Having recently fulfilled my life-long dream of owning a used bookshop, I now feel it is time that I share some of my bookish thoughts with those who might be interested. It is my goal to write a weekly piece that shares some aspect of my book experiences. Topics will range from books I have read to books I wish to read. There will also be some pieces about book related places that I have visited, favorite book podcasts, and/or anything that I want to write about and can tightly or loosely link to books.
The first writer I want to share with you is Jasper Fforde. He is British and you will come to find that many of the writers I share are British. His books are humorous and fantastical and ingenius. They are a delightful ingenious mix of fantasy and science fiction and mystery. I am not sure how I discovered his writing. I think I googled “Terry Pratchett read alike” and his named popped up.
The first of Fforde’s series that I read is called Thursday Next. Thursday Next, is a Special Operative in literary detection. Thursday Next, the detective, investigates literary crimes. When someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from Bronte’s book, Thursday faces the case of her career. If you enjoy fantasy, science fiction, mystery, or literature, or a combination of these then you should enjoy this series. Fforde’s ingenious fantasy unites intrigue with English literature in a delightful witty way.
His other works include a mystery series that takes place within the world of nursery rhymes. The Big Over Easy is the first mystery set in a fairy tale world with a Humpty Dumpty type character. The Fourth Bear is the second title in this seriesset loosely on the Goldilocks story.
Fforde’s third series is set in a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing. Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can red but no other color, just shades of grey. But the world was not always like this. And things get interesting when Eddie falls in love with a Grey Nightseer girl. Imaginative, funny, tightly plotted and satirical, this novel is for those who want to visited somewhere wild, a world where the black and white of moral norms have been reduce to black and white.
There is also a young adult fantasy series from Ffordecalled the Chronicles of Kazam. It is a world where magic is losing its value but a young teen starts a company to return magic to its glory. He also wrote some standalone works. One involves a world where humans should hibernate through safely through winters but as you can imagine that does not always happen. Another book involves a world where there are 1.2 million human-sized rabbits living in the UK. They wear clothes and can walk, talk and drive cars. The result of an anthropomorphizing event years earlier. The Constant Rabbit is a blend of satire, fantasy and thriller. It is just one more amazing creation of Jasper Fforde.
I hope you consider reading one of his books and enjoy them as much as I do.
Mark
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