Brightside - Mark Tullius

   2012; 304 pages.  Book 1 (out of 2) in the “Brightside” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Dystopian Fiction; Psychic Suspense.  Overall Rating: 7½*/10.

 

    They call us Thought Thieves.

 

    The more common word is “telepaths”.  There’s a fair number of us living quietly among you normal people.  Mostly, we’re just trying to avoid revealing to you that we can read your thoughts.  Because if the authorities find that out, they will immediately take the thought-thief into custody.

 

    My name’s Joe Nolan.  I’m one of those detainees.  My own father turned me in.  Can you believe that?!  The Boots (that’s what we call the thugs that snatch us away) grabbed me and took me to a place called “Brightside”, somewhere way up in the mountains.  The shrinks there will neutralize my thought-thieving brain and gradually reprogram me.   I’ll be a happy resident here.

 

    If I don’t kill myself first.

 

What’s To Like...

    Brightside is a dystopian thriller that imagines a world where a portion of its humans can hear the thoughts of others.  It reminded me of a very old Outer Limits TV episode, set IIRC on an outer-space mining operation, where a mutant suddenly becomes telepathic, much to the chagrin of his fellow miners.  Google-image “Outer Limits” for pictures from this episode.

 

    I liked the limitations that Mark Tullius puts on this “gift”.  Not everyone is blessed/cursed with being able to listen in on others’ thoughts.  The range of telepathy is limited; at one point our protagonist is amazed that a fellow thought-thief can “hear” thoughts from as far as 50 feet away.  Also, there are ways to mask or nullify one’s thoughts so that they can’t be read.  It’s an important resource that even thought-thieves need to survive.

 

    The story is told from the first-person POV: Joe’s.  Two telepaths can use both speech and thoughts to communicate with each other.  Mark Tullius puts all thoughts in italics, which makes it easy for the reader to follow along.  I liked the nod to Dune via the quip “Fear is the Mindkiller”.

 

    The ending is exciting, nail-biting, with several neat plot twists thrown in to keep you on your toes.  The storyline stops at a logical point.  All the plot threads do not get tied up, but I’m certain that Book Two, Beyond Brightside, will pick up and continue the narrative.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 3.8*/5, based on 307 ratings and 122 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.52*/5, based on 350 ratings and 63 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Brightside required us to work.  It wasn’t for the money.  The government funded most everything.  But Brightside needed us to keep busy, to feel productive.  They started the jobs program after the first month.  Too many Brightsiders had jumped off the mountain, took the easy way out.

    Quotas kept us from living in our heads.

    Busy people don’t kill themselves.  That was the idea, at least.  (loc. 416)

 

    Listen.”  She closed her eyes.  “What am I thinking?”

    I zeroed in, but heard nothing.  No mantra, no hum, just silence, like Danny.

    “You’re too far,” I said.

    Rachel pressed herself against me.  I listened.  Still nothing.

    She stepped back, curtseyed.  “I learned it in The Cabin.  That’s why they let me out.  Nothing but a blank slate.”

    “How?”

    “Something about the pills.  I can just shut it off now.”  (loc. 3567)

 

Kindle Details…

    At present, Brightside sells for $3.99 at Amazon, as does its sequel, Beyond Brightside.  Mark Tullius is also the author of a 20-volume “Interactive Adventure” series called Try Not to Die, with the entries priced at either $3.99 or $5.99.

 

They call our town Brightside because, as they like to remind us, things could be worse.  (loc. 96)

    I counted 62 instances of profanity in the first 20% of Brightside, which extrapolates out to a projected total of 310 cusswords.  There were also three rolls-in-the-hay and a couple references to “adult situations”.  True, any dystopian fiction will inherently be bleak and brutal, but this was excessive.

 

    The typos were few: straightjacket/straitjacket; BMW’s/BMWs; duffle/duffel and girl’s/girls.  I thought barbequing was also misspelled, but it turns our that’s correct.  My biggest gripe, along with the excessive use of profanity, was the lack of page numbers and the lack of “time remaining” for each chapter. 

