of a reader's book... Not casual, "I read two or three novels a year" readers... But Readers. If I could italicize or use bold face here, I would. By extension, since I imagine so many decent writers are Readers, it's also meant to be a Writer's book.
It's filled with inside jokes about plot development, scene construction, dialog conventions, exposition, character development, and so on.
Since it also takes place in "the book world" - the alternate dimension that fictional characters inhabit both while working and while "off duty" - there is also -loads- of business, name dropping, and inside jokery about other books.
The problem with this is that... Well... Have you ever been playing around with a group of friends who all saw the same film or read the same book as yourself, and all felt somewhat similar about it, and you go off on this big long tear about the possible interaction of the characters and what might have been and how -hilarious- that might have been? And, since you were in that group, and high on laughter, in that special way that laughter has of making everything else seem a little more funny... By the end of it, you're all in tears, laughing at just about -anything- but... If you showed it to a stranger, or could even view it yourself a month later without the benefit of having been there, it might not be nearly so compelling.
So... I felt that a lot of the references to other books were a bit... Overdone. The quick references in passing, I enjoyed very much. a few lines with Rudyard Kipling's Painted Jaguar in the elevator... Quite nice. Bits of conversation between Shakespeare's Beatrice and Benedick were simply brilliant in the authenticity they carried over. But, for me, the anger management session with all the characters from Wuthering Heights, working through their seething hatred of Heathcliffe just seemed to drag on, and on, and on...
All told, I'm happy I read it, and I will read the others when the opportunity arises... I just wish the author would keep the inside jokes quick and to the point.
So... Except for people who find it accidentally, who'd read a review of this book? Likely someone who's interested in perhaps reading it... Who, I'd guess, would be someone who's already read the first two. So, this review's probably useless. None the less....
This book (as I'm sure is true for the rest of the series) is meant as something of a reader's book... Not casual, "I read two or three novels a year" readers... But Readers. If I could italicize or use bold face here, I would. By extension, since I imagine so many decent writers are Readers, it's also meant to be a Writer's book.
It's filled with inside jokes about plot development, scene construction, dialog conventions, exposition, character development, and so on.
Since it also takes place in "the book world" - the alternate dimension that fictional characters inhabit both while working and while "off duty" - there is also -loads- of business, name dropping, and inside jokery about other books.
The problem with this is that... Well... Have you ever been playing around with a group of friends who all saw the same film or read the same book as yourself, and all felt somewhat similar about it, and you go off on this big long tear about the possible interaction of the characters and what might have been and how -hilarious- that might have been? And, since you were in that group, and high on laughter, in that special way that laughter has of making everything else seem a little more funny... By the end of it, you're all in tears, laughing at just about -anything- but... If you showed it to a stranger, or could even view it yourself a month later without the benefit of having been there, it might not be nearly so compelling.
So... I felt that a lot of the references to other books were a bit... Overdone. The quick references in passing, I enjoyed very much. a few lines with Rudyard Kipling's Painted Jaguar in the elevator... Quite nice. Bits of conversation between Shakespeare's Beatrice and Benedick were simply brilliant in the authenticity they carried over. But, for me, the anger management session with all the characters from Wuthering Heights, working through their seething hatred of Heathcliffe just seemed to drag on, and on, and on...
All told, I'm happy I read it, and I will read the others when the opportunity arises... I just wish the author would keep the inside jokes quick and to the point.
August 31, 2017
I do enjoy Thursday Next more with each installment. In this story, Thursday is on loan to Jurisfiction and is under the supervision of Miss Havisham. She is struggling to keep Landon in her memories so that she can eventually bring him back and he can be with her and the child she is carrying.
As with the other Thursday Next books, there are puns and literary situations galore. Benedict and Beatrice are on the Jurisfiction force and in typical form. When Jurisfiction has roll call, Godot never seems to be present. . .Hmmm, curious.
I must confess that despite my avid reading habits, there are some references that I do not recognize. It was also frustrating that the mobilefootnoterphone links did not work in my Kindle version, so I ended up reading them at the end. Any which way, I still found the story to be entertaining and will most likely check out #5 in due course. I do really want her and Landon to be together again!
As with the other Thursday Next books, there are puns and literary situations galore. Benedict and Beatrice are on the Jurisfiction force and in typical form. When Jurisfiction has roll call, Godot never seems to be present. . .Hmmm, curious.
