Wool

Silo #1

by Hugh Howey

This is an alternate cover edition for isbn13: 9786055159115

Yakın bir gelecekte, yeryüzü zehirli gazlardan yaşanmaz hâldedir. İnsanlar dünyanın hayli sınırlı bir bölümünü, yaşadıkları çok katlı yeraltı silosunun en üst katındaki ekranlardan seyredebilmektedirler. Yasalar gereği bu tek görüntüyle yetinip yeryüzü hakkında hiçbir meraka kapılmaksızın yeraltına gömülü olarak, âdeta kapana kısılmış hâlde yaşamlarını sürdürmek zorundadırlar. Zaten silodaki hayat da ancak sorgusuz ve sualsiz yaşandığında katlanılabilirdir.

Ama bir de yaşadıkları hayatın gerçekliğinden şüphe duyup dışarısı hakkında sorgulamalar yapanlar vardır ki onlar bir daha asla uyanılamayacak bir kâbusun ortasında bulurlar kendilerini.

Bu öykü, Juliette'in, Holston'ın ve inandıkları şeyler uğruna ölümü göze alabilenlerin öyküsüdür.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic, Audiobook, Fantasy, Book Club

Unknown Binding

First published January 27, 2012

About the author

I'm the author of WOOL, a top 5 science fiction book on Amazon. I also wrote the Molly Fyde saga, a tale of a teenager from the 25th century who is repeatedly told that girls can't do certain things -- and then does them anyway.

A theme in my books is the celebration of overcoming odds and of not allowing the cruelty of the universe to change who you are in the process. Most of them are classified as science fiction, since they often take place in the future, but if you love great stories and memorable characters, you'll dig what you find here. I promise.

Reviews

[Cass · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are two stupid things about this book, neither have to do with the writing. The writing is good, the story is original, I highly recommend this book.

Let's address the stupid things.
The name is stupid. It is like a garage band was after a clever name. There are no sheep in this book, there is no wool in this book. There is one tiny insignificant piece where a character is knitting but she isn't even using wool, she knits with cotton. Given the subtitles are all knitting related (unravel, cast off etc) I think the book should have been called "knitting" and then the book would have never sold a single copy.

I shall rename the book for the author SILO. Hereafter I shall refer to the book as such... Because it is a much better name that will actually appeal to the target market.

The second stupid thing about SILO (okay WOOL but my name is better) is that it is serialised into individual books. The author asks at the end of this omnibus if the reader would rate and review each book separately. As far as books/stories/novellas go only WOOL1 and WOOL 3 really stand alone. The others are just parts in a novel. They are also all the size of novellas not novels, making this omnibus edition about the size of a book. Here is my advice to the author. Just sell the omnibus edition, ebook users can read a sample anyway, the $6 price tag is very reasonable for the whole book. In fact because I didn't realise it was a series of novellas I bought the first part plus the omnibus which was silly of me. Perhaps good for the authors pocket but it doesn't endear me toward him.

None of that has anything to do with the novel. The novel was original and highly interesting. Finally a novel that I don't think I could flippantly surmise in a paragraph or two.

Usually I do like to give a summary of the novel but I won't in this review as I think there are lots of refreshing little things about the novel that are enjoyable to discover while reading, plus a few good places where you can say "oh wow I didn't see that coming".

WOOL is a good little dystopian novel. The type that leaves you thinking about it for days. The type that creeps back into your mind months after you have read it. It has a fairly original concept that kept me thinking. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to all lovers of dystopian fiction.

Despite complaining about the way it has been serialised I am hoping the author has lots more little stories about this world coming.

ETA: Before you comment. This review has been around for almost two years, and it has spawned a wonderful bunch of friendly people who laugh and joke in the comment section - many (most?) of whom completely disagree with me. Please read the comments (even the first page or two). You don't want to be that douche who thinks he is the first person in 500 comments to think to inform me that wool was used for cleaning, or that is was a metaphor. I disagree with the importance of either as a reason for naming the book WOOL, and if you read even a few of my comments you will find lots of reasoning. Enjoy the community, but don't be the dude that makes us snogger (yes, so crazy is this littler community that we even coined our own word!!).

ETA: Ten years later *cough* Apple TV went with the name Silo *cough* I was right *cough*!! But seriously - WOOT Hugh Howey for a well deserved book getting turned into a series. (Also Kudos to the two woman who read ten years worth of comments before posting, wow!!)

[Cindy Pham · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the full 500+ page novel, not the novella. Maybe this should have stayed as a novella because holy shit I was so bored throughout reading this. I found the characters to be flat, many of the lines to be cliche, and the story to be such a mundane watered-down sci-fi apocalyptic narrative (brooding protagonist in grief over the death of his wife who knew secrets about their world before she died, etc.)

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the dark ages of early 2012 I came across a short story “Wool” by a then relatively unknown author Hugh Howey, and before I knew it, I flew through the entire pentalogy of it that made sort of a serialized novel. It was a fun ride, and I was mesmerized. A year later a reread left me less enamored once the shine had worn off, and I forgot about it until now, when a GR friend (hiya, Dennis!) was rereading it.

And this read-through was unexpectedly entertaining again, although I knew where the story was headed. No, not nearly as engrossing as the first time around, but quite fun. You see, it does not do anything “new”, it has a few too-easy resolutions, but the storytelling pulls you in nevertheless.

“And now you see why some facts, some pieces of knowledge, have to be snuffed out as soon as they form. Curiosity would blow across such embers and burn this silo to the ground.”

I love generation ship stories, with a sliver of humanity surviving in a confined space for decades and even centuries, with the resultant cultural shifts and new mythology and scarcity of resources demanding multiple adjustments. Here it’s basically the same concept of a generation ship minus a spaceship itself. Wool introduces us to a postapocalyptic world where survivors of whatever disaster that made the outside uninhabitable huddle underground in a giant "silo" that houses hundreds of people. As we can predict, the disaster was man-made (*). What we may not immediately suspect is that there are several more dozen of similar silos around

(*) "You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!" - courtesy of "Planet of the Apes"


Left - what a silo looks like, in case you are agriculturally challenged, like me. Right - apparently people already live in the underground missile silos. Yup.

Even speaking about the outside has become taboo, and breaking this taboo results in exile to the toxic outside, where - for reasons unknown to most - the condemned take time to clean the silo "windows" before their death, and the survivors inside can enjoy the toxic views for a few more years. For a long time, the Silo has been functioning like a well-oiled machine until we witness a confrontation between a strong-willed young woman who is not afraid to dig through the secrets of this shelter/prison and an equally strong-willed official who for reasons of his own prefers a status quo. The question stands - what is preferable: safety and security or truth and potential devastation? And the answer to that one is not that easy.

Initially there’s a bit of an episodic feel to it given that the story began as a standalone novella and was subsequently expanded into 4 more volumes (and a prequel and a sequel since). The first part has a bleak and haunted, almost vintage sci-fi feel to it. The following four parts expand the world both in the sheer scale of the silo as well as intra-silo politics and class structure, while adding action to replace the contemplative feel of the opening. The characters are not bad, either. Due to originally unplanned expansion of the story, the protagonist Juliette does not take center stage until the third part, but she quickly becomes the natural center of the story, and is easy to root for and relatable — rational, practical, level-headed, strong-willed, courageous, tough, and outspoken.

“People were like machines. They broke down. They rattled. They could burn you or maim you if you weren't careful. Her job was not only to figure out why this happened and who was to blame, but also to listen for the signs of it coming. Being sheriff, like being a mechanic, was as much the fine art of preventive maintenance as it was the cleaning up after a breakdown.”