 

    Some reviewers thought the story’s tone was too dark.  Well, it is, but wouldn’t one expect this when reading dystopian fiction?  Paradoxically, the fact that readers were bothered by that means the author did an effective job of world-building.

 

    I think the main aim of Brightside was to show the reader what a terrifying world it would be if a portion of the population were telepathic.  Both the normal humans and the thought-thieves live in constant fear of being exterminated by the other faction.  Mark Tullius does a great job of creating a frightening world and I am eager to see how the storyline progresses in a second book.

 

    7½ Stars.

Darklandia - T.S. Welti

   2012; 183 pages.  Full Title: Darklandia – Suffering Is Optional.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres: Dystopian Fiction.  Overall Rating: 6½*/10.

 

    Welcome to New York City, 2147 CE.  For you old-timers’ information, it is now in the fine nation of Atraxia.  The country called the United States is no more.

 

    The biggest problem in Atraxians right now is an extreme shortage of water due to drastic climate changes over the past century.  All water is now strictly rationed by the powers that be, but both its quality and quantity is poor.

 

    Drinking water is essential for good health of course, and the government helpfully enriches it with Potassium, Sodium and other nutrients, even though those additives give it a salty, sweet, and metallic taste.

 

    17-year-old Sera Fisk has been having digestion issues with her water rations for several years.  The authorities have adjusted her ration dosage, but the new strength causes her to vomit it back up.  It also has begun to make her see everything differently.  That’s not a good thing in Atraxia, where freedom of thought is frowned upon.

 

    Sera might have to turn herself in to the Department of Felicity to be “purified”.

 

What’s To Like...

    Darklandia starts off with Sera leading a comfortably numb life.  She’s proud to be part of her 114-yer-old grandmother’s “rapturing ceremony”, at least until granny whispers a enigmatic and disturbing bit of news into Sera’s ear: "It's in the water rations."  From that revelation onward, Sera's mind starts to open up to what is really going on in Atraxia.

 

    I liked the concept engendered by the book’s title.  Darklandia is a virtual reality site where all Atraxians are required to go daily to do, well, whatever they choose to work out any inner urges that run contrary to the government-mandated "proper" thinking.  Enforcement of attending Darklandia is handled by the Department of Felicity, and monitored by the ever-present Guardian Angels.  You don’t want to run afoul of those thugs.

 

    Daily life in Atraxia is subject to near-constant surveillance, including security bands (“sec-bands”) worn on the wrists.  It is easy to go wrong.  Crying is forbidden; it indicates unhappiness.  Girls older than five years must keep their hair between 12-to-18 inches long, and must not wear clothing with “warm” colors such as red, purple, or orange.  Failure to conform might stir up unwarranted passions.  And you can’t use certain “filter words”, such as “terrible” or “mistake” when talking; they promote negativity.

 

    The book is written in the first-person POV, Sera’s, of course.  I liked this, it enables the reader to “see” Atraxia through Sera’s eyes, and watch as her perception of it evolves.  At just 183 pages long, Darklandia is a quick yet thoughtful read, and is divided into 20 chapters, which means you can always find a convenient place to stop for the night.  I only noted two typos and recall just one cussword, a single damn.  I was impressed by the text's cleanliness.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  3.8/5 based on 85 ratings and 71 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.52/5 based on 246 ratings and 62 reviews

 

Things That Sound Dirty, But Aren’t…

    This was the second time someone had nearly walked in on me with my hands down my pants. (loc. 1802)

 

Excerpts...

    “Sera, what would you say if I told you there’s a whole world outside Manhattan?  A different world.  A place where cherry soda runs like water from fountains and people are so happy that sometimes they cry.”

    “They c—?”  I stopped myself from repeating his last word.  Now I glanced around at the angels wondering if they were listening.

    “Real tears,” my father continued.  “How does that make you feel?”

    “Feel?”

