September Group Read: Shift

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

Hi Guys,
This month we will be reading Shift by Hugh Howey. This is a sequel to Howey's Wool which, I'll admit, I didn't really like but Shift was in my to read pile so here we go!

Schedule
Week 1: September 1st - September - September 7th: First Shift - Legacy to Chapter 20, 2110 Silo 1. Pg 1 - Pg 144
Week 2: September 8th - September 14th: Chapter 20, 2110 Silo 1 to Chapter 44, Silo 1. Pg 145 - Pg 280
Week 3: September 15th - September 21st: Chapter 44, Silo 1 - Chapter 72, 2345 Silo 1. Pg 281 - Pg 422
Week 4: September 22nd - September 28th: Chapter 72, 2345 Silo 1 - End. Pg 423 - End.

Summary
In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platform that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. 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 had discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall. And the ability to forget it ever happened.

What would you do
If you were forced to survive,
when everyone you cared about was dead?

And the only place you could live
was in a closed off world,
buried deep below ground.

This is the start of the Silo.

This is the first SHIFT

Silo series, Wikipedia

Hugh Howey, Wikipedia


**Please feel free to share your thoughts as you read.

**Please remember to mark your spoilers.

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

***Spoilers ahead***

So, I blasted through the first section and, so far, I think this is a better book than Wool. I also think you could probably read this without having read Wool.

So, it jumps back and forward through time showing us moments in the planning and building of the Silos as well as quite some time after the disaster that forced everyone into them. We think we are following two different characters, Donald and Troy, but (here's where the spoilers start, you have been warned) there is the slow reveal of the fact that they are the same person. I really enjoyed the build up to Troys realization!

My edition of this book has group read questions in the back so I'm going to cheat and ask one or two from it, so here goes:

The members of Silo One are given medication that causes them to forget traumatic events. If you were offered this medication freely, would you take it? Or would you want to remember the truth about your past?

[Andrew]

I read this book a while ago. I remember thinking that this is totally feasible and could happen.

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

Andrew wrote: "I read this book a while ago. I remember thinking that this is totally feasible and could happen."
It is slightly scary to think of alright.

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

Ok, questions time:
Donald discovers that Anna is the reason he is in Silo One, and not with Helen in a different Silo, and is furious. Do you think she put him there for purely selfish reasons? Or do you think she thought he would be the best man for the job? In either case, do you thinks she had the right to make that decision for him?

[Andrew]

I don't remember too much about the specific characters...too many other books have clouded my memory.

Who else is reading this?

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

Andrew wrote: "I don't remember too much about the specific characters...too many other books have clouded my memory.

Who else is reading this?"
Not sure, possibly just me.

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

So, last couple of questions:
How did you feel when Thurman 'shepherds' Donald back in from the outside? Where you happy that he saved his life? Or were you behind Donald, wanting him to die a free man?

Donald wakes up his sister, Charlotte, because he need her help, and as soon as she's with him, he feels happier. Would you wake your loved ones if you were in Donald's position? Or would you want to protect them from the horrors of their new existence?

When Juliette comes into contact with Donald at the end of Shift, she threatens him, as she sees him as the keeper of lies and secrets, and the reason for the state of her world.
Was this how you felt towards those in authority as you read Wool? How has your opinion changed since hearing Donald's side of the story? Why?

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

So, as I said in my review of this book, I found it a lot more enjoyable than Wool. I don't know if this was because the characters were just more likeable or because we get all of the backstory for the world this series is set in.
It is kind of worrying to read this book as it becomes more and more realistic as the years go by. I don't agree with the theory that it was better to blow everything up before someone else did it but I can understand the thinking behind it.