As fate would have it, this is another story about a character going into other stories -- in this case, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.  Also, fate being a funny thing (and perhaps me tilting my Fantasy Reading List in a certain direction), the author is not just Welsh, but from North Wales, our very favorite part, and the story is set in a parallel 1980s universe, where Wales is a separate country from England with its own language and closed borders.

Heh.

This Penguin book is mainstream, and the author has written several other stories in this setting.  The pacing is not fantasy or science fiction genre, but perhaps is a little slower (mystery genre?) and the plot gets almost irritatingly predictable in parts, but this book saves itself with (1) genetically engineered dodos (Pickwick belongs to the Protagonist), (2) tongue in cheek literary jokes, and (3) a constant pick-up of pace that makes the ending very delightful, and laugh-out loud amusing.  I am almost won over: I may read the other books. 

Every book should have genetically engineered dodos in it, I think.  Come to think of it, I may need a dodo for the Christmas Tree...

Lessons for writers: make your story more and more exciting as it goes along until the ending is just stellar. That seems a much better strategy than the alternative, one would think.

Visit Jasper Fforde as his terribly fun website.

Oh, this was an odd duck.  It's a collection of short stories of the titular heroine (?) visiting other stories and wreaking havoc in a preppie, Valley-girl-esque 80s sort of vapidity.  I'm not sure it is truly a fantasy tale: most of the other stories are science fiction by well-known authors (like Asimov!), but Robin Hood and Chluthulu are also there.  It didn't all work -- and it will not be really comprehensible for most eaders unless they are of a certain vintage -- and so I think it was a miss in the way Howling Mad was: dated. 

However, it was also a win in some ways: not completely understanding why, I developed a wry affection for both sword-wielding Muffy and her long-suffering friend Bitsy, because you could feel a depth of story and character that wasn't actually being told from Muffy's extremely shallow narration.  And sometimes the inside jokes worked really, really well.  ("Don't call me Muffy.  That's my slave name."  That particular line made me spill Diet Coke all over myself.) I also appreciated the illustrations and the author's introduction to each story.  It made the experience richer.  Yes: more books should be illustrated.

George Alec Effinger is one of my very favorite authors, and he died far too early.  His Budayeen books are on my top ten list. the best of the best.  This collection of stories has touches of his famous deftness in scatterings. But I comfort myself that these were short stories, and they were written as an inside joke.

Lessons: Stories don't need to be absolutely perfect to get the job done.  An homage to other literature, even in spoofdom, is always appreciated by lovers of the genre. And again, be wary of how your story will age over time.

                                                                                Oh, and Effinger is Awesome.