Ok, to be perfectly honest I was a little disappointed in WOLP. At times the plot seemed incidental to authorial creativeness. The "upgrade" plotline seemed a little strained to hang a book on, and the Aornis-mindworm plotline didn't seem to impact on the rest of the book at all and seemed a bit detached from the rest of the plot. There seemed to be too many unnecessary extras that just weren't necessary.

But the style was still good, and utterly readable and hard to put down. A little *too* clever at times (not everyone will get all of it) and to be purely geeky, liked the bit where the guy in the bar speaks in Courier New it being the "original" font to speak in - if you open a "notepad" file in Word or something similar, the font is Courier New - therefore, original. Cool. Good one Jasper.

M

one of my favorite parts, silly enough, was the letter shortage so that in "certain editions" extraneous letters would be taken out to conserve them for use in other words. I laughed out loud on that one. Colour vs Color LOL just saved a "U" hehehee.

Oh and Milo, I suppose you have some good points. But I try not to think into it that much, I just go and enjoy the story. I just keep in mind that Jasper uses bits and pieces of gags and may use them again in later books. You never know what's going to show up. And when you write in a semi-steam of conciousness style, things are bound to get a little strained.

Chalk the Aornis thing up to character development and for added suspense. IF Thursday actually forgot about Landen, how would she be able to go and rescue him later? It also helps create a filler for WOLP so that she didn't have to go save him in this book, thereby securing the fans the chance to read TN-4! Get my drift?

I love the cleverness aspect. It means that everytime you read it, you'll pick up something new. I love that about Jasper's books! Besides, if that cleverness weren't there, Jon wouldn't have a job trying to do the reference notes, now would he?? LOL

I suppose so (umm ... to pretty much all of your post). The more I think about Aornis, the more it does seem like a good way to keep the Hades family in things.

To be honest, I was trying to think up some good reasons why it just didn't "feel" completely right. I was left feeling a little unsatisfied at the end, but I thought if I wrote this, fforumites might completely take me apart with some intellectualisations (?) about why it was excellent.

I didn't expect the other end of the spectrum. But I'd rather have it that way!!!

I'll read it again and let you know what I think. Maybe I just read it at the bookies, so to speak.

Milo - I'm actually quite glad that you said that you were disappointed, as I know what you mean, even though I personally thought it was the best of the three. I don't think anyone here would damn an opinion, but they would feel free to disagree and explain why...

If we didn't, we'd all be clones and this place would be deeply boring, and I'd be miles away... People may consider this a good thing, however.

We all read the same words, but how we view them, which bits we choose to highlight or attach more weight to, which bits tickle our humour or strike us as unneccessary is different for everyone of us. I'm intrigued by the different ways of seeing it, and hope that people who don't like bits feel free to say.

Btw, did anyone else think that the Prometheus bit seemed left over from something bigger that got cut? As it is, it reads like a subtle dig at T%^
H%^&...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

You know, I read it so fast, I'm gonna have to go back and do it again cuz I missed a lot!

I liked the bit about dealing with the "U" shortage, too, but just how did they actually do it? Did they go into the original versions of the USAn books to delete the relevant "U"s from those so that every edition showed the change? Was this supposed to be a non-retrospective change, so that on Thursday's Earth those American spellings didn't diverge from the British ones until the 1980s? Is this another hint that (despite what seem to me to be quite a bit of apparent evidence to the contrary...) those people who suggested that Jurisfiction's actions occur outside of "time as we know it" were right?

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

Jasper has himself hinted that Jurisfiction time is not our time; in the answers to the qs for WN-1 he remarks that the lives of Bookpeople bear a resemblance to those of the Tralfamadorians in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-5. The Tralfamadorians experience all times concurrently, not sequentially, and just visit the ones they like best. Something similar may apply in BookWorld. (And then again it may not. So it goes.)



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Wish we could do that!

I do actually agree with Milo, I thought I enjoyed it a bit less than the first two (but, given how much I enjoyed them, that's certainly not a criticism!)

I think it was that the first two books seem to have much more action and speed than WOLP, partly because it's almost completely contained in the BookWorld and reads as if it is outside time... and really it's much more to do with the internal world of books.

