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Sasa's Reviews > Dust
Dust (Silo, #3)
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Giving the finale to the Silo series a three star rating was not easy, as I've rated the previous books much higher. The Wool Omnibus was one of my favorite books of all time. I've recommended it to numerous friends and have a signed copy of it on my bookshelf. This one, however, left me a bit disappointed. This review is mostly spoiler-free, and spoilers will be tagged/hidden.
Let me start with the positives. Howey once again does a great job of immersing you in the underground world of the silo and its inhabitants, making their struggles seem so real and periodically making me feel claustrophobic. It's as tremendously well-written as the previous books when it comes to storytelling. The story continues seamlessly from where SHIFT and WOOL left off and contains many tense moments that glue your eyes to the page. Throughout the whole novel I felt an overwhelming sense of dread, (view spoiler)
One thing that's bothered me not just about this novel but the series as a whole is the lack of character diversity. The dialogue is well written and realistic, but the words that a character says could just as well be said by any other character. This is even more true in DUST. I never at once felt that any of the characters had any specific qualities or traits attached to them. Even Solo, the most unique character due to his circumstances, acted just like everyone else. I was impressed that Wool had a strong female protagonist, but in Dust another female protagonist is brought in that acts no different than Juliette. Scenes with Shirly felt just like scenes with Courtneee. Lukas, Raph, and Erik all felt like the same person to me. It also seemed redundant to have so many children named in the story when only one of them was fleshed out.
As far as conclusions go, it was okay. I'll keep it vague to avoid spoilers, but there was never really a climax. The most exciting parts of the book were around halfway through, with the last 20% jotting along at a steady pace. Maybe I hyped this book up too much for myself, but I expected it to go out with a bang, and while there kind of was one, it just made me think, "Oh...that wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped it would be." (view spoiler)
The book also felt too long. The first third was very slow and a lot of it seemed unnecessary.
Maybe I'm being a little harsh, because it wasn't by all means a bad book. It deserves to be read, and as a whole, the Silo saga is one of the best book series' I've read, and certainly some of the best dystopian fiction out there. I'm excited to read more of Hugh Howey's work.
SPOILERS: Things I'd like cleared up:
(view spoiler)
Let me start with the positives. Howey once again does a great job of immersing you in the underground world of the silo and its inhabitants, making their struggles seem so real and periodically making me feel claustrophobic. It's as tremendously well-written as the previous books when it comes to storytelling. The story continues seamlessly from where SHIFT and WOOL left off and contains many tense moments that glue your eyes to the page. Throughout the whole novel I felt an overwhelming sense of dread, (view spoiler)
One thing that's bothered me not just about this novel but the series as a whole is the lack of character diversity. The dialogue is well written and realistic, but the words that a character says could just as well be said by any other character. This is even more true in DUST. I never at once felt that any of the characters had any specific qualities or traits attached to them. Even Solo, the most unique character due to his circumstances, acted just like everyone else. I was impressed that Wool had a strong female protagonist, but in Dust another female protagonist is brought in that acts no different than Juliette. Scenes with Shirly felt just like scenes with Courtneee. Lukas, Raph, and Erik all felt like the same person to me. It also seemed redundant to have so many children named in the story when only one of them was fleshed out.
As far as conclusions go, it was okay. I'll keep it vague to avoid spoilers, but there was never really a climax. The most exciting parts of the book were around halfway through, with the last 20% jotting along at a steady pace. Maybe I hyped this book up too much for myself, but I expected it to go out with a bang, and while there kind of was one, it just made me think, "Oh...that wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped it would be." (view spoiler)
The book also felt too long. The first third was very slow and a lot of it seemed unnecessary.
Maybe I'm being a little harsh, because it wasn't by all means a bad book. It deserves to be read, and as a whole, the Silo saga is one of the best book series' I've read, and certainly some of the best dystopian fiction out there. I'm excited to read more of Hugh Howey's work.
SPOILERS: Things I'd like cleared up:
(view spoiler)
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
August 22, 2013
– Shelved
August 22, 2013
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Finished Reading
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Serge, I can definitely understand that. Unfortunately I never felt a strong emotional attachment to any of the characters, besides maybe Solo. The silo series was very much a page-turner thriller in my eyes and I cared more about why people take certain actions rather than the struggles of individual characters. Different strokes.
Great review and echoes my feelings at the end of the book. As my kindle ticked down the %read I wondered how and when a climax would come, but ultimately felt it was a missed opportunity. Howey should be commended overall on this series, but the character development and dialogue is probably richer in the fan fiction spin offs.
Completely agree with your review, spot on. I'd love to see another sequel where we see what happens with the world post-silos, could have huge potential!
