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Shift #2
Second Shift: Order
The incredible second part of Shift, the follow up to bestseller Wool.
Donald wasn't supposed to remember. In fact, he was punished for doing just that. But the information he should have forgotten may end up saving his future.
Mission Jones is a young man who wants to change the world around him. The rules, the secrets, the lies. Putting his own life on the line, he fights to build a resistance and save those who have hope. But is he trying to save the wrong people?
Donald knows the truth, but is he willing to use it to protect something that he regrets building in the first place?
Donald wasn't supposed to remember. In fact, he was punished for doing just that. But the information he should have forgotten may end up saving his future.
Mission Jones is a young man who wants to change the world around him. The rules, the secrets, the lies. Putting his own life on the line, he fights to build a resistance and save those who have hope. But is he trying to save the wrong people?
Donald knows the truth, but is he willing to use it to protect something that he regrets building in the first place?
268 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2012
205 people are currently reading
2,817 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Howey
142Ìýbooks57kÌýfollowersI'm the author of WOOL, a top 5 science fiction book on Amazon. I also wrote the Molly Fyde saga, a tale of a teenager from the 25th century who is repeatedly told that girls can't do certain things -- and then does them anyway.
A theme in my books is the celebration of overcoming odds and of not allowing the cruelty of the universe to change who you are in the process. Most of them are classified as science fiction, since they often take place in the future, but if you love great stories and memorable characters, you'll dig what you find here. I promise.
A theme in my books is the celebration of overcoming odds and of not allowing the cruelty of the universe to change who you are in the process. Most of them are classified as science fiction, since they often take place in the future, but if you love great stories and memorable characters, you'll dig what you find here. I promise.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 470 reviews
March 25, 2018
This sequel/prequel is not as great as Wool (if we started comparing, but maybe if it is better if I don't because I might find more negative stuff than positive,) still love the world and story-line that Hugh Howey created, so after finishing up with these, hopefully the last book of the series 'Dust' will give me the same feels as 'Wool'. I'm a hopeful person, what can I say.
November 20, 2012
From the first chapter, I was captivated by the details. After reading First Shift, I had so many questions. The answers to some of those questions are in Second Shift. Some are right there in the story, and some can be inferred by watching the details. Hugh Howey is expert at hiding clues and twisting the story into unexpected shapes. The result is while this book contained a satisfying amount of explanation of prior events, it also presents a whole new group of questions. He's given us more of the story, but not all of it, of course. This is one of the most fascinating series I've ever read. While I loved First Shift, I think Second Shift is much better.
It's true that this book has less action than the WOOL omnibus and First Shift. It's an interlude of sorts, a chance to learn more about the characters from First Shift, and to meet some new characters. It presents a look at life in a Silo form a new point of view, adding details to the Silo lifestyle and culture. It presents information that makes it a little more difficult to tell the bad guys from the good guys, or to decide if there really are any bad guys at all. As in reality, there's a lot more gray than black and white. A lot of those little details begin to tie together the events of the previous books. It's hard to say more without spoilers, there's a shame, because I really WANT to talk about the details!
I never put this book down, from first page to last. Well, except for the time I was so surprised that I dropped the Kindle. We're not going to talk about that. I was riveted by what I was reading, and loved it.
Salute, Hugh! I'm now expecting huge things from Third Shift. No pressure.
It's true that this book has less action than the WOOL omnibus and First Shift. It's an interlude of sorts, a chance to learn more about the characters from First Shift, and to meet some new characters. It presents a look at life in a Silo form a new point of view, adding details to the Silo lifestyle and culture. It presents information that makes it a little more difficult to tell the bad guys from the good guys, or to decide if there really are any bad guys at all. As in reality, there's a lot more gray than black and white. A lot of those little details begin to tie together the events of the previous books. It's hard to say more without spoilers, there's a shame, because I really WANT to talk about the details!
I never put this book down, from first page to last. Well, except for the time I was so surprised that I dropped the Kindle. We're not going to talk about that. I was riveted by what I was reading, and loved it.
Salute, Hugh! I'm now expecting huge things from Third Shift. No pressure.
December 16, 2012
OK, I owe an apology.
After raving about , I was very critical of its successor .
But, now having read book 7, I can see a larger picture. Books 6-8 in this series are intended to be read together. Now, Howey's doing us all a favor by releasing them individually (and he'll make a little more money, too, I hope), but 7 really complements 6 and I encourage folks to read them back-to-back.
For those of you that enjoyed 1-5, books six and seven span the time between the founding the silos and the time in books 1-5. Howey even hints that we may return to some of the original characters in his afterward. Book 7 focuses on the back story of why violent revolutions happen periodically in the silos and is told from the perspective of a kid who's involved in an uprising and Donald (from book 6) who is thawed to help figure out why these are happening.
This story, IMO, hung together much better than #6 and Howey returns to his most excellent plot device of revealing, at the end of the story, a secret we had not expected until now. I won't spoil it, but, like 1-5, you leave book 7 realizing that all is not what you thought about the silos.
Net net: A good, fast read for fans of Howey's Wool series.
After raving about , I was very critical of its successor .
But, now having read book 7, I can see a larger picture. Books 6-8 in this series are intended to be read together. Now, Howey's doing us all a favor by releasing them individually (and he'll make a little more money, too, I hope), but 7 really complements 6 and I encourage folks to read them back-to-back.
For those of you that enjoyed 1-5, books six and seven span the time between the founding the silos and the time in books 1-5. Howey even hints that we may return to some of the original characters in his afterward. Book 7 focuses on the back story of why violent revolutions happen periodically in the silos and is told from the perspective of a kid who's involved in an uprising and Donald (from book 6) who is thawed to help figure out why these are happening.
