|
The modern author I've enjoyed reading most in the past year or two is Jasper Fforde. His books can't be classified easily, as they don't fit into a specific genre. Though they aren't fantasy, they do contain some fantastic elements; one is future fiction, but has little to do with science.
Two aspects especially remind me of Tolkien's writing: the construction of a secondary world is the first. Fforde's alternate realities are modern - there are no dragons, swords or horses in evidence. He fills in details that make even the most outrageous ideas seem plausible. In the Thursday Next series, there is an additional world within the alternate version of our Earth - BookWorld is fascinating! (The Nursery Crime series takes place in basically the same universe, though without BookWorld). His newest book, Shades of Grey, takes place in yet another alternate reality, a post-apocalyptic future version of our world. Again, he has created a context in which his rather offbeat ideas are logical.
The second aspect is that of language. Fforde plays with words very skilfully, inventing new ones occasionally and punning gleefully. His names (besides the main heroine "Thursday Next", there's also "Paige Turner") are fun to read. The persons and places in Shades of Grey all have colour names ("Vermillion", for one), appropriate for a colour-based society. Oh, and the characters named "Grey" have first names like "Jane", "Dorian" and "Zane"!
Like Tolkien, Fforde says his objective in writing books is to entertain his readers. He definitely succeeds in doing that!
__________________
'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
|