I think I've worked out why I get so anally retentive when it comes to Jasper's work - it's because he is so damn good. I can still remember my first RE lesson at school, because the teacher asked us to find as many genres of book as possible within the Bible. We discovered romance fiction, scifi, horror, thriller, mild erotica, poetry etc etc (I can't remember humour being in there though - guess even God ain't perfect) The point being, no other work has so much variety within its pages. The Bible covers practically every genre going.
Now I'm not saying JF is better than Jesus or anything, but he is one of a very small number of authors who can cross the divide between, say, humour into pathos, or pathos into tragedy, and inspire the relative emotions in the reader. For example, Douglas Adams is funny, and sometimes moving, but I could never read one of his passages and be on the edge of my seat. Dean Koontz is exciting, but I smile inwardly rather than lol at his lighter moments. Pratchett is nearest, but even he doesn't cause that sudden shock you feel when, for example, you discover what Landen's fate is to be, or how Felix gets his face.

The book that does this most for me is LIAGB. I found the scene's where baby Landen drowns extremely distressing, probably because I'm one of those mums who has nightmares about the same thing happening to her own kiddywinks (and who recently read about the American woman who - some years back - deliberately drowned her own children by rolling the car into a lake, with them strapped in their seats helpless, just to keep her lover. Horrible. Give her the noose.) In my mind, I imagine the scene in the book differently, with the car coming up sans Landen, sans baby seat, Goliath having fixed it so he never existed at all and then erasing his parents' memory. I can't imagine a two year old drowning like that.I admire Jasper's guts in writing about it though - I never could.
The other bit is where Colonel Next sacrifices himself to save the world. I find this incredibly well written - moving but also funny, like when JF describes him as turning to 'pudding.' It's a welcome dose of humour at exactly the right point. My own father is dying from a very painful illness and I found this out just as I got to that scene in the book, so it has a particularly poignant meaning for me. Reading the bit at the end, where Thursday basically says she has discovered that dying, and being gone, are rarely the same thing was a great comfort to me - I'm going to read that aloud at dad's funeral. I'd bet I'm not the only one to get comfort from those words.
Sorry to be so morbid but I just wanted to express that these books, to me, are sheer genius. Nobody else can make me laugh, cry, and reach for the beta blockers in the same small space of time. Just as in TV comedy, humour works best when it is injected with a healthy dose of pathos - the brain reacts better to confusion, and there is nothing more boring than a book where the reader is just expected to laugh all the way through. It's as if the author is wearing a funny nose and glasses and saying 'Look at meeee! I'm so funneeee!' Like I say, boring. The reader needs passages of poignancy, thrills, and shocks alongside the giggles and Jasper is a master at this.

I definitely agree, and that's why I keep reading his books over and over again.

I have to disagree somewhat about Pratchett, however. You may not get "that sudden shock you feel when, for example, you discover what Landen's fate is to be, or how Felix gets his face," but I think there are moments of sublime beauty in some of his books, like the scene in Reaper Man where Death is becoming increasingly frantic, trying to sharpen the scythe, until he finally sharpens it on sunlight. Or Brutha and Om's passage through the desert…

Hmmm.... Dave Freer's work does the same for me.

Look for a short story called Genie out of the Vat.

Got some awesome characters in it too. Fitzy is wonderful and Arial is sheer class. I mean, a genetically-modified rat with a liking for strawberry contrieu straws? Although all the rats have a sugar addiction.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Vimes screaming "THAT'S NOT MY COW!"...

So many writers are so very good. (SIGH) So many books. So little time...

Yeah, thinking about it up till I discovered Jf I always said Terry was the best I'd ever read, for just the same reasons I so love Jasp now! But I've never been into fantasy fiction in quite the same way as stuff I can relate to - Jf is just that bit 'nearer' to the world I inhabit so maybe that's his secret. Right, better put the dodo to bed ...

Sue, I'm so sorry to hear (read) about your Dad. I hope that Thursday's words bring you some comfort when the time comes.

ffquizgal05 Wrote:
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> Sue, I'm so sorry to hear (read) about your Dad.
> I hope that Thursday's words bring you some
> comfort when the time comes.

Thanks ffizzy (and anyone else who might have posted on this - haven't read through all the posts yet.) Yeah, the prologue to this thread is ... (deep sigh) we finally lost him last Sunday morning - although he'd been in a coma for two days after they took him off life support so although I wasn't there at the end, I was one of the last people to talk to him 'coherently.'

Ffunny thing is, dad was (is, darn it) always up for a sci-fi laugh - Red Dwarf and Hitchhikers were his faves on TV and he read a lot as well. He hadn't read any of Jasper's stuff, so I took him in the first two books. He said they looked great,although by then he wasn't up to reading much. Instead, I read out a few of the funny parts plus the plot synopses - Dad's idea, not mine, because somehow we came round to the world ending in a sea of dream topping which Dad thought was hilarious! I'd avoided the ending but needn't have worried - Dad liked the idea of combining 'serious' sci-fi (nanobots) with stupidity - why shouldn't the Hero be consumed by dream topping? I told him about the book signing at Canterbury in July and he told me to BE THERE - his capitals, in no uncertain terms. He made me promise to book the tickets, which I did (with foreboding) because I generally go to ticket events in 'twos' and had managed to order two this time as well, even though I would be on my own and this was starting to look an awful lot like THE NOLANS, even though at the time we still thought Dad had a couple of months left.

Dad definitely had the last laugh though,'cos guess when his funeral is? That's right, THURSDAY BLOODY NEXT!!! (And at 3.30 pm for a 5pm pub do after, so much as I'd like to respect his last wishes there's no way I can get from Tooting to Canterbury in time for a 7.30 book signing)

I will, naturally, call Canterbury Waterstones to cancel (and be at Reading instead, with an extra ticket for Dad - just in case) but feel a few of Jasper's words at the ceremony would be appropriate, in addition to the poem I had already chosen which is 'Go not softly' (I think!) by Dylan Thomas. The last time I saw Dad awake, he was still being a cantankerous old so-and-so with the nurses, so much as I have tried to pen a suitable tribute I can't think of anyone who could have done it any better than Dylan did. Besides, Dad loved Wales.

Which is yet another Thursday Next connection, now I think about it.

Condolences J-S :-(

Sorry to hear that, Jazzy. And I think you've chosen a fitting tribute, after reading through your post.

*hugs*

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland