Early Riser cover art

Early Riser

The standalone novel from the Number One bestselling author

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About this listen

Jasper Fforde's first stand-alone novel - full of the imagination, wit and intelligence that has made Fforde a number one best seller.

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 born 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 be satisfied only 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.

©2018 Jasper Fforde (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Fantasy Fiction Dream Mind-bending Funny Winter Paranormal
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What a wonderful imagination and beautifully read story. I am looking forward to the next one.

Early Riser

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I really enjoyed this story and although it was a little slow at the beginning it was so worth persevering. A great imagination and read beautifully.

Totally unique

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I did enjoy it actually, though as people have said it drags a little. Still, the narrator is clear and entertaining, and the story develops and resolves. I might listen to it again, and though I loved the Thursday Next books more, I appreciate the whole world setup for one book.

A whole snowy world

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Take your brain on a holiday- why not go to Wales, realy enjoyed this book.

Take your brain on a holiday- why not go to Wales

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This story was in interesting concept, really well executed, and compelling. It was also well read/performed. However it wasn't as funny as other Fforde books, and the narration - perfectly fitting the subject (sleep) - was also very mesmerising and tended to send me to sleep. A good book - a very good book - but not an exceptionally good book.

Sleep inducing (which fits the story perfectly)

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