Rating: 
Summary: Terrific Time Travel Series!
Review: "Lost in a Good Book," the sequel to "The Eyre Affair," by entertaining storyteller, Jasper Fforde, is a terrific addition to "The Thursday Next Series." Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal concidences. This is one fun series you won't want to miss! (Highly Recommended!)
Rating: 
Summary: imaginative and funny
Review: For the people that read Foorde's first book of the Thursday next series, Lost in a good book is as imaginative and funny as the first one. We meet again Thursday, who despite saving a classic like Jane Eyre from evil Hades, is subject to the same bureaucracy at work as before. But this time, her struggle with the huge conglomerate, Goliath is more personal. Fforde is as original as ever. He brings numerous famous and obscure literary characters to life and creates improbable situations with just enough prallel to reality to engage the reader. The reason I give the book 4 starts instead of five is that teh author became too preoccupied with originality and decided to bumdle too many plot lines into the novel. While he manages to resolve all of them, he does ot necessarily manage to interconnect them. After finishing the book, I felt like there were several sub plots that he could have easily left out as they did not contribute to the main line of the story--the argument with the landlord draws for several chapters to lead Thursday on a vampire hunt (completely random, but for an opportunity to describe the "undead"), a lawsuit taking place in Kafka's The Trial (again, a veihicle to demonstrate that Thursday can talk to characters in her head, a capability that she does not use anywhere else in the book), etc. Even the attempt for revenge from Hades' sister seems artificially attached to the novel, without really adding any significance. Don't get me wrong--the book is awsome. I was just a little peeved that an author that has so much to say and in such a unique way did not exercise a little restraint...
Rating:
Summary: Mind-bending, hilarious and sly
Review: Funny, original and fast-paced, full of word play and adventurous excursions into great works of fiction, Fforde's Thursday Next series is beach reading for literature lovers. His alternate universe, complete with time travel and fictional dimensions, hangs together with mind-bending logic, and Literary Detectives SpecOps Agent Thursday Next is resourceful, quick-witted, and determined, but still has lots to learn (code for blundering, impetuous and rash). As the story opens, newly married Thursday Next is enduring a round of celebrity for the exploits of her first adventure in "The Eyre Affair," in which she restored "Jane Eyre," with an "improved" ending, ended the Crimean War and defeated an arch villain, trapping a minor villain, a Goliath Corp. executive, in the stanzas of Poe's "The Raven." Amid all the furor nobody much cares about the lost exec, except his half-brother, head of Goliath, a conglomerate increasingly recognizable in our own world. But the Goliath boss cares enough to "eradicate" Thursday's husband in revenge, killing him off in a childhood accident. To get her husband back, Thursday must rescue the boss' brother from "The Raven." But the pages of Poe are dangerous and her navigation skills are shaky (though she is to be tried in Kafka for her interference with the Eyre ending). So she takes on a new career in Jurisfiction, apprenticing to Miss Havisham, though keeping her husband-saving mission secret from the sports-car mad, man-hating old lady. Meanwhile, she's dodging death-by-coincidence with the help of an entropy monitor - a jar of lentils and rice - given to her by her retiring genius Uncle Mycroft (who shows up mysteriously in the pages of Sherlock Holmes) and helping her eradicated, time-flitting father save the world from ending in pink goo within days. Jam packed with wit, winks, allusions and puns, fueled by a madcap plot and an ever burgeoning series of subplots and side trips, and fleshed out with the attention to detail that has earned Fforde comparison to J. K. Rowling and Terry Pratchett, this book provides hours of dazzle and delight.
Rating:
Summary: Review for the unabridged CD version:
Review: I am a landscaper and I love to listen to audio books while I work. I have listened to some utter trash to entertain me through the day, so it is always a real pleasure to find an unabridged audiobook of such high quality.
The narrator, Elizabeth Sastre, has the perfect light British accent to narrate Thursday and her cohorts, so much so that when I read the book on paper, I hear her voice and accent in my head. Her reading is unobtrusive and adds so much to the book.