The weakness remains in the ending, which was overall satisfying but a bit too rushed, with a few things quickly recounted rather than shown. And the main villain of the story was stereotypically physically unattractive - short, fat, small-handed, with crooked teeth - as though we need a Hollywood-style telegraphing of “not pretty therefore evil guy incoming!” And the seeming easiness with which people accepted the upending if their established world order was a bit stretching the imagination.

And yet despite the occasional mild eye-rolling I quite enjoyed the world of the silo, with its persistent class divisions (blue-collar, as expected, always ends up on the bottom of the pile), and the imagery of the endless helix of a staircase going up into dizzying heights (and that there’s a good reason for such seeming inefficiency of not including a few large elevators in the place). I liked the exploration of manipulation and control of a small population, even if it was often simplistic. And I liked some classic SF vibes that it has, especially early on.

Solid 3.5 stars. Rounding up since I really did not mind staying up late to finish the reread despite knowing how it ends.

——————
Also posted on my blog.

——————
Recommended by: Dennis

[carol. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forget Wool. This should have been called Forge.

Writing that's a power-punch to the gut. Direct, slow build of heat, singeing as it suddenly roars into flame. A world that feels solid, heavy, hard-edged, soldered with characters that are heated and molded into something new. This isn't knitting a scarf so much as forging a steel chain.

I absolutely love the character of Juliette, determined, essentially elemental, a person that rocks my character world. I love how all her metaphors are mechanical ones, problems and solutions both. Even though I'm completely tool-impaired, her thinking was relatable, a clear schematic of sense. "But as Bernard's footsteps receded... she felt a new resolve steel her nerves. It was like encountering a rusted bolt that refused to budge. Something about that intolerable stiffness, that reluctance to move, set Juliette's teeth on edge. She had come to believe that there was no fastener she culdn't unstick, had learned to attack them with grease and with fire, with penetrating oil and with brute strength" (p. 132).

But as organized and mechanistic as Juliette is in her world, by no means is she limited in her range of emotion: "She had made the same choices as an adult, to love without sanction, and so her hypocrisy was more keenly felt" (p.137)

Howey has a gift for understated prose, and the writing was one of pleasures of the book. With clear, straightforward language he captures subtlety of emotion and action. The funeral scene just about made me weep:
"But then, the lowering of the body and the plucking of ripe fruit just above the graves was meant to hammer this home: The cycle of life is here. It is inescapable. It is to be embraced, cherished, appreciated. One departs and leaves behind the gift of sustenance, of life... We are born, we are shadows, we cast shadows of our own, and then we are gone. All anyone can hope for is to be remembered two shadows deep" (p.158)

I absolutely loved all the little connections linking the sections. I was particularly fond of the shadow imagery and the chain imagery. A moment in the uprising solidly hit the connection:
"It startled Knox, this sudden link to a mysterious past. And it wasn't that terribly long ago, was it? Less than two hundred years? He imagined, if someone lived as long as Jahns had, or McLain for that matter, that three long lives could span that distance. Three handshakes to go from that uprising to this one" (p.321)

One of my only complaints is how easily everyone in the rebellion made the adjustment to the mental gymnastics of having been manipulated, and their innovation--the guns and bombs, in particular, seemed odd in a culture that seemed to be lacking them (two sheriffs per 30 plus floors?). And being so ready to believe in Juliette's discovery. I also had to wonder at the lack of agorophobia in going outside. But I was willing enough to believe and it soon smoothed over.

Sophisticated in its ethics and philosophy. Although I expected something unusual given the buzz, I was still astounded at what I found. While it is not a novel I would read again and again (that's what Kate Daniels is for), it's powerful and worth a second read.

Thoughts on the Omnibus:
Wool: Stunning in its character development. Introduces the psychology of the people in the intimate space through the story of the sheriff and his dead wife. Romantic, tragic, doomed; truly a hint of Romeo and Juliet.
Wool Two, Proper Gauge: Compelling mix of character and plotting. Mayor and Deputy find renewal during the search for a sheriff. Using the climb gives a terrific tour of the physics and politics of the silo without infodump.
Wool Three, Casting Off: Juliette takes center stage, struggling in isolation in her new job. Powerful discoveries mean the pattern starts to come together.
Wool Four, The Unraveling: The overarching structure clarifies, like being able to see a map zooming out. Delicious ending line of kickassitude.
Wool Five, The Stranded: Action packed tension. Delicately balanced characterization means no villains here. And I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will never go cave/wreck diving.

Five dust-smudged and elusive stars.

Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/0...

[Maciek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't get the hype.

If you'd judge a book by its rating on Goodreads and Amazon, you should consider Wool to be a science fiction miracle - the vast majority of Goodreaders gave it 5 stars, and on Amazon it currently holds an astonishing 3,740 five star reviews - with new ones appearing every day. Wool seems to be a prodigious child of a next Asimov or Heinlein, destined to last for decades and inspire generations of readers and writers.

What's even more interesting is that Wool began its life as a short, self-published novella, Wool, which so excited the readers that the author quickly published the next four parts, finally gathering them all in this omnibus. Film rights have already been sold to 20th Century Fox, with Ridley Scott showing interest in adapting Wool into a movie.

Does anyone here remember the PC game Fallout? Here's its great introductory movie, with its famous war never changes speech. I played the hell out of it when it came out and it's one of the games on which I learned the English language. In Fallout its 2161, and after a major nuclear war humanity has hid in underground vaults. Generations have lived in such way, without having seen natural light. The player controls an inhabitant of Vault 13, where a computer chip responsible for purifying water has broken - and is sent into the outside world to journey to other communities, looking for a replacement. The player has 150 game days to complete the assignment and return to the vault before its water supply runs out. Fallout has won many awards and sprawled a number of sequels, and it stole many childhoods with its addictive qualities - including a large and open word, with many non-pcs ready for interaction, quests and subplots ready to indulge in.

Wool starts intriguing enough, and Howey has a good sense of pacing to keep up the interest all the way through the first part. After an unnamed apocalyptic event the earth has been rendered uninhabitable, and people have to live in an underground Silo, which extends many stories beneath the surface of the planet. Inhabitants can see the outside world only through a lens, and the images are grim: constantly cloudy and dark skies, the ragged plains and mountains depopulated by strong radiation. Despite this, people live quite comfortably in the Silo, except for one small detail: the lens which shows them the outside world gets dirty with dust and rust, and has to be cleaned - a perilous duty, as it involved going outside and becoming exposed to a deadly amount of radiation. Although technicians working at the Silo managed to develop protective suits, they only last for a short time before disintegrating from exposure - effectively making the cleaning a one-way trip. Therefore, the only people who clean the lens are those sent to do so as punishment. And everyone who is sentenced to cleaning cleans - there has not been a case of anyone going outside and not cleaning in the history of the Silo.

The first part of Wool follows the story of Holston, the Silo's sheriff who is trying to understand the circumstances which led to his wife's death. She has been sentenced to Cleaning - and Holston is doing his best to understand why, as he believes the sentence was connected to his wife's investigation of Silo's historical records. Although there is only basic wordbuilding and the characters are sketchily drawn at best, the familiar concept is still intriguing enough to turn the page.

But then Wool 1 ends, and trouble sets in. Although the author maintains that each of the five installments is meant to be read as a standalone, there is simply no way that they could work this way. Wool 1 leaves far too many questions unanswered - each introduced idea begets interest which is never properly cared for. Howey embarks an ambitious idea - trying to create a new society from scratch, and create characters the readers can care for - but a vast majority of questions the reader can have about his world, its past and present, science and technology are never answered. Holston, his wife, their relationship and the whole society is painted rather than presented, never feeling quite real. But how could it in just 50 pages?

