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Half Way Home
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From the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of Wool and the Molly Fyde saga comes a story of teenage colonists marooned on a distant planet.
WE WOKE IN FIRE
Five hundred colonists have been sent across the stars to settle an alien planet. Vat-grown in a dream-like state, they are educated through simulations by an artificial intelligence and should awaken at ...more
WE WOKE IN FIRE
Five hundred colonists have been sent across the stars to settle an alien planet. Vat-grown in a dream-like state, they are educated through simulations by an artificial intelligence and should awaken at ...more
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
October 1st 2019
by John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published May 1st 2010)
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Ships are sent out to colonize planets containing 500 blastocyst that eventually become humans who are trained and educated before reaching the designated planet. The AI in charge of the ship, Colony, decides when reaching the planet whether at any point the mission needs to be aborted and whether to get rid of the potential humans in the ship it contains. Usually the AI makes the decision easily on whether or not the mission is to be continued but this time something unusual happens and the AI
...more

Well, I adored Hugh Howey's Wool series and The Plagiarist short story, but this one missed the mark quite a bit. Which is too bad, since Howey can do much better than that.
It's a sci-fi story, which I generally adore. A shipload of zygotes lands on a distant planet destined to become a home for a colony of settlers who would be released from their pods in 30 years as fully grown human beings taught to do certain jobs and taught to think in a certain way. Normally if a planet is determined to be ...more
It's a sci-fi story, which I generally adore. A shipload of zygotes lands on a distant planet destined to become a home for a colony of settlers who would be released from their pods in 30 years as fully grown human beings taught to do certain jobs and taught to think in a certain way. Normally if a planet is determined to be ...more

I have a personal policy to not re-read books. 1) I might not like/love it as much as I did the first time around and will be disappointed, and 2) My TBR list is about 3.5 miles long with books I have yet to read for the first time. This book is an exception for the very simple reason that I didn't look at the title before requesting an ARC. I saw Hugh Howey's name, publication date October 1, 2019 and there I was:

I immediately requested the book for review and only then did I check the title an ...more

I immediately requested the book for review and only then did I check the title an ...more


Half Way Home is about a colony that was raised in (vats?) until about the age of 15, enduring some kind of telepathic training, and then aborted by the colony’s AI. At the last minute, mid-abort sequence, the colony AI decides there is something worth saving on the planet and halts the process. There are only about 60 survivors out of 500.
Now the colonists are being told to construct a rocket for… something. No one knows what. Unfortunately, the colony AI isn’t telling anyone why, just keeps pu ...more
Now the colonists are being told to construct a rocket for… something. No one knows what. Unfortunately, the colony AI isn’t telling anyone why, just keeps pu ...more

Half Way Home is the first stand-alone novel by American author, Hugh Howey. While it nourishes, nurtures and teaches its five hundred charges from blastocyst to adult maturity, the Colony ship’s Artificial Intelligence is constantly assessing the conditions on the planet for viability of the settlement. It may, at any time, abort. And on the planet where trainee psychologist Porter’s ship has landed, it does so, but then abandons the abort.
Less than sixty survive the abort. They are fifteen ye ...more
Less than sixty survive the abort. They are fifteen ye ...more

Well, this was a pure delight! For the first 20 pages. And then it turned into... not a delight. Allow me to explain.
Half Way Home starts out with a great premise. Humanity is colonizing other planets by sending out "seed ships" that, once they land, activate the development of their stored embryos. As these human beings grow in vats aboard the spaceship, the computer AI trains them in their pre-selected profession. Then at age 30, they are "hatched" as fully-formed, fully-educated adults who bu ...more
Half Way Home starts out with a great premise. Humanity is colonizing other planets by sending out "seed ships" that, once they land, activate the development of their stored embryos. As these human beings grow in vats aboard the spaceship, the computer AI trains them in their pre-selected profession. Then at age 30, they are "hatched" as fully-formed, fully-educated adults who bu ...more

