Clever and original, as Fforde always is, this just isn’t holding my attention enough to make me stay with it until the end. It might have worked better as a short story or as a novella. As Miss Jean Brodie would have said, ‘For those that like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.’

Was this book odd? Yes, it was. Did it leave the reader wondering what was happening from the first? Why, yes, it did. Was it a brilliantly bazaar tale completely worth reading? Absolutely! If you've read Jasper Fforde before, you know what you're in for - off the wall hi-jinx in a well devised, ingenious story, much like his Thursday Next series. If this is your first outing with the charming Mr. Fforde, this is world building at its best, solidly constructed in a twisted logic kind of way. Let us discuss...

In Early Riser we join Charlie 'Wonky' Worthing, a novice of the Winter Consul in a world where people hibernate through excruciatingly cold winter months. Here, specifically, we are in Wales. The Winter Consul's job is to stay awake during winter to safeguard those catching some Zzzs and generally keeping things running smoothly. Sounds pretty straightforward, though it's anything but. There's quite a lot that can go wrong - nightwalkers, villains, winsomniacs, wintervolk, the dodgy mega corporation HyberTech, not to mention the other people awake too. There are many interesting characters and a lot to keep track of.

There's quite a lot of background information handed out in a casual, off-hand way. It can be rather daunting initially but just roll with it. It does come together and makes weirdly wonderful sense with time.

Early Riser is a fun read full of adventure, good humour and a fair amount of cheeky laughs. I'm so please to have read this. It's been a while since I enjoyed a book so purely original and thought provoking.

So fantastic to have a new novel from Jasper Fforde. No other author can match him when it comes to bending readers' logic and making ideas that should be ridiculous just really work! You're immediately sucked into Charlie's story and the world building is fantastic - although I definitely don't recommend reading this on an empty stomach!

I so enjoyed the Thursday Next series so was intrigued at what this standalone novel had to offer. It took a little while for me to immerse myself in this new world and get comfortable with all the Winter jargon and hierarchy, but once I'd managed this I was swept up into the story. The menace of the Winter and what lurks within it is ever present and really got under my skin. This is counterbalanced nicely by Fforde's on occasion weird and quite brutal humour. This book was everything I hoped for and should be added to your to read pile immediately.

Early Riser is set in Wales, but not Wales as we know it. For a start Fforde has a thing about Wales – he obviously loves it , I believe he lives there, but he loves to mess with it. In the Thursday Next series Wales is a Socialist Republic; in this book it is a wild country, possibly filled with creatures from myth and folklore, but is part of a world where the vast majority of mankind hibernates through long and brutal winters. The main character is Charlie Worthing, an orphan who decides that taking a job as a Winter Consul – one of the few who don’t hibernate but protect the sleepers from Villains, Nightwalkers and WinterVolk – is better than continuing to live as an Assistant House Manager in St Granata’s Pooled Parentage Station. Of course, he was expecting to spend his first winter awake safely behind a desk, learning the role, rather than being trapped in the notorious Sector Twelve. Any amount of paperwork is better than having to deal with Aurora, the head of security at the HiberTech research facility, or her twin sister Toccata, marauding Villains (Upper-Class English, using theft and pillage to maintain their traditional lifestyle – always on the lookout for stamp collections and potential ‘servants’) and deadly viral dreams…

4.5 stars

Every Winter humans hibernate to escape the freezing temperatures. Those that can take the drug Morphenox which stops them dreaming, saving them precious calories.
Charlie "Wonky" Worthing is preparing for his first Winter working at the Winter Consul.
When things don't go to plan, Charlie finds himself investigating a viral dream.
But the weather isn't the only danger that Winter brings as Charlie soon discovers.
Is there more to Morphenox than meets the eye?
Why are people dreaming about hands and a blue Buick?

Jasper Fforde is my favourite author so I couldn't wait to read Early Riser.
I thought Charlie was a good protagonist and it was different that he had a congenital bone deformity, meaning that one eye was lower than the other (hence the nickname). He was thrown in the deep end but I thought he coped very well given the circumstances.
There were several other characters that I liked as well.
The plot was interesting and held my attention. The idea of humans hibernating through the winter was very intriguing. I liked the idea of a viral dream.
It did take me a while to get into the story but then I was hooked and didn't want to stop reading.
As usual Jasper Fforde has created a world that is detailed and unique. I love his writing style and can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

Overall this was a very enjoyable read set in an interesting, unique world.

Imagine an Earth that never really made it out of the last ice age. Perhaps in such a world humans will have evolved to hibernate, sleeping away the cold winter after laying down stores of fat. Technology develops a little differently here, where priorities aren’t quite the same, and top of the desirability stakes is Morphenox, the drug that increases your likelihood of surviving the winter.

Charlie Worthing is keen to escape a life working for the orphanage that raised her, so when she’s given the opportunity to work for the Winter Consulate – a job with Morphenox benefits – she jumps at the chance. This means fighting against the natural instinct to sleep through the cold months, and brings her into contact with the strange winter community. But, why are so many of them sharing the same strange dream? What’s really happening to the zombie-like sleepers who don’t quite come back? And can Charlie survive all that a winter has to through at a novice?

I love Jasper Fforde’s books, his sense of humour and his settings that are almost like our reality but a few large steps sideways. There’s something hugely British about the mix, and really, where else are you going to see (zombie) Rick Astley pop up as a character?

So, to this hugely imaginatively skewed world add a mystery and another puzzle to solve, a dollop of danger, and a set of strange winter myths. Take a moment to ponder the strangeness of dreaming, and question if memory is all you think it is. Shake well, and enjoy!

This isn’t quite Shades of Grey (an absolutely brilliant, sadly (still) stand-alone book) for me, but much as I loved Thursday Next this might be even better. Certainly, I was always keen for moments I could steal to read more of this, and was genuinely disappointed that it was finished! Definitely recommended.

Jasper Fforde’s books are always a delight, whether they are part of the Thursday Next series (a literary detective who solves crimes within the pages of novels – in the first one Jane Eyre has been kidnapped), his nursery crime series or a stand-alone like this. Early Riser is a really good read, thoroughly weird but brilliantly creative. When I read Fforde’s books I always marvel at his astounding imagination. He creates these brilliant alternative takes on our universe and changes our world in a wonderfully witty way. In Early Riser humans hibernate during winter, which is far more intense than our usual winters. Our hero is a newly recruited member of the Winter Consuls, Charlie Worthing. He is facing his first winter awake and there’s a viral dream that he has to investigate, while facing the numerous threats of winter. The book is exciting, strange and very funny. This is a worthy addition to his excellent body of work.

I struggled a bit with this book, and my main problem was lack of clarity and explanations. I think he's referring to many cultural references, and it's difficult for an international reader for me.

It has an interesting idea definitely being set in an alternative reality where people hibernate through Winter (which is much harsher than ours), and take drugs to give them dreamless sleep. Only a few people stay awake, Charlie joins the Consuls and finds himself involved in a viral dream, which has much more to it than it originally appears. I really struggled to put things in place, understand what's going on and I just couldn't immerse myself in.
I liked it enough so that I will read another Fforde book to see if this was not for me. But again, it wasn't a captivating book also.

This is a new standalone story from an author I am a real fan of. In practice he has written nothing for some years now and I was a little worried and pleased when I got my review copy. This is set in Wales though not the Wales we know. In this story we are loosely in the current era however Wales enjoys temperatures in the winter that can descend to lower than -50 degrees. In the main inhabitants hibernate and have done so for years. A few people do stay awake. The Winter Consuls are one group who keep order over that period. The Hibertech corporation also works through the winter. The other humans awake are largely unfortunates or criminals - in either case food is very important to them.

Cue the arrival of Charlie. Charlie is an orphan of sorts and desperate to leave the institution he is in. He joins the Winter Consuls as a novice. Novices lives tend to be short and the first winter takes a toll. It's bizarre and is very Jasper Fforde.

While this is wildly inventive it does take some scene/world setting. This seemed to slow down the first third or so for me quite a bit. Charlie's first "simple" job does not go well and he is stranded in Sector 12, loosely mid Wales, which has a bad reputation for all kinds of things. In particular it appears that a viral dream make be killing people off It is also a centre for the Hibertech corporation. Fforde has a penchant for manipulative, shady corporations and this is no exception. Throw in the Womads and Wintervolk and almost anything could happen. Charlie - or Wonky as he prefers NOT to be known - finds himself in the centre of everything that is going on.

