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Simon Scarfe

Simon@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 9 months, 3 weeks ago

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Simon Scarfe's books

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reviewed Wool by Hugh Howey

Wool (2013, Simon & Schuster) 4 stars

They live beneath the earth in a prison of their own making. There is a …

Dystopia Done Right

5 stars

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 …