Reviews

Shift by Hugh Howey

Only show reviews with written explanations

becca_shaw_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I enjoyed shift but not as much as the first book. I loved that this was a prequel as it gave a lot of context and answers to the questions I had from Wool and overall I found Donald's storyline entertaining. Solo's backstory I wasn't interested in really so this dragged out the book for me.

I am, however, left with a few questions.

It mentions in the book that silo 17 was meant to be a hole in the ground but why didn't this actually happen? Did someone in silo 1 save them? Not sure if I missed something here. When it came to Donald and Charlotte flying the drone out of the silo, I was left with more questions than answers (though I may have missed something here as well as I was keen to get the book finished by this point) - if there was grass and blue sky, did this mean that the world was okay? If so, how were the cleaners still dying? & if there was sign of life elsewhere, how wasn't there any sign of life in the immediate vicinity of the silos?

occams_razor_85's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

kranzundkrone's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

even_steven's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.0

Half of this book is great. The plot is gripping and it serves as an interesting prelude to the events of the first book in the series, ‘Wool’. The other half, made up of parallel narratives of secondary characters interspersed between ‘main plot’ chapters, was unnecessary at best and downright boring at worst. The ‘Mission’ chapters were fine, but the ‘Solo’ chapters were entirely skippable (I skimmed many of the later ones). It’s like Howey thought we were all interested in Solo’s backstory, but I for one didn’t need that story told.

Perhaps that’s the verdict for the whole book - it provides backstory where it’s unnecessary. Part of the joy in reading ‘Wool’ came from the unknown and the mystery. This book explains *everything* to such an extent that the mysteries of the first book are completely unravelled and laid painfully bare. The Star Wars prequels suffered the same problem. Darth Vader was a much more interesting character with the snippets of his past we were given in the original trilogy; we did not need the prequels to laboriously tell the story of Anakin Skywalker. Similarly, ‘Shift’ makes the mistake of over-revealing the events leading up to ‘Wool’.

The Mission chapters fully explain the historical uprising in Silo 18 that was more interesting when it was imagined as some amorphous event of the silo’s past. The Solo chapters give us a window into the mind-numbing daily life of a character that wasn’t *that* interesting from the first book: a literal man-child who would be the sidekick in a B-grade Sci Fi film - like the feral kid in ‘Mad Max 2’. Did we need *his* backstory? I love ‘Road Warrior’, but I certainly didn’t need a prequel telling me that particular story (the jury’s still out ‘Furiosa’).

All that said, the ‘Donald’ chapters are great, and following that character’s experiences through to the end was really enjoyable. It’s the aspect of the story that warranted the callbacks to ‘Wool’, and I found myself gobbling up those chapters to see what happened next with the narrative. So, on the whole, there’s a lot about ‘Shift’ to like, but it’s weighed down heavily by what can only be described as filler throughout.

urtencija's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Kiek per daug ištęsta priešistorė, nes knygoje jau ne vien tik veiksmas, bet prasideda ir veikėjų svarstymai, kas teisinga, kas ne. Nors vis dar skaitosi gan greitai, tik nebe taip įdomu, kaip pirmoji dalis.