Something Rotten, , Tandem Library, 2005, 1417798599, 9781417798599, 383 pages. Publisher's description: "Detective has had her fill of her responsibilities as the Bellman in Jurisfiction. Packing up her son, Friday, Thursday returns to Swindon accompanied by none other than the dithering Danish prince Hamlet. But ret.

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The story opens with Thursday still in the world of fiction in her job as the Bellman, head of the literary police force Jurisfiction. She is still hunting the Minotaur that escaped in the last book; she is tiring of fiction, however, and longs to return to her own world and get back her husband Landen, who was removed from time by the evil Goliath Corporation in 1947. Despite Landen's non-existence, Thursday still has her son (Friday Next) who is now two years old.

Thursday and Friday return to her mother (Wednesday) in Swindon, with Hamlet who is accompanying them on an excursion to the "Outland" to find out what people in the real world think of him. Her mother, whose main functions appear to be to make tea and to provide Battenburg cake, has some curious house guests: Emma Hamilton, Otto von Bismarck, and a family of dodos. Both humans are apparently staying for a rest, while Thursday's father (who has now been re-admitted to the time-travelling ChronoGuard) sorts out various parts of history for them.

Despite her earlier transgressions that caused her to flee to the Bookworld in the first place, Thursday gets her job back at SpecOps-27 as a Literary Detective and catches up with her old colleagues. She learns that in her absence, Yorrick Kaine has joined forces with Goliath Corporation and plans to oust the ageing English President George Formby. As Prime Minister, Kaine wields some mysterious persuasive influence over Parliament and the people, and has used it to pass some bizarre laws and to stir up hatred of Denmark. Yorrick has also taken out a hit on her: he has hired an assassin known as "The Windowmaker", who is actually Cindy Stoker, the wife of Thursday's longtime friend, Spike.

Thursday's father warns her that Kaine's ambitions may cause nuclear armageddon and that it is up to her to stop him. On top of this, she is visited by tearful agents from the Bookworld (Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and Emperor Zhark) who tell her that all sorts of things are going wrong without her leadership'; for starters, without its titular character, the play Hamlet has merged with The Merry Wives of Windsor creating a new play called "The Merry Wives of Elsinore", which is not nearly as good as either original play (in the words of Emperor Zhark, "it takes a long time to get funny, and, when it finally does, everyone dies"). Meanwhile, her most pressing problem is finding reliable childcare for Friday.

Goliath Corporation have decided to become the new world religion to avoid a prophecy (the prophecy states that the Goliath Corporation will fall; Goliath believes that converting itself into a religion will exempt it from destruction, as the prophecy specifies a business). Thursday meets the CEO—at their headquarters in the Isle of Man—and gets a promise that they will un-eradicate Landen in exchange for her forgiveness. Thursday feels duped when she finds that, through some form of mind control, she has formally forgiven them, even though there is no sign of her husband. Then suddenly he is back, but takes a while to stabilise. Thursday must wait patiently for his un-eradication to "stick". In the meantime, she embarks on several seemingly impossible tasks, which include smuggling ten truckloads of banned Danish literature into Wales, tracking down an illegal clone of William Shakespeare, and teaching Friday to speak properly.

She succeeds but not without a near-death experience and a visit to the gateway to the Underworld (which turns out to be a planned-but-never-built service station on the M4 motorway). The final chapters contain some curious time paradoxes in which Thursday finds that she has met herself at several other stages in her own lifespan, including one character which had seemed to be an independent character.

The popularity of Jasper Fforde’s one-of-a-kind series of genre-bending blend of crime fiction, fantasy, and top-drawer literary entertainment 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. Thursday’s zany investigations continue with First Among Sequels. Look for the five other bestselling Thursday Next novels, including One of Our Thursdays is Missing and Jasper Fforde’s latest bestseller, The Woman Who Died A Lot. Visit jasperfforde.com for a ffull window into the Ffordian world!

Jasper Fforde's unique brand of inspired insanity makes "Something Rotten" a welcome addition to his enormously entertaining and often hilarious Thursday Next series. Thursday is the head of Jurisfiction, the policing agency that "safeguards the stability of the written word" in literature. However, she is tiring of her hectic, stressful, and often dangerous job and she needs a break. Thursday takes her two-year-old son, Friday, and decides to head for the Outland. She returns to her home town of Swindon, , determined to bring back her "eradicated" husband, Landen Parke-Lane.

Thursday's return home, unfortunately, brings a new set of problems to plague this beleaguered heroine. She is saddled with Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, who is unhappy with the indecisive manner in which he has been portrayed by actors. In addition, the Council of Genres wants Thursday to do something about the dictatorial and ruthless Yorrick Kaine, an escaped fictionaut who is planning to dominate the world. To make matters worse, a mysterious and deadly assassin is out to get Thursday, and she has to watch her back constantly.