Oct 13, 2013
✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans)
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
I should start by saying that I wasn't aware this was a young adult novel when I started reading it. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have read it. I love Hugh Howey but I have been disappointed by so many YA novels lately that I tend to stay away from them.
Half Way Home wasn't such a bad read. The premise of the book is interesting and I enjoyed the first few pages a lot. But it went downhill from there... What made it really difficult for me to enjoy this book was the narrative style. Too dry, ...more
Half Way Home wasn't such a bad read. The premise of the book is interesting and I enjoyed the first few pages a lot. But it went downhill from there... What made it really difficult for me to enjoy this book was the narrative style. Too dry, ...more

I cry easily … I’ll revise that. I have the urge to cry easily and often shed a tear or two. I’m not a sobber but I’m a very sensitive person. That said, I can’t remember the last time a book made me cry. It might have happened some time in my teenage years but I can’t think of an instance. For some reason, as much as I get into my reading, it doesn’t trigger the same response in me as a movie or hearing terrible things in the news.
Half Way Home made me cry. In a good way.
Porter is a boy who was ...more
Half Way Home made me cry. In a good way.
Porter is a boy who was ...more

I really enjoyed this book. It feels like an old-fashioned scifi story. I loved Wool series, but didn't love Sand and this one certainly proves to me what a great writer Hugh is. I wish it was double the size, which is the sign of a good book. It's a Lord of The Flies on an alien planet.
...more

„I was a blastocyst, once. A mere jumble of cells clinging to one another. A fertilized egg. Of course, we were all in just such a state at some point in our lives, but I excelled at it in a way you didn't. I spent more time in that condition than I have as a person. Hundreds of years more, in fact.“
Thus begins Hugh Howey's short and sadly overlooked stand-alone young adult novel Half Way Home. If you are looking for something different among the dystopia rubble: Here you are. What is Half Way ...more
Thus begins Hugh Howey's short and sadly overlooked stand-alone young adult novel Half Way Home. If you are looking for something different among the dystopia rubble: Here you are. What is Half Way ...more

This book felt a little bit like a futuristic Lord of the Flies to start.
Fifty-nine kids awaken on a planet 15 years sooner than they should have with more than half of their numbers gone. Each has a special skill that has been programmed into them including Engineer, Psychologist, Electrician, Farmer, etc. The survivors start to rebuild with help from The Colony, an artificial intelligence program. But when the leadership is changed and becomes more like a work camp, some of the kids break off ...more
Fifty-nine kids awaken on a planet 15 years sooner than they should have with more than half of their numbers gone. Each has a special skill that has been programmed into them including Engineer, Psychologist, Electrician, Farmer, etc. The survivors start to rebuild with help from The Colony, an artificial intelligence program. But when the leadership is changed and becomes more like a work camp, some of the kids break off ...more

Hugh Howey is a master storyteller, well imo. Everything he seems to write turns to gold and Halfway Home is no exception. The only thing I was surprised about was that it was a YA book. I've been disappointed with the majority of YA I've read recently, so had I known this book was YA, and although I love Hugh Howey's writing, I may not have bothered reading it. So I'm glad I didn't realise this until after I picked this one up. The only slight negative I have is the last fifth of the book, it f
...more

In the first episode of Stargate, Samantha Carter entered the room and attention was drawn to her being a woman. She was doubted and she was defensive. Her gender dominated the room.
Ten years later after the series ended the producers reworked and rereleased that episode. They cut those bits and let us focus on the sci-fi.
This novella is a bit like that. The storyline is really interesting but it is dominated, in my mind, by the homosexual nature of the main character. It is handled badly. He ...more

This one took me a lot longer to get through than it should have. It just never hooked me like I was hoping, nor was there ever any sense that things wouldn't work out. I loved the concept, a very Orson Scott Card-esque novel, complete with children characters that think much more adult-like than they should for their age. There's really not a lot bad here, just little that was great. It felt "undercooked" for me. Great ideas and concepts that were never given the time to fully evolve.
That bein ...more
That bein ...more

