Bingo Square: Politics (senators, congressman, terrible people bringing about the end of the world)
In 2049, congressman Donald Keene is recruited by Senator Paul Thurman to help build a containment system for a new nuclear waste facility. Donald has known Thurman for years, dating his daughter Anna in college. She will be on the team too, along with Donald’s friend Mick. The Democratic National Convention takes place at the site, just as nuclear bombs are detonated over the US. Those present file into the silos for safety, and Don is separated from his wife, Helen. But of course this is all a ruse, the silos are not for nuclear containment, they’re to preserve what’s left of the human race.
Concurrent to this, a man named Troy is woken in one of the silos, from cryo sleep. He has no memories of what has gone before, just that he and the other men on shift will keep an eye on the other silos until their time is up, and back into cryo they go. There are other narratives playing out too: uprisings in silos, the full picture of what happened to Jimmy/Solo from book 1. And Donald’s slow realisation that he’s been a part of something truly diabolical.
There will be spoilers in here! I remember not enjoying this as much as Wool when I first read it maybe a decade ago, but oof was it worse than I remembered. Partly it’s that I don’t need this story to be told. The full ‘why’ of the silo, what happened, who did what. It’s always going to be a disappointment after your own imagination. It’s why I didn’t care for the magic island explanations on Lost. Just let me watch the characters deal with the things that are happening, don’t over explain! The other reason this is a tough one is being trapped with Donald for such a long time. It’s a slog. This man is barely a person. He has no spine, no curiosity, zero charisma. And yet for some reason Anna, this smart, attractive woman, schemes at every opportunity to get him alone, steal him from his wife, wreck his life. And being near her is such a pain for Donald. Blech. When he finally realises what she’s done, he doesn’t ask her for information or demand answers, he kills her! Smart move, bro.
I think Howey is great at world building and general plot machinations, although I grew tired with the back and forth to other viewpoints and skipped all of Jimmy/Solo this time (and it’s no stretch to figure out Troy is Donald very early on), he’s less good at relationships. The stuff with Anna I’ve mentioned, but also his wife, Helen. She’s barely fleshed out as a person. I know Don loves her because he says so, but there’s nothing in their interactions that indicate why. They talk to each other in stilted ways, call each other honey, sweetie, baby, so often, it just doesn’t ring true. And we don’t get to know anything about her or how she felt at being separated from Donald. She marries his best friend, Mick. Is that something that was going on beforehand or just something that happened organically, given the circumstances? What feelings did she have for Donald (and Mick!) when she learned their roles in what they’d done? Or did she never, they wiped their memories and it was just coincidence that she ended up with Mick? But she named herself after their dog, was this a message to Donald, for him to find her? I don’t know! All of this is infinitely more interesting to me than the pact and set up of the silos and the miserable men who say they’re saving the world but are really just maniacs on a power trip.
Get me back to Juliette.