This, the second Thursday adventure, is every bit as fun as the first.
The unabridged CD version runs for 11.5 hours and is on 10 CDs, and is excellent quality. My only gripe is with the CD holder inside the box - it is floppy and difficult to get the CDs out of, and I would much rather a different style of case was used for the next one. However, once you get the CDs out, this is sure to be one of the best listening experiences you will find.
Rating:
Summary: Loved getting "Lost in a Good Book"
Review: I wouldn't have believed it possible, but this sequel is even better than Jasper Fforde's first Thursday Next novel, "The Eyre Affair." And I adored that book! But this tale has such an emotional core - still funny, but wonderfully thoughtful, as Thursday races back and forth through time, trying to save the world and her husband, Landen, who has been "eradicated" by the big, bad corporate control monster, Goliath. The time travel scenes are gorgeous, and I love how Jasper Fforde makes his readers think "outside of the box" with his fantastical concepts and characters. I was also completely delighted by Thursday's further adventures in the literary world, going everywhere from Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" into Kafka's absurd text, meeting the Cheshire Cat and Red Queen from "Alice in Wonderland," and of course, studying the fine art of "book jumping" with Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations." I LOVED this book, and greatly look forward to jumping into the next one in the series, "The Well of Lost Plots."
Rating:
Summary: A good book to be lost in
Review: In a strange, parallel 1985, things are very strange. Vampires and werewolves wander the countryside, dodos are popular pets and the line between literature and reality is very thin: people can enter and leave novels and sometimes affect the reality within. Thursday Next, literary detective and hero of previous novel, The Eyre Affair, is once again entangled in a mess that threatens her whole reality. The malevolent Goliath Corporation wants their vicious executive, Jack Schitt returned to the real world; he's been trapped in Poe's The Raven and only Thursday can get him out. As a form of coercion, they have eradicated her husband; by wiping him out of reality, only she (and a couple Goliath folks) remember him. Entering books isn't easy, however; in the previous volume there was a machine, but that is no longer available. Coming up with an alternative, while meanwhile avoiding a villain who can reverse entropy and cause coincidences, facing an awareness that the world is likely to soon end mysteriously and coping with the early stages of pregnancy (by a now non-existent husband) are among the challenges Thursday must deal with. Despite the many witty things within this book, this is not a comic novel; the world is far too grim for a comic world. If the book is a little too muddled and a little too reliant on deus ex machinas to rate five stars, it is still strong enough to be very good. Fans of The Eyre Affair will be pleased; others are cautioned to read that book first to properly enjoy this one; it may stand alone well, but it works better as a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to Jurisfiction
Review: In this follow up to "The Eyre Affair", Jasper Fforde proves that he's no flash in the pan, his witty prose continuing to add sparkle to a delightful storyline. The names of his characters are again imaginative and amusing, and his concept brilliant.
We rejoin our reluctant heroine Thursday Next, as she opposes the Goliath Corporation in a quest to restore her husband, who has been maliciously erased from the pages of history.
Just to make it more challenging, she's pregnant, and with this new turn of events she isn't sure who the father is. The rent is also due, and she has to contemplate doing a moonlight stake-out to make ends meet.
"Simple" you say - but nothing's simple in Jasper Fforde's world. A multitude of strange, possibly deadly coincidences, the discovery of a new play by Shakespeare, and the little secret that the world is going to end in a sea of pink goo in a few days makes things a bit more complicated.
"Is that all?" you ask - Nope, she's also supposed to learn how to bookjump with the Jurisfiction group, with training from the feisty Miss Havisham of Great Expectations, and venture without permission into Poe's dangerous classic poem "The Raven" to retrieve a well-lodged Schitt. She also has to battle an enemy even worse than Acheron Hades, while at the same time appearing as a defendant in a SO-1 hearing and attend a trial within a literary classic.
