“Troy returned to the living and found himself inside of a tomb. He awoke to a world of confinement, a thick sheet of frosted glass pressed near to his face.”

The novel’s opening words are deceiving. They imply that Troy awakens in a coffin and was somehow buried alive—but the narrative later reveals that he woke in a cryopod where he was frozen for more than 60 years. Not only does this deception introduce one of the novel’s main themes, Equal Denial of Truth and Lies, but it places the plot firmly in the science fiction genre because—throughout this novel and the other books in the Silo series—the plot explores unique time frames and life spans.

“‘Because,’ he said. ‘This building I want you to design for me—it’s going to go underground.’”

The first part of the book centers on Donald Keene’s agreement to design a biotecture building for Senator Paul Thurman that can house up to 10,000 people. This building, Donald is told, is an emergency shelter for workers at a nuclear waste facility, the Containment and Disposal Facility (CAD-FAC), which will likely never be used. However, as the first part of the book cycles between Donald’s timeline and Troy’s, it becomes clear that Donald is the architect who created the silos that feature prominently in the first book of the Silo series, WOOL.