I must confess that despite my avid reading habits, there are some references that I do not recognize. It was also frustrating that the mobilefootnoterphone links did not work in my Kindle version, so I ended up reading them at the end. Any which way, I still found the story to be entertaining and will most likely check out #5 in due course. I do really want her and Landon to be together again!
March 23, 2017
DNF at 70% The title is supposed to be a description of the location of most of the book. Lost plots and generic characters abound, unfortunately what it really describes is the book itself. Overly clever, steeped in literary geekdom and lame, in your face, characterizations. Not much to like about this book even Thursday was a miss. 2 stars for a few scattered funny moments and Thursday's gran.
November 30, 2022
Jasper Fforde continues to enthrall me with his imagination.
February 1, 2018
*****3.5*****
This is an interesting continuation of Thursday's story. Now, she's living in the Book World, planning to stay and rest for a year until she has her baby, when she'll return to the Outland and continue trying to bring Landen back.
The beginning of the book moves verrrrry slowly. Some of the conflicts that will come to a head at the end of the book are introduced, but they are just blurbs at first. Most of the "action" consists of Thursday meeting and interacting with other Jurisfiction members and the characters in the book she's living in, Caversham Heights. The "conflicts" she encounters with Grammasites and a giant cat named Big Martin are quickly resolved within the chapter they're introduced. An ongoing subplot with two Generics is interesting--Thursday names them ibb and obb, and they are boring and characterless until they begin school and start to take on names and personalities. While this is entertaining, it's not exactly a novel.
The main thread that continues from beginning to end and that actually is a conflict, and one that continues from the earlier books, is Thursday's dream encounters with Aornis, Acheron's younger sister, who wants to avenge her brother's death. She's a mnemonomorph, someone who can go into people's memories, creating a mindworm, and change their memories of life events, even removing the memories completely. She and Thursday battle in Thursday's dreams several times, and Granny Next visits the Book World to help her granddaughter through this significant trial.
Finally, several suspicious deaths occur, mostly towards the middle of the novel, and that story line builds until the end, where it becomes the other major conflict.
I enjoyed this book because it's about books. If it weren't for the allusions and the humor, I would have lost interest. The end does pick up, though, and it becomes more like the first two novels in the series, which are filled with action, even to the point of being convoluted with various plots and subplots. They were cups of coffee with double shots of espresso. This book, by comparison, is a cup of herbal tea with a slight hint of flavor at the back.
Still, I liked it enough to want to move on to book four, eventually. I'm curious what will happen when Thursday returns to the Outland, and honestly, I really want to know what is going to happen with Landen!
I recommend this book only to fans of the first two, although you could start here and wouldn't be missing much. The important parts of earlier books are actually rehashed quite well in this third book of the series, so you could get into the Book World and its characters without missing much. I did keep forgetting who other characters were, especially the Jurisfiction agents, mostly because I read the second book so long ago, but it didn't matter. The action and resolution of the conflict spoke for themselves.
As a side note, with some modifications, I think that UltraWord would be a great reading system! Fforde's imagination is unparalleled. He makes these books fun because he thinks of things that any reader could think of or wish for, but he actually puts them into words and creates a novel from them. It's impressive but also, again, very fun!
This is an interesting continuation of Thursday's story. Now, she's living in the Book World, planning to stay and rest for a year until she has her baby, when she'll return to the Outland and continue trying to bring Landen back.
The beginning of the book moves verrrrry slowly. Some of the conflicts that will come to a head at the end of the book are introduced, but they are just blurbs at first. Most of the "action" consists of Thursday meeting and interacting with other Jurisfiction members and the characters in the book she's living in, Caversham Heights. The "conflicts" she encounters with Grammasites and a giant cat named Big Martin are quickly resolved within the chapter they're introduced. An ongoing subplot with two Generics is interesting--Thursday names them ibb and obb, and they are boring and characterless until they begin school and start to take on names and personalities. While this is entertaining, it's not exactly a novel.
The main thread that continues from beginning to end and that actually is a conflict, and one that continues from the earlier books, is Thursday's dream encounters with Aornis, Acheron's younger sister, who wants to avenge her brother's death. She's a mnemonomorph, someone who can go into people's memories, creating a mindworm, and change their memories of life events, even removing the memories completely. She and Thursday battle in Thursday's dreams several times, and Granny Next visits the Book World to help her granddaughter through this significant trial.
Finally, several suspicious deaths occur, mostly towards the middle of the novel, and that story line builds until the end, where it becomes the other major conflict.
