For many people Jasper Fforde is an acquired taste, but I’ve always been glad to say it was one that I acquired early and I have enjoyed both his series of novels.
First Among Sequels is a return to the world of Thursday Next, Jurisfiction agent, supplier of floor coverings to the people of Swindon and cheese smuggler. I’ve always liked Thursday, her complicated family and cloned Dodo, Pickwick. Unfortunately, I was vaguely disappointed in this one, even setting it aside for several days.
The plot for this novel managed to be both simple and complicated at the same time, so I’m not even going to try to summarise it; if you have read any of the others then you will know what to expect., and if you haven’t, I really wouldn’t recommend you start here.
There were too many things going on, and I think I found the alternative Thursday Nexts (I’m not even going to try to explain how she manages to work alongside two alternative versions of herself) irritating.
However, I persevered until the end and was rewarded with some good jokes, interesting set-ups and a cliffhanger which presumably will lead us into another instalment. But these couldn’t save it from being somewhat unsatisfying.
Bride of the Book God 
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February 8, 2009 at 5:00 pm
bloglily
It sounds like the earlier books in this series are better. I think what happens is that there’s a lot of pressure on the writer to churn these out quickly, and they just don’t have time to get things right. It’s too bad really! Thanks for the review — I haven’t yet acquired the taste, but think I just might.
February 14, 2009 at 3:48 am
Steph
I really enjoy this series, though I have to admit that I haven’t read this one yet. It’s been sitting on my shelf for well over a year, but by the time it was released, I couldn’t really remember where things had been left, so I decided to hold off on reading it until I re-read the previous books. I just have to get through “Something Rotten” and then I’ll be ready to read it. I think my favorites in the series this far have been books 2 and 3. I believe Fforde intends for there to be 8 books in this series.