I suppose partly because fewer of the characters appear in WOLP it seems less a sequel than a variation on a theme, while events in the Outworld are suspended, if that makes any sense (?) but it's a brilliant, funny book! Just different. Different's good.

I'm torn. I think I enjoyed it more than the other books. Certainly some of the set pieces and one liners were fantastic (the cast of WH in anger counselling) and Jasper really seems to have hit his stride. However, it did lead to a rather rambling plot. The whole Landen thing wasn't advanced at all. I guess I'll just have to wait another year...

I really enjoyed it :) Finished it last night (slower than I normally read due to having a viscous that made me fall asleep every time I settled down to read!). I loved the "had had" sentence - I remember doing it at school!

Re the Landen plot - it couldn't be advanced if Thursday spent all her time (bar the two races) stuck in the book world - but the Aornis mindworm thing was a good way of keeping the suspense alive. I wonder which of the Hades family she has left to defeat?



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

Re the passage of time for Book-dwellers _ I agree that they can visit any parts of their own stories, yes, but haven't there also been hints that when they're outside of those (at Jurisfiction, or Text Grand Central) they exist in the same sort of sequential time as the Outlands?

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

I liked it a lot - not sure about how it would go in comparison to the other two. I'll have to re-read them all in a row, I think.

I especially liked all the little geeky references, like the courier one.

I figured if they took the U's out of the library copies that change happened in all the books. So the library copies of the American prints, maybe? Does the library have a copy of every edition? Argh.



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

Thoughts on WOLP:

Lots of interesting concepts and details but somehow lacking in overall drive. I couldn't help feeling that anyone who tried it without reading the others first would be disappointed. For quite a lot of the book, Thursday is not acting from any great motivations of her own. She's slightly too passive for a central character - especially Thursday! Things happen to her, and around her but she's slow to take things into her own hands.

I read it all eagerly, and will probably enjoy it more on subsequent readings.

Hey, I'm new here so um... hello. But anyway, I just wanted to say I was a bit disappointed in WOLP, although given how much I loved the other two, it'd be quite difficult to better them.

For me, it kinda seemed a bit too clever, if you know what I mean? More concerned with all whole Bookworld and I got a bit confused with all the new inventions and words and so on. Also, it feels a bit less real than the first two because it's not in Swindon and thus, great characters like Bowden, Spike et al aren't featured and there's only so much you can do with characters that already exist...

It wasn't quite as un-put-downable as the first two and seemed a bit lacking in drive - and Thursday seemed less cool than the previous books. However (aware that I'm sounding as if I hated the book), it was still great and much better, more intelligent, funnier and more inventive than most books I read! Can't believe I have to wait another year for the next one!

Welcome, Rach.
You may have to wait nearly a year for the next book (Jasper's current working title for which is, he says, 'APOCALYPSE NEXT'), just as the rest of us have to (except for anybody who's lucky enough to obtain a proof copy in advance of publication, as several fforumites did in the case of WOLP...), but I hope & expect that you'll find plenty to read in this fforum.

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

okay, Simon, how did you figure that out? I thought MUM was the word on that one?? Who spilled it!?

Besides, you just "scooped" WN....thanks a lot! <huff!>

LOL

I'm currently on my second run through of WOLP and enjoying it thoroughly. I still miss some of the ROFLOL moments I had with TEA, but I think that's more to do with me than any perceived "weakness" in the writing itself - I just tend to enjoy Thursday's surreal adventures in "outland" more than her adventures in "book world". To my mind, TWOLP is something of a sequel to LIAGB, meaning there's still room for a thematic sequel to TEA. Hope so anyway! Not that it matters too much - I'll still be returning to each and every one of them with pleasure for years to come I'm sure.

AAC _
Jasper mentioned it during his appearance at Waterstones (bookshop) in Brighton yesterday evening, and didn't say anything about keeping the fact a secret. Sorry!

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

Talking of WN - did you get he thing I sent? Or did I send it to the old address by accident (read: stupidity)?



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Please say he was joking! That's a terrible title!