Death to Anyone Who Reads This is the sequel to Hugh Howey and Elinor Taylor's excellent short novel The Balloon Hunter, which I recently finished. ThDeath to Anyone Who Reads This is the sequel to Hugh Howey and Elinor Taylor's excellent short novel The Balloon Hunter, which I recently finished. The action picks up right after The Balloon Hunter ends and we have the same main characters in the same setting, near a Costco in a post-apocalyptic America. This is also a short novel, only 100 pages in my print copy and a quick read. Whereas The Balloon Hunter was presented as written on a series of postcards, this novel was presented as written in a journal. Very unique and creative they are.
Hugh Howey knows how to tell a depressing bleak tale, and Elinor Taylor is know for her dark flash fiction so I expected these two novels to be deliciously grim. I found this novel to be easier to digest as the entries were longer than what was found on postcards in The Balloon Hunter and it was easier to follow.
I loved this. The twist ending absolutely blew my mind and I immediately went back and started reading over again. I'm not going to write anything more about either book as I would hate to give out or even hint at any spoilers. Any fan of Hugh Howey's fiction will enjoy these two short dark gems. ...more
I love post-apocalyptic fiction and Hugh Howey's books so I ordered a personalized, signed copy from him while he was live streaming a book signing onI love post-apocalyptic fiction and Hugh Howey's books so I ordered a personalized, signed copy from him while he was live streaming a book signing on YouTube. It came with a postcard (how fitting) signed by his co-author Elinor Taylor. This is the first book Hugh Howey has written with another author.
This is a short novel consisting entirely of a back-and forth conversation between two people on postcards send via balloon. The novel is set in an unnamed destroyed big city - the female protagonist, Rita, is holed up in a Costco; and the male protagonist, Clayton, is a well armed former soldier who makes the rounds and scavenges to survive. Each page of the novel is a post card send by Rita with Clayton's response on the picture side. It sounds weird but it works, and the process explained better in the book.
Since Rita is sending out tons of postcards and Clayton only receives the ones which land in his area he doesn't get her full story, or her story in order. He begins by collecting the cards and eventually figures out a way to send them back to her with his responses so they become aware of each other.
That's all I'll say, anything else is too much. We get to know the characters situations and past lives piecemeal through the postcards which they happen to find and the ending is surprise.
Any fans of Hugh Howey's dystopian fiction will enjoy this. I only wish it was longer. I've ordered the sequel which is also a short novel.
Fun facts: most of the images on the postcards are pictures Hugh took on his trips around the world (he tried to use photos with enough white space), and he had his friend's daughter who has perfect penmanship write the Rita parts. ...more
I read all things Howey. This is a short novella which was on sale for $0.99 on Kindle.
The plagiarist is a fellow named Adam whose day job is literatI read all things Howey. This is a short novella which was on sale for $0.99 on Kindle.
The plagiarist is a fellow named Adam whose day job is literature teacher and on the side he plagiarizes stories which he reads in a virtual world he visits. He has an incredible memory and "writes" and publishes the stories in his world to make money. It would be like monetizing ChatGPT if it produced masterpieces.
Everything is rolling along for Adam until he falls in love with a woman named Bellatrix in the virtual world and ends up neglecting his real life obligations and on-line girlfriend (who wants to meet him in person) to spend more time as his cyberself with Bellatrix. The setting bounces between his sims and the real world and the plot takes some twists and turns. The ending is poignant and makes one think.
Howey is an excellent science fiction writer - Wool has become a successful series on Apple TV and Beacon 23 will soon be coming to TV screens as well - his star is definitely on the rise and stories like this are a good example of his entertaining storytelling. ...more
I thought Wayfinding - Food and Fitness was really good. In this installment of Wayfinding series Howey writes about fitness and diet, focusing on curI thought Wayfinding - Food and Fitness was really good. In this installment of Wayfinding series Howey writes about fitness and diet, focusing on current weight loss and fitness theories and the routines he used to get in to shape after he found out about some family genetic health issues.
