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Actionreich lernen wir Anna kennen, die als Kriminalpolizistin dank ihres Bauchgefühls keinen Fall ungelöst lässt. Dass es nicht einfach nur eine gute Intuition, sondern tatsächlich die Gabe zur Vorhersehung ist, will sie selbst anfangs nicht glauben. Eine fremde Alienrasse sieht in ihr und ihren Fähigkeit den Schlüssel, um einen scheinbar immerwährenden Krieg zu beenden.

Auch wenn das erst einmal eine schöne Verknüpfung von Science und Fiction ist, wird es schnell langweilig und stumpf. Anna behält immer Recht. Anna weiß immer schon, was passiert. Wenn sie es denn nicht abwendet. Überraschende Wendungen sind damit faktisch unmöglich. Schade ist dabei auch, dass diese Fähigkeit immer nur im Kontext der Geschichte selbst passiert. Auch wenn das Buch jegliche Charakterentwicklung auslässt, hätte der Autor hiermit wenigstens die Entwicklung der Beziehungen untereinander auf witzige Weise gestalten können.

Das Buch verfolgt einige nette Ansätze, schneidet spannende Theorien und Gedanken an - bei mir hinterlässt es trotzdem nur ein eher unterwältigendes Gefühl.

"An enthralling contemporary fantasy seeped in horror" says the back of the book. Well, no, there's no actual horror in it. But magic! It takes a good while before strange things happen, and a few twists come along. But most important, this novel (or rather novella?) feels cozy und our protagonists are very likeable. While it is less thrilling than I expected it to be, I very much enjoyed the ride.

This is one of those 5/5 ratings where I don't think the book is perfect, but it gets it because it is so intensely targeted at my own interests and I'm so grateful to have read it. Some bullet points to entice you:

• anti-capitalism, anti-cop
• train heists
• found family vibes
• first person point of view with an internalized narration to a second person "you"
• fantasy religions that don't feel like direct analogies of real ones
• revenge plot and revolutionaries
• gaaaaaaay

The book is so unapologetically queer and kinky, it's great. The author credits Stone Butch Blues (among many other things) in the end notes, which feels entirely unsurprising. The gender-y and queer bits also both intersect with the in-world religions in realistic ways.

It's a book that desperately needs a map; there's a pile of countries, religions, and politics especially when it hits the Chauncey estate section. The book does a good job of keeping it all ~~straight~~ queerly differentiated but the world has so much texture--it's a ttrpg campaign setting crying out for illustration! It also feels like a living world; characters having a life both off-page and outside of the protagonist make it feel even more real.

The book opens with a labor dispute and police violence and sworn revenge, but from there it doesn't shy away from critiques of power and incrementalism and reformers. There's some wild rich people monologues where they unintentionally bare themselves as soulless vampires. There's a bandit charade of a hidden equitable country, pretending to be part of a baronial system.

Sunlight licked between bruisy limestone smokestacks and telegraphy spires, and the crumbling knuckled colonnades of an empire that's long gone.

I found the writing to be a delight: the narrator is at times unreliable, and the writing is full of dreamy metaphors. At times, somebody will bust out with a multi-page exposition about religion, or a set of introductions to a full dramatis personae worth of baronets. The final lap of the book has its own tonal shift that I won't get into for reasons. Somehow this all held together for me; maybe it's that none of these parts overstayed their welcome. I'm sure some folks will bounce off of this writing style, but I'm not folks, that's for sure.

Being a Hereafterist is a commitment to creating a brand-new world all the time. It is the method of making a new world, it does not stop, we are never there yet. We have never arrived at a restful Hereafter, we must keep making. We will become a liberated collective, a plague will roll over us, and a famine, and fifty thousand bullets, and we will need to make choices. We will need to change. We must resist the ossification of precedent. We march toward Hereafter, not tomorrow, we march past tomorrow, we know tomorrow will be hard.

In the end, this is a fuck yeah revenge story about disaster queers fighting capitalism with violence. It's less about answers or even hope, and more about conveying a sense of angry determinism working for a future none of them will see.

A very strong entry in that series. It went into a different direction than I thought. It's much more of a traditional fantasy story than the previous books. Nevertheless, we still get a cozy vibe. I really enjoyed being emerged into this quirky world again. There were plenty of amusing and funny scenes and characters. I recommend it (but you should read or listen to the previous two books in the series), especially the audiobook, once again read by the author in a very entertaining way.

Fforde is a worldbuilding wizard. This dystopian, outlandish novel oozes quirkiness, humor, and hierarchical nonsense while painting a vibrant picture of the Chromatasia. The protagonist, Eddie Russet, begins a life-altering adventure in the Outer Fringes, a place he believed drab or otherwise below his middle-hued status. He meets abrasive Yellows, a feisty Grey, snobbish Purples, and untrustworthy Reds. But what's most exciting is the journey Fforde creates for Eddie. Even when nothing but set building and historical significance seems to unfold, it's hard not to be sucked into the prose.

Shades of Grey is perfect for fantasy lovers and fans of the absurd alike.