Wool 1 ends with a giant cliffhanger, prompting a swift reader response demanding one thing - more! So Hugh Howey wrote four extra parts, again claiming that each was always meant to be read individually, but I don't believe it. Howey seems to be caught between wanting to tell a single story, and split it into several independent short novels - but doesn't pull it off, leaving each installment bordering awkwardly between wanting to experiment with new ideas and characters and dependence on the old for the sake of continuity. This leaves each installment unsatisfying on its own, as new characters are introduced, presented and dispatched - without offering the readers a proper chance to grow attached to them. The single storyline quickly starting to feel convoluted, as the subsequent parts merely dilute the ideas found in Wool 1 instead of presenting truly new and fascinating concepts. I don't know how much of it was pre-planned, but it seems to me that the success of Wool 1 caught the author by surprise, and he didn't quite knew what to do with the plot to do justice to his premise, and what he came up with provoked only a small "eh? that's it?", with the author emerging not carrying a torch of victory but clutching a straw.

The whole notion that the earth was razed down and the inhabitants of the silos were kept in secret about the whole ordeal seemed to be the most obvious plot choice ever, and this is exactly what happens. There are literally thousands New World Order conspiracies and this is just another one of them - albeit not a very creative or surprising one. It was Earth all along - 45 years later!

The science in Wool seems to be treated with a very soft brush, and paid only minimal attention to for the sake of moving the plot along. But most unbelievable is the cleaning process, on which the whole plot lies - it's really pointless and inexplicable with its needless complexity and waste of precious human resources. I couldn't believe that the society wouldn't invent a mechanical cleaner whom they could simply send out to clean the lens. Really? We sent humans, dogs and monkeys into space. Surely a small robot could be thought of. We have one on Mars right now.
And the sheer idea that every single person in history of the Silo has always cleaned the lens is simply unimaginable. With the cleaning being essentially capital punishment, it's ridiculous to suggest that every single person sentenced to death dutifully cleaned the lens for posterity instead of leaving it be or even breaking it. The cleaners knew that they had one final chance to get back at those who sent them there, sometimes perhaps unjustly - would we really believe that they all cleaned the lens out of their own free will, after they were condemned to death and were beyond the reach of their opressors? What happened to all rebels and simple assholes?

Wool received so many rave ratings all over the web, but in terms of novelty, originality and even entertainment it has delivered so preciously little. It's really nothing more than a relatively simple idea stretched and separated into 5 novellas and then published as a single volume. It has nothing of the grand richness of great science fiction, with detailed and inventive world-building and creative ideas, complete with compelling characterization of both heroes and villains, making them vivid and memorable. From what I see here the author has already pulled a George Lucas on us, publishing a new series of prologue novels of the Silo's origin - but the reviews are beginning to get mixed. I won't be reading them - there are far too many other interesting novels to attend to. This year I have read Paul Auster's In the Country of Last Things and Brian Evenson's Immobility, both also dystopian novels - and much better than Howey's cycle of five. I would recommend them both over this any time, and although the time devoted on it goes by pretty fast it'd be much better spent by discovering the hidden gems of the genre which has so much to offer instead of following this goose only painted to look gold.

[Mario the lone bookwolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who would have thought that a small flat with unfriendly neighbors was an imposition should try this very close underground living real reality tv version without an alternative, except certain death.

Whenever society goes underground for whatever reason, there seems to be this tendency to lunatic autocracy and evil despotism, never to utopias and drilling more underground living space, building industries singing happy dwarfs songs, mining the hell out of earth, or at least until it gets hot in here, using the energies one might find there, or generally have a positive outlook. Yes, I know, the resources are rare, but it takes me some big portions of suspension of disbelief to accept that superpowers would be unable to plan and,…ok, you made a point here.

This perfect logistic would make it, of course, annoyingly boring to watch them build a futuristic wonderland, but I would deem it more realistic that a technologically advanced future society, able to built autonomous, huge underground cities, would have an eye on expansion and continuing research to find solutions for the problems that led to the life in darkness deep in mother earth´s womb interior design style.

But humans are humans and Howey uses a well known rebellion, good evil government trope in a new setting to create a vivid, badass future outlook, a cool and especially good version in contrast to some of the similar end of the days scenarios from newer young adult or old apocalyptic fiction waves of redundant works.

Everything was already there, it just had to be welded to a new, shiny subgenre, I don´t get it why nobody put the components together to destill suspsense at very limited space, creating some believable characters and just letting the thing roll towards one of the coolest series of the last years.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The children were playing while [he] climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do. While they thundered about frantically above, [he] took his time, each step methodical and ponderous, as he wound his way around and around the spiral staircase, old boots ringing out on metal treads. The treads, like his father’s boots, showed signs of wear. Paint clung to them in feeble chips, mostly in the corners and undersides, where they were safe. Traffic elsewhere on the staircase sent dust shivering off in small clouds. Holston could feel the vibrations in the railing, which was worn down to the gleaming metal. That always amazed him: how centuries of bare palms and shuffling feet could wear down solid steel. One molecule at a time, he supposed. Each life might wear away a single layer, even as the silo wore away that life…”
- Hugh Howey, Wool: Book One of the Silo Series


It’s kind of amazing how many great books I’ve read because I watch too much television while drinking an appropriate amount of wine. Without exaggeration, I have an entire shelf full of literature inspired by my worst habit. Hugh Howey’s Wool is a case in point.

Beginning as a self-publishing venture all the way back in 2011, Wool obviously had its admirers, and became quite successful. That said, I’d never heard of it – or knew anyone who’d heard of it, or knew anyone who knew anyone who’d heard of it – until it became the television series Silo on Apple TV.

It only took me five minutes of the show, and half a glass of chilled, bottom-shelf pinot, before I decided I needed to check out the source material.

***

Wool perfectly fits the definition of high concept. It’s about a bunch of people living in a 144-floor silo that is buried in the earth because the air outside is – or maybe isn’t – toxic. Things have been going fine; then they start going wrong.

That’s the premise, and even though this is a closed universe, with 144 different levels, there’s a lot of places to go, and a very intricate universe to explore.

***

It’s tough to talk about the plot without giving away too much, so I’ll stick with the generalities. The silo is a literal hierarchy, with the important and powerful people living near the top, and the workers – such as Mechanical – down at the bottom. Much as in the real world, those who do the hard, practical work are taken for granted on the best of days, while those with soft hands run things with minimal exertional effort.

The silo is governed by a document known as “the Pact” – there are a lot of proper nouns in the silo, or Silo, if you prefer – which provides for a democratically elected mayor, but gives most of the real authority to IT. Making a bunch of computer nerds into shadowy tyrants is just one of Wool’s small bits of genius.

Anyway, maintaining order within the silo is a paramount concern, which makes sense, given that thousands of people are living in cramped conditions with limited resources. One of the big rules of the silo is that you can’t ask to go outside. If you do, your wish is granted, and you are sent to “clean” the outdoor cameras that give people inside a look at the shattered world beyond.

As things progress, we are introduced to a series of characters – a grieving sheriff, an aging mayor, a slimy tech guy, and a plucky mechanic from the down deep – through whom we slowly begin to observe how the silo works. Ultimately, we learn answers to important questions, such as why there are no elevators, and why no one is allowed to talk about the pre-silo past. The meaning behind the odd, one-word title is also made clear.

