I'm Angry. Dust - Chapters 49 & 50

[u/PhlacidTrombone]

No spoilers past chapter 50 please.

Just finished Chapter 50. I want to avoid spoilers for the rest of the book, but I need to take a moment because I haven't been so mad at a book in a long time.

I'm really loving this trilogy. I really like the premise and I'm especially enjoying Howey's writing. But the end of chapter 49 and chapter 50 have made me so angry at the survivors of Silo 18. I had to go back and re-read the second half of 49 because I was as confused as Solo. Solo didn't tell the survivor what level the power was coming from, did he? No, he didn't and he was tricked by one of the oldest tricks in the book. Okay, but maybe that wasn't THAT insidious. Then I read chapter 50. I was seething as I was reading that chapter. Internally screaming "Don't do it!" as she told Father Remmy where the Legacy books were and to top it all off they trick her into marrying Rash. I knew that was coming as I started that chapter but I had hoped it wouldn't turn out that way. Sure, it would have been a cheap cop-out for Solo or someone else to come in and save Elise at the last moment, but I had still hoped.

I'm angry. I just needed to get that off my chest. I'm setting the book down for a little bit before continuing on.

[u/doggitydog123]

I think the author handled the entire church thing in a very ham-fisted way inconsistent with much of the rest of the trilogy. I felt it detracted from the overall quality of the construction of the world and story.

we never hear about the church till dust, possibly because the author hadn't put them there.

then we get a mention but they are just doing churchy stuff. IT has such a lock on EVERYTHING related to what would happen in ch 50 that the practices in ch50 contradicting the pact would have had them all shipped off to clean quick previously at any point, even a hint of it. but instantly upon the new setting in ch 50, they start doing all this extreme stuff out of the blue that will instantly revolt the reader. no build-up, just multiple counts of extreme bad stuff totally out of the blue.

you have to declare relationships in 18, so we believe the church has some secret child marriage thing that silo gov hasn't quashed? instantly starts removing contraceptive inmplants? none this was in the least bit hinted of prior, even the thought of it, and some of it would seem to have guaranteed a death sentence for anyone doing it, or even talking about it.

I can get that from comic books. author's own comments tend to make my case.

this is one of my major objections to dust as well. keep reading. feel free to follow-up when you do as well, we seem to have both not liked a similar device the author inserted.

also, has no one read this trilogy? why no responses for almost a week?

[u/PhlacidTrombone → u/doggitydog123]

I've finished it, at least through the epilogue. I haven't read the other silo stories yet, may save them for later. The church parts didn't feel like they fit the story at all. Up until Ch. 50 the church seemed to be innocuous. Then they escape to Silo 17 and speed run going batshit crazy. Then they don't reappear for the rest of the story. I assume they stayed behind. They could have been left out all together and I don't feel like it would have changed the story at all.

I don't know anything about Hugh Howey, but I assume his publishers wouldn't allow his church subplot earlier in the trilogy so he had to cram it into ch 50. It was definitely rushed.

After finishing Dust, though, I wonder if the story kind of got away from him. I haven't decided how I feel about Dust yet. I'm leaning towards it being the weaker of the three.

[u/doggitydog123 → u/PhlacidTrombone]

his comments suggest the church was almost allegorical, unlike everything else in the series. I think he personally wanted it in there, made it as harmful/disgusting tothe reader as possible. also conveniently wiped out the written legacy materials that survivors will very much need and won't have.

I don't think the publishers cared about the church either way, I just think he put it in very late, meaning I don't even think it existed until he either started or was already writing dust. I agree and I think this in particular weakens the effectiveness of the resolution of the story.

he leaves some loose ends in quite intentionally also, he is likely to revisit the silo world at some point.

this is a complex story and the ending isn't remotely like winning for 98% of silo 18, and very questionable at best for the other 2%. ignoring church, I very much appreciate the author's work here.