Howey is excellent at world building, which is a primary concern in a sci-fi novel, especially one in the apocalyptic sub-genre. He peoples it with real characters, though ironically the ending was a little weak for me in that one of the characters participating in it could have been a bit more fleshed out. Still, a fine piece of writing, and I've already got the other two books (Shift and Dust) on my Kindle.