    Crying wasn’t allowed.  Just thinking about it, the red eyes and nose, the frown, the tears burning tracks down cheeks… it was hideous.  Of course, I was frightened.  But saying the word aloud…  (loc. 161)

 

    “Darklandia is not a way for you to ‘exorcise your darkest thoughts’ as they would have you believe.  Darklandia is the hand of the government reaching inside your brain and rearranging your thoughts to suit their reality.  Why do you think you’re forbidden from speaking about what happens inside Darklandia?  Do you think it’s a coincidence that you see your father every single time you serve your hours, except today?”  (loc. 1127)

 

Kindle Details…

    ANAICT, Darklandia is currently unavailable at Amazon in e-book format.  Two options are shown: Audiobook and Paperback, but the latter is also listed as “Currently Unavailable”.

 

“Excuse me, Ms. Locke, but you’re stepping on my slippers.  Could you please hand me that elephant ear?”  (loc. 1626)

    The ratings for Darklandia at both Amazon and Goodreads are not very lofty.  Judging from the reviews, the main cause for this is the ending, which resulted in a number of 2-star ratings at both sites, and even a 1-star rating at Goodreads.

 

    I have to agree with those low assessments by disappointed readers.  The ending is bizarre and illogical, and it feels like the author simply got tired of writing this tale, wanted to be done with it, and couldn’t come up with a satisfying way to do so.  A team of beta readers should’ve pointed this out.  If they weren't used, some should be found.  If they were used, replacements should be found.  The question for a reviewer is: when a book’s ending is weak, but the rest of the storyline is engaging and well-written, what should be done?

    I’d recommend a rewrite of the last chapter.  This wouldn’t entail many pages; and could even merely point to a yet-to-be-written sequel.  The excellent world-building done by T.S. Welti, plus the existence of a couple other unfinished plot threads (the murder of the mayor is one) begs for at least a second book, or even better, a series.  Indeed, most of the negative reviews expressed a keen interest in that.

 

    This assumes, of course, that the author has any desire to write more episodes of the adventures of Sera in Atraxia.  Alas, T.S. Welti’s most recent offerings at Amazon date back to 2013, so perhaps she's no longer living the dream of being an indie author.

 

    If so, more's the pity since, if one ignores the ending, Darklandia is a wonderful book by a talented author.

 

    6½ Stars, subject to an upgrade if the ending is rewritten  And BTW, the Amazon generic blurb for the “audible audiobook” (isn’t that tautological?) for Darklandia lists the age recommendation as “1-3 years”.  Wow!  I would love to hear any feedback given by a 1-year-old after reading this.

Dust - Hugh Howey

   2013; 459 pages.  Full Title: Dust: Every Beginning Has an End.  Book 3 (out of 3) in the “Silo” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi; Dystopian Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    In a post-apocalyptic world, the remnants of humanity are confined to underground silos, hundreds of stories deep.  The outside air has been shown to be toxic, so leaving the silo is a death sentence.  Interaction between silos is limited to radio conversations since the deadly outside environment precludes all aboveground transportation.

 

    Existence is a tenuous affair.  Some levels of each silo are devoted to farming, and the total population of each one is strictly controlled.  Yet still, catastrophes occasionally occur, and several silos have just suddenly “gone dark”, presumably with all their citizens perishing.

 

    But changes are looming, thanks to those pesky rascals in Silo 18.  Their mayor, Juliette Nichols, has initiated an underground tunneling expedition, which is working its way over to Silo 17.  Silo 17 has mixed feelings about this: it would be astounding to meet humans from another silo, but on the other hand, that’s also lots more mouths to feed.

 

    Let’s just hope that the powers that be over in Silo 1, those who monitor all the other silos, who dictate how many new babies can be born and how many old geezers need to be euthanized, don’t catch wind of Juliette’s project.  They might terminate everyone in both Silos 17 and 18.

 

What’s To Like...

    Dust is the third and concluding book in Hugh Howey’s fantastic “Silo” series.  It is divided into four parts, all of similar length, and with the appropriate titles: “The Dig”, “Outside”, “Home”, and “Dust”.

 

    There are 63 chapters, plus a Prologue and an Epilogue, which cover 459 pages in the Kindle version.  Almost all of the action is confined to three of the silos: Silos 1, 17, and 18, and the Table of Contents helpfully lets you in which of those each chapter is occurring.  The introduction above gives a brief backstory of Books 1 and 2, Wool and Shift, which I’ve read and are reviewed here and here.

