The next book in the Shades of Grey trilogy is coming out!! (Not that Shades of Grey...)

[Kinsters]

Finally, finally it's almost here!

The first book was published in 2009 so it's been a long wait. I check every now and then whether there's any news on the sequel and finally there is.

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron is the first in the Shades of Grey trilogy by Jasper FForde and is set in a dystopian Wales where society is divided according to what colour(s) you can perceive. It's silly, funny and fast paced but also quite dark in places. It ends not so much on a cliffhanger as part way through the story with a ton of unanswered questions and our hero's true purpose and mission just become clear.

I can't wait to read Red Side Story on 6th February!

Oh yay! I'd honestly given up on this one, it's been so long...

Did he ever get round to writing another Thursday Next?

YEEEESSSSS I've been waiting! Such a fun idea, I loved it, but also understood if it actually became difficult to continue the story (i.e. invent reasons for the colour segregation etc).

I feel like some things are best left unexplained!

I'm not sure. Despite loving Shades of Grey I don't recall ever reading any of his other books. When I looked on Wikipedia after learning about the sequel I noticed that he was producing a book a year until 2014 and then had a few years off but lately he's been publishing again.

Dark Reading Matter is due out this year.

I was once at a zoom talk/lecture of his hosted by a local bookshop. I'd read all his books and had noticed that his productivity had dropped off a bit, and also IMO I felt that in particular the later Thursday Next books suffered a bit from too much cleverness and pun-filled humour that left the story a bit less engaging. I had really liked the premise of Early Riser but it had struck me as a little halting, as if he wasn't 100% sure of his story or where he was going, and I think he made a good call when he finished the storyline in Constant Rabbit without leaving an obvious open end for a sequel, iyswim. So at question time I got the opportunity to ask him about that in a way that wasn't horribly rude, I think I asked if he found it tricky to navigate that area between "just" having a series of great funny ideas and turning it into a story, and he was very open about suffering a little from some sort of writer's block at the time. So glad to see another novel on its way!

Was it really 2009?! Wow. I would have said maybe 5 or 6 years ago. That's crazy! Am also very excited and have pre ordered it.

I was creeped out by Constant Rabbit but absolutely loved the other books. Really excited to hear there are more on the way!

Btw his YA series (Last Dragonslayer?) was really enjoyable.

Early Riser was ruined for me by the big twist at the end. It ruined what could have been a really amazing character.

I can't wait! I love JF, he has such a bizarre view of the world