I enjoyed this book because it's about books. If it weren't for the allusions and the humor, I would have lost interest. The end does pick up, though, and it becomes more like the first two novels in the series, which are filled with action, even to the point of being convoluted with various plots and subplots. They were cups of coffee with double shots of espresso. This book, by comparison, is a cup of herbal tea with a slight hint of flavor at the back.
Still, I liked it enough to want to move on to book four, eventually. I'm curious what will happen when Thursday returns to the Outland, and honestly, I really want to know what is going to happen with Landen!
I recommend this book only to fans of the first two, although you could start here and wouldn't be missing much. The important parts of earlier books are actually rehashed quite well in this third book of the series, so you could get into the Book World and its characters without missing much. I did keep forgetting who other characters were, especially the Jurisfiction agents, mostly because I read the second book so long ago, but it didn't matter. The action and resolution of the conflict spoke for themselves.
As a side note, with some modifications, I think that UltraWord would be a great reading system! Fforde's imagination is unparalleled. He makes these books fun because he thinks of things that any reader could think of or wish for, but he actually puts them into words and creates a novel from them. It's impressive but also, again, very fun!
May 24, 2008
I slogged through most of the first fifth or so of this book; I preferred Thursday in her “real” world of the first two books. I was concerned that this third book wouldn’t be as enjoyable as I’d expected it would be. I ended up loving it though, and laughed as much as I did while reading the first two books, and cared as much about Thursday and certain other characters as much as well.
This book was kind of all over the place more than the first two books in the series, but there were so many wonderful tidbits. One of my favorite was the explanation for the difference between the American vs. British spelling of words ending in or and our, such as labor vs. labour.
I was distressed by the elimination of one character, but assume I’ll have many others to enjoy in the remaining books in the series.
I’m one of those readers that reads absolutely every word on & in a book, and this is one book where some of the “extras” are part of the book and part of the fun.
I’m really enjoying this Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. He’s a genius.
This book was kind of all over the place more than the first two books in the series, but there were so many wonderful tidbits. One of my favorite was the explanation for the difference between the American vs. British spelling of words ending in or and our, such as labor vs. labour.
I was distressed by the elimination of one character, but assume I’ll have many others to enjoy in the remaining books in the series.
I’m one of those readers that reads absolutely every word on & in a book, and this is one book where some of the “extras” are part of the book and part of the fun.
I’m really enjoying this Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. He’s a genius.
March 22, 2021
Curiously, for a book that features the word plot on the cover, nothing of the sort can be found inside. Luckily for us, there is the usual brand of humour and wackiness from the first two books in the series. Thursday Next is hiding in Book World, trying to remember her husband, who has been eradicated, and learning how to be a Jurisfiction agent. It’s all very entertaining and gloriously weird, but that’s all there is to it in the first half. Then comes the merest hint of a plot which gradually coalesces into a finale that gathers together some half formed plot devices from earlier. It’s all a bit tenuous but at least it’s tremendously good fun.
October 7, 2009
There's something in me that wants to dislike these books, but I just can't. They are both absurd and ridiculously clever, and stuffed full of jokes that only a gramma(rfan) could love. I appreciate that Fforde explodes the formulae of every genre he skewers, refusing to return his characters to the starting block for the next book. I sometimes find everything a little too clever and self-congratulatory, and the quotes that start the chapters irritate me with their look-ma-no-exposition exposition, but some tiny detail usually comes along to redeem the book again.
Fun stuff.
Fun stuff.
October 18, 2008
I jumped right into "The Well of Lost Plots" after finishing "Lost in a Good Book". I think I'm ready for some other reading for a while.
"The Well of Lost Plots" was a pretty interesting book, and it was fun. But, there wasn't a lot of plot to it and it jumped around a lot. Once again, Thursday's primary problem remains unresolved. I hope it gets taken care of in the next volume.
Oh, and I think I need to read "Great Expectations".
"The Well of Lost Plots" was a pretty interesting book, and it was fun. But, there wasn't a lot of plot to it and it jumped around a lot. Once again, Thursday's primary problem remains unresolved. I hope it gets taken care of in the next volume.
Oh, and I think I need to read "Great Expectations".
April 5, 2024
Besilaukianti kūdikio Thursday ieško saugaus prieglobsčio. Tokiu tampa „Cavershamo kalvos“ – prastas detektyvinis romanas, esantis Prarastų Siužetų Šulinyje, vietoje, kurioje saugomi visos niekada neišleistos ir neskaitytos knygos. Bet jei manote, kad čia tai jau tikrai ramu – klystate. Čia iš po skverno prekiaujama siužeto posūkiais, siautėja gramazitai ir kitokia lingvistinė bjaurastis. Be to, niekas neatleido Thursday nuo stažuotės pas ponią Havisham. Na, o kai kažkas pradeda žudyti Jurisfiction agentus – darosi ir visai neramu. Juolab kad akivaizdu – žudiko taikiniu gali būti ir pati Thursday.
