The Shell Collector

By: Hugh Howey

Narrated by: Samara Naeymi

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

The ocean is dying. The sea is growing warmer and is gradually rising. Seashells have become so rare that collecting them is now a national obsession. Flawless specimens sell like priceless works of art. Families hunt the tideline in the dark of night with flashlights. Crowds gather on beaches at the lowest of tides, hoping to get lucky.

Supreme among these collectors is Ness Wilde, CEO of Ocean Oil. Ness owns many of the best beaches, and he keeps them to himself. It's his fault the world turned out this way. And I aim to destroy him.

My name is Maya Walsh. You might be familiar with my shelling column in the Times. I was working on a series of pieces about Mr. Wilde, when out of the blue, he called. He says he wants to talk. But I don't think he's going to like what I have to say.

©2014 Hugh Howey (P)2015 Hugh Howey

Why Howey, why?!!!

I don't like to give a bad review! I only want to give good review! But I'm on a bad string of listens and I have to vent. Or at least prevent someone else from wasting a credit.

I am a big fan of Hugh Howey but this doesn't feel like Howey at all. This is more of a romance novel than science fiction. I kept waiting for interesting things to happen but alas, I was left with that icky feeling you feel when you suspect a cheesy love scene is about to happen and you really don't want to fast forward because you feel like you are cheating yourself and disrespecting the story but you have no choice... its just too cheesy to bare.

The funny thing is, I had just tried listening to 50 Shades of Grey on a lark, but could only get 10 or 15 minutes in, and then immediately after I started Shell Collector and eerily found some parallels between the two stories. Both stories begin with a sassy lady giving an interview to a rich and famous playboy, with said sassy lady trying very hard to dislike the playboy but eventually being won over and seduced. It was a surreal experience to listen to these stories back to back. I kept thinking, wait a minute, this is Hugh Howey, right?!

OK, back to being serious. In the future the world's oceans are extremely polluted and sea life has been destroyed. Therefore sea shells are very rare and a culture of shell collectors has sprung up, grown, and become part of mainstream society. Our leading lady is a reporter with an attachment to shells that goes back to her childhood days of collecting with her mom and dad. The leading man is a billionaire in the oil business whose family contributed to the very pollution that destroyed the oceans and consequently created the shell economy. He also happens to be the most famous shell collector in the world. More than anything else the story is about the intersection of these two characters. There was only one love scene, which I had to skip.

I already feel guilty for dissing Howey. I still love you. Please keep writing stories like Wool and Halfway Home.

A Load of Codswallop

And hand-wringing, bosom-beating romance with an ending predictable withing the first few minutes of listening. The narrator was fine but could have toned down the angst with a flatter reading of our heroine's endless tormented monologues. I care about the environment, but Howey's approach has the pessimistic and defeatist tone of 1950's British science fiction.

I guessed the ending within the first half-hour of listening and even particular upcoming lines of dialog were utterly predictable.

I found that even the pleasant romance could not save a very silly story.

poor plot development. so so romance. flat chara

poorly developed character arcs. Unconvincing. Silly. Author makes a grand statement in first chapter which initially drew me in only to refute that later
inconsistent. Manipulative and shallow writing with great narration.

Some books grab you and don't let go.

Unbelievable narrator. Not at all what I expected that's what made this book perfect. Let go of what Hugh wrote in the best and be good with him trying something new.

Put your ear up to it and you can hear the ocean..

Once upon a time there was a little girl that loved to spend time with her father combing pristine beaches looking for sea shells. [Their mother had died.] Together they would travel and explore new beaches, rising with the out-going tide each morning to sweep the smooth fresh sands of the intertidal zones looking for their little calcium carbonate exoskeleton treasures. Her name was Mayarella, and as she grew, she waxed strong in beauty and the knowledge of conchology and became a famous journalist who wrote a column for the NY Times all about seashells, and people around the world loved it.