It's all in a day's work for our Gal Thursday, even though she's now hearing voices in her head, but this time she's got to get lost for a while until the heat dies down, and we look forward to Mr. Fforde digging her out and dusting her off in the next episode.
Amanda Richards, September 22, 2004
Rating:
Summary: Jasper Fforde does it again!
Review: In this sequel to The Eyre Affair, intrepid heroine Thursday Next is back for more hilarious romps through time and literary space. She is busier than ever, as she tries to save the world from a horrid (and pink) annihilation, rescue her husband Landen from his recent state of nonexistence, and guard the literary universe from evildoers, all the while evading the all-powerful Goliath Corporation. We follow Thursday into such reading material as Kafka's The Trial, Dickens' Great Expectations, Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Poe's The Raven, and a laundry label (yes, a laundry label!). Jasper Fforde, whose humor is reminiscent of Douglas Adams, is in top form here. Literary gags, puns, outlandish situations, plays on words, and irreverent jabs at anything and everything abound in this fanciful story. I recommend that you read The Eyre Affair first, if you have not done so already, since it will help you understand the quirky flavor of this alternate universe. I also suggest that you take the Spec Ops literary challenge referenced on this latest book's back cover and try your hand at its devilishly difficult puzzles. If I have any critical comment, it is that the story leaves several loose ends, which have me impatiently awaiting Thursday's next adventure, The Well of Lost Plots. But I'm sure it will be worth the wait. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Like most sequels this one is lacking......
Review: Jasper Fforde is a good writer. I sailed right through 'Lost in a Good Book' laughed several times and enjoyed the vignettes that are all through the book. But when I had finished it and thought back on the story line there wasn't much substance or connectivity between the chapters. There was a lot of easily recognizable characters from great literature with set up situations to remind you of the original story where you met them. But the plot line was thin and meandering and at the end of the book it felt like this entire book was a setup for the next one. Also, the resolution on the Jack Schitt situation was extemely unsatisfing, after having been warned repeatedly about something that she is a novice at and is extermely dangerous, Thursday Next just hops to it but then is trapped in a very conventional way.
The ride on this book is fast and the introduction of additional character traits to long established views of what you think great literature characters should/would be like is an excellant 'think outside the box' exercise. But the introduction of the other Law and Order structure of Jurisfiction makes me think that the author didn't see enough possibilities in the LiteraTec section of SpecOps and has opened up new opportunities to pull whatever he needs out of thin air. If this trend continues with this series there'll be no suspense of will they or won't they succeed, the rules will be bent in a new and different way to allow success. The character vignettes are entertaining in their own way but that's not enough to keep me coming back to even an imaginative series. I still want some logic to hang the story off of.
Rating:
Summary: Like most sequels this one is lacking......
Review: Jasper Fforde is a good writer. I sailed right through 'Lost in a Good Book' laughed several times and enjoyed the vignettes that are all through the book. But when I had finished it and thought back on the story line there wasn't much substance or connectivity between the chapters. There was a lot of easily recognizable characters from great literature with set up situations to remind you of the original story where you met them. But the plot line was thin and meandering and at the end of the book it felt like this entire book was a setup for the next one. Also, the resolution on the Jack Schitt situation was extemely unsatisfing, after having been warned repeatedly about something that she is a novice at and is extermely dangerous, Thursday Next just hops to it but then is trapped in a very conventional way.
The ride on this book is fast and the introduction of additional character traits to long established views of what you think great literature characters should/would be like is an excellant 'think outside the box' exercise. But the introduction of the other Law and Order structure of Jurisfiction makes me think that the author didn't see enough possibilities in the LiteraTec section of SpecOps and has opened up new opportunities to pull whatever he needs out of thin air. If this trend continues with this series there'll be no suspense of will they or won't they succeed, the rules will be bent in a new and different way to allow success. The character vignettes are entertaining in their own way but that's not enough to keep me coming back to even an imaginative series. I still want some logic to hang the story off of.
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