From the Bookshelf of The Sword and Laser…

Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1)

Hugh Howey

Start date: May 1, 2013

Finish date: May 31, 2013

Discussion: 2013 Reads

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2013 Reads

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What Members Thought

Jun 19, 2013 Harold Ogle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Part an adventure of the "Paranoia" RPG adapted as a murder mystery, and part the embodiment of the eternal rivalry between engineering and IT departments everywhere, Wool is an enjoyable yarn about a self-contained community that has lived underground for so long that its people can't fathom living any other way.

The book features a series of protagonists, all of whom are sympathetic for their rebelliousness - who doesn't like a rebel? - and who each pull at some scrap of knowledge with no inkli Part an adventure of the "Paranoia" RPG adapted as a murder mystery, and part the embodiment of the eternal rivalry between engineering and IT departments everywhere, Wool is an enjoyable yarn about a self-contained community that has lived underground for so long that its people can't fathom living any other way.

The book features a series of protagonists, all of whom are sympathetic for their rebelliousness - who doesn't like a rebel? - and who each pull at some scrap of knowledge with no inkling of the consequences. It starts with a whodunit premise (why have so many people gone crazy enough to be sentenced to death lately?) and proceeds from there.

The book made me very aware of our cultural fetish for engineering, reminding me of various other books that called my attention to this aspect of how we think in the world today, such as the Guardians of the Flame series, the Cross-time Engineer series, and so on. In Wool as in so many books, the engineers are the heroes who drive all the action and advance civilization (even if they're not called engineers in Wool until very late in the book). The emphasis is on things in such books: the plot revolves around objects that engineers make, because the challenges in the plot are set up as physical challenges that can be solved through feats of engineering. This is a marked contrast to books where science is the focus (Charles Sheffield's almost-unreadable books spring to mind), adventure is the focus (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Williamson), whimsy is the focus (Neil Gaiman), or character is the focus (Cormac McCarthy), to name just a few examples of differing approaches to writing. I really enjoyed this book, but its engineering challenges really stood out to me, particularly because there were logical gaps in the setting that were obvious except that, from an engineering view, they were just "givens." For instance, why have children's books from Before in a society that was hell-bent on suppressing any knowledge of that time? These sorts of questions, while interesting, are too existential to be tackled by engineering characters, whose job it is to solve mechanical problems. Hilariously, late in the book (view spoiler) This engineering focus was more of an observation than anything that made me dislike what I was reading, however. It was just a little bit more blatant than many other engineering-focused stories I've read. I really enjoyed this novel. ...more

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May 01, 2013 Kelsy rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

Wool enthralled me from the first chapter - we're introduced to a world that isn't a world at all, but a silo over 100 stories deep into the ground, where going outside leads to a quick and excruciating death. In this silo, the only form of government revolves around taboos about discussing the outside world and "cleanings" as punishment. The guilty are sent out into the toxic air to clean the silo's sensors. You would think they would flat-out refuse to clean the sensors once arriving outside, ...more

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Jun 09, 2013 kvon rated it really liked it

Shelves: librarybook, digital

Claustrophobic post-apocalyptic. Juliette vs the Man, who want to keep the people in small communities without knowledge of the wider world. Evil sociology.

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Sep 15, 2013 Charlotte rated it it was ok

Eh. It goes down easy and the premise is creative. However, the characters blurred together, there were multiple obvious plot holes, and Howey tends to hit the reader over the head with his explanations. I felt like major strength of these novellas were the "gotcah" surprises but I thought they should have been better supported. Points, however, for having an older woman as the main character (and it a romance!) in the second novella. The third was definitely my favorite because of the quick pac ...more

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May 23, 2013 Joanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: post-apocalyptic

Like most of us I'm royally sick of the post-apocalyptic craze. Don't get me wrong, I love it but so much of it is utter crap that's been rehashed. This book though, it's different. After the first section with the sheriff and his revelation I was hooked. Then the mayor's. And Juliette's. And so on. This book weaves layers on layers and just keeps you wanting more. Loved this book. Highly recommend to people sick of this genre. It's perfectly dark and grim and makes you despair for humanity, but ...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Marianne rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, post-apocalyptic

The series starts with a good concept and enough action and mystery to dig its hook, then goes on to fully reel in the readers with great characters and high stakes. The books continually got better. A very satisfying read.

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Jun 19, 2013 Emily rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-club, scifi, favorites, audiobooks

I loved this book. (Another Sword & Laser pick.) I liked the storytelling and was consistently impressed and often surprised by it.

Highly recommend for anyone interested in speculative fiction or dystopic science fiction.

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May 11, 2013 Chad rated it it was ok

I found myself flipping through pages just to finish...aspects of the plot were interesting, but relationships between characters could have been better developed over time.

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