What people thought of it?

I definitely thought it was an improvement on WOLP - almost on a par with LIAGB, not close to TEA yet. At times it felt crowded - too much was happening, and it was tied up a little too easily - Thursday doesn't really *do* much to try and sort out the "rotten stuff", it just kind of falls into place as it occurs...

I did enjoy the opening few chapters and the leaving of the bookworld in particular, but I'm still not sure about the motorway service station death experience or switching to the first person with Landen. Goliath's uneradication of L seemed too easy.

That said, using Hamlet was wonderful, and the cheeky mentions - Thursday's son being in the chronoguard (mentioned briefly in TN1) was good. Mr F has huge potential, but I'm still left feeling that it needs work to get back to the astonishing excellency of The Eyre Affair.

Just wondering what the fforumites felt...



Post Edited (07-29-04 14:58)

Yep, I liked it better than WOLP but not as much as TEA. Not sure whether I like it better than LIAGB yet - need another reading. It did seem far more...straightforward, somehow. Not sure if that's good or not.

The thing about the Eyre Affair is that presumably Jasper had years and years to write it and polish it, but the other three have been written in a few months each, as far as I know, to meet deadlines.

I thought Bismarck was a bit of an unneccessary character - did he do anything useful at all?



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Do something pretty while you can...

I liked it a lot (but had my doubts about the need to include Bismark) too.


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"Customers are advised that this product may
contain meat from re-engineered species."

I thought it was better than WoLP, but that's probably because I like the action in the Outland better than the action in the bookworld... Having said that, I would have liked to see more of Thursday's time as the Bellman, since I like the idea of her being in charge. Hopefully that will happen in the Samuel Pepys Fiasco.



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

I thought it was different to WoLP, not better. WoLP gave the series a new and interesting direction. That's what I like about these books, you never know what'll happen Next.

what happened to aornis?

Thursday only beat her mindworm, the real aornis hades was still in the outland between LGB and SR, and in SR she wasnt mentioned at all apart from when spoken of as the mind worm

I liked it a lot, better than any except TEA but I thought it was very *busy*. Personally, I think a few less characters but more done with them. As others have commented, no Bismark which would allow more time for Hamlet dithering.

Also, I find myself criticising WOLP for lack of plot running through and SR for less laugh out loud moments. I guess you can't do everything. What I like most is that the different books are different with new ideas each time rather than a rehash of the same stuff. So it's all nit-picking really and I don't think the series could be improved on over all.

I think Bismark was probably meant as the no-nonsense, get to the point foil for Hamlet. At least that's the feeling I had about it. Perhaps it was a bit of the contrast and compare method!

The point of Bismark was that he had no point ! Not every person in a book has a direct link to the plot, some just pooter about getting in the way. The whole St. Z bit left me a bit cold - and honestly can you really see Goliath honouring a 600 year old accumulator? Especially when the only reason they've turned "nice" is to avoid the Saint's prediction destroying/bankrupting them - once they realised it was a con trick they'd have ditched the whole repentance rubbish and reverted to type.

I agree completely with Rob. With WoLP there was a lack of an apparent plot in some parts, then you're suddenly hit with a lot of mindworm stuff and Aornis, which I didn't care for much. I was a little dissapointed with SR's humor. In previous books I went to people no less than three times to point out the very funny parts (even though out of the context of the whole series they aren't very funny,) but with SR I wasn't even tempted to do it. As a book to tie up loose ends and reactualize Landen it was very good, adding some key aspects of Outland fun (thals, for instance,) although I usually prefer more Bookworld, because it's so unique to TN, and, IMO, more fun.

The Books (and what I like about them)

1. TEA--I like how the book kind of mirrors Jane Eyre in the whole Landen-Daisy fiasco and how England is a police state, but no one seems to notice very much. This is my favorite of the TN books

2. LIAGB--How it combines the weird "realities" of Thursday's world with BookWorld politics and problems....oh, and I like the Havisham-Hearts rivalry

3. WOLP---This is probably my least fav. book. Still good, still suspenseful, still Ffordian....but no "real" characters and Landen is STILL gone... No real resolution to the "real" problems (although TN is supposedly "taking a break" from her life, so that explains that)

4. SR--Love that TN is back in reality, like how she keeps a connection with the members of Jurisfiction, DON'T like that Lavoisier is gone (ranted about this in a previos post) or that the Hades family seems to have disappeared entirely. I love though, that Cindy is TN's assassin and that Fri. does indeed turn out to be in the CG


Drat...I didn't really add anything new to this post..Just kind of reiterated what everyone else said.....

Best Regards Anyway,
~Antonio Salieri~

Pointlessly making comments since 1750...with some work in the ChronoGuard and a bit of music!! :)

I found it confusing how Wednesday (thursday mum) was acting, as it seemed to me ( and I may be wrong) that she knew that Thurs. Dad was alive and not dead and that he was just 'away' for his survial and etc. But in this book she seemed to acept the fact that Thurs dad was not existant and etc. Am I the only one who found this rather wrong???

