megwasmer

Shades of Gray was alright. It has been a long time since I read Black and White, three years almost, and Shades of Gray suffered a bit from me forgetting some pretty important things. If I had read the first book before starting this one, it would have been a four star book and not a three, but too many things were casually eluded to that the reader needs to know to appreciate the story. You cannot read this book without the first one being at least a little fresh in your mind. I didn’t love the Now story. It felt rather disjointed. The flow was off and it seemed like a lot was going on that tied together only loosely with some plot points got touched on only briefly than forgotten about for fifty pages to get wrapped up as part of the nice neat package at the end of the book. The Then stole the show. The addition of the story of the earlier generation of extrahumans added an entire new dimension to the series. I loved them. It also added a new perspective to Black and White. Then was very cleverly done and really enriched the series.The Interludes just aggravated me. They didn’t have to be in the book and really didn’t add anything except extra pages. They might have been to give the reader an additional perspective of what was going on in New Chicago, but it didn’t work.All that being said, I’d read another Icarus story if one was released and not feel even a little like I might be wasting hours of my life that I can never have back (I’m looking at you Ethan Frome). Shades of Gray isn’t great sci-fi, but it’s fun, light and possibly the perfect book for me to be reading the week leading up to Christmas.