Saxton Reads! & Reviews

****reviewed by Mercedes

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Fascinating yet complicated! This book is classic sci fi - somewhere in the future, our world has gone through an experience that changes all of society. Society is reworked into something new - a hierarchy. Then someone from the upper echelons discovers that their peaceful, enlightened world is not all it seems and they hook up with someone from the bottom of the social rung and make a run at changing the world. Very familiar and yet oh so different. Fforde is a new author for me although he's been around for years. His nursery crimes series grabbed me and his similarities to Terry Pratchett have kept me interested. This new series is very intriguing although it took me almost three weeks to read the book. This was partly because I only have short amounts of time to read in and this book required a lot of thought, so I couldn't just zip through or I'd miss something dreadfully important. It was very much like reading a puzzle. Each line of dialogue, each description was one more piece to creating the whole picture and without the whole picture, this world was very difficult to understand. Everyone sees in colors (well, so do we right?) Some see only shades of red, others only shades of yellow. No one can see the entire spectrum naturally. Color is created synthetically and piped into gardens and food. The lowest order of people are greys. The highest are purples. And color is used to heal, to invoke emotions, as a drug, as an ovulator, as a weapon. The premise is so amazing I can only wonder where it came from in Fforde's mind and how he keeps it all straight! I'll be looking forward to the next two books with the high hopes that all will be resolved in this quirky world and for our quirky characters. Did I mention that swans are deadly, spoons are not allowed to be manufactured, and no one shouts in public? Shades of Grey is an interesting ride if you're ready.