This story, IMO, hung together much better than #6 and Howey returns to his most excellent plot device of revealing, at the end of the story, a secret we had not expected until now. I won't spoil it, but, like 1-5, you leave book 7 realizing that all is not what you thought about the silos.
Net net: A good, fast read for fans of Howey's Wool series.
November 18, 2012
Hugh Howey is like a bottle of burgundy. He just keeps getting better and more refined with age, each work better than his last, but all well worth reading. This is the second volume of the Shift series, prequel trilogy to the Wool series. It begins bridging the gap between the apocalypse and Jules' story, explaining how the silos came to be, and how the Order was established. As always, Hugh's characters are vivid, solid, and well developed. You feel for them, root for them, and hope for them. The imagery and symbolism are top notch, and explore some of the deeper questions about societal living. Is it better to know the truth and do what's necessary, to know the truth and do what's right, or not to know the truth and live by your faith in people's inherent good? Or more importantly, can people's inherent good overcome our barbaric need to conquer and rule everything we possibly can exert our feeble control over. I'd give this one six stars if I could. Just wow.
November 16, 2012
Second Shift is a very quick read. I enjoyed this book so much that I read it all on my computer and IPhone because I couldn't wait 3 days for my broken Kindle to be replaced. The two stories are interesting & well told. I found this story to be much more enjoyable than "First Shift" and in my opinion it's on par with the Omnibus book. Even though it's been month's since I spent time in this world, I found myself wondering how this prequel will connect with "Wool". As a reader of Hugh's blog I also wondered what he cut from this story and what in this story he replaced it with, it seems nearly perfect. As I felt when I completed "Wool" and "First Shift", I want more. The ending of this story made me feel eager for more.
I have not completed Hugh's entire catalog but I expect by the time "Third Shift" is released I will have.
Thanks Hugh!
I have not completed Hugh's entire catalog but I expect by the time "Third Shift" is released I will have.
Thanks Hugh!
November 21, 2012
I really enjoy all books written by this author. His stories are intelligent, logically unpredictable, suspenseful, include wonderful characters readers can relate to, and on, and on, and on. I will read anything this guy writes with utmost pleasure.
June 13, 2021
After a reader has taken a few of the pummelings that Hugh Howey delivers so very, very well in his Wool/Silo series, one starts a new one with a certain caution that is not unlike the so-called Firefly Effect, I find. One knows going in that one is going to love at least one of the characters passionately, and that one is going to suffer horribly as a result. So the teeth clench, the abdominal muscles tighten and "guard" even as one flips past the title and copyright pages.
Such was my experience of starting, and reading, and finishing Second Shift: Order, the immediate sequel to First Shift: Legacy, and the middle of a prequel trilogy giving us a glimpse of how the world of Wool came to be. I was still reeling from Juliet and her fate when I took up First Shift; I was still recovering from the revelations and the anguish of First Shift when I took this one up.
And so I started reading with my dukes up, yes I did.
So the big questions now, for the purposes of a review* would be 1. Was this preparation on my part justified, i.e., did I wind up taking another pummeling as I'd expected and 2. Did said preparations help, or make it worse?
And the answers are... well, of course it's more complicated than that. Of course!
Second Shift is told from the points of view of two protagonists, whose stories unfold in alternating accounts of life in Silos One and 18. In Silo One, we rejoin Donald, an unwitting engineer of the world of the Silos whose journey from the world we readers know and down into that of the Silos we followed in First Shift -- and whose essential annoying nebbishness this reader totally failed to notice as the horrifying events of that novella unfolded, but whom she really wanted to slap quite often in this one and, retroactively, that one. For Donald is a guy that just lets things happen to him, who doesn't question what he's asked to do until it's too late, and who lets himself be manipulated into making this whole agonizing world possible. In First Shift, he designed the Silo system and seems to have just pretended to himself that it was some kind of intellectual exercise that might see use as a sort of rhetorical weapon in the hands of an authority figure into whose orbit he was drawn by a girl (of course), but never really thought we get used... even after it got built.... And now, in Second Shift, he is one of a small, elite cadre of dwellers in Silo One who are not living the true Silo life but are instead cryogenically sleeping through it, taking turns (Shifts) spending time animate and in charge of making sure all of the other Silos are functioning, technologically and sociologically. And of shutting down Silos that "break down" in one way or the other. Even though there are lots of people inside even the most dysfunctional Silo. And Donald is still pretty much a nebbish. Uh oh.
In tandem and in contrast to Donald in Silo One is young Mission Jones, a blue-clad Porter in Silo 18. He is a new member of what amounts to a guild: the people who haul stuff from one level to another. Computer parts, food, messages, dead bodies, whatever Silo dwellers need transported, the Porters, in singles or in pairs, do the hauling, up and down the endless stairs of 140 levels of underground society. It's an important job, and Mission is proud to do it, even though he knows he will eventually sacrifice his joints to the decades of toil. He also likes being a conduit for and a discoverer of knowledge and gossip, even though very little of what he learns is pleasant or has happy implications. Like the fact that some people on levels far below the Farms near the surface have decided to grow their own food. Or that some people are sneaking their own cargo up and down the levels, either on foot or by means of midnight pulley rigs. People, he finds, tend to resist being cogs in a well-designed survival machine. They don't like being parts that make up a whole. They want to be wholes themselves, independent and free. Which is dangerous in a society so closed and minutely designed and balanced that even an unauthorized glitch of a pregnancy guarantees the erring mother a sentence to cleaning once the child is born. Birthdays are deathdays, after all.
