Have you ever wondered how Batman can speed up the side of a building holding onto a thin piece of wire propelled by a tiny motor in the front of his belt? Or, how he can fly around with just a cape? It’s simple really. Just consider a world just like ours with the force of gravity a little lighter and all of Batman’s abilities become logical and realistic.
Most good fantasy writers change only one small demission and then explore all the possible outcomes it would cause. Mr. Fforde threw caution to the wind and changed just about everything. There are time cops who routinely plug holes in the time space continuum with tennis balls. The English have been at war with the Russians in the Crimea for more than a hundred years and the charge of the light Brigade is a modern event. Copy paper translates your words into different languages as you type. And, the most evil person on earth lives to wreck havoc simply for the fun of it.
The British of Mr. Fforde’s world are more intensely concerned about good literature than our teenagers are about celebrities. A performance of Richard third is more a cult phenomenon than the “Rocky Horror Picture show”. Zealots go door to door arguing over who really wrote the Shakespeare plays. So, of course, they need literature police.
In this mad landscape our heroine Thursday Next is a literary cop. Her usual job includes discovering forgeries of first editions. This tough ex-battlefield combatant is brought on board to capture an evil genius who has mastered all of the strange powers this world has to offer. When it’s discovered that the evil mastermind can enter into a book and change it forever, he must be stopped.
This is a story for anyone who loves books. It’s full of literary and historical illusions that will keep you smiling. But, Mr. Fforde takes his story very seriously. Thursday has problems both personal and professional. She’s has serious issues with the love of her life. Her personal history weights her down and she doesn’t always agree with the powers that be.
It is well written and easily read. The author keeps Thursday and the story moving right along with plot twists and solid action. I would think writing a story that can be categorized as a humor, fantasy, action mystery would be quite difficult but Mr. Fforde has done an excellent job and I liked it very much. That this is the first in a series of Thursday Next stories makes it even more fun.