Shades of Grey
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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John Lee
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By:
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Jasper Fforde
About this listen
An astonishing, hotly anticipated new novel from the great literary fantasist and author of the Thursday Next series and Early Riser, Jasper Fforde
As long as anyone can remember, society has been ruled by a Colortocracy. From the underground feedpipes that keep the municipal park green to the healing hues viewed to cure illness to a social hierarchy based upon one's limited color perception, society is dominated by color. In this world, you are what you can see.
Young Eddie Russett has no ambition to be anything other than a loyal drone of the Collective. With his better-than-average red perception, he could well marry Constance Oxblood and inherit the string works; he may even have enough red perception to make prefect. For Eddie, life looks colorful. Life looks good. But everything changes when he moves with his father, a respected swatchman, to East Carmine. There, he falls in love with a Grey named Jane who opens his eyes to the painful truth behind his seemingly perfect, rigidly controlled society. Curiosity - a dangerous trait to display in a society that demands total conformity - gets the better of Eddie, who beings to wonder: Why are there not enough spoons to go around? Why is everything - and everyone - barcoded? What happened to all the people who never returned from High Saffron? And why, when you begin to question the world around you, do black-and-white certainties reduce themselves to shades of grey?
Part satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, this is the new world from the creative and comic genius of Jasper Fforde.
©2009 Jasper Fforde (P)2009 PenguinListeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
If you have not yet listened to one of the hundred stories voiced by award-winning narrator John Lee, or looked into one of the dozen books by best-selling author Jasper Fforde, you have been seriously missing out. If you are already a devotee of Lee or a fan of Fforde, the opening volley in this brave new series will not disappoint in the slightest. A dystopian vision in the vein of Orwell with the trademark comic sensibility Ffforde developed in his Thursday Next detective series, Shades of Grey introduces Eddie Russett: a naïve young man whose devotion to the Collective of the Colortocracy is upset by his sudden love for the cynical Jane Grey.
Jane’s grey status put her at the bottom of their society’s totem pole, and although Eddie’s red status doesn’t put him much higher, he has an above-average red color-perception that keeps him in the running to marry the snooty Constance Oxblood. In a world where you are what you see, Jane’s mysterious knowledge and headstrong attitude are a revelation. As Eddie winds his way through the color ranks on the fringes of the Collective, he learns that things are not always what they seem.
It takes a very versatile narrator to give voice to this broadly unusual society, and Lee narrates the cast of diversely colored characters with shocking ease and consistency. There are a dozen different English accents in here and twice as many tones, from the sly villainy of the Gamboge family to the whimsical librarian, Mrs. Lapis Lazuli, to the overbearing teen princess, Violet deMauve. Lee leaves no silly stone unturned as he dances around the often hilarious and exclamatory dialogue with precision. He is undoubtedly up to the task of steering Eddie through the challenges that he will face as this new series progresses, having already brought to light and life a number of strange citizens, arbitrary rules, and paradoxical happenings. Thanks to John Lee, getting to know Jasper Fforde’s new world is a completely non-stop delight what will be painful is waiting for the next installment. Megan Volpert
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Daughters of Eden focuses on the lives and fortunes of four very different young women at the outbreak of the Second World War. Marjorie, left at a boarding school by her emigrating mother; plain Poppy, pushed into marriage with a mean-spirited aristocrat; Kate, despised by her father, but determined to prove herself; and man-mad Lily, who turns out to be the bravest of them all. That all of them are chosen to work undercover for the espionage unit at Eden Park is a surprise, not least to them.
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An amazing book everyone should read.
- By XX on 09-11-05
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The Good Liar
- A Novel
- By: Nicholas Searle
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Veteran con artist Roy spots an obvious easy mark when he meets Betty, a wealthy widow, online. In no time at all, he's moved into Betty's lovely cottage and is preparing to accompany her on a romantic trip to Europe. Betty's grandson disapproves of their blossoming relationship, but Roy is sure this scheme will be a success. He knows what he's doing. As this remarkable feat of storytelling weaves together Roy's and Betty's futures, it also unwinds their pasts.
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Hope the movie is better than the book?
