Something Rotten

Jasper Fforde (author)

Hodder & Stoughton, UK: 2004; 393pp

ISBN: 0340825944

Genres: adventure, fantasy, humour, science fiction

Tired of working for Jurisfiction where chasing Page Runners, counselling irate characters, destroying grammasites, and filling in for Joan of Arc while she attends a Martyr's Refresher Course are part of the daily grind, Thursday decides that she wants to return to the comparative boredom of her old job as a Literary Detective.

Two years after her retreat to an unpublished novel in the Well of Lost Plots, where all fiction is created, Thursday Next returns to the Real World, determined to un-eradicate her husband, Landen Parke-Laine, and introduce him to their son, Friday.

Life has moved on in her absence, however. In the two years she has been gone, Yorrick Kaine, a dangerous politician whom she thought she'd defeated at the end of Lost in a Good Book, is well on his way to becoming a self-declared Dictator. The matter of the illegal cheese-smuggling incident is still being held against her. Worst of all, the evil corporate giant, Goliath, has decided to become a ‘faith-based organisation' in order to avoid paying salaries. And Thursday's father assures her that if the Swindon Mallets don't win the World Croquet Superhoop then the world will end three weeks later.

Can Thursday prevent Armageddon - again? Can she discover who is cloning Shakespeare in time to save Hamlet being merged with The Merry Wives of Windsor? Is there any way to convince the Neanderthals to help the Swindon Mallets win the Superhoop?

Jasper Fforde's maverick sense of humour combined with an incredible cast of borrowed characters (Emma Hamilton, Admiral Nelson, Herr Bismarck, Hamlet, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, the Cheshire Cat et al) make his writing a must for all bibliophiles. In a style that has elements of both the bizarre surreality of Alice in Wonderland and the logical chaos of Douglas Adams, Jasper Fforde has created his own dimension of fiction, where pun, wit and whimsy are the norm.

Exceptionally funny, these novels need to be read several times to make sure you've picked up all the intertextual references.

Highly recommended.