As far as the key components are concerned there is great humour here and the characters are rich and interesting. Aurora and Toccata are wonderful creations for example. Charlie too is excellent. Charlie actually has a feel of Eddie in Shades of Grey for me (although it is a while ago I read it). Maybe the basic outline has some similarities too - state/corporations plots to do what? The writing is very effective; simple in some senses and yet complex enough to be interesting. I did find it is best if the reading can be sustained.

For me this is definitely not Fforde's best work. As I said the first part of the book seemed rather slow. The book became progressively faster, clearer and more appealing as time went on. The graph of my enjoyment went up and up as the temperature went down and down! Ultimately it was great to read a new book by Jasper Fforde and I enjoyed it. I sincerely hope that he can now add to Shades of Grey because that first book is probably one of my all time favourites - more please Mr Fforde!

Note - I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review

In a world where humans hibernate every winter, only a few have the courage, grit and stupidity to stay awake and uphold some form of the law during a lawless time. Wales acts as a frontier to the Winter - humans plot against each other for the benefit of mankind and fairy tales seem more real than anywhere else.

I love reading Jasper Fforde's books - you need a dry sense of humor and the ability to suspend all disbelief, but it's always worth it. There's an impressive level of detail and thought in this book and I love reading something that has such a clear and unique authorial voice. Plus that Tom Jones joke made me groan out loud.

I liked the hypothesis, I liked the prose - such beautiful phrasing. Strangely left me a little cold I think perhaps because it was a little slow.

Books set in the future world of humans can be tricky - a world that is so cold that humans hibernate during the winter feels strangely at odds with a world that is warming. That said it’s well written, well observed and it has great characterisation

Jasper Fforde has had a bit of a break from writing but his first book for a few years shows that he has lost none of his quintessential weirdness. Early Riser is set in an alternative version of the world where the vast majority humans hibernate for eight weeks in the depths of winter with only a few staying awake to keep the peace. But attempts to manage this process have consequences. A new drug that helps people survive the hibernation is having the effect of turning some people essentially into zombies. When the book opens, newly minted Winter Consul Charlie Worthing, is transporting one of these zombies through Wales to a facility where she can be cared for. This mission spins completely out of control and leave him exploring a much deeper mystery involving shared dreams and a new version of the hibernation drug.
Long time readers of Fforde should not be surprised by the whacky but well thought out premise of Early Riser. Fforde, after all is responsible for the Thursday Next series in which his hero can jump in and out of the "book world”, the Nursery Crimes series which mixes children’s stories and noir detective style and Shades of Grey in which characters could only see certain colours. With that background, a world in which people retreat into beehive like structures to hibernate once a year seems positively normal. As with the Thursday Next series, the book is set in an alternate Wales which is an idiosyncratic collection of high tech (drugs and brain manipulation) and traditional (trains and tea rooms).
Early Riser takes a while to get into. After the cold open (literally), Fforde jumps back into Worthing’s history and the story of how he became a Concul. Even then there is little in the way of direct exposition and he throws readers deep into his world, relying on their capacity to piece the scenario together. While Early Riser is a mystery/thriller, like Fforde’s other books it is also full of broad satire and for the most part is not meant to be taken too seriously. The appearance of a zombie Rick Astley is clear indication of this. And possibly looking to take the comic fantasy drama mantle from the late Terry Pratchett, the text is also littered with (mainly unnecessary) footnotes.
Unfortunately Early Riser, while being sometimes spectacularly whacky, does not really work. The premise is an interesting one but exceptions seem to keep being made to get it to work. The character of Charlie oscillates between being extremely naïve and cunning when it is needed to serve the plot. And the grand conspiracy, while taking an inordinately long time to set up is also clichéd and fairly obvious. So that while there is plenty of fun to be had with Early Riser this is not Fforde back at his best.

"Skinny Pete went to sleep, underfed and bony
Skinny Pete went to sleep, and died a death so lonely."