- By S. Smith on 10-17-19
By: Nicholas Searle
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The Sunday Philosophy Club
- An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith, winner of the first-ever Saga Award for Wit, has entertained millions with his beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mysteries. Now this phenomenally popular author introduces a fresh series, brimming with the charm and humor his stable of dedicated fans can't get enough of.
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Advice For Prospective Listeners
- By DCinMI on 02-18-13
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Revealed
- By: Kate Noble
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Phillippa Benning is the unrivaled beauty of the Season. But when another lady challenges her for a marquis's attentions, Phillippa entices him to a secret rendezvous only to stumble upon The Blue Raven, England's most famous spy, lurking at the site of her planned tryst. The Blue Raven has uncovered an enemy plot directed at upcoming society functions, but he's unable to infiltrate London society.
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Really enjoyed this one — terrific listen — ignore the negative reviews
- By Pamela on 08-31-20
By: Kate Noble
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The Fire Rose
- By: Mercedes Lackey
- Narrated by: Kate Black-Regan
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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Accepting employment as a governess after hard times hit her family, medieval scholar Rosalind Hawkins is surprised when she learns that her mysterious employer has no children and only wants her to read to him through a speaking tube.
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Great story, poorly presented
- By Che on 02-26-10
By: Mercedes Lackey
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A Feast of Carrion
- By: Keith McCarthy
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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St Benjamin's Medical School is the greatest of its kind, any death occurring within its walls would have created ripples within the academic world, but the death of Nikki Exner is far from being ordinary. Raped, and then grotesquely executed, her theatrical murder horrifies everyone. John Eisenmenger, a former forensic pathologist, finds himself dragged unwillingly into the case. Teaming up with solicitor Helena Flemming, Eisenmenger sets out to discover what really did happen to Nikki Exner.
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excellent book
- By Yves on 06-27-09
By: Keith McCarthy
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Haunted Ground
- By: Erin Hart
- Narrated by: Jennifer McMahon
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When farmers cutting turf in an Irish peat bog make a grisly discovery, the perfectly intact body of a young woman with long red hair, archaeologist Cormac O'Callaghan and pathologist Nora Gavin are thrown together by their shared scientific interest in human remains. Because of the preservative effect of the bog, it is difficult to tell whether the body has lain there for two decades, two centuries, or two millennia.
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Mysteries old and mysteries new
- By Linda on 11-25-03
By: Erin Hart
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What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
- Stories
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon, Piter Marek, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In "Books and Roses", one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?", an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks", where doors can be closed only with a key - with surprising unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think", a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).
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clever
- By jared rogerson on 03-15-18
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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The Lake House
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 21 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Living on her family’s gorgeous lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, clever, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented fourteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure ...One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest son, Theo, has vanished without a trace.
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Enjoyed the writing, but oy vey, this book
- By Jennifer S on 12-28-18
By: Kate Morton
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Lie in Wait
- By: G. J. Minett
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Owen Hall drives into a petrol station to let his passenger use the facilities. She never comes back - and what's more, it seems she never even made it inside. When Owen raises a fuss, the police are called - and soon identify Owen himself as a possible culprit, not least because they already have him in the frame for another more sinister crime. Owen's always been a little different, and before long others in the community are baying for his blood. But this is a case where nothing is as it seems - least of all Owen Hall....
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LIE IN WAIT..
- By ZacharyKindle Customer on 08-06-17
By: G. J. Minett
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Death in Provence: A Novel
- Penelope Kite, Book 1
- By: Serena Kent
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s love at first sight when Penelope Kite sees Le Chant d’Eau - The Song of Water - the stone farmhouse tucked high in the hills above the Luberon valley. For years, Penelope put her unfaithful ex-husband and her ungrateful stepchildren first. Now, she’s going to start living for herself. Though her dream house needs major renovations, Penelope impulsively buys the property and moves to St. Merlot. But Penelope’s daydreams of an adventurous life in Provence didn’t include finding a corpse floating face down in her swimming pool.
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Too Laconic
- By AB on 04-13-19
By: Serena Kent
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The Dancing Floor
- By: Barbara Michaels
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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For years Heather Tradescant had dreamed of the journey she and her father would take to England - a pilgrimage to the great gardens of history. Now that her father is dead, Heather is determined to fulfill his dreams. Unfortunately her request to see the fabled 17th-century garden of Troytan House is denied by the owner. Though unwelcome, she braves the walls of briars and reaches the Victorian manor house beyond. She senses a strange mission of evil lurking, tainting the manor's peaceful beauty.