 

    The main characters to keep track of are Donald and Charlotte from Silo 1, Juliette and Lukas from Silo 18, and Jimmy (aka Solo) and Elise from Silo 17.  I thought the character development of each of these was done well.  They all live under the threat of being terminated at any given moment, and it’s not a spoiler to say that not all of them will make it to the end of the book.

 

    The first part of Dust focuses mostly Silo 18’s efforts to tunnel across to Silo 17.  From there on in, we get plenty of intrigue as some of Silo-dwellers work on figuring out how to escape the silos without perishing, others work on acquiescing to the powers that be in hopes of not being exterminated, and the shadowy powerbrokers who have the ability to delete anyone and everyone they choose.

 

    The tension builds to a logical and hopeful climax, although it’s not particularly twisty or exciting.  I’d call it a THX-1138-ish ending, if you’ve ever watched that movie.  That’s not a criticism though, it’s hard to imagine any other way for this sort of post-apocalyptic storyline to end.  And don’t skip the epilogue at the end of the book; it'll leave a lump in your throat.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 17,573 ratings and 4,142 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.25/5 based on 76,902 ratings and 4,525 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    She fought to hold it together, to not let the tears creep into her voice.  “I’m being hunted right now.  They will put me back to sleep or they will kill me, and I don’t know that there’s a difference.  They keep us frozen for years and years while the men work in shifts.  There are computers out there that play games and will one day decide which of your silos is allowed to go free.  The rest will die.  All of the silos but one will die.  And there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”  (loc. 3629)

 

    “I know your brother, you know,” Darcy said as he held the door for her.  “He never seemed like the sort.  Neither do you.”

    Charlotte shook her head.  “I never wanted to hurt anyone.  We were only after the truth.”  She passed through the armory and toward the lift.

    “That’s the problem with the truth,” Darcy said.  “Liars and honest men both claim to have it.  It puts people in my position in something of a predicament.”  (loc. 4130)

 

Kindle Details…

    Dust currently sells for $15.99 at Amazon.  The other two books in the series will run you $9.99 (Wool) and $14.49 (Shift).  Hugh Howey has dozens of other e-books for your reading pleasure, some fiction and some non-fiction; some full-length novels, some in series, and a bunch of short stories.  The full-length books vary in price from $2.99 to $15.99.  The short stories are usually $0.99.

 

“Heroes didn’t win.  The heroes were whoever *happened* to win.  History told their story — the dead didn’t say a word.”  (loc. 2490)

    The quibbles are minor.  There’s a moderate amount of cussing—in this case 18 instances in the first 20% of the book, which was about the same as what I found for Drift, the previous book in the series.  Also, since these books are deeply interconnected, reading them in order borders on being a must-do.

 

    Although there’s only one or two main characters for each Silo, there are a fair amount of secondary characters at each site.  It would’ve been nice to have a Cast of Characters section, showing who’s in which silo to make keeping track of things easier.

 

    Lastly, this is the only book I can recall where a “Note to Reader” section comes before the Epilogue.  I don’t know whether this was accidental or not, but IMO it works rather well.

 

    All in all, I enjoyed this series.  Hugh Howey’s writing skills are good enough to where I didn’t get bored with the storyline even though, in books 1 and 3 at least, the settings are by necessity rather limited.  If there ever is a nuclear war, and the current Russia-Ukraine fighting demonstrates just how easily that could occur, underground silos may be the only way for humanity to continue its existence.

 

    Hugh Howey has devoted considerable time and effort to pondering such a situation.  It behooves us all to read what he has to say about it.

 

    8½ Stars. The door is left open at the end of Dust for a sequel but so far I haven't seen one.   Wikipedia reports that in August 2021, Hugh Howey announced he had started writing the next book in the series, taking place in Silo 40, but I've yet to see its release date.

 

    Until it does come out, there are several short story anthologies co-edited by Hugh Howey and John Joseph Adams, for your reading pleasure, as well the first book, Wool in graphic novel format.  There is also a 4-book fan fiction series, titled Silo 49 and written by Ann Christy, available for your Kindle.

