Sand: Omnibus Edition Author: Visit Amazon's Hugh Howey Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1494904489 | Format: EPUB
Sand: Omnibus Edition Description
- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (January 4, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1494904489
- ISBN-13: 978-1494904487
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
(Disclaimer -- I haven't purchased the Sand Omnibus, at least through Amazon. I did individually purchase, read and review each of the five parts and also purchased a paperback copy of the omnibus from Hugh directly.)
With that out of the way, I can honestly say I was blown away by SAND. I loved reading the book in the installments as Hugh released them, but will love reading them all together as a completely separate experience once I receive my paperback in the mail. After I read Part 5 and reviewed it, I said SAND > WOOL and I'm sticking by it almost a week later. The book is just magnificent and Howey once again shows off his masterful storytelling with an imaginative dystopian world that is all at once hard to fathom and easy to believe all at once.
Hugh calls SAND the antithesis to WOOL and I can see that clearly. While WOOL is about the absolute control that a small group of people can exert upon the masses, SAND is the opposite. It's what happens when there is no clear authority and yet people live, work, and die -- all under the invisible thumb of some unknown force.
In my review for Part 5, I mentioned two themes that resonate throughout the book. One of which is that lack of control yet oppression exists. The second is family. There are multiple main characters in this book, and yet they are all family and are all well-thought out and complementary to the story. Hugh does an amazing job of tying the stories of all these family members together so that in spite of all of the terrible and regretful things they have said and done to each other over the years, in the end, it all comes back to family.
There are a lot of parallels to WOOL. There are five parts, yes. There is a strong female lead character, yes.
Sand has a very different feel to Wool. It's a much grittier (sorry!) affair in many ways reversing the dynamic. We now have an open environment and a totally disorganised and essentially lawless society where characters fend for themselves, one dusty day at a time. It has a much more adult feel dealing with sexual themes and gory comeuppances and is littered with more swear words than a Tourettes convention but this fits perfectly with the world Howey has once again expertly built and while it may not be as intricate and detailed a world as that of the Silos it certainly feels much more grounded in reality for some reason. Not too much is explained about the technology, giving it an almost steampunk feel, we just know it looks cool and it works but we don't really need to know how.
The beauty of Sand however is in the writing. There is a true emotion throughout as we see a disengaged family struggle to reunite only to risk being torn apart again by the forces working against them. The characters are subtly introduced and expertly enhanced at key points, not only building on their personalities and history but also keeping the plot flowing steadily. The vivid, contrasting imagery can shift from beauty to ugliness in an instant and back again seamlessly and there are some moments of - and I do not say this lightly- sheer brilliance in Howey's prose and for all it's rough and tumble, Sand has some well-placed and genuinely tender moments which at times can cleverly disarm the reader temporarily, leaving them totally unprepared for the next fiendish plot twist.
But fear not, this ain't no sandy Seventh Heaven. Sand is a highly-charged, action-filled, thrill-a-minute, ass-kicking, jawbreaking blockbuster and makes no apologies for it.
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