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Mostly a lovestory!! But what a narrator!
- By Christina t on 02-21-17
By: Barbara Michaels
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The Agency 1: A Spy in the House
- By: Y. S. Lee
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In Victorian England, orphan Mary Quinn lives on the edge. Sentenced as a thief at the age of 12, she’s rescued from the gallows by a woman posing as a prison warden. In her new home, Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, Mary acquires a singular education, fine manners, and a surprising opportunity. The school is a cover for the Agency — an elite, top secret corps of female investigators with a reputation for results — and at 17, Mary’s about to join their ranks.
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yes, it's YA-but credible for genre for any age
- By connie on 02-25-11
By: Y. S. Lee
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The Christmas Secret
- By: Karen Swan
- Narrated by: Laura Main
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Alex Hyde is the leaders' leader. An executive coach par excellence, she's the person the great and the good turn to when the pressure gets too much; she can change the way they think, how they operate, she can turn around the very fortunes of their companies.
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Was the narrator Nurse Turner?
- By Sally on 12-24-17
By: Karen Swan
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In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
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More than the sum of its parts but…
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Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists. Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death.
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So good!!!
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Lake of Souls
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Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Ann Leckie is a modern master of the SFF genre, forever changing its landscape with her groundbreaking ideas and powerful voice. Now, available for the first time comes the complete collection of Leckie's short fiction, including a brand new novelette, “Lake of Souls.”
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Terrible audio quality
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What listeners say about Shades of Grey
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Thom Dodd
- 03-26-10
Read this book
Fforde has written a humorous book in his quirky and other-worldish style on a serious topic. First I thought it was a critique of the British aristocracy but decided towards the end that it is Orwell's "1984" done in a far less dark style. It is very entertaining and will keep you glued. It is a love story and a David against Goliath story in the style of his character, Thursday Next, (from other books), as she battled against the Goliath Corpoaration.
I finished this book and then immediately listened to it again. I had missed so many clues to what would happen and got a lot out of it the 2nd time. Clearly Fforde has written a 3 part series and couldn't release the first one until he was sure that he had set things up properly.
This has the potential to become a literary classic. I cannot wait for the subsequent books.
John Lee is also recognized for his outstanding ability to voice different characters.
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- Suzanne
- 08-23-16
terrific book!
Terrific concept!! With shades of the factions from the 'Divergent' series and the oppression of Big Brother from Orwell's '1984', I am enthralled with the depiction of society separated by the visible spectrum.
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- Breanna
- 12-30-12
A different type of story from Jasper Fforde.
Any additional comments?
I can't wait for the second book to come out. I really liked the story and I want to see where it leads.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-18-18
It’s a slow burn, but don’t give up on it
Fforde changes it up a bit with Shades of Grey. It’s not at all like the Nextian and Nursery Crimes series’s. But once you settle in for the ride it’s really good. He spends a long time explaining this new world to the reader before it really gets going. I had a hard time really locking in until halfway through but it was width it.
Eddie Russet lives in a world divided by colors called Chromatacia. No one can see more than one natural color, and even then the strength of their color vision varies. The government fills in the color of much of the inhabited parts of the world by pumping in universally visible artificial color. Denizens of Chromatacia are also unable to see in the dark. If caught outside after dark they can end up with “night blindness.” No one knows why.
Each person wears a spot on his or her lapel to indicate which color they see, and their color indicates their place in the hierarchy. Eddie is a red, a station just above the society’s under caste—the greys, who perform menial tasks and hard labor and are treated as second-class citizens. Above reds are yellows, blues, and at the top—purples.
At the age of 20 all citizens undergo testing called the Ishihara which determines the strength of their color vision. This measurement decides everything from marriage, one’s to standing in the community (e.g. one cannot marry a complementary color, and a higher strength vision can lift someone to prefect and earn them a spot representing their color on the city council). Most people are perpetually seeking to climb the color ladder through marriage and often try to match with someone whose color combination will either maintain or improve the family’s prestige particularly when it comes to passing on color to offspring. For example, a purple with vision tailing toward the blue end of the purple spectrum might seek out a strong red to partner with to ensure their offspring is firmly purple.
