silo

Dust

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 14:46 on 13 June 2015

The dust jacket blurb is awful:

Wool introduced the silo and its inhabitants. Shift told the story of their making. Dust will chronicle their undoing. Welcome to the underground.

The book, however, is great. There were a number of parts in the book where I just hated to keep reading. All of them were parts of people being assholes to other people. There's looking out for your own needs, and then there's just plain greed. The former I understand, the latter I do not. The deliberate claiming of another person as property I also cannot stand.

Upside to this book, it has as close to a happy ending as you can get in a book with the previous two books Wool and Shift prior in the series. The plot in this world doesn't jump between centuries, making it easier to read. It wraps the saga up nicely, lots of small mysteries solved, which was nice.

I recommend reading this book (after the previous two, of course, it'll make no sense without those two first).

Shift

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 21:29 on 10 June 2015

Okay, here's the blurb on the back of the book:

In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platform that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma. A simple pill, it had been discovered, could wipe out the memory of any traumatic event. At almost the same moment in humanity's broad history, mankind had discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall. And the ability to forget it ever happened.

Doesn't really do the book justice. It's a background and continuation of Wool. I struggled to start with this book. Wool was great, and while I was interested in more of the Silo world Howey had created, I wanted the story to sit. It felt complete. This one starts out with how the Silo world was created. Given it starts out with politics and manipulation, I can't say I was overly enthusiastic about it. Okay, I wasn't. It took me a long time to get into this book.

I really like Howey's writing style, however, so I kept going. After I decided a couple days ago that I was going to finish a book, dammit, this is the one I chose, and I'm glad I did. I finished it, and finished it fast. It's good.

Yay, the book-finishing-drought is finally over! This is a great one to do it with, if you've read Wool. If you haven't read Wool, read it first, then read thing one. Next up, Dust.

Wool

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 13:59 on 12 March 2015

Recommended by Luke.

Okay, wow. When Luke recommended Wool (Amazon affliliate link), I had four other books going, and wanted to finish those before getting too far into Wool. I kinda wish I hadn't delayed. This book is great. Read the basic plot on the Amazon page, if you'd like. The back reads something like:

In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.

His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

The thing about Hugh Howey's writing is that it's isn't eye-rolling absurd. Given the basic premise (societies living in underground silos), the characters are believable, the dialogue reasonable and the actions plausible. I really enjoyed that about the book, being able to be lost in the dystopian world for hours.