Something Rotten

A Thursday Next Novel

By: Jasper Fforde

Narrated by: Emily Gray

Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Jasper Fforde's time-traveling and fiction-jumping detective Thursday Next is an international hit with fans and critics. Beginning with The Eyre Affair, a Book Sense Top 76 Pick, Thursday's adventures have all cracked The New York Times best seller list.

After spending her time chasing a stray Minotaur into pulp Westerns, filling in for Joan of Arc, and raising her infant son, Friday, Thursday needs a break in the real world. But her return to Swindon is far from relaxing. Rogue fictioneer Yorrick Kaine and the evil multinational Goliath Corporation are trying to rule the world, and a deadly assassin called the Windowmaker is tracking Thursday's every move. To top it all off, her husband is still missing after being eradicated from the timestream before they met.

Fans of Douglas Adams and Monty Python won't want to miss this charming detective adventure sure to tickle the funny bone and stimulate the literary mind.

Delve into Jasper Fforde's literary universe with the other books in his Thursday Next fantasy/detective series.

©2004 Jasper Fforde (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"A brazenly witty series." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Opening one of Jasper Fforde's novels means stepping into a playful new universe....It's easy to be delighted by a writer who loves books so madly. (The New York Times)

Story was great recording was not

While the story was great, the narrator (while enjoyable in past books) was not. This is more the fault of the recording itself, the microphone picks up some noises it shouldn’t and at times has a clicking sound after each word.

This one is begging to be a movie.

I don't know why, but this one, more than the others, had me visualizing all the action. Fantastic, as usual. Challenging. Not as many grammar references, so I didn't feel as uneducated. Lots of literary references, of course, and the way different book's characters are woven together into their own storylines is particularly entertaining in this one.

Mismatched chapters

I love these books. But the formatting is hugely frustrating, the chapters don't match the audible chapters. That should never happen. Finding my place is much harder this way, especially going back and forth from print to audio.

Great story and fabulous reader!

This was my first Thursday Next novel - I loved it! Very, very clever. I didn't have any problems jumping into book 3 of the series - of course, I've already bought book 1! (Only available abridged on audible.) The reader was really excellent - she had all the different voices and made it extra good. I read other reviews that said if you like Monty Python and "Hitchhiker's Guide" you'd like Ms. Next, and they were right! It was my first audible book and I'm hooked.

Great Book, Horrible Narration

Jasper has given us another outstanding adventure from Thursday Next. Unfortunately, the narration leaves much to be desired. Elizabeth Sastre had become Thursday's voice, no doubt, and the new narrator couldn't even be bothered to learn how to pronounce many of the character's names. It's distracting, and takes away from some of Fforde's outrageous humor. I'm going to make sure to read this one on paper, so I can hear it with the "Real Thursday" in my head.

Enough Complaints!

OK, so I don't love the narrator on this book quite as much as the narrator on the three previous Jasper Fforde books, but c'mon folks - how many books can make you laugh as often as anything in the Thursday Next series. These are gifts from the OutLands and should be cherished. Yes, I almost drove off the road while laughing at the game show where politicians vied to be the best at evading questions. If only we had television access to "Celebrity Name That Fruit" life would be as wonderful as a Thursday Next book!

Is That All There Will Be?

Mr. Fforde has created another excellent entry in his Thursday Next series, answering questions that had been left dangling in previous books and pretty much tying up loose ends as if he'd decided to stop writing books for the series. The switch to Emily Gray as the reader is a bit unnerving to say the least, and I dearly miss the delightful talents of Elizabeth Sestre who brought the first three books to life. Although I got used to Ms. Gray about halfway through, her pronunciation of certain names drove me crazy right up to the very end because she didn't pronounce them like Ms. Sestre.

I love these books

I really do. Thursday Next is my favorite hero in literature. Now, please excuse me as I'm off to learn to play croquet.

Good Read

Man was this a good listen! It was like being on a fun ride. The reader was wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed the story!

It takes guts to title Something Rotten

...but as usual, Jasper Fforde delivers. I admit I would probably read the phone book if it had his name as author. He turns a phrase better than anyone I've ever read.