Category Archives: Fantasy

The Fourth Thursday Next Took Me a While to Appreciate: Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

Posted on August 1, 2022 by jenny

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series. Thursday and her young son Friday leave their life in the Well of Lost Plots and return to Swindon where Thursday attempts to get her husband … Continue reading →

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Quintessential Diana Wynne Jones: Archer’s Goon is about a boy, a family, a town and a threatening goon who takes up residence in the kitchen

Posted on July 1, 2022 by jenny

Archer’s Goon is classic Diana Wynne Jones with various mysteries and characters gradually converging. The arrival of the Goon in Howard and Awful’s kitchen, demanding mysterious payment in the form of written words from their author-father, leads them to the … Continue reading →

Posted in 10 years and up, 11 years and up, 13 years and up, 20th Century Children's, Adventure, British, Children's Classic, Comedy, Fantasy, Fiction, Novel, Speculative Fiction, YA Classic, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

My Favourite Thursday Next Novel: The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

Posted on May 1, 2022 by jenny

The Well of Lost Plots in the third installment of the speculative, absurdist Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde… Continue reading →

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Would you like world-ending pink topping with that? Lost is a Good Book is a generous second helping of Thursday Next from Jasper Fforde

Posted on March 24, 2021 by jenny

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde is the second book in the Thursday Next series. Despite a sudden celebrity for saving Jane Eyre and improving the ending, not every one is happy with what Thursday has done. A … Continue reading →

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Wit and wordplay, parody and playfulness, allusion and appropriation: Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair is to classic literature what Hitchhiker’s Guide is to sci-fi and fantasy

Posted on December 24, 2020 by jenny

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is set in an alternate England, where home-cloned dodos are common house pets and the public’s passion for literature occasionally erupts in street violence. Thursday Next is a literary detective, part of a specialised … Continue reading →

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Perelandra by C.S. Lewis: A Christian novel that grips thoughts, feelings and will

Posted on September 29, 2019 by jenny

I found Out of the Silent Planet slow to get into but ultimately intriguing, enjoyable and thought provoking. In contrast, Perelandra, the second in C.S. Lewis’s Cosmic Trilogy, gets quickly into the action, was mesmerizing, suspenseful and thrilling by turns, … Continue reading →

Posted in 20th Century, British, Fantasy, Fiction, General adult audience, Novel, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Slow to Start but Ultimately Intriguing: C.S. Lewis begins his theological speculative fiction trilogy with Out of the Silent Planet

Posted on September 22, 2019 by jenny

How would humans respond to other intelligent life if we found it on another planet? How might such life differ from us? How might we react to such differences? How might several such species coexist peacefully on a single planet? … Continue reading →

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A nonsensical tale for grown-ups: Once On a Time by A.A. Milne

Posted on August 22, 2018 by jenny

A little known story by A.A. Milne, Once On a Time is an absurd and whimsical fairy story. It starts when one king takes exception to another king taking a morning walk over his battlements during breakfast time while wearing … Continue reading →

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Take themes of bureaucracy and greed, add non-stop word-wit and shellfish-references, throw in the waning of magic and a very old dragon and you have The Last Dragonslayer: teen fantasy Jasper Fforde-style

Posted on June 22, 2018 by jenny

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde is a story about magic, dragons and red tape. After reading it I concluded that my ideal pet would be a quarkbeast (no fur, funny-looking, loyal and affectionate, not exactly huggable but still better … Continue reading →

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Adventure for kids, humour for grown-ups: Dragon Boy by Dick King-Smith

Posted on May 22, 2018 by jenny

Dragon Boy by Dick King-Smith is another classic dragon story from my childhood by one of my favourite children’s authors (he also wrote The Sheep-pig aka Babe). Orphaned John is found crying in the forest by a dragon, Montague Bunsen-Burner. … Continue reading →

Posted in 20th Century Children's, 7 years and up, Children's, Fantasy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment