Audio Review: Shift by Hugh Howey

Shift by Hugh Howey
Series: Silo #2
Published by Blackstone Audio, William Morrow on 2013-01-28
Length: 528 pages
Length: 14 hours and 35 minutes
Listening Speed: 2.25x
Reviewing Audiobook, Kindle from Kindle Unlimited, Library
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2025 Audiobook Challenge, 2025 Beat the Backlist, 2025 Library Love

In this second volume in the New York Times best-selling Silo series, Hugh Howey describes the catastrophic events that led to the creation of the silo— and the beginning of the end

In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platforms that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. The technology has an almost limitless capacity for good—but in the wrong hands, it could have an equally boundless capacity for evil.

In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma. A simple pill, it had been discovered, could wipe out the memory of any traumatic event.

At almost the same moment in humanity’s broad history, mankind discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall, and the ability to forget it ever happened. With this godlike power at their fingertips, can humanity be trusted to create a new—and better—world? Or is it doomed to bring about its own destruction?

Wow! Shift by Hugh Howey is the origin story in his series Silo which takes us back to the beginning. Donald is a newly elected politician working in government when he is approached by his mentor for help in designing a top secret project. He doesn’t have all the details, nor is he given any except what he needs to know which is that they need a facility that people can live out of temporarily if a contaminant is released into the air. So begins Donald’s construction and design of the Silos, underground bunkers meant to house thousands.

This was such an interesting addition to the series. It gives a lot of background information as well as the reasoning behind the silos. The book is broken up into three shifts. During Donald’s first shift, the book jumps time periods from before the silos to a hundred years after they entered the silos. Donald is in Silo 1, think of it like the command center. He is monitoring the other silos making sure all continues to run smoothly. In the past, he is building the silo and remembering things that may have stopped the destruction if he’d been made aware of all the details at the time.

I enjoyed seeing everything from his perspective. His shifts give insight into all the silos, how they function and who lives in them. The book spans the time from the creation of the silos up to the rebellion that starts when Juliette refuses to clean filling in gaps that were left open in the first book. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the silos, why they were built, and how Donald got involved. I devoured this one!

Overall, I really enjoyed Shift. I love a good origin story, and Howey lays the groundwork for this one to build on in the next book. The corruption, the politics, the secrets, and lies all build to make a perfect dystopian. If you are a fan of dystopia, political intrigue, or just looking for a high stakes read, I highly recommend it.

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