Trečioji ciklo knyga. Ir vėl truputį silpnesnė už ankstesniąją. Gelbėja vis tos pačios literatūrinės aliuzijos ir žaidimai, žaidimai, žaidimai. Na, ir čia dar papildomai gauname neblogą detektyvinę liniją. Tiesa, pabaigoje neišsiverčiama be dievo iš mašinos, tačiau Fforde bent jau pasirūpino tą mašiną pastatyti kažkur scenos kamputyje dar knygos pradžioje.
Pagrindinė – Thursday ištrintojo vyro arka praktiškai nejuda iš vietos, ir tai jau truputį erzina. Aš juk ėmiau knygą, kad sužinočiau, kaip ji išsispręs. Blogiausia, įtariu, kad ir ketvirtojoje dalyje Fforde sugebės išlaikyti ją užšaldytą. Bet čia nutinka truputį kaip su saulėgrąžomis – „dar vieną ir viskas“.
Tai imu ketvirtą. O šitai keturi. Silpnesni tokie, bet dar keturi.
Trečioji ciklo knyga. Ir vėl truputį silpnesnė už ankstesniąją. Gelbėja vis tos pačios literatūrinės aliuzijos ir žaidimai, žaidimai, žaidimai. Na, ir čia dar papildomai gauname neblogą detektyvinę liniją. Tiesa, pabaigoje neišsiverčiama be dievo iš mašinos, tačiau Fforde bent jau pasirūpino tą mašiną pastatyti kažkur scenos kamputyje dar knygos pradžioje.
Pagrindinė – Thursday ištrintojo vyro arka praktiškai nejuda iš vietos, ir tai jau truputį erzina. Aš juk ėmiau knygą, kad sužinočiau, kaip ji išsispręs. Blogiausia, įtariu, kad ir ketvirtojoje dalyje Fforde sugebės išlaikyti ją užšaldytą. Bet čia nutinka truputį kaip su saulėgrąžomis – „dar vieną ir viskas“.
Tai imu ketvirtą. O šitai keturi. Silpnesni tokie, bet dar keturi.
September 10, 2007
In this third book, Thursday Next goes for a small holiday in a poorly written and unpublished novel in the Well of Lost Plots within the Book World. While there, she ends up joining the Book World police (Jurisfiction) as an apprentice to the Dickens Great Expectations character Mrs Haversham.
As in the previous two novels, this one if full of funny dialogues and meetings with characters from some of the great classics (Dickens, Brontë and Verne are just a few).
The books really revolves around the making of literature; whereas Outlanders (ie we in the real world) think that authors are the creators of books, all in the Book World know that without the Generic Characters (who can be shaped into any personality type a plot would need), the Backstory Workshop, the holesmiths who fix holes in narratives, grammaticists who chase down grammacites and mispeling vyruses, Rage Control Meetings for the characters to prevent books such as Wuthering Heights from imploding, there would be no books.
Add to this the Villains and Monsters (including a Minotaur that runs amok and a quite sentimental Count Dracula) and you understand the need of the Book World police (Jurisfiction).
All in all the book is very entertaining for all its details and originality. However, the details are sometimes at the expense of the plot, which was something that book 1 and 2 suffered from too. I still highly recommend the series.
As in the previous two novels, this one if full of funny dialogues and meetings with characters from some of the great classics (Dickens, Brontë and Verne are just a few).
The books really revolves around the making of literature; whereas Outlanders (ie we in the real world) think that authors are the creators of books, all in the Book World know that without the Generic Characters (who can be shaped into any personality type a plot would need), the Backstory Workshop, the holesmiths who fix holes in narratives, grammaticists who chase down grammacites and mispeling vyruses, Rage Control Meetings for the characters to prevent books such as Wuthering Heights from imploding, there would be no books.
Add to this the Villains and Monsters (including a Minotaur that runs amok and a quite sentimental Count Dracula) and you understand the need of the Book World police (Jurisfiction).
All in all the book is very entertaining for all its details and originality. However, the details are sometimes at the expense of the plot, which was something that book 1 and 2 suffered from too. I still highly recommend the series.
August 8, 2012
Der dritte Teil der Thursday Next Reihe läßt mich ein kleines bisschen zwiegespalten zurück.
