The name's Next, Thursday Next

I recently finished the second book of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, Lost in a Good Book. This series was recommended to me by a good friend, and I'll admit I was skeptical. However, after finishing it I have to say I'm completely hooked.

This book follows Thursday's adventures in The Eyre Affair, and is set in an alternate reality England. It's a world where literature is king (there's a major Shakespearean political lobby), dodos, mammoth and neanderthals have been "re-engineered" and there's a "Toast Marketing Board". Thursday is an agent in a government agency called "Spec Ops", an organization that deals with everything from time travel to vampire/werewolf containment to botanical enforcement. Her specific department Spec Ops 27 - Literatech, is charged with Literary Detective work. Thursday's adventures in Eyre Affair involve her (among other things) jumping into the book Jane Eyre to save Jane from a criminal mastermind.

In Lost in a Good Book, Thursday finds herself in the media spotlight after her adventures in Jane Eyre. She finds herself enlisted by another agency called "Jurisfiction", an organization of fictional characters created to enforce the continuity and characters in books. Lead by such characters as Ms. Haversham of Great Expectations and the Chesire Cat, Jurisfiction adds a whole new dimension to the series.

I find myself excited to continue the series with the next book The Well of Lost Plots. It's a well written series that doesn't take itself too seriously. As I continue the series, I'll post my thoughts - as if any one is actually reading them ;)