Early Riser Book Review

Just about lost my mind when I stumbled across a blue Buick
in the forest the day after finishing Early Riser. 

Book Review
Early Riser
By Jasper Fforde
Published August 2, 2018 (UK)

Why I chose this book:
Jasper Fforde wrote it.

I have been reading Fforde's work since college. This is set to be published in the US on February 19. Unable to wait, and in Berlin over the summer where Dussmann has an excellent selection of English language books, I set out to get my hands on the UK version ASAP. Alas, they were out of stock, and I couldn't get one before I had to go home! In steps my most wonderful husband, whose praises I cannot sing highly enough. While he remained in Berlin, he ordered a copy and hand-delivered it to me upon his return State-side. Thank you, D!!!

Review

This surpassed my expectations.

What I like so much about Fforde's writing is that he drops you into the middle of a complex world and trusts you to navigate it. An epigraph at the start of each chapter quotes different books from that world: references texts, guidebooks, news articles. The characters refer to laws, TV shows, and historical events and people. Some footnotes add clarity, but you have to pay attention. And if you do, the payoff is huge. The thoroughness with which Fforde builds the alternative Earth in Early Riser is brilliant. Fforde demands thoughtful, attentive readers, and it is satisfying to read that way. Moreover, if you look past the veneer of speculative fiction, you'll find a critical evaluation of our society. This is true not just of Early Riser, where a big pharmaceutical corporation with an excess of power peddles the best drugs to those with the most money, but also of his other work. Fun, thought-provoking, and downright exciting, Early Riser kept me up so late that I was no early riser myself.

Seriously, who leaves a car to rot in the woods?

"Okay, we get it. Fforde's an amazing author," you say, "but what's Early Riser all about?"
I'm so glad you asked!
In Early Riser (whose standalone status I bemoan), winter is a time when humans hibernate.  A handful of people do remain awake: Winter Consuls who embody the law, porters who watch over dormitoriums full of hibernating people, select service workers, outlaws, and mythical beasts (who turn out to be real). And people attempting to access a higher dreamstate by denying themselves hibernation. This is where the blue Buick comes into play.

Strange rumors of a "viral" dream are going around: a blue Buick and rocks, accompanied by hands coming out of the ground. Some believe this is related to the higher dreamstate. The waking result of this dream, however, is insanity and death. Charlie Worthing, a new Winter Consul, investigates these blue Buick dreams. This leads him down a path of intrigue, and he must investigate not only the supplier of hibernation drugs, but also the presence of mythical beasts. Everyone has secrets. Problems abound. Uncertainties only seem to beget more uncertainties. But Charlie Worthing manages to blunder to the bottom of it all, putting out one (figurative) fire at a time.

With a perfectly constructed storyline, sympathetic and imperfect characters, and a thoroughly constructed world, Fforde leads readers on a heart-pounding adventure that will make you want to weep when it is over, because it is over.

It's like it was just waiting there for me, and I
still can't get over it!