Book 12

I just finished my twelfth book for this year, The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde. Normally, I devour Fforde books, but not this one, at least not at first. That was totally my fault though, not the book's.

If you think fourteen is too young to be driving, think again. The Kingdom of Snodd grants driving licences on the basis of responsibility, not age, something that can frustrate forty-something blokes no end when they fail their responsibility test for the umpteenth time.

Lately, I've just been rather fidgety - I feel like I'm so close to normalcy (or my new approximation of it) but I keep getting little setbacks. So I'm just constantly feeling a bit distracted, like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. It makes it hard to sit down and focus on something like a book with plot.

...we stopped for a moment to stretch our legs, change drivers and make a short devotion at the shrine dedicated to the once popular but now little known St Aosbczkcs, the patron saint of fading relevance.

I don't enjoy this YA series from Fforde as much as his other stories, but I still do like it quite a bit. The humor is just as random and satirical as his adult fiction (there has to be another way to phrase that... it's not "adult" like an adult movie, just not YA), but it's not quite as smart. (Or else it is too smart and over my head so far that I don't even know I'm missing something. Always a possibility.)

Ralph said he’d not come either, as he had a peculiar allergy to ‘anything without legs, such as cats.’
‘Cats have legs,’ said the Princess.
‘They do, don’t they?’ agreed Ralph in a confused manner, but declined to join us anyway.

Once I finally forced myself to focus, I read this in about two days. And now I have to wait until next year for the next one to come out!

‘But listen,’ I said as the sandwiches arrived, ‘you don’t know the first thing about ironing. Hardly anyone does. The Guild of Master Ironers keep that secret arcane knowledge well guarded.’

Normally I detest cliffhanger books (which this sort of is). I've stopped reading an author I enjoyed just because of a cliffhanger book ending. It's a big hate. But I don't have a problem with how Fforde does his. The main plot story lines from the book are all nicely tied up and then, right before the end, something new is introduced. (Yes, there was foreshadowing, but it wasn't what the book was about so I didn't care that it wasn't unresolved). So even though there's a big issue hanging out there, it just means you know what you'll be getting in the next book - the current book doesn't feel unfinished. It's that unfinished, that-book-was-pointless feeling that I hate.

Though I also really don't like finally getting into something and then finishing it and begin left at a loss. Fforde needs to publish another book. I need something fun to read!