HoodedHawk

[Read 10/1/2007] Mystery/Fantasy/SF

I just love this series; Fforde is hysterical. The Well of Lost Plots [Jasper Fforde, 2003] is the third Thursday Next book, set entirely in the BookWorld where Thursday is continuing her apprentice Jurisfiction training under Miss Haversham (from Great Expectations). Thursday lives on a houseboat within the book “Caversham Heights”. She lives with two “generics” – students at St. Tabularasa’s who have yet to be given book assignments. Thursday partners with Jack Spratt (a detective) to try to solve a BookWorld murder.

Meanwhile, Text Grand Central is about to release Book v9, “Ultraword”. Note that Book v8.3 is the current paper-based type of book. There is a big problem with Ultraword and Thursday uncovers a plot to have it released anyway. Thursday travels with Miss Haversham to the Outside world where they try to discover who has entered BookWorld and used a minotaur and a “mispeling vyrus” to hide his escape.

Finally, Thursday, the two generics (now Randolph and Lola) and Thursday’s pet dodo, Pickwick take a vacation in the book Caversham Heights.

[Read 9/18/2007]
Mystery/Fantasy/SF

Lost in a Good Bookis the 2nd of Fforde’s Thursday Next (Literary Detective) series (after The Eyre Affair). Thursday is assigned to investigate the discovery of a lost Shakespeare play, “Cardenia”. She runs up against Yorrick Kaine, a neofascist (whig) politician (and, who might also be someone else).

Thursday is also blackmailed by the Goliath Corporation, who want their operative Jack Schitt back; Next had imprisoned him in Poe’s The Raven. To get her to bring him back, they get a corrupt ChronoGuard agent (Lavoisier) to have her husband killed off (eradicated). Landon is thus killed when he is 2 years old and Thursday (also pregnant with his child) is the only one who remembers him.

Thursday enters the Book World as a Jurisfiction trainee under Mrs. Haversham (of Great Expectations). She gets Schitt out of the Raven, but is double-crossed. She decides to hide in Book World, in “The Well of Lost Plots” (where all fiction is created). She thinks she’ll be safe in the Character Exchange Program for awhile…

[read 9/15/2007]
Mystery/Fantasy/SF.

The Eyre Affair is the first Thursday Next novel. Thursday is a Literary Detective (SpecOps 27). There are some 30 SpecOps divisions (her father is/was in the ChronoGuard – SpecOps 12). This is a fun romp; Thursday goes after the arch-criminal Archeron Hades, after he steals the original manuscript for “Martin Chuzzlewit”. When Hades’ ransom is not paid, he then steals the “Jane Eyre” manuscript. He uses a device (which he stole from Thursday’s uncle, Mycroft) called a Prose Portal to jump “into” the world of the book and kidnap Jane. This is actually more of an issue than it seems, since in Fforde’s books when you change an original manuscript (say, kill a character) via the Portal, then all *copies* of that book in print are changed. So, kill Jane Eyre, and she’ll never have been “written”.

Thursday, trailed by a security goon from the Goliath Corporation, Jack Schitt — who wants the Prose Portal for Goliath — finds Hades and chases him into the manuscript. Lots of adventures in the (current) world and in Jane Eyre ensue as Thursday goes after Hades to rescue Jane.

Extremely fun read; highly recommended!

[I’m posting this now, but read the book 9/2007].

Passionate Minds (2006) is a dual biography of Voltaire (1694-1778) and Emilie du Chatelet (1706-1749). They met in 1733, when Emilie was 27 (and Voltaire was 39). This was an enjoyable and informative book, especially since I had never heard of Emilie du Chatelet (and only a passing knowledge of Voltaire). While the book does read something like a romance novel, there is enough substance to keep your attention.

Emilie was married at the time she met Voltaire, but that didn’t stop them from having a very passionate affair. This, it turns out, was a fairly common thing to happen, and people looked the other way as long as they were discrete. Emilie’s husband also had a mistress, so things evened out. :)

Emilie was a brilliant woman, and she was translating (and understanding) Newton’s Principia. Voltaire was just a poet. Anyway, they had a very real “meeting of the minds” and Emilie could more than hold her own with Voltaire’s intellect.

The story of their 15-year relationship is great reading. It was fascinating to get a glimpse of the intrigue, etc. of France at the time (the French Revolution was after this, in 1789). One great story is how Voltaire and Emilie turned a rural chateau at Cirey into their own laboratory. They used it as a place to conduct experiments and write, and they were inseparable. They had created a space where they could think for themselves, with one supporting the other. They collaborated on a book, “The Principles of Newton”, which was a study of Newton’s “Principia Mathematica”.

Emilie was fluent in Latin and understood the mathematics (she explained the math to Voltaire, but he didn’t really get all of it). They actually setup and performed the experiments that Newton had described. “Principles of Newton” was published with only Voltaire’s name, but everyone knew of Emilie’s contribution (she was in correspondence with most of the great mathematicians of the day).

Emilie, on her own, completed a translation of the Principia – with commentary. It was the commentary that was fundamental to further developments of 18th century physics. She finished the manuscript while pregnant (with the child of a much younger man who subsequently dumped her). Emilie died a week or so after giving birth, at the age of 43. Voltaire lived with her at the end, and he lived on to be 84.

[I’m posting this now, but read the book 9/2007].

Seeker (2005) is the third book in a series with the character Alex Benedict (following A Talent for War and Polaris). The main characters are the antiquities dealer Alex and his (female) assistant, Chase Kolpath. The Alex character reminds me of the Jonathan Gash character Lovejoy, and this book can be thought of as “Lovejoy in space”. This is a page-turner of an adventure story, with Alex and Chase trying to find the “lost colony” of Margolus. The story is set about 13,000 years in the future. Alex and Chase are shown a cup which they determine is 9,000 years old, and they believe it is from the interstellar ship, Seeker. Seeker was one of two ships that carried the original colonists 9,000 years before.

Alex and Chase go on a hunt for the colony, and unknown people try to stop them…

Novel is told in the first person, from Chase’s point of view. Chase is actually the primary character. This is a fun read; I have Polaris on my queue.