This world is full of rules and taboos that most people just accept without question. People earn and lose “merits,” a form of currency, based on good or bad behavior according to the rules and the whims of prefects. If one loses enough merits they can be kicked out of the community and sent away for what’s called “re-boot,” which is supposed to be exactly what it sounds like. Re-training to better conform.
Ever since what is referred to as “The Something That Happened” society has been systematically divesting itself of technology. No one questions this much, though. Or at least , no one who does question lasts very long without being de-merited all the way to re-boot. The home office sets down the laws and people follow mindlessly.
Eddie has a tendency to ask more questions than most but he goes along to get along and buys into the orderly society overall. He seeks a marriage with a member of a wealthy red family, the Oxbloods, and he hopes to one day work in color for the government. After a prank though, the powers-that-be force him to wear a badge next to his red spot saying he needs humility, and they send him to a town called Carmine out in the boonies for a “chair census” as punishment. His father is a healer, a task achieved by showing the sick the appropriate hues of color swatches depending on the malady, goes with him to fill a vacant spot in the same town. There, Eddie falls in love with a grey named Jane who has no time for oppressive, arbitrary rules and social norms and she has no problem openly showing disdain for those of the upper classes, including Eddie. In settling into Carmine he begins to pick up on many of the inconsistencies of the rules and laws and he begins to see what Jane sees. He starts asking more questions and soon finds some disturbing answers.
It sounds very dystopian but it’s equal parts funny, too. I’m a big fan of Thursday Next and it was very cool to see Jasper Fforde try something new. I hope he does a sequel.
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- corisa
- 11-07-13
Creatively Original
What did you love best about Shades of Grey?
It's in true Jasper Fforde fashion-completely original, creative, and entertaining.
What other book might you compare Shades of Grey to and why?
If you like this book, you'll enjoy all of Jasper Fforde's books. He has such an original style. A modern Roald Dahl for adults. Love his books.
Have you listened to any of John Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
First listen by this narrator and thought it was excellent.
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- M. Fry
- 08-19-21
This book is in my top 10 of all time
Such a great concept. A great exploration into caste and aristocratic society made whimsical. This is a masterwork. Ignore the apocryphal man.
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- Stephanie
- 10-17-11
What a delightful book!
I've really never read much fantasy (if you don't count Harry Potter) so I wasn't sure if I could really get into a book like Shades of Grey, but it was terrific.
Eddie Russett lives in a world where everyone is color-blind and people are segregated by the color they can see. Volumes and volumes of rules exist in this dystopian world to keep everyone in line--and to keep the reader laughing. On his way to East Carmine to do a chair census, Eddie and his father, a doctor-type who heals with color swatches, find a dying man misrepresenting his color and mystery begins.
With each chapter Fforde molds his fascinating world and reveals just enough detail to make you want more and more. And John Lee is the perfect narrator, giving voice to all the eccentric characters. I found myself taking a long Sunday drive just to hear more of this great adventure. A new favorite. Highly recommended!
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- Ashley
- 06-12-10
Wonderful work from a fascinating novelist
No, it's not another Next novel, and though the world Fforde created here is more dark, this book was incredibly interesting. It's a bit apocolyptic, a lot quirky, and a completely new society from Fforde. If you loved the sort-of-kind-of-same-as-ours world Thursday Next inhabits, you should enjoy this book full of puns and cleverly named characters. The narrator was lovely too (I'm surprised other reviewers criticized his work to be honest); I also hope it's the start of a series. It's worth the buy, and I'd actually give the novel 4 1/2 stars if I could!
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- Cindy
- 03-01-16
Just as excellent the second time around!
An original and engaging story. The use of language is makes it delightful. John Lee ranks with Simon Prebble and Jim Dale.
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- Mo
- 07-22-21
4 1/2 stars. Entertaining!
Fforde gradually builds a very intriguing world for us in his unique style. The hero of this book narrates events from the perspective of somebody living in this world-- i.e. Fforde isn't explaining things for us, instead we have to pay attention to figure out how this crazy world works.
The pay-off was absolutely worth it for me. I enjoyed the world and the story (even if I had to re-listen to sections once in awhile.)
My only complaint: this seems to be part 1 of a series. The ending of the book is satisfying (we're not left with a cliff-hanger) but there are obvious important unresolved issues.
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