Hardcover, 352 pages
English language
Published July 22, 2008 by Viking Adult.
Welcome to Chromatacia, where for as long as anyone can remember society has been ruled by a Colortocracy. Social hierachy is based upon one's limited color perception. society is dominated by color. In this world, you are what you can see, and Eddie Russett, a better-than-average red perception wants to move up.
Almost seven years after my first reading, again earns four stars!
Almost seven years after my first reading, again earns four stars!
Almost Wolfe-ian in its clamor of vaguely alluded details, any of which you fear you might need to remember later, in case they turn out to be lies. A whimsical universe that's purposefully forgotten its own history; possibly post-Oz, possibly post-human-engineering (re:Oryx and Crake); where pupil dilation is a creepy extinct ability and anyone can only see a narrow range of the visible spectrum in color, creating a hue-based caste system. The back matter implies the author did a bit of colorblindness research to get a feel for how things look with different types of missing hue perception, and it shows in the prose -- very compelling descriptions, a few neat hue-related puzzles. Fabulous mystery technology in a sort of mishmash of steampunk and deep future sort of way.
As Fforde gets better at knitting stories, his puns get worse. Like ya do. ;)
I look forward to the others!