He gets right to the point in a no-nonsense manner, sometimes in a controversial way (he issues warnings) when he addresses subjects such as the rising obesity rate in America and on the flip side, anorexia. I've heard much of the dietary information he discusses but I thought some of the fitness and exercise ideas he presented were novel and applicable for anyone.
This was a short read but full of practical advise and interesting perspectives....more
I enjoyed Across the Sand a bit more than its predecessor Sand but didn't love it for the same reasons as I didn't love Sand: I couldn't grasp the conI enjoyed Across the Sand a bit more than its predecessor Sand but didn't love it for the same reasons as I didn't love Sand: I couldn't grasp the concepts of why Colorado was covered in hundreds of feet of sand, and didn't understand how the characters were able to come up with advanced sand-diving, sand-sailing, and sand-constructing technologies in this dystopian, ruined world where the past scientific advancements and inventions of humans are pretty much all buried deep under the sand, many of them unreachable. I know this is science fiction but just couldn't get past this.
The book takes place a short time after Sand ends, and follows the further adventures of the Axelrod siblings after their sister Vic sets off to settle the score with the antagonists from the prior novel. The plot of Across the Sand revolves mostly around the conflict between the Axelrods' group who live in a small settlement near completely buried Denver, and a group to the west who love in an industrial mining area. The Axlerod kids are known to be expert divers and with their advanced dive suits are able make a living diving hundreds of feet through the sand to find scrap such as suitcases from the Denver airport, stuff from cars and skyscrapers, and other interesting things from the previous civilization.
There are a couple of storylines which jump around in time and finally converge at the end. I'm thinking there will be a third novel as there is plenty more story tell and some unanswered questions. At times, I found it difficult keeping the many characters straight (and remembering them from the first book) and there were a number of new people introduced in this book. The audiobook narrator Jeremy Arthur did a remarkable job making them all sound different which helped me follow along.
Howey is great at worldbuilding and the Sand novels take place in an interesting setting - a sand covered wasteland. I just didn't (or remember) get how it all came about. Maybe I should've reread the first book? The plot whipped right along and the novel never dragged, I think Howey is an excellent story teller. I guess I just had a hard time buying in to some of the sandy goings-on, especially the climatic scene, considering what the society had to work with technologically. That being said, I still give this book a positive rating and I'll definitely read the third installment if/when it comes out....more
This third installment builds of the first two which covered handling our environment and free will. He addresses emotional growth and addiction in thThis third installment builds of the first two which covered handling our environment and free will. He addresses emotional growth and addiction in this one and relates it to how lizards think. He relates all this to his own personal experiences. He ends up by telling the harrowing story of his first sailing mishap which he almost drowned.
Good advice and interesting stories from a master storyteller. I'll keep chugging along with Wayfinding. ...more
This short Kindle book is the last in Howey's Wayfinding series. It is the shortest book in the series as he left out his usual personal sailing advenThis short Kindle book is the last in Howey's Wayfinding series. It is the shortest book in the series as he left out his usual personal sailing adventure story.
In this installment, Howey talks about groups, why we form them and what they are good (and bad) for. Like his previous subjects, he goes back to the beginnings of humanity to explain why this behavior developed in humans. One thing I though was interesting was his comparing and contrasting two different types of societies - one in which everyone lives in an expanding group with common goals and ideals with another one in which small groups of individuals develop conflicting ideals and break off in to splinter groups within a society. Which society will be more successful?
I thought the message in this book was interesting, and especially timely as us folks in the U S of A are really splintered at the time being and it sure doesn't feel like the different views are contributing to a stronger nation.
Good stuff but I missed the adventure story time. It would be nice if he collected this series in to a single print volume. ...more
This is the penultimate installment in the Wayfaring series, although there is a stand-alone book about nutrition which I may or may not read. This waThis is the penultimate installment in the Wayfaring series, although there is a stand-alone book about nutrition which I may or may not read. This was one of the most interesting episodes for me as Howey addresses how we treat our bodies in ways inconsistent to their design and then followed this up with a long discussion about depression. He presented his personal theory of why humans get depressed (not to be confused with sadness) and the techniques (referred to as his five tools) he uses to manage his own depression. He postulates that depression boils down to a caloric preservation mechanism. It was all quite interesting and thought out on his part, especially his theory of why developed countries have more depression as studies have suggested. He also examines the concept of sleep and the science behind why humans do it, and why we might not need as much as we think. This didn’t click with me, I need my sleep at my age. He backs his claims up with science and sleep studies so I guess maybe he's on to something. I don't know.
