Library & Literary Miscellany

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde (2007)

Being as this book marks the fifth book into the Thursday Next series, one would imagine that Jasper Fforde might be running out of new ideas for his BookWorld and his characters. But that would be wrong thinking indeed as Thursday Next: First Among Sequels is every bit as inventive and delightful as the first four books in the series: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and Something Rotten. First Among Sequels is set 14 years after the last novel, Something Rotten, and, as usual, all is not right in the BookWorld and Thursday Next is needed to save the day.

To briefly, insomuch as possible, elucidate the world on which the series is based Fforde has basically created an alternate England where the BookWorld is more than just words on a page. Thursday works as a Jurisfiction literary detective for the Special Operations Network (or SpecOps); in this position, her raison d’etre is to investigate and correct anomalies in the literary world.

In First Among Sequels, Thursday, as usual, has quite a full plate what with her family problems, her issues with her proteges/replicas/clones, and the BookWorld dilemmas. To briefly elaborate:

• Family problems: Since SpecOps has been largely disbanded, Thursday has been working undercover as an Acme Carpets carpet layer. She has been omitting the truth about her daily activities to her struggling writer husband Landon. Her son Friday remains mired in the apathy of adolescence and shows no signs of embracing his predestined role as leader of the Chronoguard (the time travel force) anytime soon. One of her three children may not, in fact, exist. Her pet dodo Pickwick has lost its feathers and requires a knit sweater for warmth. Enough said.
• Protege/replica/clone issues: Thursday has had her adventures written up in a series of Thursday Next books which means that other versions of her exist in the BookWorld. Thursday has been charged with training both Thursday 5 (wimpy with a good heart) and Thursday 1-4 (nasty with plans of BookWorld domination) to become competent, productive agents of Jurisfiction.
• Bookworld dilemmas: There are many, but to name a few, the read rates are plummeting as the public gravitates to reality TV-watching, the Goliath corporation is mucking about trying to enter the BookWorld again with its probes, and a serial killer is on the loose who takes out series’ main characters, effectively killing the character and the series (Sherlock Holmes being just one of the characters to take a hit). The Council of Genres (COG) has been coming up with inane solutions in attempts to stem the plummeting read rates (e.g., Pride and Prejudice as a reality TV-like book (horrors!)).

Whew, and all that above really only touches the surface of what Fforde has going on in the book. Be warned that this book does spend more time outside the BookWorld than many of the previous books, but (for the most part) even these parts are amusing and inventive. Still, it’s the BookWorld activity that really makes the pages worth turning. First Among Sequels is zany, clever, and replete with unresolved plot lines that leaves room for additional forthcoming adventures with Thursday and her clan in the BookWorld.

Quotes I’d be Remiss to Miss:

“One of the odd things about the BookWorld was that when characters weren’t being read, they generally relaxed and talked, rehearsed, drank coffee, watched cricket or played mah-jongg. But as soon as a reading loomed, they all leaped into place and did their thing.”

“There was a distant hum and a rumble as the reading approached. Then came a light buzz in the air like staic and an increased heightening of the sense as the reader took up the descriptive power of the book and translated it into his or her own unique interpretation of the events–channeled from here through the massive imaginotransference Storycode Engines back at Text Grand Central and into the reader’s imagination. It was a technology of almost incalculable complexity, which I had yet to fully understand. But the beauty of the whole process was that the reader in the Outland never suspected there was a process at all–the act of reading was to most people, myself included, as natural as breathing.”

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Sky Village Book 1 (Kaimira) by Monk & Nigel Ashland (2008)

“Human hatred for meks and beasts ran deep…After decades of war followed by only a few years of uneasy peace, humans had learned to stick with their own kind.”

In a post-Trinary War world, Earth is populated with meks (machines), beasts, and humans. With meks and beasts constantly warring and pillaging, it’s all humans can do to find a place to call home. Some are laying low on ground or underground and others have taken to the sky.

Mei is one of those who (reluctantly) takes to the sky when her father sends her off to live in the Sky Village. Hovering high above China, the Sky Village is a community tied together through a maze of interconnected hot-air balloons and a shared history; Mei is forced to do some serious adjusting–both in her balance and in her life outlook. Half a world away in what remains of Las Vegas Rom fights his own demons (literally). In an attempt to save his sister, he enters the Demon caves where he finds himself embroiled in a gladiator-style competition against demon hybrids for the entertainment of the masses.

With Mei above Earth in China and Rom below Earth in Las Vegas, the two find themselves joined through the Tree Book. The Tree Book is a book of stories and other wonders that that their parents have always guarded. They have never before seen inside its pages. Now with their parents absent from their lives, Mei and Rom take the Tree Book into their own hands and find each other. In their friendship, they develop a certain sense of stability in the midst of a world of uncertainty. In the Tree Book, they find the beginnings of answers to their past and more enigmas about the future.

Mei and Rom discover that they are both carriers of the Kaimira gene–a genetic mutation endowing them with characteristics of human, beast, and machine. The Kaimira gene provides an intriguing basis for the plot for this story and for the future of the series.

In Sky Village, the Ashlands combine elements of future story, fantasy, survival, adventure, identity, and culture. The series reminds me a bit of Philip Reeve’s Hungry City Chronicles (Mortal Enginesand the like). Although Reeve’s series is aimed at a slightly older audience than the Kaimira series, both grapple with ideas about Otherness and possible ways of interacting with those who are different from ourselves.

Takeaway quote: Mei’s mother once told her, “If you know your enemy as you know your friend…then there is hope your enemy will become your friend.”

*review based on an advance reading copy

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