Unlike Donald, though, Mission is an active character in his own story, making decisions and doing things, taking risks and reaping rewards and punishments. The reader gets high on his agency and the mixture of hope and tragedy that make up Mission's very nature (nomen est omen, eh?). Howey gets his hooks into us with this character, oh yes he does. That bastard.
Ultimately, Second Shift is about the quest for forgetfulness. Those still alive who created this world do not want to have to think about, to remember what they did or why, and their efforts to keep everyone else docile and ignorant keep backfiring in tragic and yet horribly predictable ways. Failure and tragedy are always inevitable in this world, which Howey was at great and horribly successful pains in First Shift to show us could become our world with just a little more remote weaponry, a little more population pressure, a little more Tea Partying, and a little less fellow feeling.
But then, he reminds us, that no matter what happens to us, no matter what we do to ourselves, even if we're trapped in Silos below the ground in conditions that mimic, perhaps, those of a generational spaceship**, what we're packing away like so many grain seeds for the future are still people, and they are still capable, within their confined spaces, of great things, of acts of nobility and sacrifice, of lovingkindess and creativity, of demonstrating over and over again that they are worth saving, if those who put them there can just find a way to keep them alive without destroying what they're trying to preserve. If only.
A third volume in this series, Third Shift something, is due out next year. And you'd better believe I'm going to read it. And you'd better believe I'll have my dukes up.
*Though do I really write reviews, really? I'm more into the autobiographical experience of reading a book. But anyway.
**Which really is kind of what these Silos are, except the world they will someday colonize is the same planet they "left" when they went below its surface. Neat trick, that.
Such was my experience of starting, and reading, and finishing Second Shift: Order, the immediate sequel to First Shift: Legacy, and the middle of a prequel trilogy giving us a glimpse of how the world of Wool came to be. I was still reeling from Juliet and her fate when I took up First Shift; I was still recovering from the revelations and the anguish of First Shift when I took this one up.
And so I started reading with my dukes up, yes I did.
So the big questions now, for the purposes of a review* would be 1. Was this preparation on my part justified, i.e., did I wind up taking another pummeling as I'd expected and 2. Did said preparations help, or make it worse?
And the answers are... well, of course it's more complicated than that. Of course!
Second Shift is told from the points of view of two protagonists, whose stories unfold in alternating accounts of life in Silos One and 18. In Silo One, we rejoin Donald, an unwitting engineer of the world of the Silos whose journey from the world we readers know and down into that of the Silos we followed in First Shift -- and whose essential annoying nebbishness this reader totally failed to notice as the horrifying events of that novella unfolded, but whom she really wanted to slap quite often in this one and, retroactively, that one. For Donald is a guy that just lets things happen to him, who doesn't question what he's asked to do until it's too late, and who lets himself be manipulated into making this whole agonizing world possible. In First Shift, he designed the Silo system and seems to have just pretended to himself that it was some kind of intellectual exercise that might see use as a sort of rhetorical weapon in the hands of an authority figure into whose orbit he was drawn by a girl (of course), but never really thought we get used... even after it got built.... And now, in Second Shift, he is one of a small, elite cadre of dwellers in Silo One who are not living the true Silo life but are instead cryogenically sleeping through it, taking turns (Shifts) spending time animate and in charge of making sure all of the other Silos are functioning, technologically and sociologically. And of shutting down Silos that "break down" in one way or the other. Even though there are lots of people inside even the most dysfunctional Silo. And Donald is still pretty much a nebbish. Uh oh.
In tandem and in contrast to Donald in Silo One is young Mission Jones, a blue-clad Porter in Silo 18. He is a new member of what amounts to a guild: the people who haul stuff from one level to another. Computer parts, food, messages, dead bodies, whatever Silo dwellers need transported, the Porters, in singles or in pairs, do the hauling, up and down the endless stairs of 140 levels of underground society. It's an important job, and Mission is proud to do it, even though he knows he will eventually sacrifice his joints to the decades of toil. He also likes being a conduit for and a discoverer of knowledge and gossip, even though very little of what he learns is pleasant or has happy implications. Like the fact that some people on levels far below the Farms near the surface have decided to grow their own food. Or that some people are sneaking their own cargo up and down the levels, either on foot or by means of midnight pulley rigs. People, he finds, tend to resist being cogs in a well-designed survival machine. They don't like being parts that make up a whole. They want to be wholes themselves, independent and free. Which is dangerous in a society so closed and minutely designed and balanced that even an unauthorized glitch of a pregnancy guarantees the erring mother a sentence to cleaning once the child is born. Birthdays are deathdays, after all.
Unlike Donald, though, Mission is an active character in his own story, making decisions and doing things, taking risks and reaping rewards and punishments. The reader gets high on his agency and the mixture of hope and tragedy that make up Mission's very nature (nomen est omen, eh?). Howey gets his hooks into us with this character, oh yes he does. That bastard.
Ultimately, Second Shift is about the quest for forgetfulness. Those still alive who created this world do not want to have to think about, to remember what they did or why, and their efforts to keep everyone else docile and ignorant keep backfiring in tragic and yet horribly predictable ways. Failure and tragedy are always inevitable in this world, which Howey was at great and horribly successful pains in First Shift to show us could become our world with just a little more remote weaponry, a little more population pressure, a little more Tea Partying, and a little less fellow feeling.
