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Half Way Home (2010)

by Hugh Howey(Favorite Author)

3.7 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0982611935 (ISBN13: 9780982611937)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Broad Reach Publishing

review 1: I really really loved the Wool series and so was looking forward to reading this book. Felt very disappointed. IT was supposed to be written from a teenager's perspective but it didn't come across like this and I did not connect with any of the characters. Conversely, the book didn't have the depth or strong narrative pull of his wool series and I wondered if he had actually written this when he was a lot younger himself (and only decided to publish it after the success he has had). Perhaps the change of gear in the style of writing was supposed to make it more accessible to the younger market but I just found it lacked flow and lacked energy. I really didn't understand the whole sexual identity crisis of the main character. I felt this wasn't even interesting and just det... moreracted from the story. The weird thing was that none of these teenagers seemed to even have sex - how unbelievable is that!!? I thought the premise was good and then it all went off in a very strange direction. I really did not get what was so exciting about big trees, caterpillar type animals and falling fruit.**SPOILER HERE***And the idea of a creature that defecates gold was just laughable!The beginning when the children were getting out of their "incubators" was the most exciting bit and it just went downhill after that. Sorry Hugh. I'll still try more of his work but think he should have left this one in the bin.
review 2: Howey mashes up science fiction tropes at a dizzying pace. This is The Matrix-meets-Hothouse-meets-Dune. All told in a very entertaining way. Great world-building. The characters are a little cardboard-y, but hey, they were raised in a vat by an AI, what can you expect?Until the end. Sorry, Mr Howey, but you have a real problem with endings. This one came far too abruptly. It could have been expanded into another twenty-five pages and still remained enigmatic and surprising.One thing would have enhanced the book further. The ship spent hundreds of years on its mission. the return message (both the aborted one and the new one sent in its stead) will take more hundreds. But no-one, not even the AI, is in the least concerned that they are serving the interests of a specific society on earth that may have disappeared or evolved out of recognition by then. less

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