After finishing WOLP I found the book a bit less than expected. Of course there are lots of interesting 'trouvailles'. No disappointment there. But the story 'as such' is a bit (a lot) weaker than in the two previous books. everything seems to center around the - by out world's standards - impossibilities of living inside a book.
I can only hope that the next book (or should that be with a capital N?) improves on the storyline.

All I can say is "meh."
and yes, this does make polite conversation difficult.
in this context "meh" means "enjoyed but didn't love"

What does a yegg do?

a yegg does whatever it wants. You try stopping one.

Rob

So what happens when a yegg tries to stop another yegg?



============================================
The inimical is often more instructive than the benign.
So between screams, try to pay attention.
============================================

Scrambled yeggs? ;-)

ahahaha, you fools! a yegg is a safe cracker. like duh.

Scrambled safe-crackers? Huh?



============================================
The inimical is often more instructive than the benign.
So between screams, try to pay attention.
============================================

Must look at WOLP much the same way one would look at The Two Towers. It's suffering from middle child syndrome. It's still a great book, and worth every penny it took for me to have it shipped to me in California.

Yeah, it was worth that; i had to pay the same number of pennies you did. (because California is, objectively, the greatest state in the Union.)
speaking of pennies, they are basically useless. if you got rid of the penny we would have 17% less small change.

Hafta agree with Frans, I'm really struggling with WOLP. I'm about 150 pages in but after 100 I was wondering when the 'story' was going to start. It reads more like a collection of ideas and word plays than a story; still funny, but in a dip into occassionally rather than a read it in one sitting way.

I enjoyed it (but I had just finished a Martin Amis, so it almost read itself), but felt a definite shift from the feel of the first two.

I think Jasper is making hay, working to paying deadlines and also (as stated on the site) couldn't resist shoehorning in older (previously rejected) material as a mean of affirming that the old stuff was 'good enough' for publication after all.

Thing is, it has produced a very busy, insular worlded story. Enjoyable, but different, and I do think at times he just tried to get too much 'stuff' in there.

Before email traffic got too crazy, I asked him about the future for Thursday and he said he was contracted for 4 books, then it's a matter of evolution. If Thursday is still inciting interest and he's got good ideas then maybe more. But he has got his eyes on other projects.

I have to agree. I was very excited to order the book as soon as it came out in the UK. But I felt as the poster who said they kept wating for the story to begin. It felt like one long string of in jokes. Yes, the whole idea for the series is quite clever..but I think it was even more clever when it wasn't so obvious. I felt after the first book that I had found a treasure..almost a secret treasure...same after second. I have lost the sense of wonder after the third. I say, if Jasper doesn't have a new complete story by next year, wait until he does to write the next book...and just don't try to be so clever..or to go ever deeper into the process of book travel, plot visiting and changing, etc...

I found it slow, but that it picked up once people started dying. I don't think it was as impressive as the other two, but I view it as necessary description in order to return to the next Next book. And honestly, the had had that that discussion was worth reading the whole book.

It wasn't as good as the other two, TN1 was best I think, but it is still a great book.



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'Pompadour,' spat my mother. 'Living in sin with his pompadour.'

Funny thing, I read WOLP first, (On holiday in Pendine, no less - Aornis nearby, perhaps?) and I think it was a great book. I thought TN2 was probablythe best, but re-reading WOLP, I'm never disappointed.



--
IM - The Friendly Voice of Chaos

"Hey! You tore up my tablecloth!"

all i want to know is when is landen coming back? when'll the baby actually be born? we need to move on to the next chapter in thursday's life!

even though this was the weakest of the three, it's still pretty damn good. i don't think mr. fforde can write a bad book.

i know, i know, famous last words... but i doubt it.

The baby will be born by the time Something Rotten comes out, I think it is two years later. Hopefully Landen will be back around then as well.



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'Pompadour,' spat my mother. 'Living in sin with his pompadour.'

I was really disapointed with WOLP. I didn't even read all of it. It didn't hold my attention and it was nothing like the other two. It was too verbose, silly, and really stupid. I got the first book by accident in Target and fell in love with it. I had to special order the next book. And had the third pre ordered for a few months. I will read the fourth, I hope it is alot better.

I'm wondering if those folks who were a bit disappointed were really just suffering from over-expectation syndrome. Building it up to be the end-all/beat-all. On the second read through, I think I enjoyed it so much more once I sort of knew what to expect and could delve into the jokes and details.

So you all might give it a second chance without all the build-up. You might just find that you really did love it but you just didn't know it!

Hi everyone,

I just finished the WOLP and agree that while good, it was not as fab as the previous works. I went to a book signing/reading for Jasper in Raleigh, NC last weekend. He mentioned that the fourth book will be coming out simultaneously in the UK and US in August of this year. He also talked about Thursday's child, name etc. He did not mention Landen coming back but did say that we will learn a lot about Granny Next.

Question - how did Thursday defeat Aornis? Boogeyman? West side slasher? I'm still confused about that one.

Thanks!