***

Howey utilizes the limited third-person viewpoint in telling his story. At first, he sticks to only a few characters; later, he greatly expands the number, giving us different personalities and perspectives to follow. Generally, the approach is effective. In the early going, the small number of speaking roles lets us concentrate on the setting. Once that is firmly established – the stage set, so to speak – Howey can let the drama begin, adding new players and elements.

This isn’t a psychological study by any means, but the men and women in Wool are – with some exceptions – strongly drawn. At the center of everything is Juliette, an inquisitive and intrepid machinist.

***

For the most part, Wool is thoroughly engrossing. The silo is a fully realized and fascinating place, populated by characters whose fates have meaning. On a storytelling level, Howey does a really good job of asking a bunch of intriguing questions, answering some, leaving others for later, and thrusting you forward.

However, there is some inconsistency in pacing and style that is worth noting. When Wool begins, it toggles back and forth in time, with well-telegraphed flashbacks. This technique is later dropped, as Howey begins to follow different character arcs. About two-thirds of the way through the book, the cast list suddenly balloons in order to better show events. The problem with his expansion, though, is that we meet important figures late in the game, and then are asked – or demanded – to care deeply about them as they head into danger, despite not knowing them all that well.

During my usual post-book internet research phase, I learned that Wool was originally published as a series of short stories. This totally explains the somewhat jagged transitions, though it does not change the fact that the whole is not seamless.

***

Whenever a book is turned into a movie or show, fans are implicitly asked to take sides as to which is better. Here, the answer is both. Wool is marvelously complimentary to Silo, and vice-versa. The show moves a lot slower and – given that it is primarily visual – relies on twists, turns, and hidden motivations, rather than internal knowledge. The book – because we are actually inside the heads of people – isn’t able to generate the same suspense, but we learn a lot more about motivations.

In short, they round out each other nicely. Both pair well with wine.

***

By this point, it is almost a law that science fiction has to say something important about the real world that we inhabit. Not surprisingly, Wool does exactly that, and not very subtly either. This isn’t a knock, as bluntness can be a virtue. In any event, even though Howey clearly demarcates the heroes and villains, the correct ideology versus the corrupt one, Wool is fascinatingly susceptible to alternative readings. When I finished, I actually talked myself into believing that maybe the scoundrels had a point, at least in the extreme context in which they were making decisions.

The best fiction operates like a silo, on many levels simultaneously. I’m not necessarily making a pitch for Wool’s status as a classic, but it fulfills several needs at once. It is entertaining, it is intellectually stimulating, and it gives you something to argue about with other people who’ve read the same thing differently.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

UPDATED AT END FOR NEW APPLETV SHOW
Admittedly, this is not my genre, but someone on GR strongly suggested it (who?) and I just finished it. Wool is the first volume of a trilogy (apparently, the 2nd volume is a prequel and the 3rd is the sequel to the first.) The plot is interesting, dystopian future with humans living inside because we destroyed the environment outside (you listening Mr Pruitt?). The character development is a bit thin, folks are pretty much black and white (although one gets the impression that all the characters are white caucasian.) It is a bit predictable to be honest, but there are good ideas here. A commenter as I was reading said the story was similar to (inspired by?) a Philip K Dick book called The Penultimate Truth.
I found myself skimming towards the end, knowing how things would turn out pretty much. The writing is OK, but as I said, I felt the characters were quite 2-dimensional and I was only marginally able to become attached to the protagonist.
I did eventually read (and review on GR) both sequels which I found more compelling and better written than Wool. That being said, this initial book did inspire me to learn more about Howey's particular take on a dystopian future.
UPDATE: I can’t remember all the plot points from the book, it I think that AppleTV’s adaptation by Graham Yost does a great job with this story. I really like the Swedish actress that plays the second sherif, and the supporting cast is rather strong. Definitely recommended, maybe more so than the book.

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Reread to finish the trilogy!

4.5 Stars *Thank you my sweet murderous pea 😘

That was pretty awesome!

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent and unique take on a post-apocalyptic earth. Recently, literature has been saturated with post-apocalyptic stories and sometimes it is hard to find something that is fresh . . . something that doesn't feel like it has already been done before. Everything about this book was suspenseful and interesting - no boredom of rehashed ideas/concepts/storylines for me.

Another cool thing about it is the book is divided into little novellas which kind of refresh the story every 50 to 100 pages while keeping with the bigger story as a whole.

The characters you meet in this book are great. They are easy to empathize with. They are easy to cheer for. They are easy to despise. In the end, some are hard to mourn.

I am not sure this book is for everyone. I have read reviews that say it is too long or too slow. I did not feel either of those things so hopefully you won't either!

[Adina ( back from Vacay…slowly recovering) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing and characters but sometimes excruciatingly slow.

[Rick Riordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The basic premise: mankind has devastated the surface of the world, leaving ruined cities, endless wasteland and a toxic atmosphere. The only survivors live in an underground silo, a closed society with a mayor, a sheriff, and a shadowy IT department that seems to control everything, including the population's understanding of reality outside the silo. Cameras offer a glimpse of the outside world on monitors throughout the silo, letting the inhabitants see the sunrise over the wasteland and allay some of their claustrophobia, but the cameras often get grimy because of the atmosphere. Hence the silo's ultimate punishment: cleaning. For many crimes, including the forbidden act of simply expressing a desire to go outside, the convicted is put in an airtight suit and sent on a one-way trip to clean the lenses of the cameras. For some reason, the convicted always does the job, no matter how much they protest in advance. Within minutes, however, the suit deteriorates and the convict collapses, becoming another permanent feature of the landscape.

There is much more going on than the IT department lets on, however. When a new sheriff of the silo begins to explore some dangerous secrets uncovered by her predecessor, she makes powerful enemies and stirs up forces that could lead to civil war.

The characters are well-drawn, and even the villains have a sympathetic side. Secrets unfold with just the right pacing, and I had to set my e-reader down several times and say, "Wow," when a major twist was revealed. The structure of the story, told in five interconnected parts, makes WOOL unlike a conventional novel, and gives it extra depth, much like the layers of the silo itself. I loved the feisty heroine Juliette especially, who endures so much tragedy and shows so much courage. And who can't relate to the notion of an IT department being run by nefarious villains who deliberately sabotage the exchange of information? If you're looking for a good post-apocalyptic read, you can't do much better than WOOL. It's targeted at adults, but is completely appropriate for YA readers as well.

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why did I wait so long?

I know why, actually. It's because I resist jumping onto bandwagons. I want to discover that hidden gem out there, not just read what everyone else is reading. And sometimes, I'm just dumb.

This book was an incredible amount of fun! There are thousands of reviews already out there, and I don't think I have any new information to impart to you. This was loads of fun, full of action, nasty politics and secrets that have been held for generations. Plop all this down into a science fiction type of setting with heroes to root for and villains to hate and I'm a happy gal!

Terrific narration is provided by Edourdo Ballerini, in this new audio edition from Blackstone and all I can say is BRAVO!

*Thanks to Blackstone Publishing, NetGalley and the author for the free audio download in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*

**I have been unable to get any librarians to add this new audio edition here at Goodreads. Here is the ASIN for this edition in case you'd like to find it on Audible/Amazon: B0BKR8VBYV **

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wool, by Hugh Howey is reminiscent of Robert Silverberg’s Time of the Great Freeze or Philip K. Dick's The Penultimate Truth with a population living underground following a climate-changing catastrophe.

