No one could cheat the Colourman and the colour test. What you got was what you were, forever. Your life, career and social standing decided right there and then, and all worrisome life-uncertainties eradicated forever. You knew who you were, what you would do, where you would go, and what was expected of you. In return, you simply accepted your rung upon the Chromatic ladder, and assiduously followed the Rulebook. Your life was mapped. And all in the time it takes to bake a tray of scones . . .
Eddie Russett lives comfortably in a world where fortune, career and ultimate destiny are rigidly dictated by the colours you can see. Until he falls in love with a Grey named Jane, and starts to question every aspect of the Rulebook. Why are spoons illegal? And what actually happens to all those people who are sent to the Emerald City to Reboot?
Industry Reviews
'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 * 'Fans of the late Douglas Adams or, even, Monty Python, will feel at home with Fforde' * Herald * '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 * Praise for Jasper Fforde * : * 'All brilliantly original' * Booklist * 'A vividly imagined landscape whose every facet is steeped in the author's remarkably detailed color scheme' * Publishers Weekly * This fantastically clever book is a riveting read * Star Magazine * Full of colourful characters and amusingly bizarre plot twists. . . SHADES OF GREY is a clever and enjoyable read * SFX Magazine * 'Vintage Fforde: zany, original and teeming with complexity.' * Sunday Times, Australia * 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 * 'There are distinct shades of Orwell's 1984' * Daily Express * 'An utter delight . . . The world Fforde has created in SHADES OF GREY is colourful beyond description.' * TheBookbag.co.uk * 'A chromatic tale of fantastical wackiness where colour becomes an aspirational commodity . . . Jasper Fforde's most ambitious novel yet' * Herald * 'A brilliantly written book, full of witticisms, wordplay and puns' * News of the World * This colour-coded world of black-and-white regulations and heirachies is created with spry invention and wit * Daily Mail * Full of brilliantly inventive wordplay and quirky fabrications * Mail on Sunday *