Early Riser (novel)

Last updated

Early Riser
Early Riser cover (UK Edition).jpg
Early Riser (UK 2018 Edition)

Author Jasper Fforde
Cover artistRobert Frank Hunter
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre alternate history, fantasy, science fiction, satire
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton (UK)
Viking Press (US)
Published2 August 2018 (UK)
12 February 2019 (US)
Media typePrint (hardcover)

Early Riser (2018) is a standalone alternate history satire novel of novelist Jasper Fforde. [1] [2] The novel is notable because Fforde never uses a gender descriptive pronoun for the protagonist Charlie Worthing, referring to Charlie variously as they/them, I/me, and as simply 'Charlie'.

Contents

Plot

The story takes place in an alternate version of the United Kingdom, where the Ice Age continues and most of the human population hibernates in winter. Returning early from hibernation may cause Dead in Sleep from neural collapse, but death during hibernation may also arise from a shortage of fats, low temperature, vermin predation, carbon dioxide build-up, calcitic migration and many other complications. Some people awake with only enough vestigial memory to walk and eat, and became known as "nightwalkers".

As the novel opens, people's survivability during hibernation has dramatically increased after the introduction of Morphenox, a drug produced by HiberTech, a large and powerful "vertically integrated" corporation. HiberTech also "takes care" of nightwalkers, "redeploying" those who are suitable for performing simple tasks and supervising "transplant potential" of others.

Their Winter Consul Service is responsible for the safety of dreaming people. The main protagonist, Charlie Worthing, is a novice within the service and the story begins as they prepare for their first season as a member of the Winter Consul. Over the course of the winter, the Consul Service discovers an outbreak of viral dreams that, while not believed to be a serious concern at first, inevitably builds into a widespread emergency that endangers every Sleeper.

A notable detail within the story is that the author leaves Charlie's gender ambiguous and doesn't generally call attention to it, the character gives an ID number/code when entering Hibertech that ends with F (Worthing, C, BDA26355F) - earlier in the novel, another character, Mrs Tiffen, is identified by a similarly ending code (Tiffen, L, HAB21417F); Jack Logan, another prominent character within the novel, is revealed to have an ID code ending with an "M", implying that Charlie is either a woman, or was at least assigned female gender at birth.

Reception

Early Riser was listed 10th in the New York Times Best-Seller Books Hardcover Fiction on 3 March 2019. [3]

"As Charlie uncovers a conspiracy connected with a viral dream, Fforde keeps the puns and neologisms coming thick and fast while exploring every facet of his novel’s intriguing premise." - James Lovegrove, Financial Times (30 November 2018) [4]

"Early Riser is a zany send-up of all things British and an often hilarious account of Charlie’s stumbling, hare-brained attempts to work out the secret of the authoritarian HiberTech company." - Eric Brown, The Guardian (7 September 2018) [5]

"Early Riser has all of the elements and sensibility that have earned Fforde a sizable and devoted following: wordplay, allusion, a playful exuberance and -- of course -- his signature method of World-Building via Copious and Suggestive Use of Capitalization, often in the service of creating Imaginary Socioeconomic Hierarchies and Related Governmental Agencies. (...) Fforde writes witty, chewy sentences, full of morsels, and delivers them deadpan. (...) It’s not so much that the book is less than the sum of its parts. It’s just that there are so many parts. Early Riser, while never underwritten, can be at times a bit underfelt, the verbal dexterity crowding out the room for emotion." - Charles Yu, The New York Times Book Review (28 February 2019) [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jasper Fforde</span> English novelist (born 1961)

Jasper Fforde is an English novelist, whose first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. He is known mainly for his Thursday Next novels, but has published two books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and the first books of two other independent series: The Last Dragonslayer and Shades of Grey. Fforde's books abound in literary allusions and wordplay, tightly scripted plots and playfulness with the conventional, traditional genres. They usually contain elements of metafiction, parody, and fantasy.

<i>The Eyre Affair</i> 2001 novel by Jasper Fforde

The Eyre Affair is the debut novel by English author Jasper Fforde, published by Hodder and Stoughton in 2001. It takes place in an alternative 1985, where literary detective Thursday Next pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre. Fforde had received 76 rejections for earlier works before being accepted by a publisher. Critical reception of this novel was generally positive, remarking on its originality.

<i>The Well of Lost Plots</i> 2003 comic fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde

The Well of Lost Plots is a novel by Jasper Fforde, published in 2003. It is the third book in the Thursday Next series, after The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherrilyn Kenyon</span> American novelist

Sherrilyn Kenyon is a bestselling US writer. Under her former married name, she wrote both urban fantasy and paranormal romance. She is best known for her Dark Hunter series. Under the pseudonym Kinley MacGregor she writes historical fiction with paranormal elements. Kenyon's novels have over 70 million copies in print in over 100 countries. Under both names, her books have appeared at the top of the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today lists, and they are frequent bestsellers in Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brandon Sanderson</span> American fantasy and science fiction writer

Brandon Winn Sanderson is an American author of high fantasy and science fiction. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time. Sanderson has created several graphic novel fantasy series, including White Sand and Dark One.

