Just finished Jasper Fforde’s new book and I have to say it was a huge disappointment. The first problem was the cover of the book (not the one pictured) the US edition has a windows-screen-saver-esque series of tubes on the front and I always judge books by their cover. The second problem - I’ll quote Wikipedia on this one:
The book’s setting seems to be a peaceful, Utopian community, where all possible steps are taken to eliminate pain or confusion. The people are almost always compliant…
This society remains harmonious by assigning jobs to each individual according to a laborious evaluation of their skill…There is also a subtle theme of technology having only a minimal role in society; throughout the book, it is taken for granted that [the] community is without such technologies as television or radio….
human beings …are all colorblind…
Right, so that pretty much sums up the setting of the book…but here’s the awkward bit: that’s not the Shades of Grey Wikipedia…it’s actually the page on The Giver by Lois Lowry. There are really just an incredible number of uncomfortable similarities between these two books.
And my last problem with the book (That I’m going to write here about, because honestly I have no idea how to write a book review and I doubt that many people will have even read this far, as I have no idea if any Followers have even heard of Fforde) is more a problem with Fforde’s inability to write a single book, Get the story out in just one go, not have a series of less and less interesting books about the same thing. Fforde said (about the book or something, who cares now - I’m taking it out of context) “I like challenges. Write oneself into something of a pit and then miraculously break free.” But I feel it might have been more appropriate to say “I like challenges. Write oneself into something of a pit and then write ‘To be Continued’.” Or perhaps “I like challenges. Write oneself into something of a pit and then have the heroine miraculously break you free with a potato peeler.” That last one was a joke for people who have read the book (read: my own amusement).
Anyway, I probably won’t read the sequels