But then, he reminds us, that no matter what happens to us, no matter what we do to ourselves, even if we're trapped in Silos below the ground in conditions that mimic, perhaps, those of a generational spaceship**, what we're packing away like so many grain seeds for the future are still people, and they are still capable, within their confined spaces, of great things, of acts of nobility and sacrifice, of lovingkindess and creativity, of demonstrating over and over again that they are worth saving, if those who put them there can just find a way to keep them alive without destroying what they're trying to preserve. If only.
A third volume in this series, Third Shift something, is due out next year. And you'd better believe I'm going to read it. And you'd better believe I'll have my dukes up.
*Though do I really write reviews, really? I'm more into the autobiographical experience of reading a book. But anyway.
**Which really is kind of what these Silos are, except the world they will someday colonize is the same planet they "left" when they went below its surface. Neat trick, that.
November 16, 2012
I just finished the book not 15 minutes ago, so this won't be the most coherent review ever as my mind is a mess right now and that was incredible, but it'll be spoiler-free.
Let me start by saying I didn't enjoy this novel as much as WOOL or First Shift, but I still loved it. Intensely. The previous books had a much more riveting plot and the author himself said he found this one slightly boring. However, not giving it 5 stars would be criminal.
For what Second Shift lacked in excitement, it shined with its extensive character development and moral areas greyer than the view from the wallscreens (or is that brown?). With the previous books I'd keep reading and never stop, eyes glued to the page. With Second Shift, I had to put the book down many times to think. If these SHIFT books were skipped and Jules' story was continued immediately after WOOL 5, I'd still consider the series one of my favorite of all time, but it would be so much thinner and lack so much depth that I could have never even thought possible in a PAF story. First Shift provided backstory, but this one really gives you a more thorough understanding of everything that's going on and WHY it's going on. Can't wait for the next one. Thank you, Hugh!
Let me start by saying I didn't enjoy this novel as much as WOOL or First Shift, but I still loved it. Intensely. The previous books had a much more riveting plot and the author himself said he found this one slightly boring. However, not giving it 5 stars would be criminal.
For what Second Shift lacked in excitement, it shined with its extensive character development and moral areas greyer than the view from the wallscreens (or is that brown?). With the previous books I'd keep reading and never stop, eyes glued to the page. With Second Shift, I had to put the book down many times to think. If these SHIFT books were skipped and Jules' story was continued immediately after WOOL 5, I'd still consider the series one of my favorite of all time, but it would be so much thinner and lack so much depth that I could have never even thought possible in a PAF story. First Shift provided backstory, but this one really gives you a more thorough understanding of everything that's going on and WHY it's going on. Can't wait for the next one. Thank you, Hugh!
December 15, 2012
Mr. Howey is clearly cashing in on the goodwill generated from his first collection of Wool novellas. Second Shift doesn't stand alone as an interesting story. It's almost like Wool fanfiction at this point. The inciting incident really doesn't take place until more than halfway through the book and by that time I was really aching for it to get interesting. With the mystery of the series extinguished, there's really little carrying reader interest forward. Every smaller-scale mystery that gets posed in this resolves in the most obvious manner possible. There was one that he leaves open (for the next one, I assume), but by then it is far too late. Howey was able to make Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes interesting and heartfelt characters in a small amount of space but he has mostly lost that ability in this "Shift" series. There are few characters here to care about or even wonder about. There's little to no subtext. Everything here is just forgettable.
I'll probably keep buying them because I feel trapped by the series, hoping it will go somewhere as interesting as it had promise to.
I'll probably keep buying them because I feel trapped by the series, hoping it will go somewhere as interesting as it had promise to.
December 17, 2012
Excellent addition to the Wool/ Silo series. A little more of the origin story is revealed broadening the Wool world and enriching some of the characters. Howey is a great writer, simultaneously bringing big content and themes in a real page turner. Echos of today's problems recast in this post- apocalyptical tale exploring the nuances of humanity when confronted by extraordinary circumstances. Highly recommended..... after you have read the series in order!!!
July 19, 2017
'Second Shift: Order,' like 'First Shift,' features two linked narratives.
In one, we continue the drama in Silo One, between Donald, Senator Thurman, and his daughter, Anna, as Donald is awoken from cryosleep for his 'second shift.'
In the other narrative, the action takes place in Silo 18, where we meet a young porter called Mission, who has never known any other world but that of his silo. The only inkling he and his contemporaries have had that things might once have been different are the stories of an elderly teacher, who tells fantastic tales - tales that seem unlikely, but at the same time, are sufficient to sow the seeds of discontent. And the society of Silo 18 may be increasingly unstable...
I read this follow-up to "Wool" for post-apocalyptic book club.
'Shift' contains three parts, 'Legacy,' 'Order,' and 'Pact.' Each is also available as a separate publication, but I recommend the omnibus edition. I also recommend reading 'Wool' first, even though the events here precede it chronologically. If you've read 'Wool' you know the scenario: survivors of a mysterious apocalypse living in massive underground silos, struggling to survive in the face of social oppression, dwindling resources and mechanical decay. In 'Shift,' we get to find out how it all happened.
In one, we continue the drama in Silo One, between Donald, Senator Thurman, and his daughter, Anna, as Donald is awoken from cryosleep for his 'second shift.'
In the other narrative, the action takes place in Silo 18, where we meet a young porter called Mission, who has never known any other world but that of his silo. The only inkling he and his contemporaries have had that things might once have been different are the stories of an elderly teacher, who tells fantastic tales - tales that seem unlikely, but at the same time, are sufficient to sow the seeds of discontent. And the society of Silo 18 may be increasingly unstable...