Feb 25, 2020
TraceyL
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
young-adult,
science-fiction
I love Hugh Howey but this book was nowhere near as good as his other works.
The premise is fine. AI spaceships travel through space looking for new planets to colonize. They are filled with what are basically test tube babies, who are raised to adulthood with computers streaming information into their brains, so they will be fully trained scientists by the time they land. If the AI decides that the planet it was sent to is uninhabitable, it destroys itself and all of the passengers. In this cas ...more
The premise is fine. AI spaceships travel through space looking for new planets to colonize. They are filled with what are basically test tube babies, who are raised to adulthood with computers streaming information into their brains, so they will be fully trained scientists by the time they land. If the AI decides that the planet it was sent to is uninhabitable, it destroys itself and all of the passengers. In this cas ...more

Unlike some of the other reviews posted here, I thought that the novel was original and intriguing. Howey gets extra points for bizarre aliens - I have always enjoyed stories with bizarre aliens in them: never forget the Puppeteers from Larry Niven's Known Space universe, for example. Here, I think Howey took a few chances: first of all, the subtle but definite portrayal of Porter, who comes to realize, in fits and starts, that unlike the other surviving boys in the colony, he is not attracted t
...more

15 year old narrator who sounds like he's 40? Check.
Oversimplification of sexuality through the use of "gay gene"? Check.
All knowing AI launching into the quintessential bad-guy monologue? Check.
Oh yeah, how about the all knowing AI who sounds like a bitter middle-aged shoe salesman? Check.
Female character present only so that the threat of raping her can be used against the main character? Check.
Galaxy spanning civilization inexplicably concerned with the mining of gold...or any other metal? Ch ...more
Oversimplification of sexuality through the use of "gay gene"? Check.
All knowing AI launching into the quintessential bad-guy monologue? Check.
Oh yeah, how about the all knowing AI who sounds like a bitter middle-aged shoe salesman? Check.
Female character present only so that the threat of raping her can be used against the main character? Check.
Galaxy spanning civilization inexplicably concerned with the mining of gold...or any other metal? Ch ...more

Feb 21, 2015
Roberta Jayne
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-in-2015,
best-fantasy
4.5 stars. I loved everything about this book; I love everything Hugh Howey writes, to be honest, and it's no surprise that he has managed to totally captivate and entertain me once again through his fantastic world-building skills and incredible writing talent.
I read this book on my Kindle and, I can definitely say that, this is the first book I've read in e-book form that I've properly enjoyed and actually really want to read again. Usually reading digital books affects my enjoyment of the st ...more
I read this book on my Kindle and, I can definitely say that, this is the first book I've read in e-book form that I've properly enjoyed and actually really want to read again. Usually reading digital books affects my enjoyment of the st ...more

Self published and obviously so. An editor, even a mediocre editor might have improved this throw away, best by recommending it be shelved and revisited from a learned perspective of years and maturity whereupon the author may have decided not to dilute his excellent works such as The Dust Omnibus or Sand with this derivative mess. Not all walks in the woods result in a worthwhile story and if this one was by any stretch worthwhile it deserved more than a one month writing. It is insultingly a s
...more

Fun. Sure, a lot of reviewers have given this book a hard time, but ... hey, it was a quick, fun read. And that's all I was in the mood for so ... worked for me. Fun.
...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 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 rea
...more

Review is up on Sci Fi and Scary now. Here it is.
I want to preface this by saying that I absolutely adore Howey’s WOOL series. I am reading the last book in the series with a friend at the time of this review. We are so excited to see where he takes things, yet at the same time it is bittersweet because it is just that good. It was like coming home as soon as I opened the cover.
This book did not have the same connection with me. You might say I was halfway home (I couldn’t help myself). The pre ...more
I want to preface this by saying that I absolutely adore Howey’s WOOL series. I am reading the last book in the series with a friend at the time of this review. We are so excited to see where he takes things, yet at the same time it is bittersweet because it is just that good. It was like coming home as soon as I opened the cover.
This book did not have the same connection with me. You might say I was halfway home (I couldn’t help myself). The pre ...more