"Something Rotten" is filled with puns, literary allusions, slapstick, dizzying time travel, ribald humor, naughty words, brilliant satire, and non-stop action. Often, the wacky plot makes little sense, and the many characters enter and exit so often that the unprepared reader may be left with a migraine. However, Fforde rewards the patient reader in many ways. The author entertains us with his large cast of colorful and varied characters. Thursday Next is an appealing heroine who is smart, courageous, warmhearted, determined, and resourceful. Melanie Bradshaw, the gorilla wife of Commander Bradshaw, provides Friday with much-needed child care in a pinch.Read more ›

The latest Thursday Next saga is certainly the best, providing that you've read the rest of the series. If you haven't, you'll find it difficult to follow the exciting adventures of Thursday in the Outerworld, as she fights to save her eradicated husband, raise their paradoxical son Friday, stop Yorrick Kaine and the dastardly Goliath Corporation, foil an assassin, capture the Minotaur, bring about world peace, and win an un-winnable croquet match in the process. Taking a leave of absence from the Bookworld, Thursday reappears in the real world to find that the Goliath Corporation has ascended to new heights of mind control, Yorrick Kaine has inexplicably risen to power, her bosses are not particularly happy about her unauthorized 2 1/2 year absence, and she's got a downtrodden Hamlet, an amorous Emma Hamilton and a dashing Otto Bismarck to contend with.

Fforde's brilliant detective series continues in the fourth installment, 'Something Rotten', which ties in all the classic elements of his beloved stories. His wit is as sharp as ever and he continues to cleverly tie in various characters/scenarios from several works of literature. The world he has created for Thursday Next is a treat for any bibliophile who has ever dreamed of being able to enter their favorite work of literature.

'Something Rotten' finds Thursday Next tired of hiding out in the Book World, so she returns home in order to have her erradicated husband un-erradicated. This isn't as simple as it may seem, and Thursday is forced with defending herself from various attempts on her life, resolving a coup in 'Hamlet', and stopping the ruthless Yorrick Kaine, a fictional character, from becoming a vicious dictator in the real world (well, a Nextian world). She also has to take care of her two-year-old son Friday, get her job back at SpecOps, and most importantly of all, prevent an armageddon from destroying the world. These might seem like insurmountable tasks for the ordinary detective; but as a literary detective, Next is more than equipped for whatever comes her way, real or imagined.

Fforde has created an entire world for Thursday Next and is comfortable in her shoes. As she travels between the real and the written world, Fforde's imagination is vibrant and alive, painting an unusual depiction of what really goes on in the books we read. He has given new voices and perspectives to beloved literary characters and has established himself as a force to be reckoned with, in both the literary and 'real' worlds.

Thursday Next is back again at last, and her hands are fuller than ever. The story begins 2 years after her last adventure ended, and she is weary of her time as the head of Jurisfiction. She decides to take a leave of absence from Bookworld and return to Swindon and a job at SpecOps. Accompanying her are her young son Friday and Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark. Thursday's trip out of Jurisfiction leaves her little time for relaxation, however. She tries to get her husband Landon uneradicated. She searches for a Shakespeare clone to save the play "Hamlet" from a hostile takeover. She must ensure that the Swindon Mallets win the SuperHoop-88 World League Croquet tournament to keep the world from imminent Armageddon, as is prophesied by 13th-century Saint Zvlkx, whose revealments always come true. She must find a way to thwart an anti-Danish book-burning by smuggling books across the border into Wales. Needless to say she must also battle the evil Goliath Corporation, along with the fictional Yorrick Caine, now Chancellor of England, who wants to become world dictator. Then there's the assassin who is repeatedly attempting to do away with Thursday. The reader can never say that Thursday's life is boring!

There are many interesting and amusing details in the book, including the finer points of croquet law, a closer look at Neanderthals and Chimeras, the problems inherent with uneradication, the reasons behind Hamlet's dithering, and Friday's use of Lorem Ipsum, a typesetter's dummy language. Many characters from previous books make their appearance here, including the Minotaur, the Cheshire Cat, the Jurisfiction operatives, and Thursday's coworkers from SpecOps. There are plenty of chases, close calls, and time travel paradoxes.Read more ›

Well, here it is at last, the fourth installment in the Thursday Next series, Something Rotten. This is coming out on the 26th July 2004 in the UK and the 9th August 2004 in the USA, thus giving me time for two weeks in both territories. (For tour details, click HERE). I don't want to give too much of the book away but suffice to say that Thursday arrives back in Swindon two years later to discover that a lot has changed while she has been away. Yorrick Kaine has seized power, Goliath are threatening to change to a faith-based corporate management system, and the winning of the 1988 World Croquet League SuperHoop (as foretold in the Seventh Revealment of St Zvlkx) is inextricably linked to the fall of Kaine and Goliath. The UK edition will be available in two formats: The 'Collector's Hardback' in Royal format to match the previous three, and a B Format Hardback (pictured above) which is the first proper UK hardback publication for me - Hoorah! The new artwork for the UK edition is a departure for the series and eventually all TN books will have this sort of '30's pulp' feel to them. USA edition is hardback, same format as the previous publications.

. . . I have watched Grammasites in flight over the pleasure domes of Xanadu, cantered bareback on unicorns through the leafy forests of Zenobia and played chess with Ozymandias, the King of Kings. But despite all these moments of wonder and delight, my heart belonged back home in Swindon and to a man named Landen Parke-Laine. He was my husband, the father of my son, he didn't exist, and I loved him . . .