I read this follow-up to "Wool" for post-apocalyptic book club.
'Shift' contains three parts, 'Legacy,' 'Order,' and 'Pact.' Each is also available as a separate publication, but I recommend the omnibus edition. I also recommend reading 'Wool' first, even though the events here precede it chronologically. If you've read 'Wool' you know the scenario: survivors of a mysterious apocalypse living in massive underground silos, struggling to survive in the face of social oppression, dwindling resources and mechanical decay. In 'Shift,' we get to find out how it all happened.
January 26, 2013
Again, not that impressed. I felt like this one got lost in a vocabulary of the silos (especially for the Silo 18 parts) that I just didn't get. The characters seem pretty poorly developed, especially Mission, which I guess is forgivable as none of them know their own histories. I feel like there are no real rules, though, in these books: the freezing/deep sleep thing and then reawakening particular people whenever it works just was a little too scifi for my tastes (though the description of that deep, abiding cold on waking rang really true - that's how I feel after naps, so I can only imagine after sleeping for a century). Maybe I was just reading too fast, because I wasn't enjoying the story that much, but I feel like I just didn't understand half of what was going on - I still don't quite understand why **SPOILER ALERT** that explosion happened, what Cam was supposed to be delivering, to whom, where, or why. Was it sabotage? Was it all the inner workings? What changed for Rodny? So there's a lot I didn't get, but I guess I also just kind of shrug, because in reality, I don't care that much. I'll read the next one, for sure, when it comes out, but I have a general "Meh" feeling about this.
January 24, 2013
Second book in the prequel trilogy of Wool. While I was really enjoying First Shift as it gave insight into what happened to the Earth and the reasons behind Silo project, this one goes into another direction covering more of a moral side of it. We follow Donald in Silo 1 in one part of the book and the Mission, porter in Silo 18, in another. While I enjoyed Silo 1, was not so much into porter story. I mean, it's good story revealing events before Great Uprising (how many was there anyway) but still it's from the eyes of porter not the person in power like in Wool where you get more information and its more exciting to read.
Anyway, its great addition to the series and I'm looking forward to read Third Shift to conclude prequel trilogy. As author said, after that one we get back to the end of original Wool as story will continue with events between Silo 18 and Silo 1 of course (and we all know how that should be exciting considering how original Wool ended thus informations from prequel trilogy).
Anyway, its great addition to the series and I'm looking forward to read Third Shift to conclude prequel trilogy. As author said, after that one we get back to the end of original Wool as story will continue with events between Silo 18 and Silo 1 of course (and we all know how that should be exciting considering how original Wool ended thus informations from prequel trilogy).
May 11, 2022
Lots of grey areas in this one, and no big plot twists or developments. It's 100 years down the timeline from , and more of the silos are going dark. There's some really good character development, and Mission's story is a lot like the original Wool instalments so I gravitated towards it.
November 30, 2012
OMG THIS BOOK. I adore the Wool series/universe. They're all so well written, Second Shift being no exception. Just... ugh. So good.
ANOTHER SUBSTANTIVE BOOK REVIEW. YOU'RE WELCOME.
That said, I do have one minor criticism: Everybody Loves Donny. He's the man who does what's "right" as opposed to what's "necessary." Or, at least, that's what we're told. I'm not totally convinced, only because we NEVER SEE HIM DO ANYTHING, not really. Donny spends all of the series so far reacting rather than acting. Every single decision he's made, every course of action he's undertaken in pretty much the whole series (if not his whole life), has either been at someone else's urging entirely or a kind of knee-jerk reaction in the opposite direction of those around him. He's forever either being coerced or passive-aggressively rebelling. How does everyone around him know he's such a stand-up guy? Because he pines for a wife he lost in a disaster (although, his weird feelings of ownership/bitterness of her happiness are, IMO, enough to cancel out this line item)? Because he expresses vague reservations and disagreements about what the people around him have initiated? Because he rebels and runs away several centuries after he probably should have? I mean, I guess. And this isn't to say that he ISN'T, honestly, a good man, but... I don't have any real EVIDENCE of that yet, nor do any of the other characters in the book. It's a wee bit of deus ex that occurred to me as I considered this book... but you know what? I'll live with it, because: DAMN, HUGH HOWEY. Wool is good stuff!!
ANOTHER SUBSTANTIVE BOOK REVIEW. YOU'RE WELCOME.
That said, I do have one minor criticism: Everybody Loves Donny. He's the man who does what's "right" as opposed to what's "necessary." Or, at least, that's what we're told. I'm not totally convinced, only because we NEVER SEE HIM DO ANYTHING, not really. Donny spends all of the series so far reacting rather than acting. Every single decision he's made, every course of action he's undertaken in pretty much the whole series (if not his whole life), has either been at someone else's urging entirely or a kind of knee-jerk reaction in the opposite direction of those around him. He's forever either being coerced or passive-aggressively rebelling. How does everyone around him know he's such a stand-up guy? Because he pines for a wife he lost in a disaster (although, his weird feelings of ownership/bitterness of her happiness are, IMO, enough to cancel out this line item)? Because he expresses vague reservations and disagreements about what the people around him have initiated? Because he rebels and runs away several centuries after he probably should have? I mean, I guess. And this isn't to say that he ISN'T, honestly, a good man, but... I don't have any real EVIDENCE of that yet, nor do any of the other characters in the book. It's a wee bit of deus ex that occurred to me as I considered this book... but you know what? I'll live with it, because: DAMN, HUGH HOWEY. Wool is good stuff!!
December 24, 2012
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!
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!
