★★★★☆ A little love story in a dystopian package

Shades of Grey

Jasper Fforde

Eddie Russett is a 20-year-old young man. He can perceive red very well -- exactly how well he doesn't yet know, as he hasn't yet had his Ishihara test. It likely that Eddie will become a prefect -- a town leader -- once his numbers are known. As a red, he will not be as prominent as a high-color purple or a yellow, but still far more important than a grey, a person who perceives no color. Eddie is half-engaged to Constance Oxblood. That is, Constance has agreed to marry either Eddie or his rival Roger Maroon.

Eddie's father Holden Russett is a swatchman. That is, he carries around a packet of swatches of different colors, and he treats illness by showing his patients appropriate colors, much as our doctors give their patients chemical medicines. In addition to medicinal colors, there are colors of abuse, for instance Lincoln Green, which produces euphoria in those who see it.

Eddie is clever but not wise. Eddie got into a spot of trouble with the authorities in his home town of Jade-under-Lime. He's been sent to the Outer Fringe town of East Carmine to conduct a chair census and learn humility. He wears a NEEDS HUMILITY badge below his red spot. He is accompanied by his father.

Getting into trouble is easy, because Eddie and Holden live in a rule-bound postapocalyptic dystopia. "The Word of Munsell was the Rules, and the Rules were the Word of Munsell." Like, frinstance

2.1.01.05.002: All children are to attend school until the age of sixteen or until they have learned everything, whichever be the sooner.

Many of the Rules forbid particular technologies. Periodic Leapbacks occur that forbid additional technologies. Consequently the Collective is technologically backward, although it has some advanced technologies that the members use without understanding.

Although I referred to Eddie as a young man, it is not clear to me what the people of the Collective are. I think they are more-or-less human. For instance, they procreate by an activity they call "youknow", which appears to be mechanically similar to mammalian intercourse, and which they also engage in recreationally. However, in some ways they behave like automata. These are puzzles that I hope Jasper Fforde will clear up in subsequent novels in the Shades of Grey series.

Shades of Grey is mostly a world-building novel. The plot meanders along, teaching us about the Collective and the people of East Carmine. for 90% of the book. It's all very clever. There is a flurry of event in the last 10% in which we learn much more about the inner workings of the Collective, and set up some conflicts for future books. Oh, and yes, there's a love story...

This was a lot of fun. Fforde is, I think, one of the cleverest and most creative fantasy authors writing today. To be honest, I don't think Shades of Grey is Fforde's best. The Collective is a sad, dismal, repressive place, and that makes the novel feel likewise dismal. We don't yet have the kind of sparks flying that fans of Thursday Next might expect. I have faith that Red Side Story will be different.

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