Half Way Home by Hugh Howey

Description:  Five hundred of us were sent to colonize this planet. Only fifty or so survived. 

We woke up fifteen years too early, we had only half our training, and they expected us to not only survive ... they expected us to conquer this place. 

The problem is: it isn't safe here.

We aren't even safe from each other.

Review 4 of 5 Stars

I read the Wool series a while back, loved it and thought I'd try Half Way Home. I enjoy Hugh Howey's storytelling and I enjoyed this story. As the description says tons of people die and the story begins.  You could start a colony with worse conditions, but it might be a much shorter story. I found it to be a pretty good tale with some classic science fiction elements guaranteed to make things go awry thrown in. Good enough for a 3.5 to 4 stars, but since they don't make 3.5 star buttons when you post other places I settled on a 4 since it was really a pretty good read.

Porter, Tarsi and Kelvin are solid characters and things move along at a decent clip once it gets going. I enjoy a story that can be both introspective and still have enough action to keep it from getting boring and that was managed pretty well. The group that bands together to survive their misfortune and their adventures as they explore their new home, as well as the planet itself were all pretty interesting. This is also a story about human nature and how we relate to one another.

I don't want to give spoilers, but there were some things that seemed out of place towards the end. Though some of the elements were throughout the story where they weren't distracting and seemed natural, those same elements were brought more to the forefront at the end almost so much as to overshadow what seemed to be other important things going on in the story. It just felt a little like look at me I have a point to make when perhaps it could have been done more subtly. Of course, that's just my opinion, but as a reader I don't like to be preached at and some of the ending verged on that. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the story and would suggest that it's a pretty good read overall and satisfying colonization sci-fi.