22nd January 2024
In advance of the much anticipated sequel coming out next month, I thought it was time to revisit what I've frequently described as my favourite book.
The details had slipped from my mind, so it was a good choice to load them back through my eyes and into my brain so that I'm clued up and ready to find out what happens next.
As a satire, the story remains really on the pulse. So much has happened in the real world since it was published, and yet we are still totally on track for the future of leapback and de-facting which Fforde depicts in this weird dystopian future.
As a world, the richness is almost unsurpassable. There are so many details that add up to this setting, so many references that you can use to work out where things are relative to current-era UK. And yet while this all serves to build up a picture of the world, there's so much more obviously going on that the characters, and we, don't know about, which really makes this beg for a sequel so we can learn more.
And as an adventure, it remains utterly compelling. We only spend four days with Eddie, and yet visit new places, learn so much, get to experience romance, politics, criminality, authoritarianism, adventure, rebellion. And we do discover together the answer to one of the great mysteries of the time.
I'm only looking forward to book two more after this re-read.
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