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Something Rotten: A Thursday Next Mystery | 
 enlarge | Author: Jasper Fforde
Publisher: Amazon Remainders Account
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $6.10
You Save: $18.85 (76%)
New (8) from $6.10
Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 358814
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.4
ASIN: B000H305PA
Publication Date: July 31, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Book Description
The popularity of Jasper Fforde's one-of-a-kind series builds with each new book. Now in the fourth installment, the resourceful literary detective Thursday Next returns to Swindon from the BookWorld accompanied by her son Friday and none other than the dithering Hamlet. But returning to SpecOps is no snap—as outlaw fictioner Yorrick Kaine plots for absolute power, the return of Swindon's patron saint foretells doom, and, if that isn't bad enough, The Merry Wives of Windsor is becoming entangled with Hamlet. Can Thursday find a Shakespeare clone to stop this hostile takeover? Can she vanquish Kaine and prevent the world from plunging into war? And will she ever find reliable child care? Find out in this totally original, action-packed romp, sure to be another escapist thrill for Jasper Fforde's legions of fans.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 Lewd Saints, High-Stakes Croquet, and Hamlet April 21, 2008
Like all of Jasper Fforde's books, Something Rotten combines literary allusion, alternate history and science fiction in a seamless narrative. In this installment of Fforde's Thursday Next series, Ms. Next, a real person who has spent the last several years living inside of books and leading the BookWorld's police force, Jurisfiction, returns to the real world to get back her husband, Landen. In a bizarre twist of circumstances that Thursday herself can't understand, the time-traveling police force known as the ChronoGuard has eradicated Landen by changing history at the moment that would have been his conception. The only evidence of his existence is Thursday's memory of the life she had with him in an alternate past, and the paradoxical existence of Friday, Thursday and Landen's infant son.
Other matters also preoccupy Thursday upon her return to the real world. Hamlet has also left the BookWorld temporarily and starts to think about rewriting his play. Thursday's old nemesis the Goliath Corporation is, for some reason, trying to convert itself into a religion. Worst of all, Yorrick Kaine, the Chancellor of England, has won the mindless devotion of the whole country and seeks to become absolute dictator. Thursday must fulfill the prophesy of a resurrected thirteenth-century monk to prevent Kaine from seizing power and starting a war that destroys the world.
Like all of Fforde's books, Something Rotten piques my interest in classics I haven't read yet and refreshes my memory of English class discussions about ones I have. This installment of the series brought to mind discussions of Hamlet with one of my favorite high school teachers, and it provided an entertaining reminder of the play's principle themes. When characters try to change their own stories, it's fun to recall the original version and how it differs. I also find myself looking up place names on maps to see how the locations in Fforde's universe, with its alternate history, match up with real-life ones.
I also loved the book's humor. Memorable examples include Fforde's description of a high-stakes croquet game, which uses a tea party on the lawn and an Italian sunken garden as obstructions and hazards. Another favorite of mine was the way the narrator of the audiobook pronounced the obscene Old English of the resurrected monk Saint Zvlkx.
I recommend this book for people who enjoy humor, alternate history, or a lighthearted exploration of classic literature.
 About as good as Harry Potter April 20, 2008
This is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. I liked all of them. They provide a similar kind of escapism, magic and drama as Harry Potter books, but there is also a lot of original humor.
My summer vacation in Thursday Next novels October 1, 2007
While completing undergrad and law school, I had no time to read for fun. In the period between graduation and taking the Bar, I needed brain candy that was substantial enough to chew on, yet satisfingly low on nutritional value. The Next novels were the perfect solution for my summer vacation! Be sure to bring your towel when you read this, bookjumping is almost as challenging as hitching a flight to Zenobia.
Amusing Book -- Great Literary/British Humor July 8, 2007
Unlike just about everyone else -- I actually read this book *without* reading the other ones in the series.
Even with that I give this book 5 stars.
Now it doesn't rise to the level of Douglas Adams knock down drag out farce, but it clearly has elements of the dryer wit of writers like Adams or Robert Aspirin (of the Myth-- series).
In short (though the other reviews do a better plot synopsis) Fforde's universe it set in a world, where not only time is fluid (as the Chronoguard can jump back and forth and "fix" history) but also the boundry between fact and fiction -- as characters can jump from the fictional world into the real world, as well as between books.
Fforde's world is one where items tend to be subltly different than reality -- likely because of all that mucking about in history that has gone on and the world is bureaucratic to the point of lunacy.
Also a 2 year old that only speaks "Loren Ipsum" is a wonderful touch.
Great for anyone who likes British humor or literary humor. The story is less important than the world that is spun along the way.
Whimsical but also most real April 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In `Something Rotten' Jasper Fforde's heroine Thursday Next juggles many responsibilities just like any modern day woman: Finding if not permanent then at least reliable childcare, dealing with a husband who's in and out of her life at the spur of the moment, working two jobs, battling a multinational corporation on their quest for world domination, and last but not least providing a life line for Hamlet (yes, THE Hamlet) not to mention competing in the World Croquet League Finals, crossing the border between life and death repeatedly and saving Danish books.
All's well that ends well and even though at times it seems too much even for Thursday all turns out well in the end. Well, well enough. ;)
New readers: Don't make `Something Rotten' your first book of the Thursday Next series. In my opinion, you may start with any of the previous books (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots) but this one won't be half as much fun as it can be unless you have some knowledge of previous events.
Fellow fans of Thursday: I loved the Hamlet thread!! So much so that I want to read Hamlet, lol. I was deeply touched by what happened after the World Croquet League Finals and Thursday's last meeting with Granny Next. And most amazing to me I was deeply sympathetic to Landen for the first time since meeting him in The Eyre Affair. And I still want my own Dodo.
I can't imagine what's next but then if I could it would be me writing the next book, wouldn't it...
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