One of the examples he used to show how humans don’t treat our bodies consistent in the way they evolved was regarding ankle injuries. This was interesting to me as I’ve had probably a dozen or so over the years from basketball, some serious and some not so much. In short, we humans right away wrap and ice ankles to prevent swelling. A cast may be necessary for more serious injuries. Meanwhile, your body sends blood and fluid to the area to swell and immobilize the ankle to protect it, it's already "wrapping" the injury. And your nerves are a built-in doctor, telling you how much you can move it at any given time during the gradual healing process. Your body is treating and rehabbing the injury naturally.
He finishes by talking about his first sail boat and how he customized it by basically stripping it down and living in it with minimal possessions for two years. The book ends with him getting ready for his global circumnavigation on his new boat, Wayfinder, which he scheduled to begin two weeks after finishing writing this series (he set sail in 2015). He documented his trip on social media platforms and it was something else.
I thought this was one of the better books in the series. ...more
In this installment Howey delves in to how our brains developed and how the conscious and subconscious battle it out day in and day out. Rational modeIn this installment Howey delves in to how our brains developed and how the conscious and subconscious battle it out day in and day out. Rational modern humans are are basically up against their own brains whose primitive parts act on urge and whim via basic impulses in an attempt to maximize reproduction. This has been how hominid brains have been wired for millions of years. Humans eventually evolved language and theory of mind which created our consciousness and allowed us to move in a different direction from other advanced live forms, but our brains control us more than we realize.
He also delves in to language development and how it allowed us to better share information and transfer our inner thoughts with other humans. He follows this with a short primer of how our memory works, especially how we’ve developed a skill to remember only what is important, but still retain less important information buried deep for later recall if needed. The information is presented in a very concise manner with the author adding his own spin.
In the second, storytelling, half Howey finishes the adventure he started in the last installment: his and his friend’s harrowing and exhausting sailboat trip from Baltimore to Charleston. This part covers the Cape Hatteras to Charleston leg. As a young man, this was his first sailing trip and he didn’t really know what he was doing. They navigated dangerously stormy waters off the NC coast and the whole experience sounded like a horror movie. In retrospect he admits it was a terrible and stupid idea but they survived despite nearly losing the boat multiple times and being horribly seasick and thinking they were going to die.
Looking forward to the next installment when he addresses depression and relates more boating tales.
In this installment, Hugh Howey writes about first sailboat and the first trip he and a friend took on the boat from Baltimore to Charleston. He has wIn this installment, Hugh Howey writes about first sailboat and the first trip he and a friend took on the boat from Baltimore to Charleston. He has way more guts than I do, and even though he knew what he was doing (somewhat) it turned in to a series of close calls and avoided disasters.
In the science and philosophy part he discusses how our bodies were built for a different time in human history than we are currently in and how our brains struggle to adapt and answer what the physical body is telling us. For instance our bodies were made to store food in expanding stomachs and fat cells as when food was found you ate as much as possible because there was no guarantee you would find food any time going forward; and crave sugars as they were relatively rare way back when. This explains so much. It is up to us to manage what our bodies tell us in a world where food and sweets are plentiful and available 24/7. This has been covered in depth in dietary science books, I'm sure but I'll never read one and Howey is an excellent writer and has the knack for explaining things succinctly.
I'm enjoying his series. BTW, he just announced that the sequel to Sand, titled Across the Sand, will be released this fall. Looking forward to that. ...more
This is the second installment in Hugh Howey's eight-part Wayfinding series in which he talks about maritime experiences with a bit of amateur psycholThis is the second installment in Hugh Howey's eight-part Wayfinding series in which he talks about maritime experiences with a bit of amateur psychology thrown in for good measure.