It so happened that while Maya spent her childhood days combing beaches, there was a horrible and greedy man that was recklessly pumping out the pools of oil that had collected beneath the ocean floor. He had a little boy he named after a monster that lived in Scotland. Ness spent time at the ocean with his father also, looking for shells. His father didn't care about the oceans or shells, he only cared about money. He drilled and got richer than anyone in the whole world while the water got really polluted, then started getting warmer until all the animals and plants died, even the coral reefs. Next thing you know, New Yorkers were wearing galoshes like Venetians, sea shells disappeared with all living creatures in the sea. The evil man and his wife eventually died, leaving everything to Ness -- by then a young man.

Ness has become reclusive, living in a compound surrounded by the only clean ocean left. Maya is about to publish a series of scathing articles about this evil shell-destroying family when she is summoned to appear before the FBI. A mush-mouthed FBI man dangles before her pretty eyes a perfect Lace Murex, a rare mollusk shell that sells now for millions of dollars. There is a dead body involved, a physicist that worked for Ness and owned the shells, but that's not the problem. FBI man Cooper thinks Ness is manufacturing fake shells, making millions of dollars selling them (and the IRS hasn't seen a penny from those sales, Maya knows from history that tax evasion is how the FBI gets their really big criminals. This goes against all of her shell collecting principles.) These shells have been extinct for 30 yrs., but these look new. "So, that famous shell collector Ness Wild is nothing more than a phony," she spits, and agrees to help the FBI take down the monster.

The ridiculously long driveway to Ness' house crunches under Maya's tires and she realizes this isn't cement, Ness has crushed shells....gazillions of crustacean corpses, crushed shells, volutes, cones, cowries, and rock shells lining miles! She is appalled and ready to give this monster a piece of her mind. She pounds on the front door and standing there is a beautiful golden man with sun bleached hair. His body is tan and toned; he is bare footed, wearing white drawstring pants that billow around his muscular thighs. A large black pearl threaded through a leather thong hangs on his chiseled chest, and birds sing in the back ground, "I'm Ness."

He's beautiful. His sea-green eyes twinkle, belying his evil nature, "Be my guest! Be my guest, put my vintage wine to the test!" he pours her wine and gives her crackers and cheese and charcuterie. She remembers she is a serious journalist, and on a mission from the FBI. She sips her wine suspiciously and judiciously. Her body tingles with each sip; Maya has never tasted anything so lovely. What a cad he is, she bats her eyes. Her head reels and she imagines a hallway lined with the photos of hundreds of female journalists Ness has slept with; she is determined not to fall for this smooth performance -- not to be part of his world. He is trying to tell her something he has never told anyone before--the *truth,* a real scoop, something about his *sniff* beloved misunderstood grandfather *tears in his eyes*. What a shameful act! She finishes her wine and she stands to go. Maya is a little, "what's that word...Tipsy!" And wouldn't ya know it, her car... it won't go, it won't go, Turn away and slam the door, back into Ness' house. He makes her the best coffee ever and tells her all about the rare Hakuna matata beans. Surely a man that makes his own coffee...

Maya knows her life is in danger; she is on guard as she spends the night in his fabulous guest house. When she awakes, the fridge is stocked, and there is a surprise! Ness has a little girl (about the same age as the one Maya lost when she was once married). The little girl is spunky and cute, and takes right to Maya. They form the *I hate rain* club and cook eggs-in-a-hole, and fall asleep...Ness sneaks in after his meeting, and finds them cuddled together, and tears up.
SPOILER:
Eventually (that week) Maya blows off the FBI, discards the wires, tells her boss she quits, goes in a deep sea diving bell to the bottom of the ocean, makes out with Ness, and has several other adventures around the world before she discovers, by Friday, that she and Ness are soul mates. They knew it the minute they saw each other. Little daughter knew it too; all she's ever wanted is for her daddy to be happy. Together, the three save the oceans; new kids again find the joys of collecting shells...and they live happily ever after.

Wonderful, wonderful, and the girl telling the story does a lovely job in spite of sometimes using her boy voice when it's time for her girl voice (and the mush-mouthed FBI Cooper).

