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The Well of Lost Plots
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The Well of Lost Plots
Unavailable
The Well of Lost Plots
Audiobook13 hours

The Well of Lost Plots

Written by Jasper Fforde

Narrated by Emily Gray

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Jasper Fforde has done it again in this genre-bending blend of crime fiction, fantasy, and top-drawer literary entertainment. After two rollicking New York Times bestselling adventures through Western literature, resourceful literary detective Thursday Next definitely needs some downtime. And what better place for a respite than in the hidden depths of the Well of Lost Plots, where all unpublished books reside? But peace and quiet remain elusive for Thursday, who soon discovers that the Well is a veritable linguistic free-for-all, where grammasites run rampant, plot devices are hawked on the black market, and lousy books-like the one she has taken up residence in-are scrapped for salvage. To make matters worse, a murderer is stalking the personnel of Jurisfiction and it's up to Thursday to save the day. A brilliant feat of literary showmanship filled with wit, fantasy, and effervescent originality, this Ffordian tour de force is the most exciting Thursday Next adventure yet.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 27, 2012
ISBN9781101523575
Unavailable
The Well of Lost Plots
Author

Jasper Fforde

JASPER FFORDE is the critically acclaimed author of Shades of Grey, the Thursday Next series and the Nursery Crime series. After giving up a varied career in the film world, he now lives and writes in Wales and has a passion for aviation.

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Reviews for The Well of Lost Plots

Rating: 4.041410369823698 out of 5 stars
4/5

2,439 ratings104 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This installment contained many twists and turns that I didn't expect. For the most part, it kept me entertained the whole way through.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Thursday Next takes leave from SpecOps and hides out in an unpublished mystery manuscript, trying to pass her Prose Resource Operative exam, mold her Generic bunkmates into good characters, and solve book-related crimes.This edition of Next's adventures is purely literary, with the alternate universe of still-stuck-in-the-Crimean-War England left behind. There's still lots of action, but since it takes place in books, and since the main battleground with evil is in Next's dreams, the whole book is a little more introverted.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde is the third in the series of novels about Thursday Next, a literary detective in an alternate version of 1985. After battling the evil Goliath Corporation in her version of England, she learns that she has a special ability to enter books themselves, and finds herself in -- ta da -- BookWorld. Being that Goliath has eradicated her husband, Landon -- Thursday and her grandmother are the only two people who remember that he ever existed -- and also being that she is pregnant, she decides to temporarily hide out in BookWorld -- more specifically, in the Well of Lost Plots, where all unwritten books hang out until they are written and published. Thursday becomes an apprentice of Jurisfiction, the BookWorld's policing unit, and is under the supervision of Great Expections's Miss Havisham as they try to uncover who is behind the murders of other Jurisfiction members. Thursday also takes it upon herself to train a couple of Generics -- backup book characters who can be trained to fill just about any role -- as well as to save the book in which she is seeking refuge before it is demolished. As this while trying to hang on to the memories of her husband and learning enough to become a full-fledged Jurisfiction agent.While I certainly enjoyed the usual bit of wordplay and all of the literary references (both the obvious and the not-so-obvious ones, which I tend to enjoy a little more), I don't think this third book quite stands up to the first two. Everything felt a little jumbly, and to be quite honest, I had a heck of a time keeping some of the lesser characters completely straight. Thursday's struggles with Aornis over the memories of Landon feel like they were an afterthought, and that subplot got wrapped up a bit too easily. There are a couple of inconsistencies that I can't address without giving too much away, but those are quite possibly the result of being slightly too picky. Even with all the minor grumbles I have about The Well of Lost Plots, I still think it's a great read and will definitely be continuing on with the series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoy the Thursday Next books, fun, comedic, clever. Great for getting away from the world!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When being generic is good and bad. Loved it and laughed out loud quite a bit at the craziness. I was genuinely concerned for Thursdays well being as the story progressed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In this installment of Thursday Next's adventures, she must defeat the forgetfulness that has plagued her since her battle with Hades's little sister. Each day in her new fictional job, she has to struggle to recall her husband's name or even that she has one. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, although I'm getting a little impatient for her to rescue Landon already.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Thursday Next is back, and this time she has been persuaded to take it easy as she is expecting, and the perfect place is the Well of Lost Plots, following the characters plot lines and staying out of trouble.

