Matt's Reviews > Dust

This series happens to be both a post-apocalypse and a dystopia, though it turns out it's more of one than the other. Dust is a fitting wrap-up of the story, and it's obvious the ideas contained in the series are phenomenal; if you do some searching on Amazon Kindle, you'll see that some acclaimed fan fiction has chimed in, because the world suggested by Howey has so much more to explore, even though the tale expressed in this trilogy is certainly the core tale of the world. What kept this last installment from attaining full 5-star status is the rather 2-dimensional characters. The plot and ideas are what make this a fun read, but some richer, compelling character-building would have made it better.

I noticed that Ridley Scott has optioned this for the cinema, and I'm ambivalent; the horror works because you have to imagine much of the surroundings as he you weave your way through the mysteries. Not sure how it'll hold up as a movie, though I wouldn't withhold my congratulations from the author. Who wouldn't enjoy having something they've written be noticed by Mr. Scott?

Overall, the writing style and reading level has a broad appeal and no doubt its popularity will increase and continue, but those looking for some language richness may come away a tad disappointed. Nevertheless, this was a high-paced and very fun read, and a great shaking up of familiar sci-fi concepts into something fresh and freaky and compulsively readable.