MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Thursday Next: First Among Sequels (2007)
Jasper Fforde
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As Vijay Fafat points out, the eponymous heroine of this series of humorous, fantasy mysteries has a daughter who is a math prodigy. Among other things, in this novel she finds a counter-example to Fermat's Last Theorem, concludes that there are 17 more odd numbers than even, and that there is a largest number. The clever 9 year old seems at first worried that people are angry at her (she was not supposed to find a solution satisfying the statement of Fermat's Last Theorem -- the teacher had only put it on the board to explain that there was no solution), and then a bit annoyed at the mathematicians who come to seek insight from the young genius ("They're all a bit slow...some of them can barely count.")

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Thursday Next: First Among Sequels
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Schaurige Mathematik by Alexander Mehlmann
  2. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
  3. After Math by Miriam Webster
  4. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
  5. A Killer Theorem by Colin Adams
  6. Lost in the Math Museum by Colin Adams
  7. Probability Murder by Michael Flynn
  8. Matrices by Steven Nightingale
  9. I of Newton by Joe Haldeman
  10. Fermat's Last Tango by Joanne Sydney Lessner / Joshua Rosenblum
Ratings for Thursday Next: First Among Sequels:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
1/5 (1 votes)
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Literary Quality:
3/5 (1 votes)
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Categories:
GenreMystery, Humorous, Fantasy,
MotifProdigies,
TopicAlgebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory,
MediumNovels,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)