    There is a buzz in book world with the up and coming launch of UtraWord, the all singing all dancing way of creating book, but as the launch gets nearer, a number of significant characters have started to die in suspicious circumstances and Thursday cannot help but get involved. She is also trying to find her husband Landen, but her memory of him is fading, could this be Aornis Hades or just because he doesn't exist anymore?

    Another good one in the series, there are some great concepts in here, from the way that they leap between books, the way that they communicate with the footnotes and the myspeling vyrus. The characters start of as generics, and learn their way into books and plots.

    Good Stuff, can't wait for the next.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Every time I read another Thursday Next book I figure that's the last one I'm going to bother with. Not because they're bad - they're actually rather charming - but because there are so many literary references that I feel I'm not really appreciating them as much as I could be. And I don't want to bother with the prerequisite reading to catch up. Anyway, this is the third book in the series, and Thursday has settled in an unpublished novel for the duration of her pregnancy. At the same time, she is training to become a Jurisfiction agent, dealing with the memories of her eradicated husband being erased, and raising two young generics trying to figure out what kind of characters they will become. She is visited by her grandmother (and it just occurred to me that it was never fully explained just how old Granny managed to travel into the book world), deals with footnote spam, and attempts to solve the murder of several of her fellow agents. The whole thing is actually quite a lot of fun, and there were points when I laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all. I don't know that I'll necessarily continue the series, but I won't rule it out either.I would like to note that the unpublished novel in which Thursday stays is no longer unpublished - the story eventually became The Big Over Easy. I actually think my having read that book first made this one more enjoyable, since I knew the nursery rhyme characters would sooner or later be infiltrating the generic detective story. It was also fun to see the plainer origins of the often zany characters from that series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My favorite of the Thursday Next books (so far). Just a lot of fun.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fforde's imagination is incredible, his sense of humor is wonderful, and his characters are memorable. I didn't find this installment quite as well-plotted as the previous two, but, still, it was a fun read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I will absolutely be reading the other books in this series; this one just wasn't as good as the others.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde is the third in the series of novels about Thursday Next, a literary detective in an alternate version of 1985. After battling the evil Goliath Corporation in her version of England, she learns that she has a special ability to enter books themselves, and finds herself in -- ta da -- BookWorld. Being that Goliath has eradicated her husband, Landon -- Thursday and her grandmother are the only two people who remember that he ever existed -- and also being that she is pregnant, she decides to temporarily hide out in BookWorld -- more specifically, in the Well of Lost Plots, where all unwritten books hang out until they are written and published. Thursday becomes an apprentice of Jurisfiction, the BookWorld's policing unit, and is under the supervision of Great Expections's Miss Havisham as they try to uncover who is behind the murders of other Jurisfiction members. Thursday also takes it upon herself to train a couple of Generics -- backup book characters who can be trained to fill just about any role -- as well as to save the book in which she is seeking refuge before it is demolished. As this while trying to hang on to the memories of her husband and learning enough to become a full-fledged Jurisfiction agent.While I certainly enjoyed the usual bit of wordplay and all of the literary references (both the obvious and the not-so-obvious ones, which I tend to enjoy a little more), I don't think this third book quite stands up to the first two. Everything felt a little jumbly, and to be quite honest, I had a heck of a time keeping some of the lesser characters completely straight. Thursday's struggles with Aornis over the memories of Landon feel like they were an afterthought, and that subplot got wrapped up a bit too easily. There are a couple of inconsistencies that I can't address without giving too much away, but those are quite possibly the result of being slightly too picky. Even with all the minor grumbles I have about The Well of Lost Plots, I still think it's a great read and will definitely be continuing on with the series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Thursday Next takes leave from SpecOps and hides out in an unpublished mystery manuscript, trying to pass her Prose Resource Operative exam, mold her Generic bunkmates into good characters, and solve book-related crimes.This edition of Next's adventures is purely literary, with the alternate universe of still-stuck-in-the-Crimean-War England left behind. There's still lots of action, but since it takes place in books, and since the main battleground with evil is in Next's dreams, the whole book is a little more introverted.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I am loving this series
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Ok entertaining romp. Just not sure I was in a romp mood...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The third book in the Thursday Next series. Thursday is pregnant, her husband eradicated. She hides out in an unpublished book while working for Jurisfiction. But all is not well in the world of fiction. A good book, but not as great as the first two in the series. It feels rather like it's filling in the gap between two bigger stories.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I loved the sense of humor and the puns. But I cannot keep up with the characters. Each time a new person was introduced, I had to think through the name - pun, anagram, from another book, etc.? Then, if it turns out to be a character from another book, I have to try and remember the plot of THAT book. Too many universes to carry around at once. I am nowhere near literate or smart enough to accomplish this.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Having escaped her assorted enemies for the moment, Thursday Next is hiding out in an unpublished novel in the Well of Lost Plots as part of the character exchange program. She's still pregnant, and her husband, Landen Parke-Laine, is still eradicated, due to the evil machinations of Goliath Corp. Acheron Hades is dead, but Acheron's sister Aornis is still after Thursday, seeking revenge for her brother's death. She also still has to stand trial on a charge of Fiction Infraction, due to her unauthorized alterations to the ending of Jane Eyre, back in the first book, The Eyre Affair.