The Wool Omnibus is actually a collection of five novellas connecting the action, a serialization of an ongoing storyline. The setting reminds me of the Zion population in the Wachowski Matrix films, an isolated, encased and quarantined populace. I found the narration mainly good, sometimes very good, but inconsistent, disjointed and with some holes in the plot. I felt like the great work in the beginning slacked off towards the later chapters; I really liked the first story and the second and third novellas, but by the last book, I was ready to see this wrap up. In fairness to Howey, I did like the ending and felt he concluded his story well.

This book also made me consider my interest in the post-apocalyptic / dystopian genre. A study could be made about the course of fantasy /sci-fi from the 50s on and how the dominant themes have moved from generally optimistic to more pessimistic. Was the 1969 moon landing a high water mark in our culture and since then has our collective artistic vision been more depressed and less optimistic?

Ultimately I think this book, like most dystopian stories, is fundamentally optimistic, with a story about the resiliency and determinism of humanity. Howey creates a meaningful metaphor for how we will survive, perhaps a seed tucked away in a silo, awaiting a better time, but surviving and enduring beyond bad times.

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not one to expound too much on low ratings, but I feel compelled to do so, here, given the high praise heaped on this book by other reviewers.

That said, this will be spoilerific, so if you want out, now would be the time to bail. Seriously. I'm going to spoil the hell out of this.

Disclaimer: I have absolutely nothing against indie publishers (authors who choose to self-publish). This review has nothing to do with that.

First, the things I liked about the book.

The author is actually very good at pacing. The book reads easily -- one might almost say 'effortlessly' -- and you keep turning page after page to see how things come out.

I think that, from a technical viewpoint, the author is not bad. Nothing leaped out at me, as sometimes happens, to kick me out of the story because of some technicality of writing or style that reminded me, "Hey, you're reading a book." Some beautiful little turn of phrase or clever dialogue that made me focus on the words and not the story.

I thought the main characters were likable, and I found myself caring what happened to them at every point. This was, for me, the saving grace of the book.

Now, if that were all I judged the books on, I would easily have given this 4 stars and moved on. I was entertained. But a couple of things just have to be said.

First of all, I'm not a psychologist, nor do I have any clinical understanding of the field. But I couldn't help but notice that the people in this world don't behave like real people living in a real world. We are told early on that none of the people banished to clean the lenses has ever -- EVER, in hundreds of years -- failed to do his or her duty before dying.

Unless we're being lied to -- and that is a possibility, but if that's the case, then it was far too subtle for me to pick up on -- I find it highly improbable that not a single person would have failed to clean the lenses in hundreds of years. I would not have cleaned them, and I don't think I'm SO different from other people. I would have thought, "So long, suckers, I'm going to head over toward that miraculous city over there." Probably tinged with a little, "You jerks kicked me out. Why should I do you any favors?" Or maybe I would have frantically jumped up and down gesticulating wildly at the onlookers, trying to make them understand that they were being lied to.

I had a real problem getting past that. It seemed plausible right up to the point where you kind of started to figure out what was going on, and then with the least bit of thought about it, the premise just collapses.

I read this on my Kindle (so no skipping ahead). After the main character of the first section dies, I thought, "Oh, so that was kind of a prologue. No problem." Then I read the second part, where the mayor was the main character . . . and then SHE dies. "O . . . K," I thought, angry, but willing to move on. Then the third section opens with Juliette about to be sent out for cleaning, and we quickly find out that the deputy committed suicide, and I stopped reading for over a week, absolutely disgusted with the book. This was at 23% in the Kindle.

I mentioned as much to a friend who had read the whole thing, and she told me that Juliette remained the main character for the remainder of the book.

Had I not known this, I would have honestly stopped reading it right there. It's too much. Give me a character to hang onto from the beginning. Don't yank the rug out from under me like that not once, not twice, but THREE times, and expect me to continue reading.

The next time I almost stopped reading was when Bernard explained to Lukas how all the silos came to be. It was . . . just so contrived. I mean, straight out of insane conspiracy theories about the New World Order. In short, the US saw that it was in decline, and rather than just deal with that, the Ebil Gubmint decided that if they couldn't be in charge, no one ELSE could, either, so they literally made the surface of the entire planet uninhabitable and established the silos as a kind of Ark to preserve the species and their ideological way of life. Why? Because they're EBIL. And they're the GUBMINT.

WHAT?

Had this come earlier in the book . . . I would have stopped reading it and moved on to something else. As it was, this came after I was invested in the characters of Juliette, Solo, Walker, Shirly, and Lukas. So I kept reading to find out how it ended. That, incidentally, is why I didn't give it 1 star. I did get invested in the characters, and I did want to know what happened. And, as I said, the pacing was marvelous.

Speaking of getting invested . . . Juliette risks her life to leave silo 17 and return to silo 18. I fully expected Lukas to die, so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be Bernard. But in spite of her promise to the inhabitants of silo 17, we are not shown that she mentions them AT ALL after her return to silo 18. At the end, in an epilogue, we are given a glimpse into what's going on in silo 17 as Solo is about to call Juliette . . . but we don't know if anyone in silo 18 was primed to receive the call. For all the 17ians knew, Juliette died in the Outside. She was, after all, out of commission for weeks while she healed from her burns.

I was expecting Juliette's acceptance of the Mayorship to hinge on connecting 17 and 18 in the Down Deep and get some engineers over there to get 17 running again. But . . . no.

To be fair, perhaps this is the story for the sequel series, but it would have been nice for him to have at least followed up on this.

One last thing that just bothered the crap out of me is resources. It was stated that the silo complex was located near Atlanta, Ga. There were mines and oil wells under the silo. But I find it very difficult to believe that there is enough ore and oil in Georgia to sustain 50 silos for hundreds upon hundreds of years of constant mining and pumping. I also found it very difficult to believe that in all that time, not even once did a wall collapse between the mines of adjacent silos.

Anyway, that's enough. My two stars are because I just can't accept the psychology, world building, physics, and math of the world I'm being asked to accept. And basing the entire premise on a loony conspiracy theory didn't help.

I wanted to like this book more. I'm not sorry I finished reading it, but if someone had told me from the beginning that it was based in New World Order conspiracy theories, I would have passed.

[Trudi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding!

WOOL began its life as a self-published short novella in July of 2011. That's hard to believe. I feel like I've been hearing about this thing for ages and ages.

So I'm late to the party, but not that late. Due to excited reader response over WOOL 1, author Hugh Howey quickly released the next four parts in the series. Then came along this Omnibus which collects Parts 1-5. There is now a 2013 edition with a great new cover that features a blurb by none other than Justin Cronin, author of The Passage.

In a few short years, Howey has given all struggling writers out there toiling away at their craft in obscurity real hope. Word of mouth among bloggers and enthusiastic readers on sites like Amazon and Goodreads has the potential to lift the curse of invisibility from self-published works so that they may find their way to audiences who will love them. Never before have the barriers between author and reader been so few, the access so direct. No longer are authors strictly dependent on big publishing houses to discover them and deem their work important enough to go to market accompanied by a sexy publicity campaign. Authors and readers are doing it for themselves, and I for one think it's a beautiful thing.

I love everything about this story -- I love the details of the world-building, I love the characters, I love the shifting points of view, I love the slow burn when you're not sure what is going on. When it became clear to me exactly what was going on I love that I wasn't disappointed. For a post-apocalyptic story trodding very familiar science fiction territory, it still feels fresh. The author definitely gives it his own spin.

I love that the stakes are so high. I love that the author is patient and in control of his narrative. That he doesn't reveal too much too soon. That he understands the relationship between tension and release. All of that to say, I love that the writing is so strong and capable (I've read too much self-published stuff where the prose is inexcusably sloppy). Howey's writing is the exact opposite of sloppy. It's polished. Its engine hums. The shoes are shiny and it's wearing a tie. It's ready to take home to mom.

Finally, I love Juliette. She's Ellen Ripley, Katniss Everdeen, and Dana Scully all rolled up into one. She's got brains and courage and heart and a will made of iron.

There's a lot of under-developed, underwhelming dystopian fiction kicking around out there these days. WOOL leaves those attempts in its dust. It's worth your time. Trust me.

Book trailer available here

[Rebecca Roanhorse]

I am very late to the party on this one, but I saw the Apple TV trailer for the upcoming adaptation and was intrigued. I read the entire collection of the Wool stories as a novel and thoroughly enjoyed it (them?) Fun premise, great tension, lots of characters die (so don't get attached), and it kept me up reading until 3am two nights in a row. I'm really looking forward to the TV show.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the old sheriff of the Silo dies, Juliette, a Mechanic, is thrust into the role and quickly finds herself in over her head after asking the wrong questions. What will she discover when she's cast out of the Silo into the toxic world beyond and left for dead?

Yeah, that's not a great summary but there's a lot I don't want to spoil.

Since I've become more and more interested in the idea of Kindle publishing as of late, I decided to check out Wool, one of the juggernauts of self-publishing. While I heard the title (and thought it was stupid), I went in cold and was pleasantly surprised.

Wool takes place in a dystopian future where what's left of humanity lives in a Silo underground, levels upon levels of apartments, farms, mines, machinery, a self contained community. People who commit certain offenses are sent out to Clean, to clear the grit off the sensors providing the residents a view of the outside, before dying in the nuclear wasteland.

Juliette, the protagonist of parts 2-5, is a fantastic character. Her logical mind, honed from years of repairing ancient machines, quickly has her asking all sorts of questions about the history of the Silo and the possibility of life beyond. Her relationship with Lukas was believable and not at all sappy.

The book reminds me of old school science fiction, exploring ideas about control, conformity, and manipulation. When Juliette and company figure out what's been going on for two hundred years, the manure hits the windmill.

The writing was understated but still good. It's several notches above what you'd expect in a self-published book and probably a notch or two above some Big Six publishing house efforts lately. Is it deserving of the massive hype it gets? Probably not but it's still really good. I think the "little guy done good" aspect of Howey's success gives it a little more punch in some people's eyes.

A few minor things bugged me, most related to pace and how readily some of the people revolted. Also, I wouldn't have minded a little more of Silo 17 in the epilogue. Still, it has some strong scenes in it. Juliette running out of air was a pretty powerful scene and will stick with me for a long time.

Wool should appeal to old school science fiction fans and dystopia fans alike. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[Arah-Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugh Howey paints a world, or what is left of one post apocalypse, with an eye for detail that is easily visualized; one that you can descend into and inhabit.

This is epic storytelling, told with a taut hand on the tiller, controlling the pace and direction, allowing the reader to uncover truths together with the many, care worthy, relatable characters that populate this place. I blinked a couple of times and found myself entrenched in this world. And it all seems so effortless, the narrative flows, the voices are real, the soup thickens and the heroine Jules is absolutely kick ass, with a mechanics cool composure; confident in her analytical ability to fix anything, determined to maintain that which is not broken. Stroke it or strike it.
She rocks!

I’m telling you I climbed those stairs from down deep, round and round, to up top, with these people, legs cramping, heart pounding in my ears, breathless and shaken from the trip. And every time I thought I knew where I was going, Howey held his grip firm on that tiller and took me someplace else. I laboured over the details, peeking in at the players, letting the pressure build, scarfing down every morsel offered, thumbing the pages, ingesting the words. Yum.

I LOVED IT!!!!!


Note: Read the omnibus containing all five parts.

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of people live in an underground community and those who break the rules are cruelly expelled to their doom? Reality TV producers have to be kicking themselves for not coming up with this idea themselves.

At an undetermined time in the future, the people of the Silo have lived for generations with only a few dusty camera views to show them the world above ground. After the sheriff steps down from his post in rather dramatic fashion, the mayor and a deputy determine that a mechanic named Juliette is the best candidate to replace him, but her appointment results in a series of events that threaten to expose long kept secrets and tear the Silo apart.

Hugh Howey is one of the biggest success stories in self-publishing, and I understand why after the early chapters do an exceptional job of introducing us to this world. The stairwell is a vertical highway connecting the complex, and journeying from top to bottom is no easy task. Having two characters make the trek in the early part of the book was a great way of giving us a tour of the Silo that established not only how it works logistically, but how it functions as a society. Juliette started out as a very strong character against this vivid background, and Howe sets her up perfectly as the hero to carry the story.

Unfortunately, he seemed to have some problems with what to do after that, and I was slightly let down at where the plot went from there. I can’t say much about that without giving the book away though.

I was disappointed that Juliette wasn’t given more to do in the sheriff’s role and as a character overall. In fact, while Bernard made for a great villain with his infuriating arrogance, he was so ahead of Juliette at every turn that it made her disappointingly passive. While she takes plenty of actions during the course of the story, none of them really accomplish anything.

Juliette doesn’t uncover the conspiracy; her friend in IT finds the data that clues her into what’s going on although she does figure out the bit about the suits being deliberately made badly. Before she can really do anything as sheriff she’s almost instantly demoted and sent out to clean and only survives that because her friends swapped the faulty parts of the suit. That kicks off the whole rebellion, but Juliette has no part of it. At the other Silo she spends most of her time trying to get a pump working and almost dies doing so, but again, that doesn’t resolve anything in this story. Finally, in the end, she again almost dies because she accidently tries to save the life of the villain of the story, and we learn that Bernard wasn’t bested because of anything she did, rather it was all done by other people.

Part of this is disconnection is because of the structure of the plot. Sending Juliette out of the Silo automatically cuts her out of the action that takes place for the rest of the story. Her dangers mainly come from her environment, not because of anything connected to the plot although an argument could be made that Howey was trying to put in some kind of theme about her overcoming the elements since she almost dies by earth and air (Surviving the toxins and asphyxiation after being sent out to clean.), water and then fire.

One of her Big Damn Hero moments is supposed to be her rushing up the stairs of the second Silo when she’s completely exhausted because she’s desperate to get back into radio contact with her friends, but what exactly was that going to accomplish even if she had gotten back in touch of them? Essentially the character's major achievement is that she suffers and endures so that she can continue to suffer and endure.

So I found it very disappointing that we had a good character that I wanted to root for as the lead in the story, but she felt removed from the action with little actual impact on the plot. It’s kind of sad that Howey built up such a great sci-fi setting and then pushed the best character away from it to have her explore something similar but decayed and mostly empty.

I was also wishing that the story would have been more than a vast conspiracy storyline. The idea that all the silos were part of some centuries old evil master plan was OK, but I think it would have been far more interesting if the situation in the Silo was the result of internal conflicts that had built up over the decades. Juliette and Bernard at war with each other in the Silo is a story I’m more interested in than just another plot about unspeakable secrets kept from a society.

Overall, Howey created a well written sci-fi tale with an intriguing setting that I was very interested in, but unfortunately, I found the plot and actions taken by the characters far less compelling. I don’t regret reading this, but I probably won’t be checking out the follow-up books to it.

[Dave Edmunds · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The forbidden dreams of the outside world, she saw, were sad and empty dreams. Dead dreams. The people of up-top who worshipped the view had it all backwards - the future was below."

