I felt it was a bridging book. There seemed to be too many threads being set up for a following book, like the defeat of Aornis, which is essentially a precursor to a corporeal defeat. The there is the deus ex machina presence of Granny Next, again being set up for later on.

The whole book upgrade story arc seemed a bit perfunctory, with a sudden denouement, and again a set up for the next book with Yorrick Kaine escaping. Libris being the bad guy only happened at the last minute, with no real pacing for it.

That said, I thought it was a great book. When you get a series of books I find it irritating that they have to have all loose ends tied up for the single purchase market, often to the detriment of the fan readers. Worst is when you get reams of expositional guff that seems stilted to the casual reader and patronising to those who have read all the books.

I think that this will prove to be a much better book once the fourth one comes out. In that context I think it will be a much more rounded book. And there were some truly classic moments.

I thought that WOLP was rather entertaining, though not much was brought to conclusion. I absolutely loved the anger management incident with Heathcliff in it! ... um... are there people who actually admire Heathcliff? Ech.

I personally enjoyed it MUCH more than TN2. I do find the whole 'jurisfiction' stuff to be getting a bit tedious and can't wait til we get SpecOps back. I find that more interesting. But you are right, Colleen, the 'had had that that' convo was completely worth it.

I am a bit late in reading this finally. Been meaning to for ages but just not bought it or had time to read it. A friend finally lent it to me and I enjoyed it but there are reasons I enjoyed it. I think it did not have the same WOW factor as the Eyre Affair but I still enjoyed it.

Namely though well I appear in it ;) Rumours of my boojumming have been seriously misleading ;) I was named after Catriona and to see it appear only to hear that David and Catriona have been boojummed was a bit sad for me. I hope that they are rescued but well for sentimentality sake. Perhaps I should be Catriona2??

Also the mentions of Ant and Bee - a childhood favourite book and The Jabberwockey being one of my favourite poems and the boojum being mentioned.

Course the Tasmanian Tiger getting a mention though I would like to say Marmite and Vegemite while similar are not the same thing ;)

I enjoyed my read, polished it off today. Onwards and upwards, bring on the next one!

ooops how did I slip onto this forum? I am sure I clicked Lost in a Good Book - my walls seem to be the same colour so can't be a time slip, just the click of a mouse a bit off centre. Still have to read Well of Lost Plots.

It is not disappointing if you open your mind to it, you are a true outlander!

Have to say that I liked the first two better. I like Thursday's version of 1985 and prefer SpecOps to Jurisfiction. WOLP felt a bit like one of those nested Russian dolls, with the action retreating from the 'real' world into the bookworld and deeper still into Thurday's memory-scape, which I found diluted the impact of the story.
I'll read the next one though!

I agree with All American Cutie. I think there was a lot of build up in expectation to the WOLP. I read it and completely enjoyed it. But I didn't know it was being published and therefore was surprised by its release (I'd just had a baby myself--I was a little distracted) and only had a couple of weeks to anticipate the arrival of the book.

Since Thursday now lives in the bookworld, she might as well explain it. Maybe the style in which WOLP is written is necessary to demonstrate the rules and events of the bookworld, for Thursday is going to present the Bellman job, to us in the Outland, very soon. And without background knowledge the next book MIGHT not be THAT funny.

But as we all read WOLP, we'll laugh, for sure!

I went to hear Fforde speak about TN3 last week. He was charming as hell and terrifically entertaining and I left thinking that WOLP would read the same way. Once I cracked open the book however, I found that the words fell flat on the page and that the narrative flow was pretty choppy. I was willing to stick it out till the end, but I did it more out of a sense of obligation than joyous anticipation.

I won't give up on the guy. He is still wildly inventive and in a lot of ways he is a very inspiring human being. Especially after hearing him speak, I admire how freely he pursues his ideas. But after reading TN3 I also appreciate the value of good editor!

I had never heard of Jasper Fforde or WOLP until a few weeks ago when I bought it on impulse (New Zealand)
I loved it and yesterday purchased the first 2, so am just starting on The Eyre Affair. WOLP was a great read even without having read the others - if they're even better, I can't wait to read them!
Perhaps everyone should read the 3rd one first in future!

I had never heard of Jasper Fforde or WOLP until a few weeks ago when I bought it on impulse (New Zealand)
I loved it and yesterday purchased the first 2, so am just starting on The Eyre Affair. WOLP was a great read even without having read the others - if they're even better, I can't wait to read them!
Perhaps everyone should read the 3rd one first in future!

hahaha! Just make sure you re-read WOLP after you've read the other two...it'll make SO much more sense and you'll get a lot more of the in-jokes like the "daffodils in summer" and "Nakijima vs Nakajima" things. (You'll know what I mean when you get there!! LOL)

Oh, and by the way, WELCOME!

Yes, Welcome!


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Logic is like Fire, a good servant but a bad master.

Greetings.
Have some virtual cocoa (if you like it). We needed to clean up the menu anyway.



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Well, because it is submersed in a marine environment, I've always called it the Going-Under-The-Water-Safely-Device.

I disagree. Personally, I found TEA at the Library doing a NovelList search for related authors to Terry Pratchett, and found Fforde. I didn't care all that much for T32, for most of the reasons most of you don't care for TN3. I like Jurisfiction more than SpecOps, I thought TN2 left too many loose ends and it ended very badly (since I had to wait a year for the next book.) I like the way this one ended, with my bonus US-spec chapter. I wouldn't have cared for this ending either where it would have ended. The best part about TN2 was Miss Havisham in the Outland :D
My main gripe with TN3 is... there were too many deaths. It got almost cliche how many people died.

I'm sorry "notnamed" but have you ever read an Agatha Christie book? Or any "detective" novl at that? For "detective" is one of the many classifications of TN, and what happens in detective novels? Hmm, people die?



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

Yes, but she's got a point...detective novels are rather cliched, by and large.



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Well, because it is submersed in a marine environment, I've always called it the Going-Under-The-Water-Safely-Device.

Yes, but really, the point is that people die! Anyway, you can hardly say TN are serious books, can you?



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

Really? You mean they aren't?
And there was me, thinking they chronicled the true history of the mid-'80s in Britain.
I'm devestated.



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Well, because it is submersed in a marine environment, I've always called it the Going-Under-The-Water-Safely-Device.