Rating: ★★★★
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 pushing the colonists harder and harder to finish the project. We follow Porter and his two friends, Kelvin and Tarsi, as they decide to make a break from the colony and survive on their own. Unfortunately there’s something waiting for them out there beyond the gates of the colony.
I wasn’t really expecting this to have any horror type storyline, but towards the end it definitely veered that way. You begin getting glimpses of that type of plot early on, and I loved every second of it. I wouldn’t say it was too scary, but I loved the creep factor of the colonists venturing into the unknown, exploring things that were new and fun and scary all at once.
The plot moves at a pretty quick pace. This is less than 300 pages long, and the colonists are basically newborns, so there weren’t any complicated character/world history back stories to set up. We’re dropped in right at the moment they start existing outside of their “vats” (sorry I really can’t remember what they were called in the book) and that allowed us to just always keep moving forward, building the history as it went.
The characters themselves were wonderful, even if they didn’t have lots of past baggage to build them out. Their relationships were complex. There is a love triangle of sorts, but it was a love triangle that actually worked in this instance and didn’t grow too tiresome.
It wasn’t a full five Star read for me, just because I think there were a couple things that felt off. At some point the colony AI has the kids making guns out of gold. Supposedly these guns actually work. Gold is too soft to make guns out of. They would be highly likely to explode, and any mention of golden guns took me out of the story. The second critique is that the planet felt a little sparse. Having read Black Leopard, Red Wolf earlier in the year, with its amazing world building, I just thought more could have been done? I realize being that it’s a short book there wasn’t a whole lot of extra room for planet and landscape building, but I just would have liked to have seen more than giant trees, fuzzy worms and bomb fruit.
All in all, it was a fun adventure and I’m doubly excited to check out Howey’s Wool having read this. Thank you to the publisher for sending an ARC to review.
Fantastic review! I’m even more excited to read it now 🙂
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I hope you love it! I loaned it to a friend when I was done and she’s really enjoying it too.
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I’ve been waiting for someone to review this. It sounds really good! The only thing I’ve read by Howey is Wool (the original story, not the whole series) and I’d definitely read him again.
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I hope you get a chance to check it out! I think you’d enjoy it.
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Sounds neat! I’ve been wanting to read Wool also (because of sheep, not because of anything to do with Howey’s actual story) so I’m glad to hear you enjoyed his writing in this one! The concept is really cool, too.
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The concept was cool and the writing was great. I wish the science had been a little more precise but that’s my only complaint. I’m more excited to try Wool after having read this!
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Hi Sarah!
You’ve been tagged by Emma @ AFCTL in the Sunshine Blogger Award!
https://afewchapterstillove.blogspot.com/2019/10/sunshine-blogger-award-1-2-3-4.html
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Well thank you! I’ll have to come check it out!
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My encounter with Wool – the novel – did not end well, but your review of this book, and particularly your mention of the quick pace, prompts me to give this author another chance: one of my problems with Wool was my perception of things not happening fast enough, so here I might find the… speed change I was looking for. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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Yeah it pretty much starts with a bang and keeps going. If you give it a try I’d love to know what you think! I also appreciate the heads up on Wool!
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I definitely agree with the gold-gun thing! The idea sounds really ridiculous! 🤣🤣
BUT STILL, it seems like this was a fun read and the characters were well fleshed out! And I am glad that, minor issues apart, you really enjoyed it, Sarah! 😍❤️❤️ The cover too is really catchy (and that makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE TO MEEE 🤣🤣❤️❤️)
Loved the review! Very thorough and informative! ❤️❤️👻👻💕
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Haha- I like the cover too! Even though it’s really simple sometimes I think that’s better than overly detailed. Glad you found it helpful!
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YESSSS!! Although the extra ones do have their appeal but there is something about this deceptively simple yet gorgeous cover! ❤️❤️😍😍😍
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Great that this was a fun adventure and was so fast paced! Awesome review!
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Thank you!
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