Hugh Howey: Second Shift (2012, Penguin Random House)
225 pages
English language
Published Nov. 10, 2012 by Penguin Random House.
It feels unfinished and rough in a way, the more Howey describes the people responsible for the apocalypse and their intentions and motives, the less reasonable everything seems. IMHO this book does the world building no good. It's an OK read, nice-to-get some insights into the first uprising in Silo 18 but otherwise ... meh.
Another solid entry in the Wool universe, or rather, Silo universe. In the author's words, he called Wool the first act, the Shift books the second act, and they all shall come together in the third act, called DUST. Exciting!
Anyhow! Second Shift unsurprisingly continues what First Shift began: a look at the backstory of the silo world, how it all happened. The two protagonists are Donald from First Shift who is supposed to help with figuring out how to save one of the silos in danger of going up in flames, silo 18. Incidentally, the silo of the original Wool story. At the same time, we get the point of view of the happenings in silo 18 as seen by Mission, a young porter living in a world that is going up in flames of anger and violence.
I thought this one was quite depressing. It left me feeling …
Another solid entry in the Wool universe, or rather, Silo universe. In the author's words, he called Wool the first act, the Shift books the second act, and they all shall come together in the third act, called DUST. Exciting!
Anyhow! Second Shift unsurprisingly continues what First Shift began: a look at the backstory of the silo world, how it all happened. The two protagonists are Donald from First Shift who is supposed to help with figuring out how to save one of the silos in danger of going up in flames, silo 18. Incidentally, the silo of the original Wool story. At the same time, we get the point of view of the happenings in silo 18 as seen by Mission, a young porter living in a world that is going up in flames of anger and violence.
I thought this one was quite depressing. It left me feeling unease, which probably was the whole point. The epilogue turned the story for me, and now I am rather interested in seeing how it will continue in Third Shift.
If you enjoyed the Wool series so far, you should continue reading it with this entry. I still don't see my interests flagging due to overexposure and can only congratulate Hugh Howey for being the self-publishing surprise of 2012!
