Shift
(Shift, Wool 1)
by Hugh Howey
science fiction
copyright 2013
read in November 2016
rated 6/10: read to pass the time
... or, possibly 8...
What's that ?! I can't even provide a rating for this book ? That's because it suffers from a common problem:
This book is not a complete novel.
This book is a prequel to a series of novellas. The novellas were published as "Wool". (Don't ask me why.) Shift now sets the scene for those novellas. Also in the pipeline is a book which wraps up the series. How do I know all this ? I read it in Wikipedia...
The book itself gives no indication that it is an INCOMPLETE story. Nothing on the cover. Nothing inside. A possible hint on the inside back cover, where two other books are advertised. I wouldn't mind so much if this story were complete in itself. It is not.
Okay, I'm thinking, this is a standard book of a closed society. Then its scope expands and I begin to think, okay, this is quite clever. Then it expands in a different direction ! What happened to that rather interesting side-story ?! How does this new story relate ?!
Nearing the end... It looks as though all will be revealed, all will be wrapped up... But no ! The several side-stories are incomplete. The main story is incomplete. What has happened ?!
Oh, I think, having read Wikipedia. This is a prequel.
So all those side-stories are just introductions to the several later novellas. Worse yet, there is an entire third book in which the end is finally revealed... Perhaps.
This -- Shift -- is quite a good book. I suspect that the complete series, three books, would be quite good. Perhaps even worth rating as an eight. Yet the book has been published as a stand-alone book. As a story with no end.
As it is published, Shift is rated six. Read to pass the time. No better.
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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Omne ignotum pro magnifico est" … Tacitus: Agricola
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