Shift

By: Hugh Howey

Narrated by: Peter Brooke

Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

The much anticipated prequel to best seller Wool that takes us back to the beginnings of the silo. The full novel which brings together First, Second and Third Shift.

In a future less than fifty years away, the world is still as we know it. Time continues to tick by. The truth is that it is ticking away. A powerful few know what lies ahead. They are preparing for it. They are trying to protect us. They are setting us on a path from which we can never return. A path that will lead to destruction; a path that will take us below ground. The history of the silo is about to be written. Our future is about to begin.

©2013 Hugh Howey (P)2013 Random House AudioGo

Critic Reviews

"The next Hunger Games" ( The Sunday Times)

"An epic feat of imagination. You will live in this world." (Justin Cronin)

I Loved this book

I so enjoyed this book. The story was a little more original than many of these sorts of books and it made me think. I enjoyed the narration too. If you like your science fiction with a little less alien action and with some real world action this is for you. A dark future that you can imagine happening in a way.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Not as as good as the first. 3 1/2 stars

I thought the story was average. Not a huge fan of the narration. Story seemed to drag at places. Hopefully next installment will pick up

Great book, terrible performance!!

Was really looking forward to this book after the excellent Wool that was excellently performed by a lady with a lovely expressive and versatile voice.
Have found this book hard going despite the great story, the narrator sounds like a surfer and I keep waiting for him to say 'duuude'.
It looks as though Audible are looking to cash in on the success of Wool by bringing over this recording from America but it is so difficult to get past the narrator's voice.
Listen to the sample before you buy, if you can listen to narrator then you are in for a great story.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Oh Dear

I wanted to love this as much as I had wool, but its too long winded and gets tied in knots with its time lines.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

A rewrite of Wool from a different point of view

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Stop using silly voices

Any additional comments?

If you've read Wool (which is brilliant) and want to read Dust (which is very good) then you need to read Shift for it to make sense. Apart from that, I'd give it a miss. I would give Wool 10/10, Shift 5/10 and Dust 8/10.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Story drags out too long, cash grab series

The Idea of the story is good. But the pace at which the plot unfolds is really too slow. I had to increase the reading speeds to 1.5x just to stay somewhat interested. I won't blame the narrator. I was never distracted by him. It is the filler content that bores the like out of me. If you gave the idea to Andy Weir, our imagination would be on fire. This story and all in the series require engineering filler content.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Disturbing and awful narration

I have written this review for all of the trilogy, though this one was particularly bad because of the narration.
This review probably applies to the complete trilogy, the story was well written, but I really didn't enjoy it. Most of the characters weren't 'full enough' to get to know them and like them. The situation was bizarre to say the least, but very disturbing in general. I wish I hadn't read this at all.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Narrator basal, book feels padded.

2nd in the Wool series.
The premise for this trilogy is interesting and well thought out.
This is the middle book and it feels like the least-loved of the 3.
The narrator is good but his voice has a nasal quality I didn't take to.
The book itself seems padded. Hugh Howey has a habit of describing every.single thought and action of his protagonists. It leaves little room for one's own imagination and means the story moves at a snail's pace.
Also the chapters about Solo/Jimmy are redundant. There's no tension - we know his story from book 1 and he's not an engaging enough character to be interested in the minutae of what happened to him.
It was interesting to learn about the how and the why the silos came into being and how the world ended, but I'm not convinced the "pact" is believable. It goes too far to be convincing.

I think this entire book could have been condensed into 6 or so decent, exhilarating chapters.

That said, I've downloaded book 3: I want to see how it all turns out.

A good book with some great elements

As the title suggests, it's lacking in areas, but others certainly shine through! The performance is fine, I had no problem with it, I quite enjoyed it.

bad review system

inconsistent voice actors between volumes. also the words needed in a review is annoying.... shame

Good prequel but not as good as the first

Getting the biggest negative out of the way first. This book jumps around in time which I guess is ok when reading a paper copy as it allows you to refer to the year at the beginning of the chapter but in an audiotape the listener can become a little lost at times.

All in all a good story of how the plot of WOOL came about, though I feel there are some unanswered questions which I feel should have been answered in this book rather than the third in the trilogy.

If you are going to explore the whole WOOL trilogy then a must to understand the world they live in but if the first book was enough then move on.

My Review

Ok so I'm not going to sit here and slander this book, it wasn't bad but in my opinion it was nowhere near as good as the first book in the trilogy. I didn't like the narrator's voice, however I'm sure people would. I didn't like the style of the book, I didn't enjoy the back and forth of the story. I guess I am comparing it to Wool and I didn't enjoy it as much. I'd probably read the book instead of listen to this if I had to do it again