Two years after Thursday Next's Ultraword adventure, the now ex-head of Jurisfiction returns home accompanied by a toddler, a pair of dodos, and Hamlet, eager to learn a little bit about conflict resolution. But the Swindon to which Thursday returns is not the one she left - for something is rotten in the state of England.

But time is out of joint. A timephoon in the dark ages is throwing prophets into the present - one of whom, Swindon's very own St Zvlkx, has a few startling revelations: not least the end for The Goliath Corporation and Yorrick Kaine, who both seem to be inextricably linked to the outcome of the 1988 World Croquet League final.

It's very much in a day's work for Thursday, who with help from her father, Hamlet and 'Spike' Stoker, manage to deal with everything Swindon can throw at her, yet still find time to answer the following questions: How can she uneradicate her husband? Who is cloning Shakespeares? Why does Nelson insist on dying at Trafalgar? Who is the assasin trying to kill her? And why is it so difficult to find reliable childcare?

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books have been a sensation over the last few years. They are set in a curious , in which the Crimean War extended to the 80s, and Wales is a Socialist Republic, among other changes. Reading is a much more extensive part of popular culture in this world. The books themselves are mostly driven by the fantastical premise that it is possible to travel into books -- possibly even changing the plot. Our heroine, Thursday Next, first became famous for altering the ending of Jane Eyre. At the opening of this latest (and possibly last) novel in the series, she has been living in the fictional world for two years, as head of Jurisfiction, which tries to keep things stable in our fictional universe. Her allies include Emperor Zhark, the villain of a series of pulpy SF novels; Colonel Bradshaw, a fictional explorer/big-game hunter who has married a gorilla; and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle from the Beatrix Potter stories. Back in the real world, Thursday's big concern is trying to get her husband uneradicated -- the evil Goliath Corporation, it seems, has used time travel to make it so that he was never born. Which hasn't stopped Tuesday from bearing his child, Friday.

In Something Rotten Thursday decides to return to the "real world." Back at her home in Swindon, she learns that there are plenty of problems awaiting. Her husband is still eradicated. Her mother is entertaining a couple of house guests -- Hamlet, who is tired of his reputation for indecisiveness, and Emma Hamilton, who gets into the liquor a lot and hopes that her lover, Lord Nelson, can also be uneradicated. (Apparently he wasn't suppose to die at Trafalgar...) The near hopeless professional croquet team, the Swindon Mallets, must win the Superhoop (something like the World Cup of croquet) or the world will be destroyed. The evil Goliath Corporation is trying to turn itself into a religion. And Yorrick Kaine, who has escaped from his position as a villain in an obscure book to become England's chancellor, is arousing anti-Danish sentiment as part of a ploy to take over the English government.

All is not lost. England's popular president stands in Kaine's way. A 13th Century Saint from Swindon has prophesied that Swindon will win the croquet Superhoop -- and his prophecies all come true, including the one about he himself being reincarnated in the present day. Goliath is offering to restore Thursday's husband in exchange for forgiveness (they need lots of goodwill to become a religion). And Thursday gets her old job back -- too bad about the thousands of pounds of debt she has incurred, to say nothing of her other new job -- manager of the Swindon Mallets!

Obviously the novel is rather busy -- I've hardly scratched the surface: there are also Minotaurs, Neanderthals, problems finding reliable child care, lawyers as a key on-field part of pro sports (not so far fetched, that!), and lots more fun with hopping in and out of books, and back and forth in time. Fforde has done a great job over four books of keeping each new one fresh -- there is enough invention in each book to avoid seeming to rehash the original clever conceit a little too heavily. That said, it was time to resolve things, I think -- and Fforde doesn't disappoint. There may well be further sequels, but Something Rotten quite satisfactorily resolves all the main issues brought up in the first three books. It seems possible the intent is to close the series -- we certainly learn enough about Thursday's life that we really don't have any more questions. Fforde also continues to delight with his linguistic imagination, though on that front this book is probably less wonderful than the others -- which is not a complaint so much as an acknowledgement that they were all hard to top. I recommend all four Thursday Next novels unreservedly.

Rich Horton is an eclectic reader in and out of the SF and fantasy genres. He's been reading SF since before the Golden Age (that is, since before he was 13). Born in Naperville, IL, he lives and works (as a Software Engineer for the proverbial Major Aerospace Company) in St. Louis area and is a regular contributor to Tangent. Stop by his website at http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton.

At the end of the first round, I will award three points to Mr. Kaine for an excellent nonspecific condemnation, plus one bonus point for blaming the previous government and another for successfully mutating the question to promote the party line. Mr. van de Poste gets a point for a firm rebuttal, but only two points for his condemnation, as he tried to inject an impartial and intelligent observation.”

“I am by turns a petulant adolescent and a mature man, a melancholy loner and a wit telling actors their trade. I cannot decide whether I'm a philosopher or a moping teenager, a poet or a murderer, a procrastinator or a man of action. I might be truly mad or sane pretending to be mad or even mad pretending to be sane.”