In Different Color

A fairy tale narrated by a wry, self-aware storyteller, following Mr. Grey, a stone-faced, unshakably literal bureaucrat whose orderly life is upended by a legally mandated fortune and a spare visa. Chasing a vanished colleague across four strange, quarantined nations, each with its own economy, law, and flavor of magic, he travels with an ambitious young woman he’s courting and a huge, warm stranger who joins along the way. Bureaucracy is its own kind of power, and beneath the whimsy runs a quieter story about learning to hold an opinion and let color into a grey life.

Part 1

Mr. Grey, a grey, literal pencil-pusher, measures his days by paperwork in soot-stained Starharbor. A stray Notice and a rigged fortune push him past his comfort zone into tavern brawls, a mob's fury, and an unlikely courtship, narrated with wry wit that treats kindnesses as their own kind of power.

Part 2

After a train derails and a giant scatters the passengers, Mr. Grey and Honeydew are reunited with help from mallet-wielding Tom. Chasing word of a vanished colleague through fiddle lessons and humiliating contests, Mr. Grey learns to loosen up, building to a grand concert and an unexpected departure.

Part 3

A sightseeing detour through Glory Days, a nation of undersea air-bubbles, curdles into a brush with revolution. Shipwrecked and imprisoned, Mr. Grey and his companions chase a legendary golden treasure across lava rivers and misty ruined cities, testing how far a quietly principled man will go before taking a side.

Part 4

Lost and starving under a sky of perpetual midnight, Mr. Grey and Honeydew chase Jodee Coats through poltergeist libraries, iron taverns, and faerie prisons. Old friends resurface and old debts come due, straining every bond Mr. Grey has built, while a mysterious Queen watches from the shadows.

Part 5

After four strange nations, Mr. Grey, Ms. Maysey, and Jodee Coats return to grey, familiar Starharbor, only to find King's Law waiting to render judgment. Mr. Grey must decide what kind of man his journey has made him, in the book's final homecoming where every earlier kindness comes back around.