Apr 30, 2010
I'm not even sure how to describe this book. It is set in an apparently familiar place - 1980s England - but this is an alternate universe in which the Crimean War is still going on after 175 years, time travel by government agents called Chronoguards is commonplace, and people can not only travel to and live in books but can interact with characters who, like actors in a play, lead independent lives within their books in between the scenes in which they appear.
The heroine, Thursday Next, is a "Spec Ops" agent who specializes in literary crimes. As a Literatech, she spends much of her time