Kind of similar to Foundation in the sense that we follow a character from Silo #1 whose responsibility it is to exit cryogenic slumber to oversee the operation of other silos in times of crisis, thus Troy is staged to be a Harry Seldon-type character who's job spans multiple generations of crises.

The convergence of "past" story arc towards the beginning of the "present" arc is similar to The Dispossessed. I enjoy the interleaving of perspectives. There's an air of morbidity to this story as well. Not so much in the tone or narrative as much as in the dialogue. The awareness that everybody is going to die, no matter what, and the acceptance therein parallels the quote about generational shadows from the first book.

My fav scene from this book is Jimmy fishing (or, rather, trying to – based on what he read in the Legacy) in Silo 17, promising himself and the other fish that he would not catch the last fish which he understands even then is a metaphor for his own sordid and solitary existence.

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