The Eye of Zoltar is the latest Dragonslayer novel by Jasper Fforde. [Here are my reviews of the other two.]
Finished on 03.03.2015

Plot:
Jennifer Strange is the manager of Kazam, which means that she hires out magicians for jobs and generally organizes their life. And it also means that she’s busy busy busy. Way too busy to really date trainee magician Perkins, even though they’d both like that. But things are about to get even worse: the Mighty Shandar had promised to kill all the dragons – dragons Jennifer saved. And since that means that Shandar is now deep in debt, he tasks Jennifer with procuring the famous jewel, the Eye of Zoltar. If that hadn’t been enough, the King and Queen settle Jennifer with the Princess Shazzine in the hopes that she will grow out of her spoiled-princessitude if she experiences the real world for a while. So Jennifer packs her things, the princess and Perkins and travels to the Cambrian Empire – famous spot for Jeopardy tourism and the last known location of the Eye of Zoltar. If it actually exists.

The Eye of Zoltar is full of creative ideas, fast-paced and generally made of win. I really loved it.

Fforde’s books seem to be made up of more or less random ideas. As you read, you might be tempted to think that he just included some things because he thought it would be funny, if the relentless pacing leaves room for you to think about this kind of stuff at all. But it always is much more interconnected than it seems at first, making it fascinating to see how all of the ideas are tied together in the end, with a smart little bow on top.

But even if he didn’t manage to pull that off, I wouldn’t mind at all just floating from idea to idea with him, because his ideas are just absurdely hilarious and hilariously absurd. Be it jeopardy tourism or goat-based economy, Fforde is always good for surprises and things you could have never thought off, but which make a surprising amount of sense.

Jennifer is also a great character. I liked her relationship with Perkins, but even more so with the princess and with Addie most of all. I was just sad that we didn’t get a whole lot of Tiger Prawns.

In any case I am really looking forward to the next book in this series (which is supposed to be the last one) or any other that Fforde writes.

Summarizing: Wonderful.