Grey is unleashed on the general public

By +Brad Naylor

June 18th saw the release of the fourth book in E.L. James' 50 Shades of Grey series, 'Grey'. Rather than taxing her mind and challenging her writing 'talent', Ms. James opted to retell the first story through the eyes of billionaire bondagemeister, and hero of the first three books, Christian Grey.

Grey - Christian's perspective of the first book

Two weeks ago, the manuscript for this book mysteriously disappeared from the UK publisher's office and the world held it's breath to see if it would be leaked on the internet, or if someone was just trying to save mankind from another round of hormonal housewife horndoggery. Sadly for everyone, the manuscript turned up and the book was published according to schedule.

Why E.L. James didn't quit after raking in millions of dollars from 3 badly written books and one badly acted movie is anybody's guess, but she just keeps on churning out these books about a billionaire businessman, Christian Grey and his pathetic plaything, Anesthesia Steele. Why can't he have a real billionaire hobby, like space exploration or fighting crime. He can still slap people around, and there is spandex and rubber involved (mostly in his suit which coincidentally is mostly grey). 

50 shades of fighting crime

Obviously with this new book describing the sado-masochistic encounter from the male perspective, many things have been exaggerated. Length, duration, number of shades of grey and most importantly, in Christian's account, Anesthesia did not strike anal fisting from the binding bondage contract.

From early reviews, the book is a roaring success with many 30 something females rating it 5/5 stars, but the serious critics are dismissing it as poorly written, and even contradictory to the original. Maybe if E.L. James could have forced herself to re-read the first book to make sure her facts were accurate before re-imagining it through Christian's eyes then at least there would be a point of reference between the two tales.

Somehow, E.L. James is considered to be one of the 21st century's most successful writers, and considering that the three original 50 shades books combined have sold over 125 million copies so far, there is little doubt in my mind that anything else E.L. James writes in the next ten years is going to be a best seller, irrespective of how badly it is written, so long as it is rooted somewhere in the Grey universe. Who knows from which perspectives she will rehash the same story over and over again.

Have you read Grey yet? Are you planning on reading it? Not even to see what all the fuss is about? Share your thoughts below, then share them again from the perspective of the dominant.