Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

4.5 stars -- I like it quite a bit

Jasper Fforde is well-known for his Thursday Next novels and his Nursery Crime series. I really liked the Thursday Next novels when I read them (the first few at any rate), and I believe I've read the Nursery Crime novels and liked them even more, but I may be wrong...

Fforde's writing is a bit drier than I normally like, but there's a cleverness (perhaps sarcastic wittiness?) to the writing that's nice and the background of the stories is so inventive that I can't pass up reading them.

Shades of Grey is the same.

On a future earth, humans are sorted into colortocracy, which is based on what color they can see and how much of it rather than money. The main character, Eddie Russett is a red (a russett to be exact...). He's traveling, for the first time, with his father, a swatchman, this future earth's version of a doctor. It's punishment, really, but Eddie looks forward to being able to impress his intended when he returns home and to the new experiences he'll gain.

He gets more than he bargains for.

I don't want my reviews to just be plot recitals, so I'll stop there, but I really did enjoy this book. It did take me a bit to get into the book (I let it sit for 6 weeks after starting it until I ran out of other books), but that tends to happen with all of Fforde's books. At first the plots seem so incomprehensible and the worlds so weird that it's hard to get into. But at the same time, it's lovely, because the author isn't just spoon-feeding the plot. The readers actually have to pay attention and try to figure out what's going on.

The world Fforde imagines for Shades of Grey is fascinating. There are absurd rules, and strange diseases, the color green can be used as a drug, and combinations of colors can revive a person. People die of a mold and are sent to be "re-booted."

Although the entire novel takes place over a mere four days (and so much happens that it feels like it occurred over months), the novel is an elaborate set-up for the coming books. It's basically a progression to show how Eddie, a loyal rule-follower if ever there was one, comes around, and in the end, I genuinelly began to like the poor fellow.

So if you have some time, this book is worth delving into, and I hope that the following books are even better. I look forward to them if only to find out what exactly brought the world to this state. It should be a fun adventure for all involved!