Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, by Jasper Fforde

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels is the fifth book in Jasper Fforde’s comedic fantasy series about the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next. As the story opens, Thursday is attempting to juggle her career as an Acme Carpets saleswoman and undercover SpecOps investigator, convince her teenage son Friday to take up his predestined role as head of the time-traveling ChronoGuard, and do a little black-market cheese trading on the side. Unfortunately, Thursday’s carefully-laid plans are failing on all fronts: Friday would rather sleep in than save the world, England’s Stupidity Surplus is reaching dangerously high levels, and somebody is remaking classic works of literature into brain-numbing reality TV—starting with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

If you like logical, structured novels with tidy resolutions and clearly delineated plots, this is not the book for you. The pleasures of the Thursday Next series come from Fforde’s deliciously goofy mash-up of cheap jokes (the man loves puns), time travel, alternate universes, and literary satire. Ordinarily, I would urge readers to read the previous books in a series before starting on the most recent one, that’s not the case here: very little of this series makes sense, but it’s all tremendous fun, so go ahead and read it in whatever order tickles your fancy.