Einerseits bin ich begeistert wie nie über die theoretisch-philosophische Auseinandersetzung mit den Methoden der Gedankenübertragungstechnologien und die Rolle des Buchs in dieser Technologieentwicklung. Auch die geplante Einführung des neuen zentralen Betriebssystems in der fiktionalen Welt, weist einige spannende Parallelen zum heutigen Umbruch im Buchmarkt auf, ein paar Seitenhiebe auf die digitale Verwertungsrechtdebatte mit der 3-Leser-Regel konnte der Autor auch noch anbringen - herrlich!!!. Diese Grundidee ist von einer Qualität, die es in den ersten beiden Teilen noch nicht gab und so grandios, dass es eindeutig klar ist: Die letzten innovativen Ideen in Fantasie & Fiktion sind noch lange nicht aufgebraucht, im Gegenteil Fforde hat grad wieder einige neue erschaffen.
So traumhaft innovativ das Grundthema des Kriminalfalls und dessen Auflösung ist, die Nebenhandlungen um Thursday Next mit vielen Explosionen, Toten, verdächtigen Romanfiguren... haben mir etwas weniger gefallen. Dieser Action Bum-Bum Stil nutzt sich nun im dritten Band ein bisschen ab. Jaja für alle fanatischen Fans da draussen: Klar, das ist jammern auf hohem Niveau dennoch ziehe ich diesmal wieder ein Sternderl ab (sollte eigentlich nur ein halbes sein).
Fazit: Absolut empfehlenswert!
Einerseits bin ich begeistert wie nie über die theoretisch-philosophische Auseinandersetzung mit den Methoden der Gedankenübertragungstechnologien und die Rolle des Buchs in dieser Technologieentwicklung. Auch die geplante Einführung des neuen zentralen Betriebssystems in der fiktionalen Welt, weist einige spannende Parallelen zum heutigen Umbruch im Buchmarkt auf, ein paar Seitenhiebe auf die digitale Verwertungsrechtdebatte mit der 3-Leser-Regel konnte der Autor auch noch anbringen - herrlich!!!. Diese Grundidee ist von einer Qualität, die es in den ersten beiden Teilen noch nicht gab und so grandios, dass es eindeutig klar ist: Die letzten innovativen Ideen in Fantasie & Fiktion sind noch lange nicht aufgebraucht, im Gegenteil Fforde hat grad wieder einige neue erschaffen.
So traumhaft innovativ das Grundthema des Kriminalfalls und dessen Auflösung ist, die Nebenhandlungen um Thursday Next mit vielen Explosionen, Toten, verdächtigen Romanfiguren... haben mir etwas weniger gefallen. Dieser Action Bum-Bum Stil nutzt sich nun im dritten Band ein bisschen ab. Jaja für alle fanatischen Fans da draussen: Klar, das ist jammern auf hohem Niveau dennoch ziehe ich diesmal wieder ein Sternderl ab (sollte eigentlich nur ein halbes sein).
Fazit: Absolut empfehlenswert!
December 23, 2008
Absolutely amazing. I'm convinced that Fforde is one of the most brilliant authors writing fiction today.
The Well of Lost Plots, rather than being more of the same from the world of Thursday Next and Jurisfiction, is something fresh, still original, never boring, and simply... fabulous. I adore this series for so many reasons... not the least of which being that it, much like Harry Potter or Abarat, is too often viewed as a children's book when it (and the others) are really nothing of the sort.
The Well had plenty of violence and sadness scattered throughout. Sad moments in a fictional book about fictional characters are quite strange, somehow. Strange, but not bad.
In this volume, the idea of the Nursery Crimes series is introduced, and I can't wait to give them a whirl, too. I expect just as much joy from that series as from Thursday Next and her pseudo-autobiography.
Fforde has become a very important member of my beloved authors list... possibly even right up there beside Stephen King... and that's saying a lot.
The Well of Lost Plots, rather than being more of the same from the world of Thursday Next and Jurisfiction, is something fresh, still original, never boring, and simply... fabulous. I adore this series for so many reasons... not the least of which being that it, much like Harry Potter or Abarat, is too often viewed as a children's book when it (and the others) are really nothing of the sort.
The Well had plenty of violence and sadness scattered throughout. Sad moments in a fictional book about fictional characters are quite strange, somehow. Strange, but not bad.
In this volume, the idea of the Nursery Crimes series is introduced, and I can't wait to give them a whirl, too. I expect just as much joy from that series as from Thursday Next and her pseudo-autobiography.
