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Book Review of First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, Bk 5)

First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, Bk 5)
ColdSnap avatar reviewed on + 13 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


All I can say is that half the pleasure of reading Fforde's Thursday Next series is in ferreting out the myriad literary references slipped into the work. The fifth book in the series was no different in this respect, playing in fiction, poetry and the oral tradition.

This was a really fun read that plays with Thursday as both an "outlander" and a member of Jurisfiction, the fictional version of Spec Ops (So27) policing the fictional world's woes, uncannily like and unlike the real world. Set 14 years after the last novel, we find Spec Ops disbanded, the England in a stupidity surplus, and Thursday's young son Friday the typical petulant teenager.

In addition to the swirl of messiness in the outside world Thursday is dealing with her fictional selves... with Thursday 1-4 being the gun toting, swearing, sarcastic and sex loving version while Thursday 5 is the flower child worried more about her chakkras than learning the ropes at Jurisfiction.

Add in the mega corporation Goliath's ever present meddling, buracratic nonsense in the book world, and the usual attempts on (the real) Thursday's life, and you have another highly readable, addictive book from Jasper Fforde.