"The enemy aren't the Villains, nomads, scavengers, insomniacs, Ice-Hermits, Megafauna, nightwalker, hiburnal rodents or flesh eating cold slime - it's the Winter."

This is a standalone volume from Jasper Fforde, not part of the ongoing Thursday Next series or a continuation of Shades of Grey, a potential series that seems to have been blighted by a quite different book with a similar name. However, in tone I'd say it is more similar to Grey than to Next, taking place in a fictional version of our world which is, while fantastical in some ways, not magical.

The world of Early Riser might best be described as an alternate timeline, a planet and landscape identical in many ways to our own, with a lot of technology, cultural references ("Fawlty Dormiorium with Sybil, Basil and Polly and so forth - 'don't mention the Ottoman' ") and history in common, but where - rather than a trend to warming - global cooling ("snowball Earth") is happening, with the winters bitter and a glacier advancing across "the Albion peninsula" (the separation from the mainland never having quite happened, although a belt of marshland following what to us is the Channel shows where a warmer era led to higher sea levels).

The sheer wintriness of this book (apart from being very agreeable to read during the 2018 summer heatwave) motivates the plot in many ways. In this reality, humans hibernate and always have, clustering in "hibernatoria" - multistorey, circular buildings with floor upon floor of sleeping cells, all heated by cosy nuclear piles in the basement ("Hotpots"). Hibernating is a serious business, governed by law and custom. One needs to put on enough fat in the Autumn to last through till Spring, and anyone not attaining their healthy "Winter weight" is looked at askance. Forde loving describes the whole culture around hibernation, making it, in the end, quite a cosy idea. The hibernatorium is more than a sleeping cave, it is a home, a community, with dining room and (as a fine illustration here shows) many other facilities. And a Porter guards the entrance, staying awake through the Winter to protect their charges.

Of course, it's not all cosy. Only the lucky (and rich) are entitled to supplies Morphenox, a drug that prevents dreams and so saves on energy (and fat depletion) allowing a greater chance of survival. But Morphenox has a potential side effect... a small number of those who take it lose their minds in sleep, waking as "nightwalkers", effectively zombies. Yet the risk is considered worth it, not only for individuals who are less likely to starve over Winter but for the good of the species - survival is vital because, in such a hostile climate, population is under threat, so there is mandated childbearing and a great deal of care is taken of orphans in "the Pool". Anything that reduces attrition is welcomed and HiberTech, the company that makes Morphenox, is a power in the land.

The land itself is Wales, the story taking place in early winter in mid Wales when Charlie, a newly appointed novice Winter Consul - an order who stay awake through the cold months, guarding the population against Villains, Wintervolk (monsters) and disasters (like meltdowns in the Hotpots - ventures from Cardiff to the interior to deliver a "nightwalker" to HiberTech. A simple job for a newbie, and he's accompanies by a vertebral Consul, so what can go wrong?

A great deal, of course. What with hostile colleagues in Sector 12, the formidable duo of Arcadia, head of security at HiberTech and Toccata, the top Consul in Sector 12, missing nightwalkers, a massive bet hanging on whether or not the Gronk is real, hippies on a quest for real dreams, and a terrorist movement seeking a return to Real Sleep - and more - there is plenty going on. Indeed the book is so rich, with such a cast of characters that it can be overwhelming at times, or at least it would be if those characters, and the setting wren't so perfectly realised.

There are also some hilarious strands, such as the Villains, ("Villains generally lives on the edge of the ice-fields and often raided nearby towns for pantry and domestic servants") who prove, of course, to be English and upper class, the banter between Jonesy and Charlie in which they spin a wholly fiction, longstanding love affair out of thin air despite having only just met (and never actually bundled each other) or barely fictional names such as that of " 'sleep extreme' guru Gaer Brills". There are also some very sharp observations ("She was making up nostalgia", "right-wing hardliners loved a good panic").

Behind all this, though, there is a well constructed and devious thriller plot. As Winter falls, a secret is in play, its preservation essential to the way of life of Charlie, his colleagues and the wider population - and its revelation key to preventing rather nasty fate for many. In a headlong, catastrophe-stern series of encounters, not all of them waking, Charlie will be tested to the limit and find out who he can really trust. Because she of those around him are basically two-faced and have their own agendas...