I re-read the trilogy for the second time, finishing earlier this week. About a day after I finished Dust I suddenly thought - what about the other silos? What happened to them?! What next?! I didn't consider that first time. I also found myself even more critical about the reasons they were all in silos at all - not enough to still really enjoy the books though. While the premise is probably too far fetched, I just enjoyed this trilogy immensely (twice) :)
Great review. My question is, if the evil cloud is just around the silos, are we actually sure the rest of human civilization was wiped out?? Couldn't that just be part of the lie? I hope maybe I'm just missing something because this has been a question on my mind for a long time now. I was half expecting them to walk out and find a 200+ years advanced civilization that just went on without them.
That's exactly what I was thinking Alexis
No more sequels please, just pump the first
To me, this book seemed like it rushed to the ending. Almost as if Howey's publisher asked him to finish the series in a triology. For me, the second book, Shift, was GOATed due to it's rich tapestry and character complexity. This book is pretty diluted in comparison. And happy endings aren't always the most satisfying, I wish the ending was something a bit more resonating to the overall series than a hastily put together one. I also didn't like that this book starts playing the good guy-bad guy character trope with Donald and Thurman. Also Charlotte was a poor(and bland) character replacement for Donald. Again it just stems from a lack of character development.
Moreover, it seemed like Howey had more stories to tell. It would have been interesting to know what was the state of Silo 40. Also, a big loophole that this story leaves behind is, now that since Silo 1 is dead, what happens to other silos in 250 years? Wouldn't they all die because they don't have a lot of supplies past that date? And they don't have Silo 1 to kill them swiftly so they would die slowly. And all the people of a Silo can't really just suit up and leave since there are close to 10k people in a silo and only 250-300 suits. So close to 400k people will die when all silos stop functioning.
Worst part was the Elise marriage. So glad it didn’t progress
Spoiler: if you paid attention, there was no argon. It was not an argon bubble. It was the bad nanobots.
Presumably the nanobots die off if there’s no resupply from silo 1 and folks that go out to clean eventually don’t die. The area out the viewport probably improves as well. Leading to the emergence of the other silos over the next few years. Of course there isn’t seed material for all of them so who knows if the various silos wind up fighting with each other. The creepy church certainly seemed to set up a world where people were no less messed up than today.
Yes and yes and allow your own imagination to fill in the gaps
What was up with the twins and bodies and disappearing scars in Silo 17? It was brought up and never resolved.
@CM there are two kinds of nanos, and silo 17 received both of them I think? Due to something Anna did? It was hinted at in book 2 iirc. I really wanted to pay more attention but the lack of character development made it hard.
Quite an underwhelming ending. I also gave three stars. So much left to be said, so many unanswered questions. What about the silos that managed to cut communication earlier and were not destroyed?
That's a great review, and I've felt most of those things myself as well. Some stories are started, but never evolved (like the church thing, silo #40, Thurman's point of view). There could've been amazing plots and twists. I've felt most of the book was trying to depict action, instead of the surrounding atmosphere, but parts of the action were somewhat boring (all the details on machinery and drone control room).I've loved the series overall, but I think because the first two books were so good, I had higher expectations about the last one.
Here I am, 11 years late to the party, but yes to all counts here! I did listen to all three books in the series so the outstanding narrator gave into nations and accents that helped one distinguish the characters from one another. But yes - Raph and Lukas were essentially the same guy, conversation-wise.
I agree with everything you said here! I feel the same way. I loved the series, but I think this book was my least favorite. It felt rushed and there were so many weird side stories. I hated every bit of the whole church congregation thing. My biggest frustration with the whole series was the character development. I couldn’t really picture any of the characters other than a few, and I had a hard time discerning the minor characters from one another.
I found myself not loving the final book as much as I’d hoped. Of course, it’s the beautiful ending we all hoped for, but there was so much left unsaid. What was the point of starting a holy war type plot line in the last book just to not resolve at all? What was the point it having Elise tricked into marriage? It seemed like a major thing to start just to have end with “well solo threatened them so all’s good.� I agree with other commenters that so many characters seemed to be just the same rather than multi dimensional. I also agree that it seemed rushed. I think this series may have benefited from a fourth book which could potentially address the whole mystery of silo 40, where the crew of silo 18 goes from here, Thurmon’s POV from when silo 1 was destroyed. I mean there just genuinely is so much that I could EAT UP from further developed plots. Anyway, I hope Solo is well and that he finds a new kitty to love just as he loved Shadow.
I think he's leaving the fate of the other silos up to the fan fiction authors in Kindle Worlds... Howey is the most actively-encouraging author to fan fiction writers I have ever seen. He constantly tweets about how exciting other books people have written in in the Silo universe are.
At any rate, I'm pretty sure the gas is now gone, and the other silos are going to figure things out sooner rather than later. Also, the cloud of death that surrounds them will probably slowly dissipate now that there will be no more gas.