From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1)

Hugh Howey

Start date: October 2, 2014

Finish date: October 31, 2014

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What Members Thought

Feb 21, 2016 Andrew rated it liked it · review of another edition

Ok where shall I start apart from very carefully - I am always weary of commenting about famous or popular books as you can guarantee someone will come up and take a pop at you over criticising their bestest book ever! Okay that may be a little extreme but still what can be said that has not been said already.

So that said I will put my hand up and say I enjoyed it - The book left me asking more questions than I think it gave me answers, although I will not go away to ponder them for days to come Ok where shall I start apart from very carefully - I am always weary of commenting about famous or popular books as you can guarantee someone will come up and take a pop at you over criticising their bestest book ever! Okay that may be a little extreme but still what can be said that has not been said already.

So that said I will put my hand up and say I enjoyed it - The book left me asking more questions than I think it gave me answers, although I will not go away to ponder them for days to come I do wonder why do I invest in a book I know I will have to read on the series to find out more over. Yes I enjoyed the characters but still I didn't completely connect. The work that Mr Howey built is a fascinating idea but being an engineer I do struggle to see how it could work.

One thing I will comment about - after seeing other peoples reviews about how the book was structured, was that it was originally self published and broken up in to parts - and reading further in to the books history it seems like both it and the author has had more than their fair share of adventures to get to this level of fame and awareness. So full credit where it is due and it certainly shows a level of commitment and perseverance that I know I would not have. which sort of makes me respect the man and his creation even more.

So back to the book - I know there are more books out there ( as well as shared universe additional stories by other authors who expand on the who world of the Silo series) and I know that many if not all the secrets are kept back for them but the story itself is fair paced once you break through the whole setting the scenes chapters.

One thing I will say and I am not sure if its part of the storyline or how the author writes but I do think that such an oppressive and totalitarian order has been sanitised and cleaned up and presented in a story of personal struggle and hardship. Now I am not making light of it - sometimes the more impressive impacts can be the subtlest but when you think about the reasoning behind the Silo world it is quite a nightmare to consider and I think is one that is waiting to be addressed later on.

So my final thought - it seems of recent that post apocalyptic totalitarian dystopia fiction (now thats some mouthful) is getting a lot of air time especially when we see a lot of sassy young (ok Juliette is in her 30s) fight the system and win - but I do ask the question how do people let the world get in to that state in the first place, just wondering. ...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Angela Cheney rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, nook

This book has a very readable, easily engaging narrative that at first, fooled me into thinking it was simplistic. Well, THAT didn't last long, and I was quickly pulled into the 1200 some pages of this absolutely absorbing novel! I'm pleased to know that there either are, or are planned, sequels, because I'm now going to pursue anything else written by Hugh Howey.

Like all good dystopian novel, this book pushes you to consider philosophical issues, particularly about the rights of any individual, ...more

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