    Anybody else might think this was a good time to lie low.

    What Thursday does instead of lie low is try to save the unpublished novel from being recycled into the Text Sea, take her exams to become a full-fledged Jurisfiction agent, try to keep the Wuthering Heights characters from either doing violence to each other, or being killed by ProCath terrorists, attempt to figure out why the about-to-be-unveiled upgrade to the book operating system, UltraWord, is worth killing three senior Jurisfiction agents over, and fight grammasites. Oh, and also fight the mindworm Aornis gave her, that's attempting to eradicate her memories of Landen.

    It's all great fun, and very well done. I do find it interesting that the BookWorld feels richer, more layered, more lived-in, altogether more convincing than Fforde's "real-world" alternate history. Possibly he over-indulged in silliness and absurdity in his alternate history. He seems to have put a lot more thought and creativity into making BookWorld, absurd and impossible on its face, feel not only plausible, but real, and peopled by characters far more likely to have depth and complexity than the cartoon villains of Goliath Corp.

    The Eyre Affair was fun, but Lost in a Good Book was meatier, more lasting fun, and The Well of Lost Plots is even better. Recommended.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm pretty much loving this series... it's not without its flaws, but there's just so much joyful unleashing of creativity going on that it kindof makes my inner child break out in a little-girl grin. Oh no! A gun turns into marmalade? Marmalade? *Who thinks to turn a gun into MARMALADE*? And it's all quite a complex but well-imagined little universe. I think I'm more invested in the main character now than I was in the first novel, which is nice too.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I would give this more like 2.5/5 stars. I found the world created in this book (continued from the previous book) to be a lot of fun. The idea that the characters of books police themselves and jump around and that the creative process of writers is controlled in this mythical land makes for a clever read. With that said, the plot in this novel seems like it was just inserted in as a way to allow the author to write the fun stuff. While reading this, I imagine a group of English majors sitting around late at night in college thinking about how cool it would be to have characters from literature be able to bounce in and out of other books in this whole book world. A few hours and a few beers later, this world is created and we have this book.

