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I can't remember where this was recommended to me, but I liked the idea enough to try it. It's another comic fantasy, though like many it didn't quite grab me in the end. ("In fact, the secret agency is kind of incompetant" is only funny so many times.)

But there were some wonderful touches in the premise. Imagine a world where literature has the importance, say, intoxicants have here. Vending machines recites verses of Shakespeare for small change. Fake original manuscripts are a big problem. Cheap knockoffs of famous books are raided from criminal warehouses.

Baconists, an organisation doubting the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, have a status something like Jehova's Witnesses[1] and something like recent communists[2]. Lots of little touches like this, make me feel very comfortable in the world.

The novels it bases itself off are slightly Martin Chuzzelwit and mainly Jane Eyre. It shows enough love for it that I feel inspired to try it.

[1] "Excuse me, ma'am, have you ever wondered who really wrote shakespeare's plays? Is the Shakespeare in Stratford even the same person as the playwright in London? Why does no-one in Stratford seem to have any notion of his literary success?"
"But then why does the Stratford Shakespeare mention the London Shakespeare's colleagues in his will?"
"I was hoping you wouldn't know that."

[2] "Steady on. It's not illegal"
"More's the pity."

Date: 2006-03-10 02:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mhw.livejournal.com
No, it certainly wasn't perfect, but some of the conceits are delightful. And it's certainly not hurling-against-the-wall bad unlike very much 'funny' fantasy.

I've read all the books so far, and I recommend sticking with them. On balance you'll come out happy, I think.

Date: 2006-03-10 02:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
And it's certainly not hurling-against-the-wall bad unlike very much 'funny' fantasy.

No, I've been lucky there, I've read very few awful books recently. And this was far from that. Not bad, just not as great as some. Of course, some others got an unfair advantage by me reading them first.

I've read all the books so far, and I recommend sticking with them. On balance you'll come out happy, I think.

How did you think they compared to each other? I was probably not going to bother, but if you enjoyed them I might try another. God, the addiction.

Date: 2006-03-10 02:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mhw.livejournal.com
As the series (hm, to give the game away or not? not, I think) progresses, there is a tendency (as I think with most? all? series) to recycle some of the best jokes, but not as bang-on-the-head as, say, Pratchett can be. And much less so than Asprin. And much much less so than Piers Anthony. Things become familiar, but not I think irksomely so. And you certainly do get to find out quite a lot that you oughtn't to have suspected about certain things that are going on. [hint: Granny Next]

I first read The Eyre Affair on a group holiday a couple of years ago, and my thoughts were (I suspect) like yours: good enough for what it is, but is it enough? Then I found a copy of Lost in a Good Book in my local library, thought "Can't hurt..." and was hooked.

Whatever you do, don't read The Big Over Easy until you've read the first four books. If you do, you'll ruin two (or three, if you're a very careful reader) "OMG was that what I think it was?" moments in TBOE for yourself. And that's as big a hint about that as I'm prepared to give :)

I'd say they're all 7/10, 8/10. Definitely worth reading; maybe not for buying if book money is tight, but if you have a decent public library they should be in there.

Date: 2006-03-10 10:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
OK, I'm convinced. I'll try the next one.

Date: 2006-03-10 08:32 am (UTC)
mair_in_grenderich: (Default)
From: [personal profile] mair_in_grenderich
who's it by?

Date: 2006-03-10 10:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
A name worth 100 points all by itself :)

Date: 2006-03-10 10:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miss-next.livejournal.com
Especially on a triple word score. :-)

Date: 2006-03-10 10:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
Somehow I feel those 'f's should be one letter, which would be nicer for treble letter squares.

Date: 2006-03-10 10:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miss-next.livejournal.com
That would be a very unusual letter... you couldn't just add the scores for the two Fs and make it an eight-pointer. It's much rarer than a J. I think you should multiply the Fs instead of adding them, and make it sixteen.

Date: 2006-03-10 10:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
And then 'zzz' would win a game all by itself

Date: 2006-03-10 10:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miss-next.livejournal.com
Yes, but does it count as a word? I know Mole's got it in one of his icons... :-)

Date: 2006-03-10 10:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
Apparently not. The best google gives is the dutch "JAZZZANGER".

Date: 2006-03-10 10:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miss-next.livejournal.com
What a lovely word. :-)

Date: 2006-03-10 11:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mhw.livejournal.com
It means "jazz singer".

Date: 2006-03-10 11:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mhw.livejournal.com
AFAIK they are one letter: a capital F. Chancery hand 'F' looks much like 'ff', and for some unapparent reason some families (ffolliot, fforde, ffoulkes, ffrench) decided that this entitled them to spell their names with initial 'ff'.

Writing such a name (as Jasper Fforde does) with 'Ff' is thus wrong in two ways.

Date: 2006-03-10 11:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
With my name, I don't think I'm allowed to criticise others' drift. (Is "others'" correct? The drift of surnames of others...?)

So, 'FForde' would be slightly better? But you'd never get institutions and starangers to accept that.

Date: 2006-03-11 02:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mhw.livejournal.com
"others'", yes.

No, it strictly should be 'Forde'. If they wish to look faux-antique, then 'fforde', but not 'FForde' or 'Fforde'. Of course, people will present their names as they wish, despite the proprieties.

Systems that can't cope with unusually-shaped names are broken, and should be fixed forthwith. I keep being tempted to change my name to something that would break such systems, from minor hacks such as setting the 8th bit on one of the characters, to grosseries such as inserting a longish stretch of the upper reaches of Unicode as a middle name.
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
I see, thanks.

Foriegn and fun names, well, yes, they *should* be able to cope with, and I'm sure most can in theory, but considering the number of letters I get which messed up 'Vickeridge' I wouldn't be confident they *would*. I'd prefer a surname that didn't invite mistakes if I had the choice (I don't change it because that's also a bit of a hassle. Of course, at some point, someone *first* spelt it 'ff' instead of 'F', but it might be hard to trace the blame).

Re:

Date: 2006-03-16 04:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mhw.livejournal.com
Of course, there'll always be times when systems get it wrong, no matter how good they are. I've heard tell from the leader of the Amadeus String Quartet that he once received a letter addressed to "Mr. A String".

Date: 2006-03-16 01:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
At least he did, in fact, get it :)

Date: 2006-03-10 09:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miss-next.livejournal.com
The sequel, Lost in a Good Book, is definitely better - funnier, and more coherent. I actually read that one first, and it got me into the rest.

Date: 2006-03-10 10:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bouteillebleu.livejournal.com
The Eyre Affair didn't grab me (the villain was ridiculous, and the Other Woman was almost enough to make me put the book down hard), but I picked up Lost in a Good Book to see how it went, and that (and the two sequels) were a fair bit better. And I loved the sheer meta-ness of travelling inside a book.

Actually, it was the Eyre Affair that finally prompted me to read Jane Eyre this month, and I'm now sorry I'd never read it earlier...

Date: 2006-03-11 02:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
Yay. It seems a common pattern that an author hits the stride between book 1 and book 2, and then gets samey later.

(What about the "Other Woman"?)

Date: 2006-11-21 03:59 pm (UTC)
mair_in_grenderich: (Default)
From: [personal profile] mair_in_grenderich
rah. finally read this. (finished it somewhere between basingstoke and woolston). I liked it...

Date: 2006-11-21 11:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
Cool. I read the first two sequels now. They were as good, in a different way. They explored the "being in a book concept" which I think was very ripe for it, although were a touch confused about the way they established that world. The villains were quite good, not as exciting as Hades, but making a hell of a lot more sense. They felt like better books less grippingly written, maybe? Try one and see.

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