Initial Thoughts

There's so much hype surrounding Hugh Howey's self-published phenomenon, Wool, that I thought it's about time I read the bloody thing. I've heard nothing but good things about it, and checking out the reviews on here I'm definitely in for a good time. Plus, I love me some dystopian fiction. Wether it's Robert McCammon's 'Swan Song', Stephen King's 'The Stand' or George Orwell's classic '1984,' I can't seem to get enough of it. If the world does wind up in an absolute mess, thanks to us humans, then I'm well prepared!

But the fact that Wool is self-published does give me a bit of trepidation as I've experienced a few stinkers when it comes to this branch of fiction. Credit to anyone who has a crack at something and follows their dreams, but there's quite often a reason a potential publisher gives these authors a pass. Although it is to be noted that publishers were all over Wool after its staggering success. Nothing like a bit of cold hard cash to get those chaps interested. But I'm reserving my own personal judgement until I've read the damn thing!

The Story

Wool...it's obviously about a farmer and his sheep, as he whiles away the hours shearing anything that crosses his path...or so you would think. It's actually set hundreds of years in the future and about the remains of the human civilization, that is now confined to huge underground bunkers (called Silos) adhering to a strict set of rules. Not quite as strict as the ones we were all subject to during the pandemic but getting there. The world has now been left a poisonous desert that can only be viewed on camera by those fortunate enough to be stuck in the Silo.

Society has been turned into a bunch of worker drones with little hope or free will. The biggest crime is to think about going outside and verbalising this will get you a one way ticket to the death penalty. Which consists of being sent outside to clean the dirty cameras before succumbing to the noxious fumes. Why you would do them a favour when you're being hung out to dry is anyone's guess.

"His parents had warned him - their only precious child - to never want out of the silo. Never even think it. Don't let it cross your mind. It was instant death, that thought, and it would be the destruction of their one and only."

The story commences with the former sherrif, Houston, who has been found guilty of the ultimate crime and sentenced to death. Just make sure you clean those cameras while you're at it! We then jump around a number of POV's, focusing on the enigmatic Juliette Nichols, as we get a sense of life in the Silo. And it's a pretty grim slog.



But while all this is going on there's a growing sense of unease. A revolt is on the cards as some of the inhabitants yearn for a better life. Are the powers that be lying and manipulating them as they hold them down? Nothing like real life thank god!

The Writing

If you've read my reviews you know I love me some engaging writing. Unfortunately, I didn't get any from Hugh Howey. Yes you read that right! He just does not have the ability in his use of prose to get his ideas across in an entertaining way. At least for me anyway.

"Shouts echoed down the hallway, emanating from the entrance to Mechanical. The familiar patter of gunfire came next, the pop pop pop of the good guys followed by the ratatat of the bad."

an example of some of the disappointing prose in Wool

It's overwritten and lacks any sort of flair. At around five hundred pages this book could have easily been cut in half. Just take out the time characters spend walking up and down stairs, which is described relentlessly in painstaking detail, and that would do it. With all this available technology are you telling me no one thought of installing an elevator? Not my idea of exciting reading as the novel drags at a snails pace sometimes.

Throughout it's entirety there's about five minutes of tension, and I was so bored by this point I don't think it had the desired effect. It did pick up in the second half a little bit. But then petered out to a fairly lackluster climax. Far from what I was expecting with all these five star reviews.

The Characters

And if the writing wasn't bad enough then wait till I start on the characters. I thought the general idea was they were supposed to have character. To say they were flat and one-dimensional was a bit of an understatement. Bland and uninteresting are the words that spring to mind. Even the lead character of Juliette lacked any sort of personality. That's what life in a silo does to you, as she was a hard character to follow and get behind.



Then there was the completely unlikeable love interest, Lukas, which was completely unnecessary. It was just thrown in there and came across as forced and unnatural. He ended up being both annoying and a bit of a clown, which begged the question of why Juliette would have instalove with him. Romeo he certainly was not!

Anything else? Oh yeah! The dialogue was horrific. Extremely basic and just getting information across without any personality. The less said the better I think.

Final Thoughts

I ended Wool in complete shock at just how bad it was. How can this be in any way a five star read? Okay, okay. I'm probably overreacting. But that's what happens when you over hype something. I was expecting much, much more.

I really thought I was going to love this book. But it certainly doesn't deserve all the plaudits.

Is there anything I liked about it? I'm going to be real here. There were a few things. It did start quite well and I found the overall concept intriguing. It just lacked in the execution and went quickly downhill. But the mystery of what was going on and what had happened to the world did keep me reading. So it's not a complete failure.

I also enjoyed the central theme of the struggle between tyranny and liberty and the effects of propaganda. It was interesting to see a society completely closed off and the steps that could be implemented to prevent critical thinking. But this could have been achieved in far fewer pages and it would have been a lot less boring.

By the time I was finished I was ready to jump in that airlock myself and go out into the poisonous wasteland to do a bit of cleaning. The tedious plot and lifeless characters really dragged me down and I had to keep checking I was not reading a young adult novel. Because that would completely blow my street cred.

All that's left to say is that I won't be reading the sequels but may have a look at the Apple TV show to see if that's any better...it couldn't be worse! Now I need a good stiff drink.

Thanks for reading and...cheers!

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We are the seeds, ... This is a silo. They put us here for the bad times."

A toxic world after a disaster whose exact nature was left undefined has forced humanity to flee into dystopian underground silos. And, taking a page from the oft-used sci-fi trope of multi-generational starships, humanity has lost the knowledge of the nature of that disaster, the nature of their previous existence, and even the existence of other silos in which humanity was planted like seeds for a far distant future time and an unplanned and only distantly hoped for return to the surface. The existence of that possibility seems to have been lost to subsequent generations born underground who know life only in the limited environment of the silo.

“She had a sense of the size and scope of the world below them. And then she had seen with her own eyes the view of the outside with its phantomlike sheets of smoke they called clouds rolling by at miraculous heights. She had even seen a star, which [she] thought stood an inconceivable distance away. What god would make so much rock below and air above and just a measly silo between?”

Think of WOOL as a slow-paced, unquenchable slow-burn yet entirely compelling and gripping coming-of-age story of an entire civilization after a global disaster and toxic political managment by a close-knit, tightly held autocracy that controls an unknowing population through lies and manipulation. But even the government’s own comprehensive guide books and procedure manuals knew that the revolution was a foregone conclusion. WOOL is the story of that revolution.

“ ‘What do seeds do when they’re left too long?’ she asked him … ‘We rot,’ he said. ‘All of us. We go bad down here, and we rot so deep that we won’t grow anymore.’ He blinked and looked up at her. ‘We’ll never grow again.’ ”

A tenacious, resourceful, courageous and self-willed heroine, Juliette was having none of that.

So why not a 5-star rating? My personal take on the plot needs a deeper development of the back story of the autocracy within the silo. Did mankind place themselves into a silo “starship” to seed future generations and then restrict mankind’s movement back to “mother Earth” by creating an authoritarian autocracy or did that somehow develop on its own after mankind had retreated from a clear existential threat above ground? This reader needs to know. That said, I have no hesitation in recommending WOOL to lovers of the sci-fi and dystopia genre.

Paul Weiss

[Veronica Belmont · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books take a while to dig into. The first few chapters set up the story, introduce you to the main characters and build a framework for the tale to come.

Wool sets up the story too, but in a heartbreaking and gripping way that has you consuming the book as quickly as possible, if only to learn the answer to: "that's not really about to happen, is it?"

There are moments in Wool when I wondered if maybe the book was too dark. I mourned for characters and didn't know how they would possibly get themselves out of the messes they (or others) had gotten them into. I won't say it worked out for everyone, but there is enough hopefulness and light in the book to brighten the darkest depths of this silo.

