Shift

  • Author: Hugh Howey
  • Full Title: Shift
  • Tags: #Inbox #books
  • Recommendation: 2/10
    • I loved the Silo Apple TV show - great characters, riveting plot. I enjoyed the first Silo book, Wool. But I realized towards the end of that book and halfway through this book that the depth of the characters came completely from the screenwriters. There is no character development in this book, and nobody is even likable.
  • Part of my Read 24 Books in 2023 project - I read this during our stay in Montpellier, France!

Highlights

  • It had all been perfectly arranged—all the levels and tasks and job descriptions—but for what? For maximum apathy? (Location 762)
  • It was the castration of thought, the daily grind of an office worker who drooled at the clock, punched out, watched TV until sleep overtook him, slapped an alarm three times, did it again. It was made worse by the absence of weekends. There were no free days. (Location 768)
  • No one was truly awake. No one was truly alive. They must have wanted it that way. (Location 773)
  • “Predict the inevitable,” she said, “and you’re bound to be right one day.” (Location 2959)
  • “When there’s only God to blame, we forgive him. When it’s our fellow man, we destroy him.” (Location 3301)
  • Donald was verging on the sad realization that humanity had been thrown to the brink of extinction by insane men in positions of power following one another, each thinking the others knew where they were going. (Location 3515)
  • His discovery was that evil men arose from evil systems, and that any man had the potential to be perverted. Which was why some systems needed to come to an end. (Location 6704)
  • A word of advice here: If you love reading, you should really give writing a chance. The (Location 6911)
  • blank page can be whatever you want it to be. A sad scene, a happy scene, a love story, a tragedy. It’s all right there. You are in charge. You make the rules. Delight your every fancy. Right your every literary wrong. (Location 6912)