Paperback
English language
Published Jan. 6, 2011 by Hodder.
An astonishing, hotly anticipated new novel from the great literary fantasist and creator of Thursday Next, Jasper Fforde. As long as anyone can remember, society has been ruled by a Colortocracy. From the underground feedpipes that keep the municipal park green to the healing hues viewed to cure illness to a social hierarchy based upon one's limited color perception, society is dominated by color. In this world, you are what you can see.Young Eddie Russett has no ambition to be anything other than a loyal drone of the Collective. With his better-than-average red perception, he could well marry Constance Oxblood and inherit the string works; he may even have enough red perception to make prefect.For Eddie, life looks colorful. Life looks good.But everything changes when he moves with his father, a respected swatchman, to East Carmine. There, he falls in love with a Grey named Jane who opens his eyes …
An astonishing, hotly anticipated new novel from the great literary fantasist and creator of Thursday Next, Jasper Fforde. As long as anyone can remember, society has been ruled by a Colortocracy. From the underground feedpipes that keep the municipal park green to the healing hues viewed to cure illness to a social hierarchy based upon one's limited color perception, society is dominated by color. In this world, you are what you can see.Young Eddie Russett has no ambition to be anything other than a loyal drone of the Collective. With his better-than-average red perception, he could well marry Constance Oxblood and inherit the string works; he may even have enough red perception to make prefect.For Eddie, life looks colorful. Life looks good.But everything changes when he moves with his father, a respected swatchman, to East Carmine. There, he falls in love with a Grey named Jane who opens his eyes to the painful truth behind his seemingly perfect, rigidly controlled society.Curiosity—a dangerous trait to display in a society that demands total conformity—gets the better of Eddie, who beings to wonder:Why are there not enough spoons to go around?Why is everything—and everyone—barcoded?What happened to all the people who never returned from High Saffron?And why, when you begin to question the world around you, do black-and- white certainties reduce themselves to shades of grey?Part satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, this is the new world from the creative and comic genius of Jasper Fforde.
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.
Sadly, Jasper Fforde's characteristically relentless inventiveness was beginning to pall after 50 pages; the invention hadn't stopped, so I did.
That. Was. Insane.
And I mean this in the very best possible way, complete with twisty world building, plotting, and layering. By any other author I cannot imagine being drawn into this world, and Fforde not only managed it, but made it pay off.
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.
Yes, it's an unfortunate title. Overlook it.
This is a classic "what if..." kind of SF novel -- in this case, what if there were a post-apocalypic society based on Munsell's color theory, where one's status in society is determined by the type of color and how much of it you can see.
The somewhat bizarre premise is redeemed by the fact that Fforde is a terrific writer, and although the world-building is never quite believable, its a well-told tale, and a whole lot of fun.
This was my first Fforde, but I think I need to read more of his work, because this book was so charming and funny and unique. Looking forward to it.
Despite the fact that 75 pages in, I still didn't have any idea what was going on, I ended up really liking this and now I'm sad to have to wait for the next two to come out. I feel like I'm constantly saying this but, write faster Jasper!
An entertaining satire of the dystopian novel. In the distant future, everyone is colour blind and status is determined by your perception of colour. Life is governed by the Rulebook which has many pointless and amusing rules. I like that even though the future is limited in technology, current online concepts such as feedback and adding friends lives on. I'm a bit of a colour theory geek so loved all the stuff about colour! The style is true Jasper Fforde too so if you've enjoyed his other books, you'll probably like this one.
I think this is the first part of a planned trilogy rather than an ongoing series. I have an inkling as to the reasoning behind rule 3.9.34.59.667 so I'll be eagerly awiting the next instalment.
Fforde is back! Captivating, thought-provoking, sense, sense-of-wonder material.
I don't think I was really reading this for six months, but it did feel that way at times. The book was extremely slow for me to get into. It had a steep learning curve at first, one in which you really couldn't learn enough to be satisfying, you just had to absorb all kinds of weird little facts (many of them unimportant) about the universe without any greater understanding of them or how things really worked.
The premise is sort of this: hundreds of years into the future, mankind has either a) evolved into, or b) created, a new species of sentient live that calls itself Homo Coloris (Or something extremely similar to that, I'm too lazy to look it up right now). This species only sees part of the visible light spectrum at once. Which portion you see dictates a lot of things, from who you are allowed …
I don't think I was really reading this for six months, but it did feel that way at times. The book was extremely slow for me to get into. It had a steep learning curve at first, one in which you really couldn't learn enough to be satisfying, you just had to absorb all kinds of weird little facts (many of them unimportant) about the universe without any greater understanding of them or how things really worked.
The premise is sort of this: hundreds of years into the future, mankind has either a) evolved into, or b) created, a new species of sentient live that calls itself Homo Coloris (Or something extremely similar to that, I'm too lazy to look it up right now). This species only sees part of the visible light spectrum at once. Which portion you see dictates a lot of things, from who you are allowed to marry to what jobs you are eligible to hold, to your societal stature or caste, almost. Yellows are police and rule enforcers, purples are leaders and managers, as near I could tell Blues and Reds were your typical middle class workers, and Greys are the lowest you can get. And your color perception within that spectrum also influences things, with the highest perceiving receiving the status of "Prefect", whatever that means. Colors also have all kinds of weird effects on this new species, from curing disease to causing it.
I won't give away any of the actual plot, because I do think it got better. In spite of its slow beginnings, once the book got going (which I would estimate unfortunately to have been just over halfway through), it was extremely enjoyable, even if a bit of a downer. I speculate that this might be Jasper's attempt at writing an "important" book. His Animal Farm, or 1984. It also left me wanting more. Fortunately, there are supposed to be two more books in the series.
I'd never read any of Fforde's works before -- I bought it on a gamble; I liked what I read on the back cover. It paid off. This book is amazing, just amazing. One of the most original dystopian novels to be written in years. It's also surprisingly funny at times, and will leave you with more than a few thoughts to chew over once you've turned the last page. I can't wait until the next book in the series is released.
