Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: First Among Sequels (The Thursday Next Series Vol. V) by Jasper Fforde; New Adventure Makes Thursday More Metafictional Than Before
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Well he did it. I did not think it was possible but Jasper Fforde achieved it. I didn't think his Thursday Next Series could not get more meta and it has.
While the first four books in the series followed a straight story arc and carried concepts that were resolved by the book, Something Rotten, Fforde decided to do something completely different with the next tier of the series.
This time around over 20 years have gone by moving the series setting to the early 2000’s. Thursday is now in her early 50’s and lives with her uneradicated husband, Landen, her lazy son, Friday, her genius daughter, Tuesday, and her other daughter, Jenny who spends most of her time at her friend's houses.
Thursday is much older but still very active. She works at Acme Carpets, actually a front for Spec Ops which is forced to go underground. She also works for Jurisfiction as a sometimes agent so yay Book World is back!
Of course Thursday and Co. are in trouble (aren't they always?) in both worlds. People who were affiliated with Thursday's arch enemy, Acheron Hades are back and causing trouble. The Goliath Corporation are rearing their ugly heads once more. The Chronoguard want Thursday's son, Friday to join them to eventually become their leader and they don't mind killing the current Friday to send their Friday to replace him.
Meanwhile in Book World, Sherlock Holmes has been killed. He was last seen by Reichenbach Falls during “The Final Problem” with no Generic to immediately replace him. (Oh if only Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written a follow up story taking place near “The Empty House.” Oh wait.) Now Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan is in fear of her life inside her book. (Bones so far is the only copyrighted character to be featured in Fforde's series. He thanks author, Kathy Reichs, in the acknowledgement). The clones of Mrs. Danvers, the creepy housekeeper from Rebecca who are often required to do grunt work in Book World, are acting creepier than usual and now attack Thursday. Thursday is also training two new recruits which are……herself and….herself.
That's right, Fforde introduces the concept that if Thursday Next is technically a fictional character, then she should be subjected to the same regulations as the other fictional characters in the Book World including having fictionalized versions of herself.
Thursday's adventures in the previous four books became a fictional series of its own inside the series. However, they went through a change than the ones we know.
The first four books are dark, violent, sexy gritty noir tales and the Thursday that emerges from that is a tough talking gun toting badass.
Our Thursday, the one from First Among Sequels, wanted the fifth book, The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco to be more diplomatic and peaceful and the Thursday that emerges from that is a flighty dizzy hippy. So Thursday has to train her fictional counterparts, I mean her more fictional counterparts...I mean oh forget it!
The moments between Thursday and her fictional counterparts, Thursday 1-4 (the violent one) and Thursday 5 (the hippy) are some of the highlights.
Our Thursday has to come between them as Thursday 1-4 goes really bad and Thursday 5 goes really good.
Thursday also comes to realize that her counterparts, and by extension, she are fictional characters so they too are controlled by the whims of Author, Reader, and the limitations of fiction hood. The three share this realization as they impersonate each other and even take turns narrating First Among Sequels for stretches at a time. At one point, Thursday 5 recites the opening of the Eyre Affair which is word for word the opening of The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde from our world.
Understand, this is not breaking the fourth wall. This is jumping on the fourth wall, smashing it with a hammer, obliterating it, selling the spare parts for scrap, removing any evidence of it, and acting like the fourth wall never existed in the first place and doing the same to the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Walls while Fforde is at it.
With a plot as meta as this involving three versions of the same character, time travel, and other plot devices things intentionally get confusing. Perhaps some coherence in the narrative would not be too much to ask. The time travel aspects get hand waved leading to a plot hole with the other books in the series that is too headache inducing to get into. The murdered fictional characters subplot starts strong but is left open ended possibly for a resolution for another book as does the possible non-identity of one of the characters. Thursday's fights with her counterparts are intriguing as she realizes that she truly met her match, literally.
While this one is the most confusing and meta of the series, it definitely stretches Fforde's imagination to its limit. It makes any fan of the series clamor for the next book, One of Our Thursdays is Missing.
At the very least, it will be entertaining to see how many more walls Jasper Fforde can break.
Thursday's adventures in the previous four books became a fictional series of its own inside the series. However, they went through a change than the ones we know.
The first four books are dark, violent, sexy gritty noir tales and the Thursday that emerges from that is a tough talking gun toting badass.
Our Thursday, the one from First Among Sequels, wanted the fifth book, The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco to be more diplomatic and peaceful and the Thursday that emerges from that is a flighty dizzy hippy. So Thursday has to train her fictional counterparts, I mean her more fictional counterparts...I mean oh forget it!
The moments between Thursday and her fictional counterparts, Thursday 1-4 (the violent one) and Thursday 5 (the hippy) are some of the highlights.
Our Thursday has to come between them as Thursday 1-4 goes really bad and Thursday 5 goes really good.
Thursday also comes to realize that her counterparts, and by extension, she are fictional characters so they too are controlled by the whims of Author, Reader, and the limitations of fiction hood. The three share this realization as they impersonate each other and even take turns narrating First Among Sequels for stretches at a time. At one point, Thursday 5 recites the opening of the Eyre Affair which is word for word the opening of The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde from our world.
Understand, this is not breaking the fourth wall. This is jumping on the fourth wall, smashing it with a hammer, obliterating it, selling the spare parts for scrap, removing any evidence of it, and acting like the fourth wall never existed in the first place and doing the same to the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Walls while Fforde is at it.
With a plot as meta as this involving three versions of the same character, time travel, and other plot devices things intentionally get confusing. Perhaps some coherence in the narrative would not be too much to ask. The time travel aspects get hand waved leading to a plot hole with the other books in the series that is too headache inducing to get into. The murdered fictional characters subplot starts strong but is left open ended possibly for a resolution for another book as does the possible non-identity of one of the characters. Thursday's fights with her counterparts are intriguing as she realizes that she truly met her match, literally.
While this one is the most confusing and meta of the series, it definitely stretches Fforde's imagination to its limit. It makes any fan of the series clamor for the next book, One of Our Thursdays is Missing.
At the very least, it will be entertaining to see how many more walls Jasper Fforde can break.
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