Something Rotten

This book is hard to rate. It's bursting with more imagination and creativity than most authors could get into ten novels; it's intermittently funny; and it works itself up into a rather spectacular extended finale.However, for at least the first half I have to push myself to get through the story. There are so many bad things going on that reading it is a mostly discouraging experience. Yes, there's a happy ending of sorts, but there are never enough good things to balance the bad; which seems to be a problem characteristic of Fforde's writing.It puts Thursday, our heroine, under such stress from all directions that her ability to stay sane and persevere is quite implausible. Most people couldn't cope with even one of the many balls she's juggling. Although she has skills and never gives up, she needs doses of luck at various key points to survive at all.Shakespeare's Hamlet appears as a character, among many others, but isn't entirely successful for me: he's quite funny but unconvincing, seeming more like a man with a Hamlet obsession than Shakespeare's actual creation. Probably the latter would be jarringly out of place in a book like this.I like Fforde's strange but engaging interpretation of Neanderthals, who appear in this story thanks to genetic engineering.Recommended if you think you might like a really bizarre science-fiction-fantasy-comedy-thriller with minor elements of love interest and child care. You should read at least [b:The Eyre Affair 27003 The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1) Jasper Fforde https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1445540555l/27003.SY75.jpg 3436605] (book 1) first; you could probably cope without reading books 2 and 3, although this is book 4.