16. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

A future where people are socially stratified by how much colour they can see. That's the tag line but it's a lot more nasty and dystopian than that. I can't believe I once thought that Fforde would be too twee for my tastes.

The worlds of his Last Dragonslayer and Tuesday Next books are pretty dark, this is ( Read more... )

1. The Eyre Affair by Jasper FfordeRegular readers may remember that I had resisted Fforde's works for a long time because I thought they'd be too whimsical for me until I heard him speak at various events over the past couple years. I've giggled my way through his young adult Last Dragonslayer series, and after his appearance at BristolCon I gave ( Read more... )

34. The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper FfordeThe second in his Last Dragonslayer series for young adults. I read the third one first (got charmed by him at an event & bought the book he was pimping), then the first one, so this one nicely fills in the middle ( Read more... )

I am so far behind with this.

45. The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V by Hugh Thomas

The second part of Thomas' history of the Spanish empire. Where Rivers of Gold was dense but fascinating, this was just dense. This was a surprise - as I mentioned in my review of Rivers of Gold, I've read some of his earlier books and they've ( Read more... )

28. The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper FfordeUp till now I had not read any of Fforde's works. However, he was also speaking at the Ben Aaronovitch and Paul Cornell event in May, and he was witty and funny and lovely, so not surprisingly this one ended up coming home with me ( Read more... )