Fforde has become a very important member of my beloved authors list... possibly even right up there beside Stephen King... and that's saying a lot.
Read
December 20, 2015Loved it. My favorite parts of this series are when Thursday's "in" a book and that's where she spent the majority of her time here, so I was in heaven.
"'Books,' said Snell, 'are a kind of magic.'"
Wordy review: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/122774...
"'Books,' said Snell, 'are a kind of magic.'"
Wordy review: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/122774...
April 3, 2020
Re-read as part of the #thursdaysareforthursday Instagram read along with @booksandfrogs
"'The Well of Lost Plots is where we interface the writer's imagination with the characters and plots so that it will make sense in the reader's mind. After all, reading is arguably a far more creative and imaginative process than writing; when the reader creates emotion in their head, or the colors of the sky during the setting sun, or the smell of a warm summer's breeze on their face, they should reserve as much praise for themselves as they do for the writer - perhaps more.'" ~ Akrid Snell (48)
Tired of running for her life, pregnant Thursday Next joins the BookWorld's Character Exchange Program, going to live in an unpublished detective story deep in The Well of Lost Plots. She only intends to stay for a year - long enough to have the baby and figure out a way to bring Landen back.
But the characters in the run of the mill "Caversham Heights" turn out to have feelings too; upset that their book is due for demolition, they want Thursday's help saving them from being reduced to text for recycling. Detective Jack Spratt takes Thursday's advice and attempts to go against his stereotypical "loner workaholic alcoholic" stereotype in an effort to improve the story's rating.
Meanwhile, Thursday's peace is interrupted by the arrival of two Generics who come to board on her flying boat while they attend St. Tabularasa's and try to figure out their personalities.
The boat is crowded, as Pickwick and her egg are nesting, and the indomitable blue-gingham clad Granny Next arrives via mysterious means to help Thursday remember Landen, as Thursday's mind and memories (the only place eradicated Landen now exists) are under attack from Aornis Hades.
Thursday continues her apprenticeship with the delightfully cantankerous Miss Havisham while trying to solve a series of Jurisfiction murders, and tracking down a rouge Minotaur.
The BookWorld is abuzz with the long awaited introduction of UltraWord, which will make reading a feast for the senses. But something isn't right and if UltraWord is introduced, there will be Terrible Consequences.
I really enjoyed learning more about The Well of Lost Plots, especially the marketplace and The Text Sea (featured in a great colour illustration in the front of this edition). My favourite book yet in the series! Very much looking forward to reading the next one.
"'The Well of Lost Plots is where we interface the writer's imagination with the characters and plots so that it will make sense in the reader's mind. After all, reading is arguably a far more creative and imaginative process than writing; when the reader creates emotion in their head, or the colors of the sky during the setting sun, or the smell of a warm summer's breeze on their face, they should reserve as much praise for themselves as they do for the writer - perhaps more.'" ~ Akrid Snell (48)
Tired of running for her life, pregnant Thursday Next joins the BookWorld's Character Exchange Program, going to live in an unpublished detective story deep in The Well of Lost Plots. She only intends to stay for a year - long enough to have the baby and figure out a way to bring Landen back.
But the characters in the run of the mill "Caversham Heights" turn out to have feelings too; upset that their book is due for demolition, they want Thursday's help saving them from being reduced to text for recycling. Detective Jack Spratt takes Thursday's advice and attempts to go against his stereotypical "loner workaholic alcoholic" stereotype in an effort to improve the story's rating.
Meanwhile, Thursday's peace is interrupted by the arrival of two Generics who come to board on her flying boat while they attend St. Tabularasa's and try to figure out their personalities.
The boat is crowded, as Pickwick and her egg are nesting, and the indomitable blue-gingham clad Granny Next arrives via mysterious means to help Thursday remember Landen, as Thursday's mind and memories (the only place eradicated Landen now exists) are under attack from Aornis Hades.
Thursday continues her apprenticeship with the delightfully cantankerous Miss Havisham while trying to solve a series of Jurisfiction murders, and tracking down a rouge Minotaur.
The BookWorld is abuzz with the long awaited introduction of UltraWord, which will make reading a feast for the senses. But something isn't right and if UltraWord is introduced, there will be Terrible Consequences.
I really enjoyed learning more about The Well of Lost Plots, especially the marketplace and The Text Sea (featured in a great colour illustration in the front of this edition). My favourite book yet in the series! Very much looking forward to reading the next one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,156 reviews