A colony somewhere out in space starts by growing its population from human embryos. They are grown in vats, but something goes wrong and the people are born too soon, as teenagers, half prepared for the lives they were to lead on a planet that is not what it is supposed to be.
Not up to Howey's usual standards. There were discrepancies, unanswered questions,etc. And why were these vat grown, AI trained young people born knowing how to swear like sailors? ...more
Not up to Howey's usual standards. There were discrepancies, unanswered questions,etc. And why were these vat grown, AI trained young people born knowing how to swear like sailors? ...more

I started reading Howey's 600 page book Wool around 6pm on a Sunday evening. Around 3am, I realized I needed to put the book down because I had to go to work in a few hours and should get a little sleep. I was immediately drawn into that book, its premise, the execution was so good, the intensity kept me turning the pages and I needed to know what was going to happen next. It's not often I find a book that holds me like that.
This is not that book. I liked the premise of it and I thought it had s ...more
This is not that book. I liked the premise of it and I thought it had s ...more

Meh......
So, they can't all be winners, right? This Hugh Howey book does not earn my recommendation.
I still enjoyed the story--mostly from the point of view that I'm impressed with the author's ability to tell a tale so unique. I've never heard of another story like this one, not even the premise or ideas.
Unique story or not, this one didn't for for me for two reasons:
1) The language was foul. Total foul. I stuck with it because I had hoped it would get better and I had such a good experience wi ...more
So, they can't all be winners, right? This Hugh Howey book does not earn my recommendation.
I still enjoyed the story--mostly from the point of view that I'm impressed with the author's ability to tell a tale so unique. I've never heard of another story like this one, not even the premise or ideas.
Unique story or not, this one didn't for for me for two reasons:
1) The language was foul. Total foul. I stuck with it because I had hoped it would get better and I had such a good experience wi ...more

Wool was an entertaining if slightly unsatisfying read, but it had enough to convince me that Howey had the potential to be a great writer and produce a great novel. I hope his other work is better than Half Way Home, because it feels like a big step backwards.
The premise is excellent, and the novel gets off to an explosive start. But after this it loses its momentum and never recovers. The whole book feels rushed - the plot reads like a teenage summer diary where things just happen and there's ...more
The premise is excellent, and the novel gets off to an explosive start. But after this it loses its momentum and never recovers. The whole book feels rushed - the plot reads like a teenage summer diary where things just happen and there's ...more

I think the most striking thing about this novel is how honestly different the narrative sounds from his other books. I read The Shell Collector earlier this year and it's really refreshing to pick this book up and be truly charmed by Howey's voice again. There are a lot of rough edges in this book that probably could have been refined a little better/more but there are some real shining moments in this book. I love his aliens and the world building and hope we see more of it in the future. I do
...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Madison Mega-Mara...: #112 - Half Way Home by Hugh Howey | 1 | 3 | Oct 18, 2015 04:56AM | |
Kindle Unlimited ...: Half Way Home | 1 | 17 | Nov 01, 2014 05:23PM | |
What's the Name o...: SOLVED:Y/A cryogenics revived before learning complete, crashed landed and trying to survive [s] | 3 | 25 | Jun 10, 2014 09:50PM | |
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Sci Fi or Fantasy book about young people riding huge creatures up very large trees [s] | 4 | 34 | Mar 13, 2014 09:14PM |
I'm the author of WOOL, a top 5 science fiction book on Amazon. I also wrote the Molly Fyde saga, a tale of a teenager from the 25th century who is repeatedly told that girls can't do certain things -- and then does them anyway.
A theme in my books is the celebration of overcoming odds and of not allowing the cruelty of the universe to change who you are in the process. Most of them are classified ...more
A theme in my books is the celebration of overcoming odds and of not allowing the cruelty of the universe to change who you are in the process. Most of them are classified ...more
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