The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde

The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde is the seventh book in the Thursday Next series, a set of books that I can never coherently explain or summarize. They are a delightfully witty alternate-reality story about . . . and that's where it all breaks down. At that point in summarizing, I usually start blathering about Swindon and dodos and bookjumping and LiteraTech and the ChronoGuard and Landon and Thursday and Uncle Mycroft's inventions and Acheron Hades and so forth, and none of that means anything to you unless you have read the books. Basically, if tongue-in-cheek meta-fiction sounds like your thing, you should give this series a whirl.

In this book, Thursday is recovering from a nearly-successful assassination attempt which has her grounded from the Bookworld, possibly permanently. There's plenty going on in Swindon, however, as the government looks into reinstating certain SpecOps departments, the Almighty appears to be preparing a Smiting for the Swindon town center, the Goliath corporation has something nefarious up its sleeves, and Aornis Hades is playing her usual mind games with the members of the Next family.

It's all good fun, of course, and I did enjoy it, but I missed the Bookworld and all of its wacky denizens. The next book in the series promises a return to that world, so that's something to look forward to.

(Reviewed from a copy borrowed through my library system.)