The start of a new series from the wonderful writer of the ‘Thursday Next’ and ‘Nursery Crimes’ books.  In my opinion this is his best work yet and with it he has attained a new level of brilliance.  It’s a thriller and a love story, and very funny, but there is an underlying philosophy that gives this novel something more than its predecessors had.  Something that keeps you stuck to the pages and rooting for the hero, but also something that lingers in the mind long after the last page is gone.  It’s clever, it’s exciting, it’s amusing and it’s astonishingly good.  Read it, I’m serious, just read it.

Comparison: Terry Pratchett, Eoin Colfer, Andy Secombe
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Synopsis

Hundreds of years in the future, after the Something that Happened, the world is an alarmingly different place. Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour. Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane -- a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed. For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey ...If George Orwell had tripped over a paint pot or Douglas Adams favoured colour swatches instead of towels ...neither of them would have come up with anything as eccentrically brilliant as Shades of Grey.

Reviews

'Full of brilliantly inventive wordplay and quirky fabrications'
Mail on Sunday

'This colour-coded world of black-and-white regulations and heirachies is created with spry invention and wit'
Daily Mail

'Fans of the late Douglas Adams or, even, Monty Python, will feel at home with Fforde'
Herald

'SHADES OF GREY has something of a flavour of Terry Gilliam's Brazil...but the novel is much gentler than Gilliam's savage madcappery, and Fforde's world is more old-fashioned public school than bureaucratic nightmare'
Guardian

'Full of colourful characters and amusingly bizarre plot twists... SHADES OF GREY is a clever and enjoyable read'
SFX Magazine

'There are distinct shades of Orwell's 1984'
Daily Express

'A brilliantly written book- full of witticisms, wordplay and puns'
News Of The World

'Fforde's books are more than an ingenious idea. They are written with buoyant zest and are tautly plotted ... and are embellished with the rich details of a Dickens or Pratchett'
Independent

'No summaries can do justice to the sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality of the works, nor to their vast repertoire of intricate wordplay and puns'
The Times

About the Author

Jasper Fforde traded a varied career in the film industry for staring out of the window and sucking the end of a pencil. He lives and works in Wales and has a passion for aviation. Fellow novelist KERRY REICHS on JASPER FFORDE The Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series are a quirky treat for any bibliophile.  Fforde draws readers into hilarious and surreal alternative universes, such as a 1985 Britain where dodos are a common pet and the Goliath Corporation controls the world.  Favorite fictional characters have active lives behind their pages, and literary factionalism is more influential than politics.  Full of clever entertainment and sly references, The Eyre Affair is a tour de force of the small but highly entertaining science fiction literary detective thriller.  I view it as one of my greatest accomplishments that I was referenced as an “Out World” writer in First Among Sequels. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation