sasa

If you can forgive it for having the most annoying snarky nerd humor dialogue, it's very fun!

Floored

this book was pretty good but the characters were toddlers. anyone got any recs that are similar to this but the characters aren't dumb gamers?

B.J. has such a fun, inventive mind. I'd love to read a “traditional” novel written by him, but something tells me he wouldn't care to write one.

Stories that stood out to me:

Sophia - Romance bundled up in comedic social commentary on par with Her.

No One Goes To Heaven To See Dan Fogelberg - Novak's version of heaven is brilliant and leaves you thinking about old people

One of These Days, We Have to Do Something About Willie - explores the emotional ups & downs of post-academic life, keeping in touch with friends, and how nobody's emotions are to be taken at face value. Perhaps the most powerful. Says a lot about depression in the 21st century

The Man Who Posted Pictures of Everything He Ate

I Never Want to Walk on the Moon

For their humor:
Kellogg's
Constructive Criticism
Just An Idea
A Good Problem to Have

Giving the finale to the Silo series a three star rating was not easy, as I've rated the previous books much higher. The Wool Omnibus was one of my favorite books of all time. I've recommended it to numerous friends and have a signed copy of it on my bookshelf. This one, however, left me a bit disappointed. This review is mostly spoiler-free, and spoilers will be tagged/hidden.

Let me start with the positives. Howey once again does a great job of immersing you in the underground world of the silo and its inhabitants, making their struggles seem so real and periodically making me feel claustrophobic. It's as tremendously well-written as the previous books when it comes to storytelling. The story continues seamlessly from where SHIFT and WOOL left off and contains many tense moments that glue your eyes to the page. Throughout the whole novel I felt an overwhelming sense of dread, thinking there'd be no way there would be a happy conclusion.

One thing that's bothered me not just about this novel but the series as a whole is the lack of character diversity. The dialogue is well written and realistic, but the words that a character says could just as well be said by any other character. This is even more true in DUST. I never at once felt that any of the characters had any specific qualities or traits attached to them. Even Solo, the most unique character due to his circumstances, acted just like everyone else. I was impressed that Wool had a strong female protagonist, but in Dust another female protagonist is brought in that acts no different than Juliette. Scenes with Shirly felt just like scenes with Courtneee. Lukas, Raph, and Erik all felt like the same person to me. It also seemed redundant to have so many children named in the story when only one of them was fleshed out.

As far as conclusions go, it was okay. I'll keep it vague to avoid spoilers, but there was never really a climax. The most exciting parts of the book were around halfway through, with the last 20% jotting along at a steady pace. Maybe I hyped this book up too much for myself, but I expected it to go out with a bang, and while there kind of was one, it just made me think, “Oh...that wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped it would be.” I wanted to be inside Thurman's head when Silo 1 blew. I wanted to know exactly what went through his head as he shot Donald and watched him aim the gun at the bomb.

The book also felt too long. The first third was very slow and a lot of it seemed unnecessary.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh, because it wasn't by all means a bad book. It deserves to be read, and as a whole, the Silo saga is one of the best book series' I've read, and certainly some of the best dystopian fiction out there. I'm excited to read more of Hugh Howey's work.


SPOILERS: Things I'd like cleared up:
What's the deal with the other silos?! There are now a bunch of silos with IT heads that have no one to report to. If they don't change their ways, what happens to them after the remaining 200 years are up?If the argon supply was coming from Silo 1, what happens now? Will argon still be sent automatically when silo citizens go out to clean? If not, will the argon bubble clear up over time?Are they still living with the creeps that married Elise off to Mr. Rash?