February 17, 2013
It's become clear to me that Hugh Howey is not a very good writer. He has little to offer in turns of phrases or elegant writing. I don't understand his legion of fawning reviews on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ or Amazon. Don't get me wrong, he's talented in terms of plotting when you aren't sure where he's going - the Wool series was fantastic because he keeps you on your toes and shifts frequently. Wool was full of surprises.
The Shift series is not full of surprises. The Shift series is navel-gazing at its worst. He clearly really wants to tell the backstory, and he just isn't good at it. The characters in Silo 1 continue to be awful sock-puppets for morality, the characters in Silo 18 are paper-thin, and to be quite honest this entire story could have been condensed to a chapter or two in the Wool series.
Yawn. I wish some of his adoring legions would write up better plot summaries on Wikipedia so I can skip Third Shift and come back when he's not writing prequels.
The Shift series is not full of surprises. The Shift series is navel-gazing at its worst. He clearly really wants to tell the backstory, and he just isn't good at it. The characters in Silo 1 continue to be awful sock-puppets for morality, the characters in Silo 18 are paper-thin, and to be quite honest this entire story could have been condensed to a chapter or two in the Wool series.
Yawn. I wish some of his adoring legions would write up better plot summaries on Wikipedia so I can skip Third Shift and come back when he's not writing prequels.
November 23, 2014
4 Stars
This is a very fast read and a decent continuation of the Shift story line. This book is not quite up to the high level of some of the previous books in the Wool universe. The characters are well done and the writing is still excellent, but this book lacks substance. There is very little added back story wise or anything new to the world itself. This one plays like so many middle novels that are there to fill a roll and to add depth and clarity to the long story arcs.
I am a huge fan of Hugh Howey and highly recommend his books and series. This is clearly the middle child that is necessary to bring on the final one.
This is a very fast read and a decent continuation of the Shift story line. This book is not quite up to the high level of some of the previous books in the Wool universe. The characters are well done and the writing is still excellent, but this book lacks substance. There is very little added back story wise or anything new to the world itself. This one plays like so many middle novels that are there to fill a roll and to add depth and clarity to the long story arcs.
I am a huge fan of Hugh Howey and highly recommend his books and series. This is clearly the middle child that is necessary to bring on the final one.
November 29, 2012
Uh-maz-ing. But jeez louise, Hugh, what a cliffie you left us on. I am loving how all the stories and characters are starting to come together. And though I miss Jules, I was thrilled to see that Donald was back. I am sure I have nothing to offer as far as review that others have not already said, but I will say one thing. My favorite part of these books is that my views are constantly challenged, so to speak. I will find myself nodding along with a character and then nodding along with an "opposing" character. I've been thinking about SS all day--and typically, that's a very good thing!
November 17, 2012
Hugh Howey does it again! I literally could not put this book down and read most of it in one sitting. Each Wool book just gets better and better which is hard to imagine since Wool Omnibus was incredible! I love this genre and nobody does it better!
November 16, 2012
This self-made author came out of nowhere, and is a force to be reckoned with. The 'Wool' world screams of fear, and shouts with hope. This story started slow, but gotta love the energetic ending-cliffhanger shit. My nipples are hard for the next story.
November 17, 2012
Another excellent installment of the silo series. Read these books, they're great!!! nothing more to say.
December 9, 2016
This series just keeps getting better! This makes me very happy I purchased a kindle.
November 19, 2012
I loved it! I can't wait for the next one.
November 21, 2012
Another AWESOME installation to the Wool series!!!
December 9, 2018
3.5 stars. My least favorite of the series so far. Not that it was bad, just wasn’t as good as the others.
December 17, 2023
concept: 2
writing: 2
readability: 5
length: 5
overall: 3,5/5
writing: 2
readability: 5
length: 5
overall: 3,5/5
July 7, 2023
Two perspectives again, from Troy and a courier Mission. I listened to all of Troy's story first, then I listened to Mission's. I didn't really like Mission's perspective very much. He delivers packages to the different floors, and there's an attack on the silo. Soon, mission is a wanted man.
There are a few different narrators for this story. I listened to the audiobook featuring Edoardo Ballerini from Overdrive.
There are a few different narrators for this story. I listened to the audiobook featuring Edoardo Ballerini from Overdrive.
November 13, 2016
Events happen 100 years after the first book. If before the storyline went back and forth between life before the strike and 60 years after, in this book you move between Silo 1 and Silo 18.
The author introduces new figures and shines more light on the necessity, planning and execution of the operation 50. There is a politician, psychologist and biotech engineer who discovered a dangerous threat to the world and designed a very radical plan to save the civilization. Donald was just a puppet in Thurman's hands, being manipulated and helped to destroy the world having no clue about it.
The conspiracy behind the operation is intriguing, but lacks credibility, in my opinion. It's all based on assumption that some hostile nation or terrorist organization would be able to develop and spread a nanorobot that would be living in human body and be programmed to kill them on some signal. The technical complexity of this is just incredible. But, if we take it for granted, the physiological and ethical aspects are very interesting.
There are 3 main storylines in this book:
1. Relationships between Donald and Anna. Clearly, Anna still has feelings for Donald. Plus, she has been isolated for more than a year trying to investigate and cope with a few Silos losing communications with the headquarters, so she would definitely appreciate a company. Supposedly those lost Silos were able to hack the system, disable Silo termination controls and started to take over their neighboring Silos.
While Anna is focused on both work and Donald, it's very hard to understand what's going on with him. His first motive is clear - he is obsessed with the fate of his wife. But once he finds out and helps the Thurman and Anna with Silo 18, he can do nothing better than go outside, which is pretty much a suicide.
