Makes my Bibliophilic heart go thumpa-thump
I am really a tremendous fan of Jasper Fforde, particularly including his series featuring Thursday Next (a literary detective, she's like a US Marshall in the fictional realm, crossing over with an alternate version of our reality) -- the first is _The Eyre Affair_, which, much like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels, makes you want to reread the referenced classics immediately).
In the same universe he also has a series of Nursery Crime books, investigating the murder of Humpty Dumpty (_The Big Over Easy_) and the disappearance of Goldilocks (_The Fourth Bear_).
I recently spotted a new book (_Shades of Grey_) with his name on it in a shop window; I have a feeling that once I devour it, I'll recommend that one too.
From wikipedia:
His published books include a series of novels starring the literary detective Thursday Next: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, and First Among Sequels. The Eyre Affair had received 76 publisher rejections before its eventual acceptance for publication.[3] Fforde won the Wodehouse prize for comic fiction in 2004 for The Well of Lost Plots.[4]
The Big Over Easy (2005), which shares a similar setting with the Next novels, is a reworking of his first written novel, which initially failed to find a publisher. Its original title was Who Killed Humpty Dumpty?[5], and later had the working title of Nursery Crime, which is the title now used to refer to this series of books. These books describe the investigations of DCI Jack Spratt. The follow-up to The Big Over Easy, The Fourth Bear, was published in July 2006 and focuses on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Fforde's books are noted for their profusion of literary allusions and word play, tightly scripted plots, and playfulness with the conventions of traditional genres. His works usually contain various elements of metafiction, parody, and fantasy. None of his books has a chapter 13 except in the table of contents where there is a title of the chapter and a page number. The page number is, in fact, the page right before the first page of chapter 14.
...publication of the first novel in his new "Shades of Grey" series is now planned for December 2009 in the US and January 2010 in the UK, having been originally announced by publishers as available in summer 2008 and then July 2009[8].
According to the (less recent) First Among Sequels Special Features section on Fforde's website, the sixth Thursday Next novel, entitled One of our Thursdays is Missing, is scheduled to be published in January 2011[9]. However he only started writing the book on December 1, 2009. [10]
Fforde also plans a third Nursery Crime novel, The Last Great Tortoise Race.
RE: Shades of Grey, from amazon:
Part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, Shades of Grey tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own color-but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by artificial means.
Eddie's world wasn't always like this. There's evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the notion of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.
Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey Nightseer from the dark, unlit side of the village. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk.
Stunningly imaginative, very funny, tightly plotted, and with sly satirical digs at our own society, this novel is for those who loved Thursday Next but want to be transported somewhere equally wild, only darker; a world where the black and white of moral standpoints have been reduced to shades of grey.
In the same universe he also has a series of Nursery Crime books, investigating the murder of Humpty Dumpty (_The Big Over Easy_) and the disappearance of Goldilocks (_The Fourth Bear_).
I recently spotted a new book (_Shades of Grey_) with his name on it in a shop window; I have a feeling that once I devour it, I'll recommend that one too.
From wikipedia:
His published books include a series of novels starring the literary detective Thursday Next: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, and First Among Sequels. The Eyre Affair had received 76 publisher rejections before its eventual acceptance for publication.[3] Fforde won the Wodehouse prize for comic fiction in 2004 for The Well of Lost Plots.[4]
The Big Over Easy (2005), which shares a similar setting with the Next novels, is a reworking of his first written novel, which initially failed to find a publisher. Its original title was Who Killed Humpty Dumpty?[5], and later had the working title of Nursery Crime, which is the title now used to refer to this series of books. These books describe the investigations of DCI Jack Spratt. The follow-up to The Big Over Easy, The Fourth Bear, was published in July 2006 and focuses on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Fforde's books are noted for their profusion of literary allusions and word play, tightly scripted plots, and playfulness with the conventions of traditional genres. His works usually contain various elements of metafiction, parody, and fantasy. None of his books has a chapter 13 except in the table of contents where there is a title of the chapter and a page number. The page number is, in fact, the page right before the first page of chapter 14.
...publication of the first novel in his new "Shades of Grey" series is now planned for December 2009 in the US and January 2010 in the UK, having been originally announced by publishers as available in summer 2008 and then July 2009[8].
According to the (less recent) First Among Sequels Special Features section on Fforde's website, the sixth Thursday Next novel, entitled One of our Thursdays is Missing, is scheduled to be published in January 2011[9]. However he only started writing the book on December 1, 2009. [10]
Fforde also plans a third Nursery Crime novel, The Last Great Tortoise Race.
RE: Shades of Grey, from amazon:
Part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, Shades of Grey tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own color-but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by artificial means.
Eddie's world wasn't always like this. There's evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the notion of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.
Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey Nightseer from the dark, unlit side of the village. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk.
Stunningly imaginative, very funny, tightly plotted, and with sly satirical digs at our own society, this novel is for those who loved Thursday Next but want to be transported somewhere equally wild, only darker; a world where the black and white of moral standpoints have been reduced to shades of grey.