Dust

How it reads

Dust is science fiction (post-apocalyptic science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in an invented world, in the future, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are survival, power and politics and family. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It's a later book in a series — you'll usually want to start earlier. The ending resolves happily. At 416 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.