Howey talks a lot about free will in this one, and I'm kind of all free-willed out after reading excellent books by Dan Barker and Sam Harrison the subject. It's a fascinating idea to take a deep dive into but I've already heard all I need to hear.
The parts dealing with Howey's boating adventures was fun. In this installment, Howey and his companion are forced to make an unexpected stop at the tropical Providencia Island (owned by Columbia) in the Caribbean to repair their boat's engine. They end up enjoying their stay very much and Howey comes up with a plan to become a citizen, only to be thwarted at the last minute. Good stuff. I would've loved to hear more about life and times on the island while they were there.
Hugh Howey, the author of the most excellent Wool series and a number of other science fiction books, put together an eight part Wayfinding series in Hugh Howey, the author of the most excellent Wool series and a number of other science fiction books, put together an eight part Wayfinding series in which he talks about interesting life experiences with a bit of amateur psychology throw in for good measure. He had always been fond of sailing and when the cash started rolling in from his novels and movie adaptation interest he decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of sailing the world. I recall following his blog and social media accounts during his circumnavigation of the world in his custom built Wayfinder sailing vessel. It was really interesting.
This series, available on Kindle and inexpensively on Audible, is off to a strong start in this first installment with some anecdotes related to his early maritime experiences. Looking forward to taking this all over the next several months. He is quite the interesting fellow....more
Interesting short fiction by Hugh Howey, free on Audible. The plot involves a battle robot who starts behaving inconsistently with his programming. InInteresting short fiction by Hugh Howey, free on Audible. The plot involves a battle robot who starts behaving inconsistently with his programming. Interesting world building on a near-future Earth in which the robot's owners' stakes are higher than they first appear. Would've been great fleshed out a bit in to a novella, methinks. Still a good read. ...more
I saw this reissue at B & N on my last visit before the pandemic and decided to roll with it. I'm a big fan of the author. I have the Wool trilogy in I saw this reissue at B & N on my last visit before the pandemic and decided to roll with it. I'm a big fan of the author. I have the Wool trilogy in my top-twenty and also enjoyed Sand, Beacon 23, and his collection of short fiction Machine Learning. I was familiar with the plot based on the summary on the back cover but did not put two plus two together and realize that this was a full fledged YA novel. And I've grown to loathe YA. (My wife Lisa is a middle-school science teacher and often reads books her students are reading, so there is always YA in the house, and we've read several novels together, so I've had more than my share. Now I'm done).
The premise of the novel is five hundred colonists are sent to an alien planet as blastocysts, and once they arrive they are grown and educated in vats by AI for thirty years while a portion of the planet is prepared for their release from the vats. While in the vats each of the five hundred is taught a specific vocation, so you have a fully-operational society ready to to go in thirty years. Well something goes amiss, and after fifteen years there is an accident and the colonists are woken after only half of their development is completed and only sixty of these teenagers survive the process. The book is not long and the plot moves along very quickly. Positives.
There is some neat world building and interesting science fiction in these pages but my enjoyment was tempered by the teenage drama. It as just way to much for me. I don't want to be fifteen again, or read about how bad it is. The story is told from the point of view of Porter, who was "training" in the vat to be a psychologist before being awakened. He tries to solve the mystery of what happened to the colony prior to accident in year fifteen and figure out why the AI is behaving illogically since the accident. The ending had a nice twist, I thought.
This book would be an excellent introduction to Hugh Howey for teenagers. If they take to it, they would probably also like his dystopian Wool and Sand books....more
I rarely rate fiction short story collections five stars. This collection by Hugh Howey, author of the brilliant dystopian Wool / Shift / Silo trilogyI rarely rate fiction short story collections five stars. This collection by Hugh Howey, author of the brilliant dystopian Wool / Shift / Silo trilogy, was solid from start to finish. Machine Learning conists of 21 short stories divided in to six categories: aliens and alien worlds, artificial intelligences, Silo stories, fantasy, algorithms of love and hate, virtual worlds, and lost and found. I'm no fan of fantasy but I found the stories under that heading weren't too fantastical to me. Howey includes an afterword for each story in which he explains how he came up with the ideas for them.