Though aggree on Bismark, bit of a lost character. Either he should have been omited or had his character used a lot more.... but then there was I agree way to much happening- all out of TN control but it all feel into place just like a novel does... was this Ffordes commment on the fact TN is a fictional character and can not escape the fictional life ( boundries) of everything working out.

I will contiune later when I find a few quotes to back this up....

I loved Something Rotten!
This one and LIGB are my favorites.
Two things though:

1) Plot hole??? Why did Goliath agree to uneradicate Landen? They didn't have to and it goes against their general evilness. Or did I miss something and Thursday forced them to do it? I'm all for Landen but this seemed to be a stretch for Goliath.


2) Why Thursday's daughter is not named Saturday? Was there a Saturday Next in the series? Going back in the week seems a bit weird! ;-)

I was confused how Wednesday's view of Erradications Anonymous was forgotten - it seemed important when Thursday was so shocked at Wednesday thinking the Colonel wasn't real.



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Those who forget the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

I think I am about to get shot here, but TN4 is actually my favorite. Although that may be because Landen's uneradication happens (have read that scene waaaay too many times). But to be fair, Bismark was irrelevant and I think Jasper admits that in teh wondamentary. He probably just felt like putting him in. And, yeah, wednesday's eradications anonymous meeting was probably my least favorite scene. It had two redeemable points. Emma breaking into the drinks cabinet and naming a character julie aseizer. I kinda want to know who the tall guy was, i've had this funny feeling he's chronoguard and trying to keep people from figuring out what's going on.
And Goliath and Landen. The only excuse i can think of is that the blackmail for thursday to get schitt out of the raven was no longer necessary and it was obvious she wasnt bookjumping them AND her forgiveness would jumpstart them on teh way to becoming a religion. That explains the offer. But I'm wondering why they went through with it. Unless they were that scared of Zvlkx's revealment that they werent taking chances? Interesting...
To be fair, TEA is still probably the best, but since I've been missing TN2-4 for teh past 6 weeks and have only just got my hand on them again recently, I've been having separation anxiety from 4 because I had only read it twice before leaving the country for school and my mother refusing to send it with me until she read it. (To all future psychiatrists, in a few years, i will be in your offices explaining homocidal behavior due to someone stealing TN novels from me and blaming it on that very event)
Farewell

And why can Thursday remember the previous EA meetings that never technically occurred?



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Those who forget the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

Those were her past and the reason they happened was because of Landen's eradications. She was outside the change, so she saw it switch. Everyone else was inside it, so they missed it. But I wonder if other people out there have memories of it. Like, what happened to the ten other people at the meeting? They couldn't have just been there to convince Thursday Landen wasn't real, could they?

I have to agree with JABerwock that TN4 was my favorite, i absolutly loved it, even the croquet match... but i had some questions, and i cant give you page numbers now as my copies also have been absconded, but didnt granny next say in TN2 that she had read Faerie Queene already when she first tells thurs about her sentance? and if Goliath still technically owns the Neanderthals, then why didn't they do something to stop them from playing? i had other questions too, but they are all in the margins of my copies which are on the other side of the planet now... sigh. well, at least i got in several reads before they left me...

I am interested in the fact that so many eradicated people coming back aswell!! I think there is more to that story but we shall see since really only Jasper knows and from reading some of his ranting on his books not even he knows!!!!

I do agree that T's forgiveness in return for her husband back was a big boost to Goliath. But that forgiveness was worth nothing to them if L didn't reappear, I believe that L reappears after G has been told that they have not done enough to become a religion.... will check the book again tonight just incase my case doesn't hold up.

I think W's attitude to the EE group and T's dads exsistance/non exsistance had something to do with the circumstances. She has never denied his exsistance before again I have a feeling there is more to this story than we think.

We are all effected by everything that happens to us and we draw conclusions from our past experiances in a world were your past experiances can change almost on a minute by minute basis I think it is good that some of that is being brought into the book. Remember not everyone remembers what has happened to them from on side slip to another and one persons impact on the world is far greater than they probably even imagine. A bit of uncertainty I can cope with that, hey if I couldn't I wouldn't be reading these books!!!

I enjoyed Something Rotten very much, and it left me wanting more. I imagine Goliath could not get genuine forgiveness under false pretenses, and so had to go through with the deal. Remember, getting forgiveness from a sworn enemy like Thursday was worth twenty everyday, ordinary forgivenesses...and they may have hoped that getting Landon back would remove her motivation to work against them any longer. She's been quite an obstacle to them so far! Bismarck may have been unecessary to the plot, but he added background color.

To fly in the face of popular opinion, I thought The Eyre Affair was wordy and tedious, and I doubt I'd have slogged through and read the rest of the series if I had started with that one. (I started with Lost in a Good Book, which I found excellent, if slightly confusing at first.)