Early Riser
The new standalone novel from the Number One bestselling author
by Jasper Fforde
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Pub Date 2 Aug 2018 | Archive Date 2 Oct 2018
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Description
Warning: humans coming out of hibernation. Jasper Fforde is BACK with a new standalone novel.
Every Winter, the human population hibernates.
During those bitterly cold four months, the nation is a snow-draped landscape of desolate loneliness, and devoid of human activity.
Well, not quite...
Your name is Charlie Worthing and it's your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses.
You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artefact borne of the sleeping mind.
When the dreams start to kill people, it's unsettling.
When you get the dreams too, it's weird.
When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.
But teasing truth from Winter is never easy: You have to avoid the Villains and their penchant for murder, kidnapping and stamp collecting, ensure you aren't eaten by Nightwalkers whose thirst for human flesh can only be satisfied by comfort food, and sidestep the increasingly less-than-mythical WinterVolk.
But so long as you remember to wrap up warmly, you'll be fine.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781473650220 |
| PRICE | £20.00 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 416 |
Featured Reviews
Sue P, Bookseller
What bliss! A new Jasper Fforde novel, and Early Riser doesn't disappoint. In a Wales where humans hibernate to survive the bitterly cold winter, morphenox offers to increase your chance of surviving through to the spring. Despite its rare side effect - that you might join the living dead under its influence, Charlie Worthing believes that any risk is worth it to secure his supply, and so he joins the Winter Consuls - intrepid law enforcers who stay awake through the winter.
Marooned in Sector 12 with a band of misfit colleagues and society drop-outs, newbie Charlie has to work out who he can trust, and learn to navigate his dreams to emerge with his integrity in tact.
There are shades of Inception in this twisty plot, and if it wasn't a Jasper Fforde novel, this dystopia would be truly horrific. But because it's Jasper Fforde you are completely drawn in to the bizarre everyday lives of the characters, all of whom, even the villains, are likeable. In Fforde's hands, managing zombie attack with Tunnock's Tea Cakes and Snicker bars seems perfectly plausible.
Read and enjoy.
Kelly M, Bookseller
Once again Jasper Fforde has given us a wacky yet believable universe so well written and filled with believable characters that you start to feel a part of it.
Vicki L, Bookseller
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
Chrys A, Bookseller
Absolutely amazing, so many clever and entertaining puns wrapped up in an adventure like no other. The line between reality and imagination is intelligently blurred with Mr Fforde's unique style.
One of my favourite authors. I definitely recommend this, and his other books, highly.
Reviewer 421976
Epic, absolutely epic!! Jasper Fforde is back and is bloody brilliant. Can’t recommend this book enough, it was a superb joy to read and I am a little bit sad that it’s over. Can’t wait to see what’s next from this awesome author as all the previous books I have read have been just as great as this one
Charlotte W, Reviewer
Reading this book was like re-connecting with an old friend. The characters might be different and the setting new but the style and humour were undeniably Fforde.
As always Fforde makes you feel right at home in the most improbable of settings, this time on an AU Earth at the start of the Ice Age like winter that Humans need to hibernate through. We follow Charlie (or Wonky as he is known to his annoyance) as he stays awake for his first Winter joining a small band of hardened people who stay awake to ensure that others are looked after while they sleep.
Being his first winter, Charlie should be spending it somewhere nice and safe indoors filing and making tea but fate seems to have other ideas in store for him as he keeps hearing about a viral dream involving a Blue Buick and creepy hands. Of course Charlie can't just ignore something like that can he....
Charlie was a likeable character from the start and only got more so as the book progressed. A nice guy who tried to do his best but somehow always ended up way over his head. There were some nice subtle nods to Fforde's back catalogue with mentions going to gingham fabric and Caravaggio (I'm sure there are others that I missed but these ones stood out. Sadly no Dodo's this time though!
A hugely fun read that I thoroughly recommend.
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