Despite the fact that he was given context regarding the operation, destruction of the world and existing threats, he is not concerned with learning more. From one side, he is someone who really cares for what was done, but not bothering to get more information regarding why it was done and what happens next really conflicts with his personality. He is shown as coward, shallow and undetermined.
2. Donald is much more focused on the immediate problem he was given - figure out why Silo 18 is about to fail and why previously Silo 12 went down. Victor, the physiologist who designed the system, is now dead, supposedly shooting himself while investigating report regarding the failure of Silo 12.
In the book it seems that it was a suicide, but I wonder whether it wasn't, since Erskine mentions that it didn't look like Victor would do it and it seems strange to kill himself without leaving a note/talking to anyone before.
As it turns out, the main reason for Silo going into chaos is having someone who still remembers the world before and spreads the knowledge, inspiring people to think beyond the borders of Silo and eventually causing them being unhappy with the system.
3. Meanwhile, Silo 18 is suffering through dark times. The place starts to cluster and divide. Different classes of workers (the division seems to be based on occupation) isolate themselves and blame others for taking their jobs. In the meantime everyone while taking steps to perform extra duties by themselves. There is Rodny who is shadowing for the position of the head of IT, learning the legacy and being isolated in the secret protected room. Supposedly, the very old teacher from school planned to have him retaliate and riot against the system. Mission, Rodny's friend, is in the middle of the silo divide and is trying to help Rodny. He assumes that he is hold prisoner and plans an operation to help him to get out.
The IT are assembling an armed security force. But instead of setting order, they bring even more havoc by first creating a diversion, turning the Silo against porters and then using their IT squad to raid the Silo, shooting residents left and right.
Some parts of the book are good - the relationship between Mission and his farther, old friends, connecting his personal story (mother sacrificed his life for him) and current events of him being able to scarify himself for a friend. Some of the monologues of Thurman and Erskine explaining the history of the operation are well written and keep the reader very engaged.
But for the rest I didn't feel like the stories are well connected and there a many questions:
- The relationships between Donald and Anna are hard to understand, they are neither close or distant. They spend a lot of time together, but looks like they rarely talk, Donald is not interested to get more information (Anna would be the easiest to get it from, given her attachment to him)
- Supposedly the Crow remembers the old world and it seems like she was the once living in the pre-catastrophe world. However, she would be at least 150 years old. Given conditions in the silo that's hard to believe (and if that were true, that would definitely be flagged and reported to Silo 1 in advance)
- It seems like the medication to forget past events is in the water for all Silos. However, they definitely remember more that residents of Silo 1 (the medication is supposed to suppress any negative memories). That is especially true if you try to connect it with previous books from Wool edition
- The Crow would have to be extremely smart and insightful to plan to put Rodny in IT and influence him to attack those who destroyed the outside world. But what did she try to achieve? Bring down whatever left there? Bring more violence? Does not seem wise to me. There were much better thoughts about revolutions and their consequences in Wool (aka nothing good comes out of aggressive riots)
- Thurman/Anna knew that Donald was looking after his wife. Why didn't it bother them? That should be clear that that it bothers him greatly and if they take things seriously I doubt they would just ignore it like they did
In general, this book lacks pace and intensity of events. There is lots of running back and forth (at least for story around Mission), lots of characters that come and go. Some questions get unanswered (like the details of Silo reset, it seems like it involves excessive violence and killing, but why does it work? and why is there no better way? once it's done, how do you restart running the Silo? since there are jobs for everyone and you've just killed so many, will there be enough people to sustain life? and what if in violence you kill all mechanics or doctors? who will teach them? true reasons behind Victor's death?)
I'm also not buying the Victor's suicide. For someone who has planned such an operation he would have to keep an insane amount of notes. Daily log at least, but most likely a diary and some sort of running feedback/thoughts. He should have that and, given that Donald was able to access all his files (and even history of accessing each file) that would be available for them for analysis. That would also include a large amount of information about setting up the operation for Donald to digest.
I've found that events in Silo 1 and 18 were a bit hard to connect at once. Things became clearer once I've reread it, but compared to Wool the plot is not as well structured, there seem to be more less relevant dialogs, more questions are raised and not get answered.
The author introduces new figures and shines more light on the necessity, planning and execution of the operation 50. There is a politician, psychologist and biotech engineer who discovered a dangerous threat to the world and designed a very radical plan to save the civilization. Donald was just a puppet in Thurman's hands, being manipulated and helped to destroy the world having no clue about it.
The conspiracy behind the operation is intriguing, but lacks credibility, in my opinion. It's all based on assumption that some hostile nation or terrorist organization would be able to develop and spread a nanorobot that would be living in human body and be programmed to kill them on some signal. The technical complexity of this is just incredible. But, if we take it for granted, the physiological and ethical aspects are very interesting.
There are 3 main storylines in this book:
1. Relationships between Donald and Anna. Clearly, Anna still has feelings for Donald. Plus, she has been isolated for more than a year trying to investigate and cope with a few Silos losing communications with the headquarters, so she would definitely appreciate a company. Supposedly those lost Silos were able to hack the system, disable Silo termination controls and started to take over their neighboring Silos.
While Anna is focused on both work and Donald, it's very hard to understand what's going on with him. His first motive is clear - he is obsessed with the fate of his wife. But once he finds out and helps the Thurman and Anna with Silo 18, he can do nothing better than go outside, which is pretty much a suicide.
