Early Riser cover art

Early Riser

The brilliantly funny novel from the Number One bestselling author of Shades of Grey

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Early Riser

By: Jasper Fforde
Narrated by: Thomas Hunt
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £16.62

Buy Now for £16.62

Summary

 Jasper Fforde's first standalone novel - full of the imagination, wit and intelligence that has made Fforde a Number One bestseller.

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.
(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©2018 Jasper Fforde Action & Adventure Fantasy Fiction Dream Mind-bending Funny Winter Paranormal
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c

Critic reviews

Praise for Early Riser
Fforde pours his brilliant imagination into every corner of this world
Endlessly imaginative and distinctively quirky, this is entertaining fun
Brilliantly funny . . . His relentless imagination and his affection for his characters are contagious and irresistible
The master of the alternative universe
It's been worth the wait
Make(s) us look at our world anew
the thriller aspect is propulsive
Jasper Fforde lunacy at its best
Fans of Jasper Fforde's unique blend of comic
dystopia and quirky British cosiness will not be
disappointed with his first novel in six years
a zany send-up of all things British
Praise for Jasper Fforde
Reading a Fforde novel feels like taking off on a magic carpet, only to be picked up by another and another and taken on new flights of fantasy . . . When the plot is thundering along, peppered with jokes, lively dialogue and silly names . . . you just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Fans of the late Douglas Adams, or, even, Monty Python, will feel at home with Fforde
Forget all the rules of time, space and reality; just sit back and enjoy the adventure.
'Fforde's books are more than just an ingenious idea. They are written with buoyant zest and are tautly plotted. They have empathetic heroes and heroines who nearly make terrible mistakes and suitably dastardly villains who do. They also have more twists and turns than Christie, and are embellished with the rich details of Dickens or Pratchett
No summaries can do justice to the sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality of the works, nor to their vast repertoire of intricate wordplay and puns
I love to dive into Jasper Fforde's books. They're wildly imaginative but he makes you believe every word. Where else can you encounter a ditzy dodo, a deadly chimera and a straight-as-an-arrow detective investigating what really happened to Humpty Dumpty? Great stuff. (David Baldacci)
Fforde keeps the puns and neologisms coming thick and fast while exploring every facet of his novel's intriguing premise
All stars
Most relevant
Really good book, really enjoyed it! Now come on and write Shades of Grey 2!!!!!

More good work from the king of Dystopia

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
if you like Fforde you'll love this! an ambitious story beautifully read. a classic fantasy book in the making

Fforde is on form!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I've read every Jasper Fforde novel going and he is simply an amazing author, original, funny, quirky, love him!! brilliant.

I love a bit of Jasper

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was sceptical during the initial chapters as there were a lot of unfamiliar terms and new concepts coming through. I was concerned I would be disenfranchised by the "cleverness" of it all. However, this soon turned around and I was quickly won over by the charm of the wonderful Welsh narration and of the bumbling hero. The story grew on me as it developed in some genuinely unforseen ways and, crucially, the whole plot resolved in a most satisfying manner. This was my first Jasper Fforde read and I'll likely go back for more.

Tidy!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
will be starting again from the beginning! so many interesting concepts that turn our reality on its head, but remain recognisable. more in keeping with shades of gray than the Thursday books. more preferable in my opinion.

thoughtful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews