Book #33 of 2016: Wool, #34: Proper Gauge (Wool #2), 2016 abandoned book: Rain

[thistlechaser]

Wool by Hugh Howey
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I first read and loved Wool back in 2013 (my brief review of it), and I had wanted to read the other books in the series, but I just never got around to it. Finally I decided to do it, and since I had loved the first story so much, I wanted to start by rereading it.

Unfortunately the enjoyment of the story was all in the twists, in not knowing what was going to happen. It didn't at all stand up to a rereading. I mostly just read it to get through it, so I could move on to the next book.

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Proper Gauge by Hugh Howey
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



Unfortunately the second Wool book really didn't work for me. It almost felt like it was set in a whole different world. It was very very light on plot. It had no twists. I got through it, but I had no desire at all to read the remaining... four? books in the series.

Shortest book review ever? Probably. It just didn't drive me to read it, and thus it really doesn't drive me to write about it. It wasn't bad, it was just too slow and meandering for me. Still, I finished the whole thing.

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Rain: Rise of the Living Dead by Shaun Harbinger
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I grabbed a copy of this book when it was free, but otherwise never would have. I really don't like zombie stories. Other than following Walking Dead for a few seasons, I've always avoided books and movies about zombies. They bore me.

Rain started off interestingly. The main character was someone like me -- works a 9 to 5 job, then spends the weekends playing video games and eating bad food (okay, someone like me other than the bad food part anymore). I liked him.

Then the best friend and others were introduced. Sigh. It's like the author said "I want X to happen," so had the best friend do things to make X happen, nevermind that no reasonable person, let alone a best friend, would do those things to another person. None of the three other main characters were believable or reasonable humans, and too quickly the main character went in the other unreasonable direction: too good at stuff.

Plus, apparently the world can end in a couple hours. I mean like zero radio stations, zero Internet, all gone between breakfast and lunch. Because a zombie virus was spreading.

I gave up on the book 13% in, thus it doesn't count for the year.

Currently reading: Chronology, a collection of short stories about time, with a spiffy cover. Click for bigger:

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

With Wool, I really liked the first story (though, yeah, for the twist more than anything, so not sure it would hold up well on a reread for me either), was not very impressed with the second story at all. The ones after that actually did get a bit more interesting, though I think #1 was still my favorite.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I got a few pages into the third one, but the second one had soured me, so I gave up on it fast. Maybe one day I'll go back to it... but NOT reread the first two again before I do. :P