Reviews

Half Way Home by Hugh Howey

mbenzz's review

5.0

After reading and LOVING the Wool series, I decided to see what else Mr. Howey had to offer. I wasn't sure about this book since it's so far out of the realm of what I normally read, but if I could love wool, I figured I might be able to love this. Well, I did. A lot.

I won't go into great detail since the are so many other reviews here, but this incredibly vivid story of a bunch of teenagers born 15 years too soon on a completely unknown planet is absolutely captivating. The personality clashes and discovering what exactly their new world has to offer right along with Porter, Tarsi and the rest of the runaways was very exciting.

Even though Mr. Howey does an excellent job with his descriptions, I was having a little trouble visualizing this planet. The tree tunnels, in particular, were hard for me to imagine, as was the incredibly massive scale of the trees themselves. Oh, and the surprise they come across in the mine. That was also so foreign to me that I had trouble picturing it (even though Mr. Howey CLEARLY conveys how incredibly terrifying it was. Glad I read that part right before going to sleep). I would love to see artist renderings of exactly what is going on in Hugh Howey's mind when he's picturing these places...

Anyway, I absolutely recommend this book! This guy is an amazingly talented storyteller, and I've been recommending him to pretty much anyone who will listen. Read this book, and when you're done, if you haven't already, READ WOOL!!

tishywishy's review against another edition

3.0

Well paced novel of colonist being sent to develop new planets or rather work on new planets for their creators. Porter is a psychologist and his training is interrupted at about age 15 when the ship decide to abort but changes its mind halfway through the sequence. Eventually Porter and his friends run away from their 'Colony' which has become a master and slave relationship and find the true source of why the abort sequence was cancelled. Not a bad premise and Howey has an enjoyable writing style but didn't enjoy this story as much as Silo and the ending was a bit humdrum.

gentlemangeek's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

gwynt's review

5.0

Wow, what a fantastic and unexpected novel! I really felt this embodied YA fiction. Everything experienced by the main characters were "firsts" in an imaginative way. Pacing was great and the message in the end was insightful. I can't wait to read other things by this author.

kleonard's review against another edition

3.0

I mostly enjoyed this novel, in which colonists raised in tanks are awoken early by the AI that governs their lives. Of 500, only 58 survive, and, only half-trained in their various areas of specialization--psychology, farming, geology, mining--they make a go of living on the planet they're supposed to colonize. But politics and alliances and the development of power groups appears immediately, and it's only by leaving the colony at great peril do some of the colonists discover the truth about the planet, the AI, and how they will need to function to live. There's a lot of action and thinking (and some scenes that feel a bit like they were written for a film treatment) that works, but there's also quite a bit of gender essentialism, and none of the characters really feel developed or even individual. There's room for improvement, and since this seems like the beginning of a series, I hope those improvements come about in future installments.

suzi4213's review

4.0

I love how Hugh Howey writes.
He creates excellent dystopian environments full of well-rounded and interesting characters.
My only problem with this book was that it was too short. Haha. I wish there was more.

uppermost's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

sahentig93's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jenlynnhill's review

2.0

This book had a very interesting premise and at first I really enjoyed it. Then the further along into the book I got, the harder it was for me to understand what was going on, some of the descriptions of things/events were a little hard to understand. But overall, it was interesting.

duhwhoareyou's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0