Shades of Grey

Fforde's newest book Shades of Grey comes out in just a few days! I'm looking forward to it, so I thought I'd go ahead and start a thread about it here for discussion, speculation, etc.

Has anyone gotten their hands on an advance reading copy? Would you like to torment us . . . er, tell us about it? (If your post contains spoilers, please give some warning, of course.)

I checked on Amazon, and they said it would be out on the 29th. So I did quite the happy dance when I was notified it was waiting for me at the library. I'm only on page 11, so I can't say too much about it yet, but so far it's satisffying. (corny much?)

My review copy arrived today! I'll be reading it on the trip home tomorrow (perfect timing, really) and will check in about it later.

I've been on the wait list at the library for like a year. Unless a librarian grabs it first, I will get is as soon as it is processed. Yeah!!!

Finished it today, and have already reviewed it. I didn't go into detail as much as I could've, but that's because I hate to leak spoilers and would if I kept on going. Once I got the full picture in my head of this new world of Fforde's, it was quite good. Can't wait for the sequel.

I'm itching to get my hands on a copy. I guess I'll just have to wait until I see it in stores here in Australia.

The Australian release date is January 1. It will depend on delivery companies whether any bookshops have it that day or not. If not, you may have to wait for Monday 4th. I have it on good authority (his sister walked into my shop and told me) that Jasper Fforde will be heading to Australia for a tour this year...but I can't remember when.

I plan to grab one as soon as I see it and start devouring.

Amazon mailed my copy today. If all goes well I'll read it on New Year's Day, which is perfect, because I probably won't be getting anything productive done that day anyway.

Saw Jasper at my local bookstore last night, what a charmer! If I closed my eyes I thought I was listening to Hugh Grant. I'm only 3 chapters into Shades of Grey but loving it already.

I finished it today! I liked it, but it's definitely not as lighthearted as Thursday Next or the Nursery Crimes. I don't want to say much for fear of spoiling it for anyone, but while it does not end in a major cliffhanger, it is definitely the beginning of a new series, and not just a stand-alone book.

I just finished it the other day and, while definitely not in the same vein as the Thursday Next novels or the Nursery Crime series, it was a treat to read. I enjoyed picking up the details of the new world that he has created as he revealed new nuggets of information dropped throughout the story, and I'm looking forward to the next two novels because I'm sure we've only seen a glimpse.

There's only one book in this series so far, correct? I usually just see it listed as "Shades of Grey", but recently have begun seeing "Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron". Now I just requested a book from BookMooch called "Painting by Numbers: A Shades of Grey Novel". Are these two different books? Or are they using different US/UK titles? Or ... ?

Painting By Numbers appears to be the second book in the series. It is as yet unpublished . . . so unpublished, in fact, that it does not yet have an LT page, or even an Amazon entry.

Hm. Very odd. On Bookmooch, if you search Amazon for "Shades of Grey" and then add the top book that comes up to your wishlist or inventory, what gets listed is "Painting by Numbers: A Shades of Grey Novel".
Must be entered wrong.

Just starting Shades. Is anyone clearer about the color class hierarchy than I am? I suggested

Ultramarine (highest)
Blue
Green
Yellow
Orange
Red
Grey (lowest)

to my teen dau who has finished it, but she thinks that the percentage of color you see influences status so that a lower-class person with a high percentage would be above someone from a higher-class color but with a lower percentage.

Also it says early on that Reds and Greens both hate Yellow, which makes me think Yellows would be either above or below both, tho not necessarily....

Difficult to say. I just finished reading Shades of Grey -- my first Jasper Fford novel! The highest prefect seems to be purple, which would be a mixture of red and blue. The next highest seems to be yellow, then the red. However the red prefect is not very good color-wise, so that may be why he is so low on the scale. Still not understanding what is more important: the actual spectrum, the primary colors or the percent mixture.

k4k

Hmm. I think I assumed the colors went in order of the light spectrum, which would put purple/violet at the high end and red at the low end.

Jasper Fforde's website says:

"The Colortocracy: The system of hierarchy by which the world is run.
Based on the color you can see, those that can see most Purple are
Head Prefect, and the pecking order runs downwards through the
Spectrum. Next powerful are Blues, then Green, Yellow, Orange and
Red. The monochromatic Greys have the least rights of all."

I also found it really helpful to skim the Wikipedia page on the Munsell color system, which is a real thing, apparently.

Hi Norabelle,

Thank you for the wikipedia page! That helps a lot. It never would have occurred to me to look.

k4k