The last (at least so far) book in the Thursday Next series. Listened on audio. Thursday has to come out of retirement to help prevent the end of the world and the domination of the Goliath Corporation. Typical, hilarious, punny stuff. ( )

I was totally in love with the ending. Having said that I might change my mind because sometimes Fforde is laying crumbs for books to come. So the ending might be better with time. ( )

The BookWorld's leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following an assassination attempt. She returns home to Swindon for what you'd expect to be a time of recuperation. If only life were that simple.

Thursday is faced with an array of family problems - son Friday's lack of focus since his career in the Chronoguard was relegated to a might-have-been, daughter Tuesday's difficulty perfecting the Anti-Smote shield needed to thwart an angry Deity's promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth, and Jenny, who doesn't exist.

And that's not all. With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, the prediction that Friday's Destiny-Aware colleagues will die in mysterious circumstances, and a looming meteorite that could destroy all human life on earth, Thursday's retirement is going to be anything but easy

Any fans of Thursday Next will know that it’s almost impossible to explain what goes on in one, as the world is so unique and the intricacies are so...intricate.

Anyway, book includes: Thursday getting the job of Chief Librarian for Wessex; Thursday uncontrollably switching bodies with her (illegal) day replacements who are faster, fitter, hornier and more intelligent than her real body (but who die within 24 hours cos of certain design flaws); an official smiting by God in downtime Swindon scheduled for lunch time on Friday – which could be redirected by the Goliath Corporation by use of 20 mass murderers; Chronoguard is shut down in the future, with a retrospective redundancy in the now; Tuesday meets her future husband who is predicted to be killed by Friday Next sometime after the smiting; Goliath continues to search for a way into the Dark Reading Matter and some of Tuesday’s staff continue to investigate DRM via the use of Invisible Childhood Friends. And Jenni remains, well, non-existent.

The switching of who remembers Jenni story – and the whole Anoris setup - was a bit confusing and tiring and has finally been laid to bed. I hope. Fforde is creating some new characters so hopefully will be able to take the forward into the next books without having the legacy of long time quirky characters lurking in the background slowing it down for new readers.

Trying to write this review, and whilst I enjoyed it, and the books certainly keep your brain active and at attention, I’m struggling to rave about it. There’s nothing wrong, but also nothing great about it, so MOR rating, unfortunately
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This is Thursday Next, better than ever. The plot is Fforde-level convoluted, which means you read and try not to think too hard because your brain might hurt, but you know that you like it because it's utterly brilliant.

In this book, Thursday is appointed to be the head of the Wessex Library System, and must deal with budgets while also dealing with the more mundane things of time travel paradoxes, a scheduled smiting from God, a mindworm of a daughter that never was, duplicate Thursdays, and yet another evil Goliath plot. ( )

This series has diminishing returns. Where is the next Shades of Grey novel already?! ( )