The Thursday Next Series

Jasper Fforde

1.) The Eyre Affair
2.) Lost in a Good Book
3.) The Well of Lost Plots
4.) Something Rotten

An interesting mix of a series. I'm almost tempted to classify it as light reading: the prose is pacy, not difficult at all, completely readable. I can't however, because the universe the plot functions in is well, complex. For one thing, it is uberliterate: werewolves and vampires are a real problem, but so are militant Baconians who claim that their patriarch was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. It's a world in which there are over two million registered John Keats (they have biannual conventions). Time travel is a regular occurence, dodos are genetically rescued from extinction (and make good pets), and England is still engaged in the pointless Crimean War. Most importantly, a lucky few are able to jump into and out of fiction, which is an unbelievably complex world in itself, where the characters of works both really good and really shitty go about their daily existences (whenever the plot is directed away from them). Overflowing with enjoyable reference (Hamlet wonders why he's such a goddamn waffler, and struggles to choose between a white mocha or a latte at great verbosity), and in some ways impossible to describe, the books are still quick, easy reads, and its that combo of great intelligence and airiness that make these so much fun.