    Anyway, I will finish the fourth book in the series as it ends the first part of Thursday Next's story, but I doubt I will continue with the later installments.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Still enjoying this series but I think this might have been my least favorite so far. I will read the next book and still like Thursday Next a whole bunch. One of my favorite characters in a fantasy series.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved it. My favorite parts of this series are when Thursday's "in" a book and that's where she spent the majority of her time here, so I was in heaven. I didn't miss Goliath at all, and Aornis' shenanigans were enough to keep the tension high. I drove my husband crazy reading out passages of this book to him - there were so many good ones - but I was too involved with the story to stop and make a note of where they were. This is the only one, (apologies in advance to all the authors out there): "...'After all reading is arguably a far more creative and imaginative process than writing; when the reader creates emotion in their head, or the colours of the sky during a setting sun, or the smell of a warm summer's breeze on their face, they should reserve as much praise for themselves as they do for the writer – perhaps more.' ...'Really?' I replied, slightly doubtfully. 'Of course!' Snell laughed. Surf pounding the shingle wouldn't mean diddly unless you'd seen the waves cascade on to the foreshore, or felt the breakers tremble the beach beneath your feet, now, would it?' 'I suppose not.' 'Books,' said Snell, 'are a kind of magic.'" Indeed they are - especially this one and this series. I'm not sure anyone can explain these properly, but if you love books and you love humor, I recommend you give these a try, they're pure gold.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    If I had come across this series about 20 years ago, I probably would have thought it was brilliant--a Prose Resource Operative (i.e., a detective in the world of books)? Sign me up! But I just couldn't get into this one. I read through to Chapter 6, and I wasn't seeing much in the way of character development or plot--just cleverness with the world and wordplay. So I had to let it go. Life is too short to read books that you don't look forward to picking up again. It might very well be somebody else's cup of tea, though.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Lost in A Good Book
    The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde

    These are #s 2 & 3 in the Thursday Next series (following "The Eyre Affair.")
    I was in the mood for some fast, humorous reading, so these suited me quite well this week. Half alternate-world scifi, half detective novels, Fforde writes comedy for those of a literary bent. However, one doesn't really need to have read all the classics he refers to in the books to enjoy the story - you'll just get more of the jokes if you have.

    In "Lost in a Good Book," SpecOps agent Thursday Next is riding high after her success in solving "The Eyre Affair" - but the evil corporation Goliath is after her, her beloved and newly-married husband has been eradicated through a time-travel plot, and it seems that the villain Hades may not be completely eliminated after all... but worst of all, it seems that all life on earth may be doomed to turn into pink goo... next week.
    Can Thursday save herself, her husband, and the entire world?

    "The Well of Lost Plots" follows the story directly. In order to escape the chaos of her world, Thursday decides to take a break in the book world - inside a peaceful, unpublished, bad detective novel. But, part of the deal is that she has to become a JurisFiction agent. Apprenticed to the feisty, speed-demon driver Miss Havisham (yes, from Dickens), Thursday discovers that the book world may be just as dangerous as her own. And what is up with the soon to be released new platform for literature - UltraWord?

    In these books, Fforde really fleshes out and complexifies his worlds - both Thursday's alternate England and the BookWorld. They aren't, perhaps, as focused or "complete" (in and of themselves) as the first installment, but there's more here for everyone. Tons of fun details.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    All the literary characters in this tome, give me the urge to read some classics!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This episode in the Thursday Next series finds Thursday in the Well of Lost Plots as an apprentice JurisFiction agent under Miss Havisham. Thursday's husband, Landen Parke-Laine, is still eradicated, and Thursday needs a retreat from the Outland as she prepares for single motherhood (unless she can succeed in having Landen uneradicated). Thursday has to contend with Aornis Hades' attempts to erase her memories of Landen. The BookWorld is preparing for the launch of UltraWord, but this new book technology seems to have some hidden features that will change literature, and not in a good way. As agents begin to die under suspicious circumstances, it appears that someone is willing to murder in order to ensure UltraWord's success.I was slightly disappointed with the second book in the series, so I was happy that this one is as good, if not better than, The Eyre Affair. I love all the silliness and literary jokes and puns. The discussion of the “had had and that that problem” is as funny as the classic “Who's on first?” routine. Reader Elizabeth Sastre's delivery couldn't have been better. Then there is the BookWorld award ceremony with categories like “Most Troubled Romantic Lead (Male)”. I read the first Nursery Crimes book, The Big Over Easy, last year, and I was surprised and delighted to discover that it's connected to this book. I love the world that Fforde has created and I'm always a little sad to leave it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Diese und weitere Rezensionen findet ihr auf meinem Blog Anima Libri - Buchseele

