Third Shift

Shift is a prequel to Wool and also offers a different side of the story of what happened in Wool. It partially explains how the silo came to be and where it is heading.

Shift only contains 3 parts, whereas Wool had 5, but it has about the same number of pages. This means that the stories in Shift are a bit slower. They take a little more time to get going and there's more background given.

In general, I liked Wool better, but still very much enjoyed this look behind the scenes of what happened previously. Although it's possible to read Shift first, it'll ruin your enjoyment of Wool.

Here's an idea... Let's take all the characters you fell in love with in the first book (remember we left them in a "cliffhanger" in the first book as well), and completely ignore them for this book.

Howey did the two things I HATE in writing.

1) Ignore beloved characters, saving them for the next title.
2) Only writing a book that transitions to the climax expected in the next book (or last book).

DON'T PUSH OFF BELOVED CHARACTERS! And put some substance in the middle book of a trilogy...seriously. I'm tired of reading the second book in a trilogy only to find that it's a setup book for the final one. Setup, but at least have a good stand alone plot as well.

This one almost made me put the entire series down...

The last part of the Shift books was yet another fast read that left me wanting more. It's the final step in connecting the Wool and Shift books. As in all Shift stories so far there are two narratives: Donald in Silo 1 and Jimmy aka Solo in Silo 18. Jimmy's story is too long and definitely depressing. I was more interested in Donald's story. I still feel I don't get what the Pact is all about, and seriously hope that the concluding book Dust will shed some more light.

I personally feel that the writing just keeps on getting better. Very thought provoking.

Not the best book to read if you just lost a cat, because I cried for ten minutes straight.

If Solo's story had been less of a filler, I'd have scored this higher. Definitely a must read for anyone who has enjoyed the Silo stories so far. Onwards to Dust!