Early Riser

by Jasper Fforde
402 pgs

In Jasper Fforde's latest book, he creates an alternate version of earth, in which the Ice Age has persisted to modern day. Because of the inhospitable conditions during winter, 99% of the human population hibernates during it. Just like bears, they gorge themselves in preparation for sleeping through winter, and they're then watched over and protected during their sleep by the Winter Consul, a government agency consisting of those tasked with ensuring their safety and survival during hibernation.

But hibernation is not without its risks. There's the risk of starving to death if you didn't build up enough fats beforehand. There's the danger of being eaten by rats, suffocating from CO2 build up, and the risk of becoming a nightwalker, by waking up too early into a zombie-like condition known as Dead in Sleep.

The wealthy and privileged can afford to take a drug called Morphenox beforehand, which ensures hibernation will be peaceful and dreamless, in order to minimize unnecessary calorie usage during sleep.

Charlie Worthing is a rookie member of the Winter Consul Service who quickly finds himself in over his head. There's an outbreak of viral dreams that affects thousands, there are nightwalkers, monsters known as Wintervolk, and a conspiracy involving HiberTech, a corporation that makes its money from the hibernation industry.

The premise of the story, while good, isn't what makes the book so enjoyable. It's Fforde's wit and mastery of the English language that makes it so good. Fforde's books are never easy to describe, and this one is especially so. But it was a book that I simply enjoyed each sentence it contained.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Woman Who Died a Lot

by Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde's "Thursday Next" novels are literaly and literarily impossible to describe. He began with The Eyre Affair in 2001 and The Woman Who Died a Lot is the seventh and latest book in the series. I highly recommend the books, but with the caveat that they need to be read from the beginning and in order. This is not the type of series that you can jump into midway through and hope to understand what's going on. Start at the beginning, and let Fforde introduce the world Thursday inhabits to you gently, and get you accustomed to the time travel, book travel, home-cloned dodos, and general mayhem that exists and makes the series as smart and as entertaining as it is.

The Woman Who Died a Lot begins with Thursday Next, four months into a forced semiretirement in her home in Swindon, trying to recover from a near fatal assassination attempt. She can't walk without a stick, has limited use of one of her arms, and her vision has been compromised. The idea was for her to enjoy some R & R at home with her husband Landen, her two children Friday and Tuesday, and Jenny, her third child, who doesn't actually exist.

But life has a way of happening, and in the world Fforde has created, it happens in bizarre and inexplicable ways. Her son Friday's life is in turmoil as his future success as head of the ChronoGuard, saving seventy-six billion lives traveling back and fourth in time, has been eradicated due to the shutdown of the Time Engines. And his recently delivered Letter of Destiny from the Federated Union of Timeworkers reveals to him that his new future consists of him murdering a man at the end of the week and spending the next 37 years in prison.

Her genius daughter Tuesday is having problems working out the bugs with the Anti-Smote Shield, which is desperately needed soon to protect Swindon from an impending smiting from an angry god. If she can't get it working properly, Swindon and all its inhabitants, will be wiped off the face of the earth. Jenny, her "other daughter" is in fact a mindworm, implanted by Mnemonomorph Aornis Hades in Thursday's brain, and doesn't actually exist. Thursday had a tattoo placed on the back of her hand to remind herself that Jenny never existed, but needs to track down Aornis in order to put an end to the neverending rollercoaster of emotions that the mindworm and tattoo are causing her.

Got all that? It's really just the tip of the iceberg.

A Jasper Fforde book is always a special kind of book. His creativity has no boundaries and his obvious intelligence and vast knowledge of literature is always evident in his stories.

Read them.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Song of the Quarkbeast

The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde

With The Song of the Quarkbeast, Jasper Fforde continues his young adult series that he began with The Last Dragonslayer. Having fulfilled the prophecy that she was unwillingly a part of in that book, Jennifer Strange, the teenage acting manager of Kazam, an employment agency for sorcerers, now finds herself once again at the center of events that could change the Ununited Kingdom forever.

Ever since the events of Dragonslayer, the level of magic that exists in the world has been on the rise. The sorcerers who work for Kazam can tell that the source of their powers is increasing, but they're not the only ones to have taken notice. King Snodd IV has realized what's happening as well, and he knows that if he can control magic, he can control everything. Only Jennifer Strange stands between Snodd and his plans.

The Song of the Quarkbeast and the Dragonslayer series as a whole are great, and both young adults and their parents will enjoy reading them. I think too often when writers, who normally write for an adult readership, make the transition to writing for a younger audience, they tend to inadvertently insult younger readers by "dumbing it down." Fforde doesn't do that. These books are just as intelligent as his "Thursday Next" and his "Nursery Crimes" books.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

One of Our Thursdays is Missing

One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde has returned to his fantastic series featuring Thursday Next, the Jurisfiction agent tasked with keeping order and continuity in the BookWorld. At the beginning of this one, war is brewing between genres. A border dispute has erupted between Racy Novel and Women's Fiction and since Thursday has evidently retired to Realworld, the Council of Genres turns to the written version of Thursday to settle the dispute and bring peace back to the world of fiction.

Fforde is a British author who I have been recommending to people for years. To date, no one that I've spoken to about his books has read one of them though. I've been a complete failure. I think the problem occurs when I try to describe one of his books, especially the Next books. I know I must sound like an idiot whose head doesn't contain a coherent thought. But it's not me, I swear. His books just don't lend well to summary. Instead they're the type of books that you just buckle up and enjoy the ride.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Last Dragonslayer

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

For many years, the power of magic has been waning in the Ununited Kingdom. In times past, sorcerers were esteemed and even feared. Nowadays, they're contracted to rewire homes with outdated electrical systems, and unclog drains without the normal mess and detritus associated with such tasks.

Dragons, which some claim once terrorized citizens of the UK by burning their homes and feeding on their livestock and the occasional farmer's family, now exist primarily in the stories and legends of a prior age. Now, there is only one left.

Jennifer Strange is 14 years old, an orphan, and currently an indentured servant working as an assistant at the House of Enchantment where she handles all of the necessary paperwork for the pipe-clearing and home-rewiring wizards and sorcerers employed there. But things are about to change for Jennifer as she becomes the last Dragonslayer and faces a challenge that will not only change her life, but ultimately the life of everyone on earth.

Jasper Fforde is a fantastic author. I've read all of his books written for adults and there's not one of them that I wouldn't eagerly recommend to anyone who enjoys reading. He's nearly impossible to describe succinctly, so I won't try. Start with The Eyre Affair and prove me wrong if you can.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