The Testaments - Margaret Atwood

    2019; 415 pages.  Book 2 (out of 2) in the series “The Handmaid’s Tale”.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Dystopian Fiction; Banned Books.  Laurels: 2019 Booker Prize (winner); British Book Awards 2020 Fiction Book if the Year (shortlisted).  Overall Rating : 9½*/10.

 

    Meet Daisy.  She’s a young girl growing up in Eastern Canada.  Her mother and father own a second-hand clothing store, which does enough business to make ends meet.  Canada has a pretty enlightened view of women, unlike the fractured United States to the south, one part of which is now a theocracy called Gilead, right across the nearby border.  Daisy’s life is a happy one.

 

    Meet Agnes.  She lives in Gilead.  She has a mother, Tabitha, who loves her very much, and a father, Commander Kyle, who is more aloof.  But he’s a “Commander” which is a very prestigious position, and that carries over into Agnes at school, where all her (female) classmates want to be her friend.  Agnes’s life is a happy one.

 

    Meet Aunt Lydia.  She runs a place called Ardua Hall, which is a “Finishing School for Girls” in Gilead, close to where Agnes lives.  Aunt Lydia has a team of other Aunts under her, and is just about as powerful as any woman in Gilead is allowed to be.  Aunt Lydia’s life is a happy one, at least as long as nobody, male or female, discovers her little secrets.

 

    None of the three females know each other when the story opens.  But they will eventually meet up.  By which time none of them will be very happy anymore.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Testaments is Margaret Atwood’s sequel to her fantastic 1985 bestseller The Handmaid’s Tale, which I read for National Banned Books Week in 2014 and is reviewed here.  The book is written the first-person-POV, and switches among the three aforementioned protagonists in no particular order.

 

    If you’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale, you‘re acquainted with the dystopian conditions that Aunt Lydia and Agnes are subject to.  Nothing has changed in The Testaments, which takes place fifteen years later.  The same female hierarchies are in effect: Wives, Aunts, Marthas, and Handmaids.  But here the Aunts are in the spotlight, not the Handmaids.

 

    I liked that the “Canada versus Gilead” contrast of how women are treated is examined here.  Margaret Atwood is Canadian by birth, and her national pride shows through, not just on the feminism issue, but also on things like global warming and climate science.  At one point Daisy goes to an anti-Gilead rally, and I chuckled at a placard there which read “GILEAD WANTS US TO FRY!”

 

    Unsurprisingly, the book is written in “Canadian”, which is kind of a hybrid between British English and American English.  So you meet the usual weird spellings such as favourite, grey, and moulded (plus an article of clothing called a “waterproof”), but also more familiar ones like realized and judgment.

 

    It was fun to learn a bit more about the storyline’s “history”.  Gilead is primarily centered in the New England area of the US.  Texas has broken off to become an independent republic, and California seems to have done likewise.  There was a conflict dubbed the “War on Manhattan” a few years earlier, and Gilead is currently struggling to maintain sufficient manpower and money to wage war somewhere along its borders.

 

    Easter traditions in Gilead have been scaled back, in contrast to other parts of the world where Easter’s pagan roots are now rightfully celebrated.  That November holiday is now two words: “Thanks Giving”, and lest you think that only women are treated brutally in Gilead, you are invited to watch the next Particicution.

 

    There are 71 chapters in The Testaments, plus an Epilogue; which means the chapters average just under six pages in length.  Although I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale, and highly recommend it, I don’t think you necessarily have to read it before tackling The Testaments.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 30,455 ratings and 3,606 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.20/5 based on 304,150 ratings and 28.261 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Liminal Space (n.) : physical spaces between one destination and the next.

 

Things That Sound Dirty But Aren’t…

    “Not for nothing do we at Ardua Hall say “Pen Is Envy”.  (pg. 140)

 

Excerpts...

    We weren’t supposed to have best friends.  It wasn’t nice to form closed circles, said Aunt Estée: it made other girls feel left out, and we should all be helping one another be the most perfect girls we could be.

