The Woman Who Died A Lot

Thursday Next is back in The Woman Who Died A Lot (#235), the seventh book in Jasper Fforde's entertaining science fiction series.  She's older and battered from her last encounter with the Goliath Corporation, so instead of rejoining Jurisfiction, her boss offers her a position as Chief Librarian of  Wessex.  She isn't sure she wants the job, but budget cuts have rendered her old unit obsolete, and it is a way of keeping busy...

In Swindon, a librarian's job is far from dull.  Thursday is now in charge of the SLS, or Special Library Services, an elite commando force charged with enforcing overdue fines, fraudulent borrowing habits and other significant threats to book security.  Plus, she has to deal with an upcoming budget meeting, and God's Wrath in the form of a Smiting scheduled for the coming Friday that will wipe out a circular area of downtown Swindon.  And someone keeps replacing Thursday with a replicant complete with her own memories.  What has Goliath Corporation got up its evil sleeve besides making an obscene profit from Swindon by promising to divert the upcoming Smiting?  Can it have anything to do with the way her son Friday's future has been altered?

If you appreciate books (and you must, or you wouldn't be reading this review or this particular book!) Thursday Next's ongoing work in Jurisfiction and as Chief Librarian with her role in keeping the world of fiction pure and unsullied will surely appeal to you.  There's always been literary humor in Mr. Fforde's Thursday Next plots, but now he's expanded it to include library humor as well.  I showed one of the librarians at my local library the illustration on page 98, and she was still laughing when I left a few minutes later.  The Woman Who Died A Lot is on my holiday list for several of my librarian friends.  And the best part is that next book in the series, Dark Reading Matter, is already on its way.