My complaints: So many missed opportunities; choreographed little sea creatures frolicking around the kissing couple would have added some magic to the romance; a colony of sick oil drenched otters hiding out on Ness' property secretly aided by the little daughter would have given emotional depth and dimension; a full-on Mer-people attack against humankind was definitely needed for the drama element, a resentful lone-surviving giant squid could have attacked the diving bell, the FBI would have logically launched a door to door hunt for Mayarella, testing each young lady resident to see if the wire fit -- come on, Howey! (And, I know this is a little out there, but...wouldn't an appearance by the real Loch Ness monster at a wedding have been just the ultimate?!) If an author is going to turn an environmental issue into a fairytale romance, there absolutely HAS to be an Olaf and/or Sven, at least a Gus Gus, a Jiminy Cricket, or perfectly suited for this sea-theme, a Sebastian the Crab(!). I take off stars for such oversights.

Nice romance story, but predictable.

Would you try another book from Hugh Howey and/or Samara Naeymi?

The narrator was excellent.
The author, was ok, this is my first book from him and although the story was nice, it was not specially interesting. It was a good premise doe. I thought it was going to be more interesting, and with some interesting plot, but at the half of it I just wanted it to end as it dragged on.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I don't know, it felt kind of flat to me, obvious and predictable since the first chapter, and trust me I am no genius or book critic, it was just too evident. I could be one of the few who felt this btw, since I say as printed book has a lot of good reviews. But for me it got boring.

Have you listened to any of Samara Naeymi’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Never heard her before this, but will look for something else from her, she is great. For me that was the main reason I actually finished the audiobook.

Did The Shell Collector inspire you to do anything?

Yes! I will check more seriously the reviews of the books, since I actually thought it was going to be an amazing book, and for me it was plain ok, not more. Kinda disappointing after reading about it and waiting for its release, since the book description and reviews were so positive.

Any additional comments?

Although I would not really recommend this audiobook, I have to say that if you are into romance stories with no much depth and simply fun and sweet, this might be the book for you. What they call "beach read". Maybe for a teen audience could be more thrilling, If you, as me, look for more intense, twist plots or depth in a romance book, you might need to rethink about this one or just fins out if I am wrong. :D anyways the narration is very enjoyable, for me she saved the book by the performance itself no more.

Hugh has jumped to my top 10

I loved the silo books from chapter 1 but didn't know the the author. Hugh Howey has become one of my top 10 since then. I love his introspective glimpses of each of his characters, it really pulls me into the story more than anything else could. Listen to the story! You will love it!

Eco-dystopian Romance?

This turned out to be sort of a dystopian romance, not really what I expected or hoped for after reading and enjoying seven other science fiction books by the author. I probably should've expected a romance as the novel was chiefly about two main characters who were adversaries at the start; I mean, they spend the whole novel together. C'mon, man.

In one corner we have a female journalist, Maya Walsh, who writes a shelling column for a major newspaper and is outraged like the rest of the world about global warming. In the other corner we have Ness Wilde, CEO of Ocean Oil, who owns many of the best shelling beaches and many other things in the world, and is the poster boy for fossil fuels, the main culprit in the global warming blame game. He is the most hated man in this dystopian future world. His family built this empire on oil extraction and the world paid is paying for it now. Ness (guess what he's named after?) contacts Maya because he wants to set the record straight in the press and Maya agrees because she hates him and wants to take him down.

Enviro-adventures ensue as Ness shows her his empire of riches and islands, and fun sea toys. How will this all turn out? It kept me guessing right up until the very end.

I'm not a romance reader. I would guess fans of romance would enjoy this more than I did. Howey IS a great storyteller

Wow

My expectations were not high and thought this might be another very dry sad story.

I really liked this story. Such an interesting concept for a future or parallel universe.

Not worth the timme

The story started out intriguing an interesting but midpoint began to decline and ended with the most ridiculously happy ending

Wow that was bad

A warning to all other fans of Hugh Howey's Sci Fi work... this is NOT that. I loved the Silo trilogy and Half Way Home, but this was kind of like a slow, boring romance novel. So disappointed with this, wish I hadn't bothered slogging all the way through it.