    Aunt Vidala said that best friends led to whispering and plotting and keeping secrets, and plotting and secrets led to disobedience to God, and disobedience led to rebellion, and girls who were rebellious became women who were rebellious, and a rebellious woman was even worse than a rebellious man because rebellious men became traitors, but rebellious women became adulteresses.  (pg. 24)

 

    “You had an abortion,” he said.  So they’d been rifling through some records.

    “Only one,” I said fatuously.  “I was very young.”

    He made a disapproving grunt.  “You are aware that this form of person-murder is now punishable by death?  The law is retroactive.”

    “I was not aware of that.”  I felt cold.  But if they were going to shoot me, why the interrogation?

    “One marriage?”

    “A brief one.  It was a mistake.”

    “Divorce is now a crime,” he said.  I said nothing.  (pg. 171)

 

The ability to concoct plausible lies is a talent not to be underestimated.  (pg. 387)

    The nitpicks in The Testaments are few.  Some readers found the switching around among three narrators confusing, but in the hardcover version I read, there’s an icon at the start of each chapter that identifies who’s writing it.

 

    The cussing is sparse, only 12 instances in the first half of the book, although it seemed to pick up a bit in the second half, and there were one or two references to male genitalia and female fertility cycles.

 

    For me, the ending was adequate, but not spectacular.  The plan hatched by the good guys is risky, but it goes off pretty much as planned.  The biggest threat turns out to be Mother Nature, not those in power in Gilead.  The Epilogue, consisting of the historical notes from a Symposium held even further in the future and drawing conclusions from examining the records about the events in the book, didn’t impress me.

 

    What would impress me much more is an announcement that a third book in this series was in the works, but I don't think that's going to happen.

 

    9½ Stars.  Let’s not get bogged down in the nitpicking.  The Testaments is a fantastic book, every bit as good, and frightening, as The Handmaid’s Tale.  We live in a nation that has just declared abortion to be a crime, and there are proposals to throw doctors who perform them, and women who get them, into jail.

 

    We are not far from finding ourselves in a Gilead theocracy.

The Life of the World to Come - Kage Baker

   2004; 392 pages.  Book 5 (out of 10) in “The Company” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Time-Travel; Dystopian Fiction; Science Fiction.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

 

    Mendoza could sure use a visit from a knight in shining armor about now.  Dr. Zeus has sent her into the mother of all exiles, and it's getting to be a drag.  Place-wise, it’s not so bad: a quiet spot on the coast of California.  But timewise, it’s a different story – she’s been sent back to 150,000 BCE, give or take a couple millennia.  She’s been stuck here for the past 3,000 years, which may seem a bit far-fetched.  But Mendoza is not your normal human, she's been reworked and is now an immortal cyborg.

 

    Well saints be praised, her Prince Charming has just arrived!  In a time-machine he stole from Dr. Zeus, no less.  How’s that for karma?  His name is Alec, and although he’s not particularly handsome, Mendoza is instantly attracted to him.  After all, he looks exactly like two other lovers Mendoza had in the past.  Or will have in the future.  Before they died.  Or will die.  Whatever.

 

    As for the charm, it turns out it was something programmed into his personality.  Which is possible because Alec is also a cyborg.  And although he’s got some prior business to take care of first – he’s determined to destroy Dr. Zeus once and for all – Alec promises to return after that’s done and take Mendoza back to the present time, which is his case is the 24^th century AD.

 

    Hmm.  Dr. Zeus is the leading expert when it comes to time-travel.  He knows everything that has happened, and everything that is going to happen, at least up to July 9, 2355 (see below).  I wonder why he’s not aware of Alec’s thievery and meeting with Mendoza.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Life of the World to Come is the fifth book in Kage Baker’s Company series, a completed 10-book series (ignoring novellas and short stories using the same setting) which I’m reading in chronological order.  Here, the scenes shift among three storylines: a.) Alec Checkerfield’s life story; b.) the secret activities of three Londoners named Rutherford, Chatterji, and Ellsworth-Howard; and c.) Mendoza’s whereabouts and whenabouts.  Alec’s storyline is by far the predominant one.

 

    Almost all of the story takes place in the future, which is a switch from the earlier books in the series.  We are moving closer to the Armageddon-like year of 2355 AD, when, thanks to past/future time traveling excursions, we've learned that everything in the time-traveling world seems to come to a standstill.  I much appreciated Kage Baker including a backstory in the first few pages; it’s been four years since I read the previous book.

