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  • Shift

  • Wool Trilogy, Book 2
  • By: Hugh Howey
  • Narrated by: Peter Brooke
  • Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (825 ratings)

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Shift cover art

Shift

By: Hugh Howey
Narrated by: Peter Brooke
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Summary

The much anticipated prequel to best seller Wool that takes us back to the beginnings of the silo. The full novel which brings together First, Second and Third Shift.

In a future less than fifty years away, the world is still as we know it. Time continues to tick by. The truth is that it is ticking away. A powerful few know what lies ahead. They are preparing for it. They are trying to protect us. They are setting us on a path from which we can never return. A path that will lead to destruction; a path that will take us below ground. The history of the silo is about to be written. Our future is about to begin.

©2013 Hugh Howey (P)2013 Random House AudioGo

Critic reviews

"The next Hunger Games" ( The Sunday Times)
"An epic feat of imagination. You will live in this world." (Justin Cronin)

"Brilliantly written...Howey creates a starkly believable and terrifying apocalypse. More and more layers of the dystopian world are unveiled, enticingly paving the way for the sequel Dust..." 5 Stars, (Sunday Express)

"We have been mesmerised with Hugh Howey's silo stories since we first laid eyes on book one in the trilogy...We'd recommend reading Wool first but you'll want to have this one ready as we guarantee you'll be unable to put it down. Perfect sunshine reading, wouldn't you say?" (Grazia Daily)

"Wool started life as a skilful, bleak, short story. Its premise and the dexterity with which Howey pulled it off drew him readers from outside the genre; Shift is one for those who are already hooked" (Culture, Sunday Times)

What listeners say about Shift

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, terrible performance!!

Was really looking forward to this book after the excellent Wool that was excellently performed by a lady with a lovely expressive and versatile voice.
Have found this book hard going despite the great story, the narrator sounds like a surfer and I keep waiting for him to say 'duuude'.
It looks as though Audible are looking to cash in on the success of Wool by bringing over this recording from America but it is so difficult to get past the narrator's voice.
Listen to the sample before you buy, if you can listen to narrator then you are in for a great story.

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Oh Dear

I wanted to love this as much as I had wool, but its too long winded and gets tied in knots with its time lines.

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A rewrite of Wool from a different point of view

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Stop using silly voices

Any additional comments?

If you've read Wool (which is brilliant) and want to read Dust (which is very good) then you need to read Shift for it to make sense. Apart from that, I'd give it a miss. I would give Wool 10/10, Shift 5/10 and Dust 8/10.

5 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Story drags out too long, cash grab series

The Idea of the story is good. But the pace at which the plot unfolds is really too slow. I had to increase the reading speeds to 1.5x just to stay somewhat interested. I won't blame the narrator. I was never distracted by him. It is the filler content that bores the like out of me. If you gave the idea to Andy Weir, our imagination would be on fire. This story and all in the series require engineering filler content.

4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book with poor narration

The voices the chap has are all the same and become really frustrating the longer it goes on.

The main guy is good but would be helped by some other voices as characters.

story is very good though.

3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Awful

I will NEVER listen to anything narrated by Peter Brooke again. The guy is a goof. It became so bad that it's funny more than once but worst reading of anything I've heard.

If you enjoyed the first book, well done. You can't possibly not want to know more. Unfortunately, all you will learn is the writer is a hack and got lucky the first time. This really needed a better editor. The only answers in this are to questions you never had.

You can't quite skip this and go to the third for continuities sake but the third one also gets far more passes on the reviews than it should too. My only hope is that HBO or a film studio buy the rights. Do the first book verbatim and re-write everything else. Bad book. Avoid.

Hugh Howey is the proof of Chimps and Typewriters. I wouldn't let him near my shopping list after the next two installments. Whomper.

2 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Disturbing and awful narration

I have written this review for all of the trilogy, though this one was particularly bad because of the narration.
This review probably applies to the complete trilogy, the story was well written, but I really didn't enjoy it. Most of the characters weren't 'full enough' to get to know them and like them. The situation was bizarre to say the least, but very disturbing in general. I wish I hadn't read this at all.

2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

My Review

Ok so I'm not going to sit here and slander this book, it wasn't bad but in my opinion it was nowhere near as good as the first book in the trilogy. I didn't like the narrator's voice, however I'm sure people would. I didn't like the style of the book, I didn't enjoy the back and forth of the story. I guess I am comparing it to Wool and I didn't enjoy it as much. I'd probably read the book instead of listen to this if I had to do it again

2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good book, middling narrator

I've loved this trilogy for years, but the narration in this book almost made me quit. do yourself a favour and listen at at least 1.4x to get through it.

1 person found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Oh, it is just so tedious.

I made it to the end, I feel like I've completed a gruelling marathon. The story frequently jumps about, or seems to, for no particular reason. By the second half of the book you're starting to question if the first half was indeed the same book, or completely unrelated. Crucial questions are answered, by the main character, in their mind, and the answers are not shared with the humble reader who is still wondering what on gods green earth is going on. Wool, of the same series, is worthwhile but stay away from this one.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Sharon
  • 27-09-13

I Loved this book

I so enjoyed this book. The story was a little more original than many of these sorts of books and it made me think. I enjoyed the narration too. If you like your science fiction with a little less alien action and with some real world action this is for you. A dark future that you can imagine happening in a way.

1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • roz79
  • 25-04-15

Not as as good as the first. 3 1/2 stars

I thought the story was average. Not a huge fan of the narration. Story seemed to drag at places. Hopefully next installment will pick up