Wool is not a long read (even shorter when you can't put it down and read it over two nights) but it is one that will stick with you.

[Dez the Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an insane and WILD ride!!

Post-Apocalyptic and I am here for it!

Full of suspense and shocking events…it took me a minute to gather my thoughts on this one.

This book immediately grabbed me. Not one single character is off limits and you never know what treacherous peril awaits around any given corner. Set in a multi-pov(which was done exceptionally well) the story slowly unravels into a bigger picture. A silo full of people in a post-apocalyptic world, governed by a system meant to sustain order in delicate conditions…I had so many questions! How does it all work?! Not to fret, it all comes together.

The author does an excellent job of enveloping you with rich descriptors, allowing the words to become a movie in your head. I was full chapters ahead before I realized I felt like I was watching it happen instead of reading it. I had to catch my breath several times and had my hand to my mouth with the amount of shock in this novel. I loved every second of it, every single scrumptious word.

I absolutely will be finishing this series, try and stop me. It’s such a bonus they turned this into a TV series and I can’t wait to watch it!

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

2021 re-read:

I enjoyed this even more the second time around. Looking back at my review (clearly written under the influence of ... something) I have to say that the slow pace in the beginning didn't bother me this time. Also, while the world does indeed not open up that much, that's perhaps more a strength than a weakness. The silo does certainly come alive and the intrigue of slowly figuring out the surroundings is a strong one.

Upgrading my rating to 4.5 stars.


2017 attempt at being funny (I guess):

So, in 2017 I finally noticed there is this author named Hugh Howey.
I don’t know why it took me so long. Maybe it’s because at some point I rather surprisingly and inadvertently was time-traveling to the sixties. There I was kidnapped by aliens that looked like plumber’s friends, only they were green and had a hand for a head. How inconvenient.
They beamed me into their flying saucer and greeted me with “Welcome aboard, Mr. Pilgrim. Any questions?” Strange little guys really. Also, my name is not Pilgrim. I’m a bit confused.

Anyhow, after I returned to the present I read Howey’s 2015 novel Beacon 23 and totally loved it. I also read his short story ‘Select Character’ and thought it was very good as well. Since I was doing kind of a short story binge anyway I decided to buy his 2017 collection Machine Learning. And who would have thought, this is also pretty good. But then I noticed there’s a whole section devoted to the Silo series. So I had to read this as well. Well done Hugh Howey! So that’s how you trick involuntary time travelers into buying your novels?! Shame on you! Now, go stand in the corner and count to 5,624!

Turns out I already owned the Wool Omnibus for months. How did this happen? Very confused indeed.

I enjoyed this little dystopian read very much. Talking about the actual book I’m reviewing now. When I say “little”, I don’t mean the book itself, which is over 500 pages long. But rather the world, which doesn’t open up all that much. Maybe that’s because this is a trilogy. We will see.
Yes, of course I recently bought the second and third novel. All this time travel stuff and some clever author made me kind of weak, I guess.

I liked the mysterious feel, especially in the first half and how this Hugh Howey guy was able to build suspense. This feeling of dread and wonder. I also liked the characterization of the seemingly good and bad guys. I don’t think at all that these characters were all black and white. There was a lot of grey there in my opinion. Or at least this novel made me think. Which is always appreciated.
Still, the pace was a little bit off at first. What? You thought I'm only going to say positive things here, Mr. Howey? Well, think again. And don’t you dare stop counting!
In the second half the pace picks up a lot. And the story finally starts to progress. This took a bit too long for my liking. So only 4 stars in the end, for an otherwise very entertaining read.


Note to self: If you look back on this review in a few years time, it wasn’t drugs, but a Vonnegut.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminded me of The City of Ember and a lot of other similar shows and books. I think IT and Engineering would be evenly matched adversaries for power in the silos. Even if they cycled with a history as often as the moties, control over the energy, food, and water should balance out any control that IT had.

That being said I really like Juliette.

[Dem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy Post apocalyptic Stories every now and again and as this book had been getting rave reviews I had to give it a go.

The idea is really interesting, "This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside"

The first chapter had me gripped and I really thought I had another The Road in my hands and really looked forward to something special.
While I did like the concept of the novel I found the book lost its initial impact after the first couple of chapters. I found the characters very weak and poorly developed and the I got bogged down in the overwhelming descriptions of everything and this made the book seem endless. There are a couple of twists and turns towards the end of the novel but they came too late for me.

Having read and loved The Road and The Passage I was hoping that Wool would be just as atmospheric and eerie but unfortunately it didn't appeal to me.

The book is over 550 pages long and I really felt that it could have been a lot shorter .

Having read this back in November, I had to re-read this one for a book club read this month. I listened to it this time and the narrator was quite good but the book dragged regardless.

[Kaila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going to end up being one of those books I force on all my friends, insisting that they read it immediately. I loved it and can't wait for more.

Please see my full reviews of the stories:

Wool 1
Wool 2: Proper Gauge
Wool 3: Casting Off
Wool 4: The Unraveling
Wool 5: The Stranded

Now go read this! You won't regret it!

Update May 13, 2012:

Hugh Howey has announced over on his blog that his self-published book Wool has been acquired by Fox! I couldn't be happier for him, and I am so excited for the future of this promising author. How crazy to have something explode so quickly like Wool has!

Update October 29, 2012:

Wool has been spotted at Powell's Books in Portland!

I was bleary-eyed and walking towards the coffee shop when lo! what should I spot on the new release shelf but the Wool Omnibus. I gasped and ran over to it and fondled it affectionately. The person shelving close by gave me a weird look and stepped away.

Nobody gets between me and my Wool.

Another update! October 30, 2012:

Guess what book is totally on the Goodreads choice for best sci-fi novel?

Yeah!

I know!

I cast my vote so fast I didn't even see what else was on there.

I'll be rooting for you, Hugh!

[Stjepan Cobets · Rating 5 out of 5]

My rating 4.7

With great pleasure, I read this book. From the first page, I was simply drawn into the world of Silos. This dystopian world is also well presented and I felt as I read it is literally in the Silos with numerous underground levels in which people live for hundreds of years. The writer has evoked the world with such ease and enjoyed this imaginary world through the book.

In a hostile world that has destroyed large war, in the huge Silos live the last remnants of civilization. At the top of the Silos, there are four lenses through which to see the destroyed outside world. Living in the Silo is under strict rules with which all the people are kept in ignorance and obedient. But that's not the only thing that keeps them in obedience, there is a myriad of lies with which they use a certain layer of society at the top of government. Anyone who opposes these rules for whatever reason is thrown out of the Silos. After cleaning Holston who was the last marshal, in his place comes Juliette, a mechanic from the deepest part of the Silos. Although she does not know anything about the law, she begins to explore the reasons why Holston's voluntary departure in death, and soon realizes that everything around it is based on lies. Silos are beginning to deal with carefully hidden own past. All Juliette had previously believed decomposes into dust and her life is found in immediate danger. Believe me; the story will draw you into such vortices in this cruel world, where human life is worth less than a speck of dust.

I enjoyed the whole book and I recommend it to all fans of dystopian science fiction, but also to all lovers of fiction. The story is great.

[Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up Wool because I needed to read a self-published book for a reading challenge. I was pleasantly surprised. The writing is strong, and there are several well-developed characters. The first three parts are especially strong, with a good mix of plot and mystery. I thought the final part was much too slow—interesting things happened, but they are bogged down in an excessive amount of detail. A solid read.