 

    I loved Kage Baker’s worldbuilding in the 24^th century.  There’s a new cussword (“shracking”), new slang (bishareedo, puckamenna), and new gizmos (jotbooks, bukes, agcars, agboats, etc.).  The “ag” in those last two stands for “anti-gravity”, not “agriculture”; it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure that out.

 

    There’s not a lot of time-travel, although we do get to zip back to 150,000 BC to for the Alec/Mendoza meeting, as well as take a quick trip to Mars to help thwart Dr. Zeus.  I picked up a new Latin phrase - “nimium ne crede colori, puere” (wiki it), and found out what “Fiddler’s Green” is.  It was fun to see how Christmas is celebrated in 2350 AD, watch young Alec do his schooling online (shades to 2020!), rejoice that Toblerone chocolate is still around (albeit, as contraband), and learn not to mess with the religious zealots called the Ephesians.

 

    The ending is good, but incomplete.  The “why-and-how” of the triple-incarnation paradox of Nicholas/Edward/Alec is at last revealed, but there are a slew of other plot threads left unresolved.  We still don’t know how Rutherford, Chatterji, and Ellsworth-Howard fit in, ditto for Alec’s enigmatic and resourceful playfriend “Captain Morgan”.  And while the story ends at a logical spot, it nevertheless teeters dangerously close to being a cliffhanger.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Oubliette (n.): a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 43 ratings.

    Goodreads: 3.94/5 based on 1,544 ratings and 103 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “Spirits of Cause and Effect, I summon thee!  I bend thee to my will!  Spirits of Action and Reaction, I conjure thee, grant my desires!  Schrodinger’s Cat, heed my commands!  Oh, Spirit of Time, oh, thou Chronos, oh thou, er, Timex, Bulova, um, Westclox, Swatch, Rolex, Piaget!  Uh… In the name of Greenwich, in whose image all Time is made!”  (pg. 215)

 

    “I believe I mentioned that Dr. Zeus, possessing the secret of time travel, knows everything that’s ever happened in recorded history, as well as everything that ever will happen.  Beer?”

    “Yes, please.”  (…)

    “Everything that ever will happen, I say - up to the year 2355.  You understand this is a matter of intense speculation for everyone concerned with the Company.  But the fact is, beyond July 9, 2355, there’s just – silence.”  (…)  “Not one word from our future selves on the other side of that moment in time.  I have heard that the last message, badly distorted, says simply ‘We still don’t know -“  (pg. 305)

 

“Meminerunt omnia amantes.” (“Lovers remember everything.”)  (pg. 31 )

    There’s some cussing and a fair amount of rolling-in-the-hay in The Life of the World to Come, but I hesitate call this an R-rated book.  My big issue with it is that we see very little of Mendoza, apart when Alec comes calling, and for some reason we get to experience that twice.  My second-favorite character in the series, Joseph, is entirely MIA, and even the Ultimate Evil, Labienus, makes only a token appearance.

 

    I get the feeling that this book is really just a giant backstory Kage Baker wrote to get all her ducks in a row before plunging the series into an exciting conclusion that will be 3-5 books in length.  I appreciated the clarifications, but yearned for a bit more action.

 

    But be of good cheer: if you can make it through 300 pages of Alec’s biography, you'll be treated to 100 pages of an exciting, fascinating, twist-filled ending.  We are perilously close to the D-Day of July 9, 2355, and I for one want to find out how it all turns out.

 

    6½ Stars.  In looking forward, Book Eight, The Sons of Heaven, was originally marketed in 2007 as the closing volume in the series, but then in 2009 and 2010, Books 9 and 10 were added.  I have no idea why.  I've bought Book Six, The Children of the Company, but have yet to find any of the final four books at my local used-book stores.  The present pandemic limits my browsing opportunities, and none of my local libraries carry volumes 7-10.  The next book may be as far as I get.

Shift - Hugh Howey

2013, 576 pages. New Author? : No. Book 2 (out of 3) in the Silo trilogy. Genres: Dystopian Fiction; Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction. Overall Rating : 8*/10.