It's not a short book, but the pages fly by, with fascinating new details of that intricate, well-delineated world coming in all the time, even as the sinister events of Winter unwind and Charlie fears for his life. By the end, I was sorry that the story had to stop but there is a wonderful coda in the form of some posters and other material including, of course, advice from the Ministry of Sleep.

In all an excellent addition to Fforde's imaginary worlds, even if it does remain standalone (but i hope it won't).

Jasper Fforde is by far my favourite author and I have waited a long long time for this next novel, and was super excited to get my hands on Early Riser.

Early riser is simply brilliant, as with all his other books this stand alone novel oozes with charming characters, witty puns and intelligent twists.

Charles lives in a place where everyone hibernates in winter, but among the general towns folk live the night walkers the mythical beings that roam, putting the town in danger. Charlie is a kind of detective who’s job is to keep the people safe, it’s a cold bitter winter and Charlie has his hands full.

Welcome back Jasper Fforde, I have missed you my old friend. I’ll wait patiently for the next.

There is so much to recommend with this novel, but for seem reason, it just didn't connect with me as much as I was hoping it would. It tells the story of Charlie who is facing his first winter without hibernation while dealing with sleepwalking zombies, bad bureaucratic red tape issues, nefarious company politics and really terrible coffee. As you might imagine, the tone of this novel is very much tongue in cheek and there were some absolutely genius turns of phrase that really made me chuckle. Throughout the novel, there is a very playful quality to the prose that I found refreshing, but it did take me a little while to get used to the deadpan nature of every depiction. I loved the footnotes too! Where I think the novel ran into problems for me was the pacing. Apart from the witty prose, the first half of the book is quite sedentary and there is a nebulous feeling to the plot that I do think is intentional, but it didn't quite work for me. The second half of the book is very much more plot driven and I did enjoy where the story ultimately went, but for me, it just took a little too long to get there.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Winter is coming and the population needs to get fed for a four month long hibernation. Set in a present day alternate reality in Wales, Charlie ‘Wonk’ Worthing is assisting with the Fat Thursday celebrations which are aimed at getting people up to a weight sufficient to sustain them throughout the Winter. His job is pretty lack-lustre but gives him access Morphenox, a drug which prevents dreaming (which uses valuable energy resources) and only has a one in two thousand chance of turning you into a nightwalker (vacant, but alive). It’s also only available to the wealthy and those in certain types of employment.

On a whim he applies for the job as Winter Consul which, if he gets it, will guarantee his continued access to Morphenox but he won’t be hibernating because the Consuls stay awake to ensure that things keep running while everyone else sleeps. Charlie himself doesn’t see the logic in his decision but that’s what happens when one is irritated with a current employer. Staying awake presents so much more than Charlie bargained for. Cannibalistic Nightwalkers, Villians, mythical WinterVolk, viral dreams and competing agencies are just some of the things that come his way.

I’ve read nearly all of Fforde’s novels and I was ridiculously excited to get my hands on this one. While it was well-written, humorous, quirky and with a really clever plot, I found it to be slow going for 60% because it felt like all I was doing was separating the puzzle into edge pieces and colours (and a lot of them were white). After that the story kicks into gear and becomes the story I had hoped for all along.

Fforde has a phenomenal skill for world-building filled with bizarre and unusual characters and even though this might not be my favourite book of his, it’s still a good read.

Book received from Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an honest review.

Suddenly a massive fan of Jasper Fforde! Absolutely not something I would usually pick up but boy this was addictive. Read it!!!!

Jasper Fforde returns with a standalone novel that takes the premise of a standard thriller and lays it over a world where humans hibernate through the winter and a team of Winter Consuls look after law and order. With all his usual clever insights to the mundanity and routine aspects of life the book moves through at a pace. We follow Charlie Worthing through a first winter of staying awake and trying to solve a mystery at the same time. A host of characters build a world that is just off kilter and all the better for it. Another great adventure from this great writer.

Loved this book it was pure Fforde gold. Completely different from his other books but just as enjoyable. Found the story a bit more slow passed so had a bit of a job getting gripped by it to start but soon got engrossed. Loved that Swindon got mentioned in the book too