I’ve been following Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series for years now, so I got the 7th book, The Woman Who Died A Lot (TN-7), as soon as it hit the shelves in Manila late last year.
The holiday rush was setting in, and I had a demanding client on my hands so I was determined to lose myself in a good book (pun intended), and Thursday Next has proven to be an old reliable.
TN-7 takes us back to Swindon; it is 2004, nineteen years Following the events of One of Our Thursdays is Missing (TN-6), we find Thursday still suffering from injuries that have forced her into semi-retirement. The dissolution of the Special Operations (SpecOps) network a decade ago proved to have caused serious problems, and the novel opens with SpecOps being reinstated.
Thursday is eyeing to head her old Spec-Ops department, SpecOps-27 (the Literary Detectives) and is dismayed when she is instead offered a sedate post as the head of the Wessex All You Can Eat at Fatso’s Drink Not Included Library Services.
But Thursday being Thursday, life isn’t as simple as that… (and here is an attempt to summarize the plot, which, unbelievably, you will understand if you’ve read the books):
Her old nemesis Aornis Hades has broken out of her time-loop jail at T.K. Maxx; the Chronoguard is disbanded and her son Friday (who would have been head of the Chronoguard) is given an alternate future as a murderer; a vengeful God has revealed himself and is smiting the ‘sinful’ across the country to cleanse mankind; her daughter Tuesday is juggling adolescence and a big-budget Anti-Smiting Defense shield; and the Goliath Corporation has continued to spawn synthetic Thursdays (now actually replacing Thursday) to extort information from people. There’s a lot going on in this book (as in all of the TN books) but it takes several chapters before the plot comes together.
While Thursday Next books generally have me in stitches because of Jasper Fforde’s oddball humor, TN-7 is quite a different experience. Thursday Next getting old is the natural progression of things, but I found it depressing to see age creep up on a much-loved character, especially one who used to be so kick-ass. It’s hard not to miss the old Thursday — always in fighting form, calling all the shots, never standing still. Thursday herself longs for the pace of her old life, and the angst casts its shadow on the novel.
Jasper Fforde has thrown out a lot of wild, even absurd stuff throughout the Thursday Next series, and I’ve pretty much learned to roll with them, but I really didn’t care for the Old Testament “smiting” in this book. The Chronoguard subplot could have been mined deeper, I think, and I found that a little too simplistic and neatly packaged for Jasper Fforde, resolved all too quickly.
Not that I completely disliked the book, however. I did like seeing the other characters again — Thursday’s family, her pet dodo Pickwick, her ex-stalker Millon de Floss, her old colleagues Braxton Hicks and Stig, even Aornis Hades was a welcome recurrance. Plus a few other surprise comebacks. Also, one of my new favorite characters, SO-27 head Phoebe Smalls, also promises to be heroine material. Fforde has built her up as a junior Thursday, perhaps hinting at a larger role for her later on? (interesting idea). Gavin Watkins, the rabid Blytonian Mrs. Hilly, and the fictional Wingco are also great additions to an already madcap cast.
And despite Thursday’s moaning and groaning, there are also still some outrageously funny moments, such as her psychological exam, the toast jokes, Tuesday’s Pickwick experiments, and the incident(s) at the Sisterhood of the Lobsterhood (LOL!!!).
What pretty much saved the book for me, however, was the resolution of the Aornis subplot. The continuing chaos Aornis wreaked on Thursday’s family life (that mindworm was pretty awesome!) and the final showdown were a real perk-upper. This ingenious plotline was spread out in several books, and it was thoroughly satisfying to the end.
And bonus Doctor Who easter egg for fellow Whovians (squee!): guess what they found in the Dark Reading Matter! (I won’t say. *Spoilers!*)
The end promises more in the life of Thursday Next as they continue their foray into the Dark Reading Matter, a.k.a. in classic Fforde style, DRM, so I hope Thursday has plenty of time to recover for TN-8.
***
The Woman who Died a Lot, trade paperback
3.5/5 stars
The Woman who Died a Lot is available at National Book Store.