First Among Sequels - Fforde at his best.

When people ask me if I like Holden or Ford, I always answer - Fforde, of course!

Jasper Fforde is always a favourite, but First Among Sequels is a return to his very best form.

Set fifteen years after Something Rotten, Thursday has quit the defunct Spec Ops, and is making a modest living at Acme Carpets. By the way, Braxton Hicks and Spike work there too. Sounds suspicious? It should! Acme Carpets is a front for Spec Ops – but even Spec Ops is a front for Thursday’s work at Jurisfiction in the Book World.

In a brilliant move, Fforde introduces us to the “fictional” Thursdays who were in the books based upon her life. Thursday 1-4 (from the four books we know) I a course creature, who loves nothing more than sex and violence – and craves revenge on the real Thursday who has been so outspoken against her character.

Then there is the Thursday from The Samuel Pepys Fiasco (a book that doesn’t exist, and is indeed destroyed later in the story) – a tofu eating hippy who seems about as opposite from our Thursday as you can imagine.

So, what challenges does Thursday face in this book? Well for a start, there’s always the end of time. Her son Friday, who is supposed to rise to the highest echelons of the Chronoguard shows no signs of interest, which a parallel version of Friday says will precipitate an end to time travel itself. Then there is a push in the book world to make books interactive that may ultimately destroy the narratives of classics such as Pride and Prejudice. Failing this, there is always the major stupidity surplus that must be expressed somehow.

Throw in a few gun fights, being stuck in a Book World Moral Dilemma, a ghost, a daughter with an IQ approaching 300 and one that never seems to be around, Thursday has plenty on her plate again!

Fforde has lost none of his brilliant literary wit, and I for one cannot wait for more.

If you get the jokes, you will love him!

The Boleyn Inheritance

Okay. it's official. I have become addicted to Talking Books.

Not because these are replacing my normal reading - rather, they are supplementing it. Now I have a book on the go, as well as one happening on CD. I rather look forward to walking my dog that little bit more, because I also get to find out what happens next in my Talking Book.

So, the latest one I have finished is another historical fiction (I must admit, that lack of choice is a real concern here). And it also surrounds Henry VIII. I warned you he was one of my favourite historical characters!

The Boleyn Inheritance is told from three perspectives; Anne of Cleves, the woman on her way to become Henry's fourth queen, Catherine Howard, the spoiled young lasy-in-waitng who becomes the fifth, and Jane Boleyn who watches and orchestrates so much on behalf of her benefactor, the Duke of Norfolk. After all, it was he who suggested she testify against her hisband George and sister-in-law Anne. And this at least saved her title and lands.

In opposition to the George novel I read recently, Henry is really quite demonised here, and we manage to feel sorry for all of these three women who somehow seem to inherit something from the Boleyns. But to each, it means something different. To the angelic but reserved Anne, it is a throne with a shadow across it, and a husband she can never please. A husband who is not afraid to behead his wives if it suits his purpose. Catherine, who inherits some of the Boleyn lands during her rise in the King's favour, also falls under this very same shadow when political machinations put her on the throne. And Jane - Jane thinks she has already saved her Boleyn inheritance, but instead also has to face the axeman.

History has reported all their stories already, so a reader wont be suprised by the end of the journey, but the journeying itself is rather good. I was amazed that I could have so much sympathy for each of the characters - even vain and silly Catherine, who was portrayed as such a harlot in the other novel.

Worth a read, one of Gregory's better ones.

Oh, and if anyone would like to recommend me another historical fiction that isn't about Henry VIII, that might be a refreshing change!

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, an interesting mix of fiction and philosophy, is one of those books I have always meant to read. It is an intriguing title to begin with, and has a reputation as a modern classic.

The novel begins by pondering diametric opposites; good and evil, love and hate… then begins to questions lightness and weight. These are certainly opposites, but which has the negative and which the positive connotation? This leads Kundera to pose questions about our lives. Is it better to live weighted, a life that is held down by so many things – family, love, job, commitment – or is it better to be light and unencumbered by such things?

The characters in his novel – as I guess we all do – struggle with this very same question. Each are linked to each other. Tomas is a womaniser. He loves nothing more than the “discovery” of a new woman. But one day, a series of accidents bring a woman into his life who refuses to move out of it – Tereza. Tereza loves Tomas, but struggles to come to terms with his constant adultery. Tomas too questions whether or not he really needs to be “weighted” down by Tereza, a woman who he has come to love and grudgingly makes sacrifices for. In the end, when we know from other parts of the non-linear story they are near the tragic end of their lives, Kundera suggests they find peace and accept each other and their life together.

Sabine, a famous painter, is his mistress (one of them anyway). She too is pondering similar questions, particularly when her lover Franz leaves his wife for her. She cannot bear the thought of being tied to him, so she leaves him. While she goes on to live a long and on the surface full life, he is irrevocably changed by this. Even though Franz takes a younger lover, he spends the rest of his life living it as if he were living for Tereza. He does some risky things thinking that somehow she is watching him and he still has the power to impress her.

All this is set in the backdrop of the Russian invasion (in both a physical and mental sense) of Prague, and each of the characters is touched in powerful ways by this – by their distaste for what is happening around them. So sometimes our choices about life are not just our own. History touches them too.

I feel like I can understand what Kundera is trying to explore. How is the best way to live? Tomas is obsessed with the idea that you only live once, inspired by the German “einmal ist keinmal” (once is like never). So if you only have one life, how should you live it? I liked it… it develops slowly but is worthwhile.