Most of the stories in this collection I would call dystopian. Fans of his well-known trilogy will be happy to know that he included three Silo stories in this book. Fans of his well-known trilogy will be shocked at the content of the third of the three stories! The three Silo stories in this book also appear in the Apocalypse Triptych anthology which was edited by John Joseph Adams. I bought this anthology when it came out so I had already read the Silo short stories and they are among my favorite in this collection.
The last story, "Peace in Amber" might be my favorite. In the afterword, Howey states that this is the most difficult thing he's ever written. It was inspired by the Kindle Worlds program which allowed fans to write stories based on their favorite characters and worlds. Howey wrote a mash-up of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five with his experiences working in New York near the World Trade Center towers during 9-11. It sounds weird but it worked. The story is very sad and personal.
If you were a fan of the Wool trilogy it is worth getting your hands on this book just for the three related stories - "In the Woods" is sort of an epilogue. I found all 21 stories to be worthwhile and thought-provoking. The quote on the front of my book by Ernest Cline (Ready Player One) sums Machine Learning up perfectly for me, "...reading the stories in this collection is like discovering an entire lost season of The Twilight Zone."...more
When Hugh Howey isn't sailing the sea in his boat he's writing really good science fiction. Beacon 23 was his latest work. It is actually a collectionWhen Hugh Howey isn't sailing the sea in his boat he's writing really good science fiction. Beacon 23 was his latest work. It is actually a collection of five related short stories. The stories are set in a deep-space beacon, kind of light house in space, and the main character is an ex-military fellow who is the beacon operator and happy to be living like a hermit far from humanity. The beacons are part of a network which help spacecraft travel through space at the speed of light. It is not long in to the first story when something goes wrong with Beacon 23 and the rest of the book takes off from there. The book is a quick read and it takes some interesting twists and turns before the satisfying ending. ...more
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 bookThis 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 to 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. I'll give this one 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 stars based on the ending, which I though was really good. So, an overall positive rating from me. Howey IS a great storyteller....more
I liked Sand. I thought the characters were interesting and the sand diving activities were pretty cool science fiction. I was hooked in and really exI liked Sand. I thought the characters were interesting and the sand diving activities were pretty cool science fiction. I was hooked in and really excited about the book after the dive to "Danvar" but the plot went in a totally different direction than I thought it would and the rest of the book was less entertaining for me. I think the story would have been better if some of settings / locations were explored / explained more thoroughly. I wasn't completely clear on what the motivations of some of the antagonists were. It was a good read, though, and I would recommend it to fans of Hugh Howey. Probably more like a 3.5 star book. ...more
Going in to Dust, I was hoping that it would continue at the same very high level of great story telling as the first two installments of the Wool triGoing in to Dust, I was hoping that it would continue at the same very high level of great story telling as the first two installments of the Wool trilogy and I have to say that it did. It was a very different book than I thought it would be and went in a direction that I never would have guessed, and for those reasons it really kept me riveted. I expected a dark mood to the book but it was even darker and depressing than I anticipated - there were very few happy moments, and the characters we grow to know and love were stressed, pressured, questioned, and in danger from all sides right from the beginning it seemed. There were twists and turns, and moments in which I was downright shocked. The plot moved along quickly, a little bit more so that in Shift. The stories of Silos 1,17, and 18 were tied together and all the mysteries therein were explained. After all the personal tragedy and sacrifice which we agonized over for 450 pages, I thought the ending was satisfying, and done just right. I can't recommend the Wool trilogy highly enough. ...more
The prequel to the fantastic Wool omnibus takes us back to the conception of the silo in the near future and eventually runs parallel to the final eveThe prequel to the fantastic Wool omnibus takes us back to the conception of the silo in the near future and eventually runs parallel to the final events of Wool. Shift takes more of a macro view of the world of the silo than Wool but continues the great storytelling through the eyes of several characters. I thought Wool was slightly better than Shift because Shift dragged a little bit in the last of the three stories and the characters were not as interesting as the ones in Wool. Still, it was an excellent read full of big ideas and a lot of twists and turns with some big reveals at the end. Can't wait until the finale of this trilogy, Dust, comes out later this year....more
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