Author Hugh Howey does a masterful job slowly revealing how his unique dystopian world functions during the first book of the series, Wool, but he never touches on the subject of how society morphed into that state. Well that is exactly what he does in Shift, as some much needed context is added to explain why things are the way they are. Since he jumps back in time to our contemporary world he needs to introduce a whole new set of characters, which is initially off-putting, but it eventually all comes together and sets things up for an excellent finale to the series.

Once again the facts are doled out in small bits and pieces over time, which had me initially feeling impatient with the pacing of the story, but it started to flow once I embraced the manner in which the story is told. Covering the hundreds of years of time needed to catch up to the events of Wool the story bounces around in time, and from one character to another, but it all eventually weaves together nicely. When the story catches up to the events of the first book the bigger picture is a lot clearer but the end game still remains unknown. So you will learn how the world changed, and even why it was changed, but you will be left in the dark regarding some key characters and an obvious hidden agenda. This becomes the main draw for the final book, Dust, which has the characters from both of the first two books working diligently to expose that agenda and come out on top.

If you enjoyed Wool and want more of the "how and why" behind the story then this book is for you. If you just want the story to move forward so you can find out what happens to your favorite characters from book one then prepare to be disappointed as that won't happen here. Still, I think this is a worthy detour that provides some solid world building which will leave you hungry for finding out how things eventually turn out.

The audiobook is narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds and that is always a good thing. Tim is one of the best narrators around and he does his usual stellar job in bringing this book to life. Event though Tim didn't narrate the first book these are all new characters so the switch in narrators was not upsetting in any way.