Wool, the opening book in Hugh Howey's breakout "Silo" series, was published in 2011. I read it in 2016 (the review is here) and thought the setting was fascinating: a post-apocalyptic world where a few survivors are confined to a huge underground silo with its 100+ levels, its penthouse level having windows that look out on a bleak, lifeless landscape.

Wool reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's The Road in a couple ways. For instance, neither book explains what caused the apocalyptic event that triggered the dire circumstances in which the protagonists find themselves. Also, while both books end at a logical spot, neither one gives any hint as to whether the larger issue - will mankind recover from the devastation wreaked upon their world - would ever be resolved.

We'll cut Cormac McCarthy some slack - he's 87 years old now, and seems to be retired from the writing business as of 2006. Unless he commissions someone to ghostwrite a sequel, the fate of the protagonist's son in The Road will likely never be known.

But luckily Hugh Howey has penned two more novels in the Wool series (plus several short stories). Book Two, Shift, is both the sequel and the prequel to Wool, and details the events leading up to the last traces of humanity being relegated to living, and dying, in underground enclosures for centuries to come.

What’s To Like...

Shift opens in the near future, and is divided into three sections:

Shift 1 : Legacy, which alternates between Troy (2212 AD) and Donald (2049-2052 AD)

Shift 2 : Order, set in 2212-2215 AD, and follows events in Silos 1 and 18.

Shift 3 : Pact, set in 2312-2345 AD, and follows events in Silos 1 and 17.

I liked the character development. There are no "black" or "white" characters here, everyone comes in various shades of "gray". One even adopts two names - "Jimmy" when he has a cat to keep him company; "Solo" for when he's alone. The thrills and spills are sporadic, yet come often enough to keep your interest. This is more about watching society desperately trying to preserve itself, and experiencing both successes and failures.

The ending is okay. It ties up a couple of the plot threads (Donald and Thurman and Anna), but a lot of them remain open (Charlotte/Donald, Jimmy/Solo). Mostly it sets up the third and final book, Dust. The epilogue has a nice teaser, including the reintroduction of one of the characters from Wool.

Ratings…

Amazon: 4.5/5 based on 3,889 ratings.

Goodreads: 4.12/5 based on 72,754 ratings and 4,472 reviews

Excerpts...

"A typhoon kills a few hundred people, does a few billion in damage, and what do we do?" Erskine interlocked his fingers. "We come together. We put the pieces back. But a terrorist's bomb." He frowned. "A terrorist's bomb does the same damage, and it throws the world into turmoil."

He spread his hands open. "When there's only God to blame, we forgive him. When it's our fellow man, we destroy him." (loc. 3414)

"You and I have spent much of our adult lives scheming to save the world. Several adult lives, in fact. That deed now done, I ponder a different question, one that I fear I cannot answer and that we were never brave nor bold enough to pose. And so I ask you now, dear friend: was this world worth saving to begin with? Were we worth saving?" (loc. 4945)

"He's the shepherd, you know? I pictured him waking up chewing nails and farting tacks." (loc. 4838)

I didn't find much to gripe about in Shift. There's a fair amount of cussing (23 times in the first 20%), but I don't recall any sex scenes or drug/alcohol usage, with the exception of one case of abusing "potato glue", which I found wittily clever. People get killed, of course, but that's part of any post-apocalyptic tale.

The only other quibble might be the tedium that one endures when one's entire life is spent in a confined space. I didn't mind it during the first two sections because I was enjoying the details of how the masterminds went about setting up a silo society, but by the time the third section came around, I and all the characters were yearening for a change of scenery. Judging from some of the Amazon and Goodreads reviews, I was not the only reader to experience this.

But I quibble. Overall, I enjoyed Shift, particularly since it satisfied my curiosity about how the Wool scenario came about. I'm not sure whether Book 3, Dust, is set before or after Wool, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

8 Stars. We'll close with a teaser, which was posed in the book: Which weighs more: a bag full of 78 pounds of feathers, or a bag full of 78 pounds of rocks? The answer may surprise you.