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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed the world this book is set in, a post-apocalyptic sand-covered Earth. I was really loving the book through the first part that was from Palmer's point of view, but as we started getting his siblings mixed in it got a little...messy? Not quite the word I want, but the best I can come up with late at night. Connor and Palmer had the same voice in the book, and could honestly have been the same character. Rob hardly gets any page time, sadly, and by the end of the book it's feeling like the story was really about Vic all along. I don't mind shifting points of view, but it wasn't quite done right in this one.
That all being said, I did really like the story and want to know more about what happened to Earth in the first place and what happens afterwards!
That all being said, I did really like the story and want to know more about what happened to Earth in the first place and what happens afterwards!
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Interesting take on a dystopian world. Family of flawed but courageous and loving people.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good Characters, But...
The story was not all that interesting. The dystopian setting just makes anything that happens feel kind of pointless. A struggle to get through.
The story was not all that interesting. The dystopian setting just makes anything that happens feel kind of pointless. A struggle to get through.
Not a great book, but I believe I enjoyed it more than any of the entries in his Silo series. The book moves along and relied less on big "twists" to keep the plot interesting.
The story follows a large family trying to survive in some unnamed future. The setting was ok, and I thought that the family was well done. The story moved along and was easy to read, but otherwise seems somewhat forgettable.
The story follows a large family trying to survive in some unnamed future. The setting was ok, and I thought that the family was well done. The story moved along and was easy to read, but otherwise seems somewhat forgettable.
This was a pleasant, swift read, but when I had read most of the pages, but felt like I was missing more than half the plot, it somewhat felt flat... The ending seems rushed, or mostly setup for a sequel. Looks like there isn't one coming; this is all there is at the point. That's disappointing. The world was odd, somewhat fascinating, but felt a bit like a facade without much depth.
Sand is one of those high concept thought experiment stories so beloved in Science Fiction, a modern-day "what if?" story that dares to ask a very difficult question but then succeeds or fails on the answer it provides. In this respect, the book quite possibly fails because in the end the sum of its parts didn't add up to a whole.
Where this story succeeds though is in the characterisation and world building evident in every page. I make no secret that for me these are two of the most important parts of a story and without them I would not enjoy the plot nearly as much. In both cases the author succeeds admirably - you get a real feel for how difficult the lives are for these people, and you can almost feel the sand rubbing it's implacable way under your skin. The family whose various stories form the bulk of the plot are very well written - if these stories seem to intersect in rather unbelievable ways at times does not make them any less interesting to read. You get a real sense that these people have suffered, something that is especially true of the female members of the family, who have had an incredibly raw deal. The male members, being younger, have had more time to adapt to their changing circumstances and have the flexibility of youth to cope with it, but even they are not exempt from this suffering.
I mentioned in the spoiler above that there is an explanation for all the sand, but in a way it might have made a better story to have left this unexplained, though this would have left the book without it's climactic (or is that climatic?) finale. This would have left the well-written scenes of diving through sand to the buried skyscrapers of the old world far beneath them to pull up treasures - Samsonite cases full of clothes, coffee makers, plate glass and thousands of tons of metal, but without an ending it would have just petered out. This is a quest story, and every quest needs to have it's Mount Doom to make it worthwhile, and this book is no exception.
One last thought I had was that this was in some respects an anti-government story, which at times left me feeling slightly uneasy (British people tend to have more faith in government than our American cousins). The independent and plucky sand people are being beaten down and oppressed by an unseeing and uncaring distant government whose selfishness and short-sightedness ruins the lives of small people far away. This may be a projection on my part though as we know nothing about these distant rulers, who may just as well be a asset-stripping major corporation as a federal government. Leaving this part ambiguous leaves people to assign their own villains here though.
This is an intriguing and inventive world that the author has created and while I would like to read more stories set in this world, the book also stands on its own and complete.
4 stars
Spoiler
I found it impossible to believe that any mining operation, no matter how large, could bury the whole of Colorado (and possibly more) under 1000 metres of waste sand. The motivations of the rulers of this operation is suspect - why would they destroy a free source of labour by detonating a nuclear bomb over the area? Finally, why would a single bomb delivered to those rulers succeed in shutting down the mining operation, and allow it to rain over Colorado for the first time in hundreds or thousands of years.Where this story succeeds though is in the characterisation and world building evident in every page. I make no secret that for me these are two of the most important parts of a story and without them I would not enjoy the plot nearly as much. In both cases the author succeeds admirably - you get a real feel for how difficult the lives are for these people, and you can almost feel the sand rubbing it's implacable way under your skin. The family whose various stories form the bulk of the plot are very well written - if these stories seem to intersect in rather unbelievable ways at times does not make them any less interesting to read. You get a real sense that these people have suffered, something that is especially true of the female members of the family, who have had an incredibly raw deal. The male members, being younger, have had more time to adapt to their changing circumstances and have the flexibility of youth to cope with it, but even they are not exempt from this suffering.
I mentioned in the spoiler above that there is an explanation for all the sand, but in a way it might have made a better story to have left this unexplained, though this would have left the book without it's climactic (or is that climatic?) finale. This would have left the well-written scenes of diving through sand to the buried skyscrapers of the old world far beneath them to pull up treasures - Samsonite cases full of clothes, coffee makers, plate glass and thousands of tons of metal, but without an ending it would have just petered out. This is a quest story, and every quest needs to have it's Mount Doom to make it worthwhile, and this book is no exception.
One last thought I had was that this was in some respects an anti-government story, which at times left me feeling slightly uneasy (British people tend to have more faith in government than our American cousins). The independent and plucky sand people are being beaten down and oppressed by an unseeing and uncaring distant government whose selfishness and short-sightedness ruins the lives of small people far away. This may be a projection on my part though as we know nothing about these distant rulers, who may just as well be a asset-stripping major corporation as a federal government. Leaving this part ambiguous leaves people to assign their own villains here though.
This is an intriguing and inventive world that the author has created and while I would like to read more stories set in this world, the book also stands on its own and complete.
4 stars
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes