Shades of Grey, the first book in a new series by Jasper Fforde, takes place in an alternate reality some time in the future after the "Something That Happened." People now live in an over-simplified world where strict adherence to the Rules are required (no matter how silly or harsh they are) and people can only see one color. The social hierarchy, the Colortocracy, is based on what color you see; greys are the very bottom, reds just above the greys, and purples at the top.
Our main character, Eddie Russet, is a young man who is sent to East Carmine to take a chair census because he needs to learn humility for the egregious offense of trying to improve the system in which people stand in line. He ends up learning humility, but from the secret subculture of the greys where he discovers there's much more going on in the world than he ever realized. He comes to learn that the Rules are meant to keep people ignorant and subservient, and that people sent to Reboot for breaking the Rules aren't rehabilitated like everyone is meant to believe.
This is a less playful book than the ones he wrote for his Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series' but it's just as clever and thoughtful. I continue to be amazed at the ideas Fforde comes up with. I'm interested in seeing how he unfolds the story in future books. I definitely recommend this one, but if you've never picked up one of his books before I suggest you start with The Eyre Affair, the first book in his Thursday Next series.
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