Katie Fforde, née Catherine Rose Gordon-Cumming, is a British romance novelist. Published since 1995, her romance novels are set in modern-day England.

Temperance Daessee Brennan is a fictional character created by author Kathy Reichs, and is the hero of her crime novel series. She was introduced in Reichs' first novel, Déjà Dead, which was published in 1997. All the novels are written in the first person, from Brennan's viewpoint. Like her creator, Brennan is a forensic anthropologist. In a number of novels it is indicated that Brennan's background lies in physical anthropology, rather than medicine, and throughout the novels she stresses the importance of correct crime scene process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Connolly (author)</span> Irish author, primarily of detective fiction

John Connolly is an Irish writer who is best known for his series of novels starring private detective Charlie Parker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lavie Tidhar</span> Israeli writer

Lavie Tidhar is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, Tidhar has lived in London. His novel Osama won the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, beating Stephen King's 11/22/63 and George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. His novel A Man Lies Dreaming won the £5000 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, for Best British Fiction, in 2015. He won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2017, for Central Station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Lovegrove</span> British writer of speculative fiction (born 1965)

James M. H. Lovegrove is a British writer of speculative fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Jane Anders</span> American science fiction author and commentator

Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer and commentator. She has written several novels as well as shorter fiction, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, the Emperor Norton Award. Her 2011 novelette Six Months, Three Days won the 2012 Hugo and was a finalist for the Nebula and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. Her 2016 novel All the Birds in the Sky was listed No. 5 on Time magazine's "Top 10 Novels" of 2016, won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2017 Crawford Award, and the 2017 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel; it was also a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Yu</span> American writer

Charles Chowkai Yu is an American writer. He is the author of the novels How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and Interior Chinatown, as well as the short-story collections Third Class Superhero and Sorry Please Thank You. In 2007 he was named a "5 under 35" honoree by the National Book Foundation. In 2020, Interior Chinatown won the National Book Award for fiction.

<i>One of Our Thursdays is Missing</i> 2011 comic fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde

One of our Thursdays is Missing is the sixth Thursday Next book, by the British author Jasper Fforde. It was published in February 2011 in the United Kingdom and was published in March in the United States. The title is a reference to the 1942 war film One of Our Aircraft Is Missing.

Early riser may refer to:

<i>Castle</i> (TV series) American crime comedy-drama TV series (2009–2016)

Castle is an American crime mystery/comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC for a total of eight seasons from March 9, 2009, to May 16, 2016. The series was produced jointly by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios.

Jasper Jones, is a 2009 novel by Australian writer Craig Silvey. It has won and been shortlisted for several major awards including being shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. The novel was selected by the American Library Association as 'Best Fiction for Young Adults' in their 2012 list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meg Elison</span> American author and feminist essayist

Meg Elison is an American author and feminist essayist whose writings often incorporate the themes of female empowerment, body positivity, and gender flexibility. Her debut novel, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, won the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award, and her second novel, The Book of Etta, was nominated for the award in 2017. Elison's work has appeared in several markets, including Fantasy & Science Fiction, Terraform, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Catapult, and Electric Literature.

<i>Space Opera</i> (Valente novel) Science fiction novel by Catherynne M. Valente

Space Opera is a 2018 science fiction novel by Catherynne Valente, about a galactic version of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was first published by Saga Press.

<i>Forerunner Saga</i> Trilogy of science fiction books

The Forerunner Saga is a trilogy of science fiction novels by Greg Bear, based on the Halo series of video games. The books in the series are Halo: Cryptum (2011), Primordium (2012), and Silentium (2013). The books were released in hardcover, e-book, paperback, and audiobook. Bear was given little restriction on the story of the novel; the Halo universe had not yet been explored in that time period.

References

  1. "Jasper Fforde returns with new 'rich, dark' novel | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  2. Alexander, Niall (3 August 2018). "Oh What A Miserable Winter: Early Riser by Jasper Fforde". Tor.com. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  3. "Books Best Sellers Hardcover Fiction". New York Times. 3 March 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  4. Lovegrove, James (30 November 2018). "Short review: Early Riser by Jasper Fforde". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  5. Brown, Eric (7 September 2018). "The best recent science fiction novels – review roundup". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  6. Yu, Charles (28 February 2019). "A Brilliantly Funny and Slightly Bonkers New Novel From Jasper Fforde". New York Times. Retrieved 30 April 2019.