'Look at all that nothingness. Can you feel it looking back?'A man by the name of Digger is the solitary watchman of Beacon 23, stationed in space. Beat with him as he copes with the isolation. We know he suffers from PTSD as a result of his time as a soldier in the war against a race of aliens known as the Ryph. Is he slowly losing his sanity as well? (view spoiler)[Maybe he needs a pet. An empathetic Warthen (looks like a cross between a Labrador and a leopard) might fill the bill. Or how abou...

Every morning is an afterlife. Every evening, I die anew in the trenches amid nightmares of artillery finding their target. To wake each morning is a surprise. To rise a miracle. To breath another breath some gift foisted upon me and beyond my control." The narrator (whose name we never learn) of this fine collection of short stories is seriously damaged. A decorated war hero from a seemingly endless intergalactic conflict, he has been reassigned to be the sole custodian of one of the many be

After reading the Wool Omnibus and the two others of the series (prequel and sequel) and liking them a lot, I was looking forward to more by Howey; unfortunately, Beacon 23 was a massive let down. The story is set in the somewhat distant future, with humanity warring with several alien species. Our main protagonist is a war vet, terribly wounded physically and mentally, and now stationed on Beacon 23-- a 'gravity wave' station in a remote part of space that warns hyperspace ships of the massive

This story blew me away. I chose to pick up this book based on the fact that I highly enjoyed Wool Omnibus, and wanted to read another work by Howey. In such a short work, Howey has really given readers a complete science fiction masterpiece. When I first began reading, I was reminded of The Martian; but as I read on, I discovered that Beacon 23 is so much more than a sometimes humorous story of a man alone in space. Beacon 23 really speaks to the politics of our world today. Much like the visio...

I would've enjoyed this a tad more without the epilogue. Think of it like a combination of The Martian and Ender's Game. I appreciated the examination of isolation and what it does to a person's mental state, and I liked the big questions the book tried to answer.It wasn't, though, my favorite of Howey's work, and it wrapped up too neatly for my taste.

Lol forgot to add my review here from 2016:I was drawn to this book by the cover and my love for Howey’s Wool series, and after only six months I finally picked it up! Hey, if you know me at all, six months is really nothing in comparison to how long some books have sat, unread (but not unloved!), upon my crowded shelves. I’m glad I picked this up because while fairly short, Beacon 23 provides an interesting look at the isolation or space and the mental and physical aftereffects of serving in a

I am speechless. When I picked up this book, I was expecting a usual good old sci-fi. You know, deep space, fixing things, flying starships, well, the usual stuff. Even the first part of five did nothing to change my mind. On the contrary, I read it, and my thoughts were Oh wow, it's like "The Martian" meets "Gravity". How cool is that?!. Indeed that would be very cool. But it has nothing to do with "Beacon 23".You see, this book is sort of a diary of an anti-hero. It is a confession of a war he...

More psychological thriller than space opera, Hugh Howey goes meta. I'm a big fan of Howey after the Silo series. Howey writes about emotions and is also quite philosophical. I'm almost always more interested in people than in gadgets. My favorite type of sci fi novel deals with how people respond/cope/ adjust/feel about the changes in technology, biology, geography, physics, civilization, ecology, astronomy etc. But mostly, I'm interested in how characters deal with their emotional baggage in s...

It’s the little tangents and connections that make Howey’s writing special to me. For instance, here in Beacon 23 our protagonist, who mans a “lighthouse in space”, studies his favorite picture pasted on wall above a porthole. This picture depicts a keeper standing before a lighthouse (the kind we are all familiar with here on earth), and behind him, a massive wave looms that will certainly wipe the building and the man right out existence. I couldn’t help but wonder if this picture hinted at wh...

Howey is a great writer but this is far from par. Beacon 23 is too much like the worst of George Lucas's Star Wars serial. Short disconnected stories featuring a whiny hero, a strong female who "saves" him from being a complete wimp, a few interesting side characters, ultimately leading to a unfulfilling end. The Robinson Crusoe pet rock homage was especially weak, bring to mind the tragedy that is Jar Jar Binks. Skip this one and read Howey's Wool instead.

Ok, the last book from my 'need-to-rate-review' shelf from last summer! And this book I actually remember pretty well, which is stunning. I won't bore you with lots of words. Here's my take away from this book. It was originally written and released as a serial, so think of it that way still, regardless of what form you have it in. As I read each and every one of the five 'episodes' (or whatever he calls them), I thought to myself "What is this I am reading? Why is it dragging on? What is the da...

A fun little sort-of novel about PTSD and genocide.

There's a lot of good things I can say about this collection of 5 stories that happen to make up one complete novel and one fairly heavy personal annoyance. First, the good, and even a bit of the great. It's emotional. Being a spaceways lighthouse keeper may seem like a thankless job, but strong characterization carries it off seamlessly. The poor guy starts off being the wounded war hero, but he fairly quickly descends into some rather crazy shit. It has a bit of The Martian feel without any le...

So now I'm a fan of Hugh Howey.War, peace, politics, and questioning your own mental stability. Are you crazy if you talk to a rock? If you name it? Sure, you might think of Tom Hanks and Wilson... but Wilson didn't talk back. Wilson didn't insult Tom. And Tom never suspected that Wilson was smarter than him. Then again, maybe the rock really isn't a rock. Maybe people and events are(n't) happening?A galactic war that spans into the past and threatens to end the future, for more than one space-f...

While I enjoy Hugh Howey’s writing, it seems like he's stuck in a rut with his novel-length books and serials. Here’s what I mean:Wool Omnibus: main character is stuck in a silo all alone, struggling against various external factors and his/her own mental breakdownsSand Omnibus: main character is stuck on/in miles of sand, struggling against various external factors and his own mental breakdownsBeacon 23: main character is stationed in a space beacon all alone, struggling against various externa...

I finally figured it out. Earlier in life, when I devoured science fiction by the carload, I paid little attention to details such as references to contemporary culture, products, or figures of speech. I’d suspended disbelief, of course. Now these things jump out at me. They grate. And I found myself on edge at a number of points in Hugh Howey’s Beacon 23 because it was too much of a stretch to believe that characters in the late twenty-third century would talk like people in 2015 or that produc...

Another nice book by the author of Wool Omnibus. Interesting character development with peculiar and original elements, a wicked sense of humor, an overall nice read. Recommended. 3.5 stars.

A lighthouse keeper in space does some deep soul-searching.The unnamed protagonist is a veteran of intergalactic war that has suffered a lot and now just wants to be left alone. NASA stationed him at a beacon that is supposed to take care of passing spaceships. To make sure they don’t crash into some piece of junk or an asteroid at twenty times the speed of light. Honestly, the beacon does all of this by itself. He just has to make sure that the thing keeps running. However, the beacon is just a...

3.8⭐Superior space opera, about a scarred war hero manning a backwater beacon while wrestling with his demons. The plotting of this short novel is well above average, with clever self references, double backs and other riffs that give it a literate, intelligent feel well above the usual cut of military sci-fi/ space adventure. The level of suspension of disbelief required is modest, about the same for your average episode of Star Trek. Howey had me buying into talking rocks and space pirates wit...

4.5/5 StarsBeacon 23 was a treat I didn't expect. The character engagement and surprises were on par with what I've loved about Hugh's work, even if I'd still rate this below Sand and Wool in terms of favorites. The story centers on a soldier suffering from PTSD. After being given a hero's honor, he chose a new post on the edge of his galaxy, isolated from people and humanity he isn't sure he knows how to interact with anymore. Hugh did a great job keeping me unaware of the story's final destina...