Hardcover, 528 pages
English language
Published Dec. 25, 2013 by Simon & Schuster.
They live beneath the earth in a prison of their own making. There is a view of the outside world, a spoiled and rotten world, their forefathers left behind. But this view fades over time, ruined by the toxic airs that kill any who brave them.
So they leave it to the criminals, those who break the rules, and who are sent to cleaning. Why do they do it, these people condemned to death? Sheriff Holston has always wondered. Now he is about to find out.
Despite the cliched title of this review, it’s absolutely true for this book. It’s tense and always leaves you wanting more.
I greatly enjoyed this book. I had heard about it awhile ago, but never checked it out. A friend lent me their copy and I've had it sitting on my desk for a few months. Finally got around to reading it on vacation and couldn't put it down.
I thoroughly enjoyed the tone of this book. While the premise is dark, and some of the lore that is slowly doled out even darker, the general tone is strangely positive.
I did fear for the main character as Howey almost reaches GRRM levels of murdering off characters. I do like that approach as it makes the stakes better for me as a reader. It's better if there some danger in there somewhere, for me anyways.
Looking forward to the other books in the series.
And I will have to go back and check out the show now, to see how it …
I greatly enjoyed this book. I had heard about it awhile ago, but never checked it out. A friend lent me their copy and I've had it sitting on my desk for a few months. Finally got around to reading it on vacation and couldn't put it down.
I thoroughly enjoyed the tone of this book. While the premise is dark, and some of the lore that is slowly doled out even darker, the general tone is strangely positive.
I did fear for the main character as Howey almost reaches GRRM levels of murdering off characters. I do like that approach as it makes the stakes better for me as a reader. It's better if there some danger in there somewhere, for me anyways.
Looking forward to the other books in the series.
And I will have to go back and check out the show now, to see how it stands up (not as good as the book, I am sure - but are they ever??).
A real page-turner and full of twists. It does feel like it's getting long after the halfway mark (like watching Lost), which could be expected after reading the author's post summary describing how he published the first few chapters as a novelette before getting unexpected attention and then expanding it into a book (and now a trilogy). This is also a real inspiration for those who self-publish. Anyway, the world-building is amazing, and I'm glad I started reading this after watching the TV pilot so I didn't spoil the book (it's one or the other). Now onto the second book.
Man, what a trip.
No spoilers, but in the Sci-Fi spectrum of humanity coming together in the face of apocalypse or everyone fro themselves (with Rebecca Solnit's "A Paradise Built in Hell" on one end, and parts of Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" or the edges of John Wyndham's works) "Wool" is decidedly on the sharp stick-end end of that scale.
Anyway, wonderfully paced, and great world-building. Excited for the next books in the trilogy!
I’m an absolute sucker for fictional dystopia. It's the perfect arena to discuss complex real world issues and hypothesise what the extremes of those might look like. Hugh Howey's 'Wool' does all of this brilliantly, scratching an itch for me that’s not been touched since 2016’s The Power.
I discovered Wool through its engrossing television adaptation, 'Silo', on Apple TV. While it excels at character development and gives it an intriguing detective noir spin, I found myself needing to know what happens next. So, when I saw book two in the series on offer, it was a great excuse to get the first two to see how the source material compares.
I'm pretty sure it's a bit trite - I've come across a lot of the ideas and tropes before. But I expect that that’s what I needed at this point in time - fast paced, gripping, comfort food.
To …
I’m an absolute sucker for fictional dystopia. It's the perfect arena to discuss complex real world issues and hypothesise what the extremes of those might look like. Hugh Howey's 'Wool' does all of this brilliantly, scratching an itch for me that’s not been touched since 2016’s The Power.
I discovered Wool through its engrossing television adaptation, 'Silo', on Apple TV. While it excels at character development and gives it an intriguing detective noir spin, I found myself needing to know what happens next. So, when I saw book two in the series on offer, it was a great excuse to get the first two to see how the source material compares.
I'm pretty sure it's a bit trite - I've come across a lot of the ideas and tropes before. But I expect that that’s what I needed at this point in time - fast paced, gripping, comfort food.
To sum it up, 'Wool' is a well-crafted tale that had me hooked, made me think, and left me wanting more. So much so, that the only thing stopping me from starting on the second book, 'Shift', is writing this.
This is an interesting little collection of tales that come together nicely in an overarching story.
The premise is that we're in a post-apocalyptic future where the atmosphere is highly toxic and corrosive and the last pocket of humanity is surviving in the silo, an underground tower designed to be self-sufficient for as long as it takes for the world above to become habitable again. It's been a few hundred years so far.
The only contact with the outside world is via viewscreens fed from sensors on the surface which gradually become coated with a layer of grime, obscuring the image. The punishment for most transgressions in the silo is to be sent out to clean the sensors, which is a death sentence - there's no way back inside before your protective suit is damaged by the corrosive wind.
The first few stories are short, the events told from a …
This is an interesting little collection of tales that come together nicely in an overarching story.
The premise is that we're in a post-apocalyptic future where the atmosphere is highly toxic and corrosive and the last pocket of humanity is surviving in the silo, an underground tower designed to be self-sufficient for as long as it takes for the world above to become habitable again. It's been a few hundred years so far.
The only contact with the outside world is via viewscreens fed from sensors on the surface which gradually become coated with a layer of grime, obscuring the image. The punishment for most transgressions in the silo is to be sent out to clean the sensors, which is a death sentence - there's no way back inside before your protective suit is damaged by the corrosive wind.
The first few stories are short, the events told from a different character's viewpoint, and introducing us to other people who tell their own stories later on. The final installment is much longer than the others and jumps between characters to give us the full picture about what's happening.
The very first story was a great introduction and really set the scene for what was to come. The situation is explained, and we're given a whiff of the corruption inside the silo that isn't evident to most of the inhabitants. I thought I'd seen the twist in the tale a mile off, and I kind of had... but there was more to it. A brilliant start to the