Despite the fact that he was given context regarding the operation, destruction of the world and existing threats, he is not concerned with learning more. From one side, he is someone who really cares for what was done, but not bothering to get more information regarding why it was done and what happens next really conflicts with his personality. He is shown as coward, shallow and undetermined.
2. Donald is much more focused on the immediate problem he was given - figure out why Silo 18 is about to fail and why previously Silo 12 went down. Victor, the physiologist who designed the system, is now dead, supposedly shooting himself while investigating report regarding the failure of Silo 12.
In the book it seems that it was a suicide, but I wonder whether it wasn't, since Erskine mentions that it didn't look like Victor would do it and it seems strange to kill himself without leaving a note/talking to anyone before.
As it turns out, the main reason for Silo going into chaos is having someone who still remembers the world before and spreads the knowledge, inspiring people to think beyond the borders of Silo and eventually causing them being unhappy with the system.
3. Meanwhile, Silo 18 is suffering through dark times. The place starts to cluster and divide. Different classes of workers (the division seems to be based on occupation) isolate themselves and blame others for taking their jobs. In the meantime everyone while taking steps to perform extra duties by themselves. There is Rodny who is shadowing for the position of the head of IT, learning the legacy and being isolated in the secret protected room. Supposedly, the very old teacher from school planned to have him retaliate and riot against the system. Mission, Rodny's friend, is in the middle of the silo divide and is trying to help Rodny. He assumes that he is hold prisoner and plans an operation to help him to get out.
The IT are assembling an armed security force. But instead of setting order, they bring even more havoc by first creating a diversion, turning the Silo against porters and then using their IT squad to raid the Silo, shooting residents left and right.
Some parts of the book are good - the relationship between Mission and his farther, old friends, connecting his personal story (mother sacrificed his life for him) and current events of him being able to scarify himself for a friend. Some of the monologues of Thurman and Erskine explaining the history of the operation are well written and keep the reader very engaged.
But for the rest I didn't feel like the stories are well connected and there a many questions:
- The relationships between Donald and Anna are hard to understand, they are neither close or distant. They spend a lot of time together, but looks like they rarely talk, Donald is not interested to get more information (Anna would be the easiest to get it from, given her attachment to him)
- Supposedly the Crow remembers the old world and it seems like she was the once living in the pre-catastrophe world. However, she would be at least 150 years old. Given conditions in the silo that's hard to believe (and if that were true, that would definitely be flagged and reported to Silo 1 in advance)
- It seems like the medication to forget past events is in the water for all Silos. However, they definitely remember more that residents of Silo 1 (the medication is supposed to suppress any negative memories). That is especially true if you try to connect it with previous books from Wool edition
- The Crow would have to be extremely smart and insightful to plan to put Rodny in IT and influence him to attack those who destroyed the outside world. But what did she try to achieve? Bring down whatever left there? Bring more violence? Does not seem wise to me. There were much better thoughts about revolutions and their consequences in Wool (aka nothing good comes out of aggressive riots)
- Thurman/Anna knew that Donald was looking after his wife. Why didn't it bother them? That should be clear that that it bothers him greatly and if they take things seriously I doubt they would just ignore it like they did
In general, this book lacks pace and intensity of events. There is lots of running back and forth (at least for story around Mission), lots of characters that come and go. Some questions get unanswered (like the details of Silo reset, it seems like it involves excessive violence and killing, but why does it work? and why is there no better way? once it's done, how do you restart running the Silo? since there are jobs for everyone and you've just killed so many, will there be enough people to sustain life? and what if in violence you kill all mechanics or doctors? who will teach them? true reasons behind Victor's death?)
I'm also not buying the Victor's suicide. For someone who has planned such an operation he would have to keep an insane amount of notes. Daily log at least, but most likely a diary and some sort of running feedback/thoughts. He should have that and, given that Donald was able to access all his files (and even history of accessing each file) that would be available for them for analysis. That would also include a large amount of information about setting up the operation for Donald to digest.
I've found that events in Silo 1 and 18 were a bit hard to connect at once. Things became clearer once I've reread it, but compared to Wool the plot is not as well structured, there seem to be more less relevant dialogs, more questions are raised and not get answered.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2012
The intriguing thing about the WOOL stories is that they focus on what comes after the apocalypse happens, after the dust settles and the new world unfurls. Its not the apocalypse that we are concerned about, its how the world adapts, falters, grows. And yet, despite this, there is still an echo threading through of what came before and as a reader, the mystery of what caused the world to collapse and who made the silos is like an itch that niggles. Second Shift is the second part in a middle trilogy within the Silo series that focuses on this Before. First Shift takes place largely in the time before the silos while Second Shift sits after the catastrophe but before the events in Wool (I am assuming, its not completely clear how the events in Second Shift relate, time wise with the events in Wool). The story continues to mesmerise and we now know what catastrophic event forced people into the silos. Hugh Howey does a good job of both unravelling one mystery while creating more questions. Is only certain memory erased? What is the ultimate aim of those in charge? Who else remembers? What about Jules? How do the events in Second Shift relate to her and the other characters in the earlier Wool stories? If there is one flaw to Second Shift, its that these new mysteries and questions, made me impatient to get this story over with. I wanted to get ahead of myself and perhaps failed to just relax and sink into the story of Second Shift. Perhaps this is a characteristic of all linkage stories and this is certainly a story that links the Before with the After. And when the story ends, its both tragic and hopeful, twin emotions that one of the main characters, Donald, faces each moment he is awake in the silos. We are then left wanting and waiting both in hope and trepidation of what Howey has in store for the Silos.
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