Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Something Rotten by Jaspar Fforde

This is the third Fforde novel I've read and I think I might be over him now.

The plot revolves around Thursday Next who has left Book World, with her 2 year old son Friday, and returned to her job in SpecOps in the real world. She has numerous objectives:
1. To get her eradicated husband uneradicated by the Goliath Corporation (the mother of all multi-nationals!)
2. Capture Yorrick Kaine, a megalomaniac escapee from a failed romance novel, return him to Book World and thereby prevent him from taking over the world and causing Armageddon
3. Find a Shakespeare clone to rewrite Hamlet in its original form so that Hamlet, currently in exile in the real world, can return to his play.
4. Subvert Kaine's attempts to blame Denmark for all ills and sabotage his efforts to have all Danish books confiscated and burnt.
5. Avoid being assassinated by the Windowmaker (yes, a misprint in the assassin's advertising).
6. Capture the Minotaur and return him to Book World.
7. Make sure that Swindon wins the croquet Superhoop final, otherwise her attempts to foil Kaine will all be in vain.

There weren't enough 'laugh out loud' moments in this book, compared with the others of his I've read. There are plenty of humourous moments sprinkled throughout the story but, all in all, I was a bit disappointed with it.

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