Shift

Shift acts as the prequel to Wool, filling in the background and lore around the events and the world.

And that's it's function.

And I find 50% of this book engaging, 50% of this book ... dull. Really dull. And it might be the opposite for some people. I enjoyed the primary plot involving the politics and Congress and following that group, but I honestly couldn't give a smurf about the other residents for this book.

Having some sense of where this book was likely to go, the other plot lines felt really irrelevant, and just a carrier to get back to the main plot. I would have been happy with a few hundred pages less.

My history says this is the second read through, and I swear I only remember less than half from the first time. Let's see if any more sticks.

It's hard to say too much about this series without spoiling various plot twists and discoveries. Of which there are many.

This book feels like a great setup for the final book. It introduces more knowns, and unknowns, into the state of the world. It's a longer term view of the situation compared to the first book, which is critical backstory, but means less of that "discover the world through Juliettes eyes" thrill from the first book. Also, I wish I hadn't waited as long after reading the first book, there are some specific details that carry over and aren't re-contextualized.

Very much looking forward to the third book.

I had to read this book after the first volume in the trilogy (which I had to read after watching the pilot of the Apple TV series), but at over five hundred pages and introducing a bunch of characters and timelines it was a bit of a slog getting through it. Still entertaining and fills in much of the backstory that was purely speculation in the first book (probably from the author, too, as this all started with just a self-published short story that served as the first few chapters), but also feels kind of like a homework assignment completed. I'm ready for the final book, though!

Don't get me wrong, world building is good and Hugh Howey does a good job doing just that, but I didn't get hooked at all. I was looking forward to finishing it. I personally know people that loved it and were happy to start with the next book as soon as they finished this, but that wasn't me.

The story is just dragging along, nothing that exciting going on, the plot is also relatively unsurprising. I started this book and it read like I'm just going through the motions. It's probably just not my jam, but I have to admit, it's well written in a way. I can see what people might enjoy about it.

I am not able to really recommend it, but I can also not recommend against it. I guess my opinion on this is just not interesting.