Shades of Grey

Fforde is a world building wizard. This dystopian, outlandish novel oozes quirkiness, humor, and hierarchical nonsense while painting a vibrant picture of the Chromatasia. The protagonist, Eddie Russet, begins a life-altering adventure in the Outer Fringes, a place he believed drab or otherwise below his middle-hued status. He meets abrasive Yellows, a feisty Grey, snobbish Purples, and untrustworthy Reds. But what's most exciting is the journey Fforde creates for Eddie. Even when nothing but set building and historical significance seems to unfold, it's hard not to be sucked into the prose.

Shades of Grey is perfect for fantasy lovers and fans of the absurd alike.

Fforde can be like Adams, Fforde can be like Orwell. Extremely powerful worldbuilding and writing in the expedition part. I was shocked and felt very strong emotions.

Quote of the book, in line with my personal history:

'No one's ever liked me before, she said, 'so you'll excuse me for becoming suspicious.' 'Jabez liked you.' 'Jabez liked my nose.' 'I like your nose.' 'Yes, but you don't only like my nose. There's a big difference.'

I had so many questions (sparked from the first chapter... you'll know) and I didn't get answers until the last few chapters. The first 80% of the novel read like a long set-up, but a witty, funny, interesting one. I liked the first 80% but the excitement got real in the last 20%, and I listened to the last three hours of the audiobook at once instead of sleeping.

Das Beste was ich seit Langem gelesen habe. Wie schon bei den Thursday-Next-Büchern erweist sich Jasper Fforde als wahrer Meister im Bauen von kuriosen Welten.

Shades of Grey, the first in its series, has a plot that is very hard to describe. Jasper Fforde is impressively creative and witty, but for whatever reason, I did not find this especially riveting, though I liked it for its quirkiness. This is not the laugh-out-loud fest The Eyre Affair was, but humorous, nonetheless.

Actually, Jasper Fforde's own review (cuddlebuggery.com/blog/2013/05/30/review-shades-of-grey-by-jasper-fforde/) is pretty funny. It really is a relief to find out where all the spoons went.

In this case, I suspect the sequels may be funnier, partly because the reader will have had the chance to digest some of the rules at work in this bizarre world.

I may have enjoyed this book more than the first book of either the Thursday Next series or the Nursery Crime series, and that's saying a lot.

One thing that is a little off-putting is Fforde's style of writing his novels--even the firsts--as if the reader already knows and understands the world Fforde has created. To some extent, this can be an interesting style of revelation for the reader, but I do think Fforde overdoes it.

In thinking about the book for this review, I just subtracted one star from my rating. This is because I realized how disappointed I was in the ending. Don't get me wrong, the ending was satisfying enough. For me, however, it definitely had this feeling of abruptness that completely contradicted the pacing of the rest of the novel that preceded it. This could have easily been a stand-alone story right up until the last 3 chapters (or in Fforde's case, 11 pages). It's almost as if it was going to be a stand-alone, but then someone had the brilliant idea to make it a series. Thus, the last 3 chapters were ripped out and reassembled to make that blatantly obvious.

It may have been planned as a series all along, and I am most definitely not disappointed that there will be more to explore in the universe of this book, but then that simply makes the last three chapters poorly planned and written, doesn't it?

Fforde has a very readable style, when he's not giving up such gems as, "It was a low-lying, highly fenestrated conurbation with whitewashed walls and a roofline bewhiskered with heliostats, chimney pots, and water heaters." His saving grace is that he doesn't write sentences like that as if he's overly pleased with himself for doing so. It's done more with a sense of irony... or just plain silliness.

Still, a very enjoyable book, and one that reminded me that there are worse things one can do than staying up too late to read a few more pages.