    Und weiter geht es mit den Abenteuern der Jurisfictions-Agentin Thursday Next. Dabei hat sich diese eigentlich zum Mutterschaftsurlaub in ein unveröffentliches Buch verzogen. Aber wer die ersten beiden Bücher von Jasper Fforde gelesen hat, der weiß, wo Thursday ist, stellt sich bald auch feinstes literarisches Chaos ein.

    Und genau das ist auch das „Problem“ an diesem Buch, zumindest im Hinblick auf meine Rezension dazu. Denn alles, was ich auch an den ersten beiden Büchern dieser Serie so großartig fand, allem voran natürlich der geniale, schneidende Humor und diese skurril-verdrehten Anspielungen auf aktuelle Geschehnisse und die Vielzahl literarischer Verweise, findet man auch in diesem Roman wieder und zwar nicht zu knapp.

    Da ich auf die Handlung hier nicht weiter eingehen will, um niemandem die Spannung zu nehmen, gibt es eben leider auch keine ausführliche Rezension zum Buch. Bleibt nur zu sagen, dass alle, denen die ersten beiden Bücher gefallen haben, dieses hier mindestens ebenso sehr gefallen wird. Also viel Spaß beim Lesen! ;)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Audio book performed by Elizabeth Sastre

    This is book #3 in the Thursday Next series. After battling Acheron Hades to rescue Jane Eyre (book #1) and Goliath Corp (Book #2), Thursday needs some down time. Her husband, Landen, has been eradicated but Thursday is pregnant with their first child, and determined to get him back. Her mentor, Miss Havisham, arranges for Thursday to participate in the Character Exchange Program in the Well of Lost Plots. Here she will be able to safely hide from both Goliath and Acheron's sister Aornis.

    I love the inventive plots in this series, the numerous literary references, and unexpected (though perfect) pairings (i.e. Miss Havisham reading Heathcliff the riot act). They are fast-paced, action-packed, intricate and highly entertaining.

    However, this particular episode has a plot that is a little too disjointed and complicated. Among the subplots are the issues of “generics” (especially the two who share Thursday's houseboat – ibb and obb), the introduction of a new operating system that is seriously flawed, Perkins and Snell (two detectives who hope to finally get “a boxed set”), and the speed racing rivalry between Miss Havisham and Toad of Toad Hall. The U.S. Edition had a special bonus chapter which did nothing to further the plot or series.

    Elizabeth Sastre does a wonderful job of performing the audio version. She really brings Thursday, Miss Havisham and all the other characters to life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the third book of Jasper Fforde's series. It's a pretty absorbing series, actually: by this point the world-building is getting quite complex, and the ideas are interesting in all of the books. Some of the ways this book experiments with forms (simultaneous storytelling in footnotes and on the page, for example) were fun, too.

    I keep saying the writing in these books isn't so good, and I still think there's a little something missing, but they are very absorbing. The characters are still a little flat, but the ideas are still worth reading for. They don't actually get boring because each book has a slightly different focus -- in the first book, it was more about being a sort of literary detective in the real world, in the second book there was more monkeying about with time, in this book there was a whole new world to explore as a literary cop inside fiction.

    Definitely worth a try if you don't mind the author, in the words of Kingsley Amis, "buggering about with the reader". It's definitely a sort of experimental text rather than a traditional novel -- but in a fun way.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very imaginative to create a whole world inside books. I like that this Thursday Next book was so different from the previous ones, even though it carries along the story. Lots of literary references that, if you identify them, can make the allusions very comical. I love the ones about Godot, for example.