![]() It’s not so much that the book is less than the sum of its parts. Beyond that, is this saying something about climate change? Or corporate malfeasance? Or the pharmaceutical industry’s pathologization of various components of the most mysterious and seemingly ineffable parts of the human condition, right down to and including our dreams? There are haves and have-nots - that much is clear and well done. To feel that the witticisms and allusions are not only clever but insightful. There is a sense of wanting it all to add up to a bit more. ![]() The Winter Consuls are those brave and foolhardy individuals tasked with ensuring the safety and well-being of the other 99 percent of humanity. Thus the need for the requisite Governmental Agency to oversee hibernation. Worst-case scenario: The dreamer becomes Dead in Sleep. Why would they want to do this? Because dreams, it is believed, are wasteful, an unnecessary expenditure of calories during a precarious and vulnerable time, putting dreamers at risk of using up all of their stored fats. Those who have the means to afford a drug called Morphenox can ensure that their slumber is dreamless and peaceful. In the alternate reality of this novel (set in and around Wales), humanity hibernates four months out of every year, like bears, gorging on calories in preparation for the long, severe winter. ![]() The requisite Social Hierarchy in “Early Riser” is sleep-related: who gets to do it, who doesn’t. Although not connected to the Thursday Next series, or any other existing worlds of his, “Early Riser” has all of the elements and sensibility that have earned Fforde a sizable and devoted following: wordplay, allusion, a playful exuberance and - of course - his signature method of World-Building via Copious and Suggestive Use of Capitalization, often in the service of creating Imaginary Socioeconomic Hierarchies and Related Governmental Agencies. Fans of his previous work, including “ The Eyre Affair” (and its many sequels) and “Shades of Grey,” should be right at home in this new book. And even if you don’t feel the need to do it again immediately, you’ll say yes the next time you’re invited.įforde’s latest, “Early Riser,” is a stand-alone novel. But the next morning, you don’t regret having gone. You might not be full, because a lot of what was served was pretty fluffy. By the end of the night, you will have consumed a great deal. You know some things for sure: It’s going to be long, it’s going to get weird and you’re going to have fun. Reading Jasper Fforde is like being invited to a literary-themed dinner party.
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