Starts powerfully, but the third shift is just a drag.
I kind of had mixed feelings about Wool too, but while Wool was a late-coming classic of the genStarts powerfully, but the third shift is just a drag.
I kind of had mixed feelings about Wool too, but while Wool was a late-coming classic of the genre, Shift is just lacking. It's a fairly okay, badly edited, run-of-the-mill book. I still dig Howey's style, but the tension is gone from this. Maybe Wool was that cool because it was originally written as a series of novelettes? In Shift the tension is lacking, the pacing is uneven.
The book affected me, I won't deny it, but I often felt Howey trying really very hard to affect me. It felt artifical, not heartfelt. Wool had this too, but the mind-blowingness compensated for it. Not in Shift, unfortunately.
Characters: Donald struck home, that useless asshole resonates with me. Until the third shift, that is. He's totally unlike what I'd imagine a congressman, and that required some suspension of disbelief (like many other things in these books), but I could live with that, it was even refreshing. His love triangle thing resonates with me (of course) but it was totally lacking(view spoiler)[, and had zero conclusion (hide spoiler)]. In Silo #1 everybody else is a paper cut-out or practically nonexistent (Charlotte who). For all these characters, I kinda waited when they'd get into the limelight, but they just don't (view spoiler)[(they die randomly instead) (hide spoiler)].
In Silo 18, Mission is cool. The Crow is cool. Yeah, second shift was pretty cool. (It's also a pretty good self-contained novelette. So maybe it's really just that Howey is great at short stories, and a bit shit at novels.)
In Silo 17, we have Solo: the entire second shift is just padding, there only to have us catch up with Wool (providing some lame explanation to some things (view spoiler)[(the fresh corpses Jules encountered in Wool) (hide spoiler)]), and to make us sad and scared. Also, the characterisation of the 16-year-old Solo made me think he's retarded. One would think he's 12 or something. His descent to madness wasn't particularly convincing either. Oh well, the less said about third shift the better. I could crack sarcastic jokes about the crappiness of the third shift being a literary technique, intended to underline the message of how things are coming apart at the seams etc.
In my edition there are some questions at the end: "how did you feel when X? Why?" And I was all "Um, I felt pretty meh".
To be fair, though (and I'm writing this after sleeping on it), first shift has its moments (an awesomely terse description of a hollowing marriage springs to mind), and the time dilation/shifting timeline thing in third shift was nice. I actually wish there was less linearity in the book, more playing with timelines.
All that said, I read this in four days, and I do intend to read the next book. But not right now. I think I'll read non-fiction now....more
So, yes, I burned through the book in three days. Gripping and hard to put down.
The themes... well, there's nothing fully and absolutely new in the seSo, yes, I burned through the book in three days. Gripping and hard to put down.
The themes... well, there's nothing fully and absolutely new in the setting, it's pretty much a trope: post-apocalyptic survivors living in bunkers, kept in the dark about nefarious conspiracies. But Howey does somehow manages to present it in a new light, a new perspective. The description of the environment alone makes this a late-coming classic of the genre (view spoiler)[The stairs, the image of the stairs will haunt me. (hide spoiler)]
The writing is very solid: I like the way it's understated, calm and detached, but not afraid of waxing poetic once in a while. Great pacing! Some irregularities here and there, but the story flows along unstoppably, with a majestic ease. I always likened this style of writing to painting. If I were writing, I'd like to write like this. The characters are all very relatable, fleshed out, believable.
Why just three stars? Well, the writing does have its issues, sometimes gets too smart for its own good. There are some iconsistencies around that bothered me, probably due to the way this was written and published. The ending is shit. Some suspension of disbelief is required (view spoiler)[I don't really get why "showing the cleaners what they want", the simulated reality, works. Really, why? The whole simulated reality thing was a great PKDish plot twist at the end of the first novelette, but it loses relevance later. I GUESS it's supposed to be a nefarious conspiracy to make cleaners clean, expertly invented by master psychologists, but... um, no (hide spoiler)]. Unlike other reviewers, I had zero problems with the title (great, if a bit smartass, title), or the lack of elevators, but the fact so many people don't get these shows problems.
But anyway, it was a great quick read, left an impression on me, made me think, some parts of it resonated in me very deeply....more
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