Wool: Finished--what did you think?

[Firstname]

Christopher wrote: "I quite enjoyed it too. I loved the first three stories then felt like it bogged down bit during the second half. I think I would have preferred keeping it more focused on Juliette with her getting..."

Derek wrote: "I loved this book. First book I've read in years that consumed me this much. I bounced between the kindle book and the audible version. Like others, I found whispersync failed often, but unlike som..."

Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot

[Madelyn]

Done!

Onto the Vaginal Fantasy Bookclub books!

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Firstname wrote: "Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot "

Huh? Care to elaborate?

[Michele]

Both the ones quoted said they didn't plan to read Shift. I think that's what he was referring to.

[Joe]

I initially had zero interest in reading this book but Tom and Veronica (and others on here) kept raving about it so...what's a book club for anyway. Also, i found myself with a lot of time on my hands lately. I got very annoyed in the early part of the story when the author kept killing off the main protagonists. The storyline didn't really get started until Julia was introduced. I'm only about 75% through and expect to be finished this afternoon. I sure hope the ending is better than the beginning.

[Jonathan]

Something about it made me think of Fallout 3. But yeah. Overall, it's an interesting story and thought experiment. Unlike a lot of people who have said they aren't interested in knowing how the world became what it was in Wool, I actually kind of am. So I might end up getting the Shift Omnibus. Don't get me wrong. I can definitely appreciate the mystery of the world, I've got kind of a compulsion to uncover the mystery rather than just appreciating it.

[Joe]

OK, I finished the book this morning. I'm not sorry I read this and glad the book club encouraged me to do so but I do not think this is as rave worthy as seemingly so many others do. It was a decent read but not great in my opinion. I think I gave it 3 stars but would be comfortable with 3.5 if such a think were possible. Now, on to Among Others, which is one of the few "Sword" books I'm excited about, since I'm generally a Laser.

[Molly]

I really enjoyed this book. I agree it got bogged down a bit in the middle but definitely delivered in the end. :)

[Jeremiah]

I enjoyed the book. I got the omnibus edition from Audible and consumed it in short order. I can poke some holes in it, but I work QA for a living. I can poke holes in anything. I like the characters, over all, and the premise is interesting in the way a lot of 1960's and 70's science fiction is. The books starts with a basic world assumption(we all live in silos now and have for a long time) and explores the implications of that premise. I will want to continue the series.

[Sabrina]

I would never have picked up this book if it hadn't been a book club pick - but I just could not put this down! The author had me totally hooked and holding my breath.

I loved how the perspective changes made me rethink the characters and still not like Bernard, but understand why he was acting as he did. I didn't think Juliette would survive, watched as things were getting worse and worse and held onto only a glimmer of hope, and then wanted to cheer when they all squeaked through.

[Trike]

Firstname wrote: "Also because the people are sheep, it works on a number of levels. "

Especially the Mechanical Level.

Bah-dum-bum *tish*

[Trike]

Ruth wrote: "Really enjoyed this one. I thought the elements in the story were introduced so wonderfully in the beginning, and whilst I didn't like the other books as much as the first two, I thought it continu..."

I agree. I thought the first part was a superb short story and Howey neatly avoided the "longer not better" syndrome of simply continuing the tale with new characters rather than just expanding the first installment to give us more backstory.

It did get a little saggy in later installments, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Madelyn]

I found the story hard to get into at first, but couldn't put it down at the end.

It was easier to get into than Poison Princess, however.

[Chris]

I found it to be a well thought out dystopia and I admired the creation, even if it reminded me a lot of the vaults in the Fallout series of games.

I loved reading a strong, female, heroine in a SF novel, a nice change after plowing my way through classic SF and being met with women playing very low key roles in stories.

It also reminded me a little of the game Bioshock in its setting, I loved a lot of the fluff which is added to the world to make it whole.

I agree with others that books 4 and 5 could do with a bit of culling as the pacing was a little off, and at times the action did jump about a bit too sporadically for my liking.

I'll probably not pick up shift any time soon, its clear Howey is gonna make this one run and run, and I don't have the time to get deep into a series of books. I prefer stand alone novels any day of the week.

[Joshua]

Great book. I really enjoyed the characters, even Bernard. I will have to read Shift now.

Might have just been me but Juliette reminded me a lot of Julie Mao(Leviathan Wakes).

[Ian]

I loved this book, was listening on audible and made me look forward to my daily commute so I could listen to more!

I really like how the perspective changes through the book with the different leads, and the real story unfolds very cleverly.

I also like that the style of writing feels somehow 'claustrophobic' , and lends itself to the setting.

I did some psychology at school and the whole thought experiment of the thing is fascinating, could you really control and predict behaviour over such a long time. For a long time I thought the whole thing would turn out to be an experiment where only the local air was poisoned and the rest of the world carried on as normal.

Am listening to Shift on audible now and it's also great, so anyone wavering should check it out

[Peter]

I haven't been commenting on these threads because I had read Wool a few months ago. I loved the series and was wondering if it was even going to get a Hugo nomination (I guess not).

I read the first in the Shift trilogy. I need to pick it up again and finish the other two. There's just too much to read!

[Walter]

I was glad to see Wool made a BotM. With so much in flux, I've no idea how the dust will settle as regards traditional and self-publishing, but major props to Veronica and Tom for offering Wool, a work straddling both poles, its opportunity to shine in S&L's spotlight.

Prior to reading Wool this month for the first time, I had read Cherryh's Downbelow Station. Being so fresh in my mind, I find myself weighing them, one in each hand. Cherryh's offbeat narrative style versus Howey's more traditional prose. No conclusions to offer (I had to mature a bit to more fully appreciate the Cherryh style, after having attempted her work many moons ago), but the discordant flavors set well with me.

I find myself, as a self-published author, more intrigued by what Wool means as an archtype for self-published works than as a story in and of itself. It's a good (possibly outstanding) work, but I'm still parsing it on that score. What I do find myself wondering is, what will Wool's ultimate influence be as an example of survivor bias as regards self-published fiction?

[Jennifer]

The first story hooked me immediately, although I was devastated by the ending. I didn't know how I was going to follow a new protagonist, but Juliette finally won me over. The romance bit with Juliette didn't work for me/annoyed me, but otherwise I was completely immersed in the fantastic world created by Howey.

Most likely, I wouldn't have chosen the book on my own, but I'm very glad I read it. I was drawn in by the world, the characters, the twists and the mystery.

I have reservations about exploring further the mysteries behind how the silo came into being, but I will probably give the next series a read after I've reduced my TBR pile. I'm almost afraid that something in Shift will spoil how much I loved Wool.

[Jonathon]

I think that the book on the whole worked much better as 5 short stories/novellas as opposed to a single novel, particularly with the first 3 parts. It's only from Part 3 onwards that I felt as though this was concieved to be part of a greater narrative, but I also felt like it was at this point that the book lost some of its focus for me. The first two parts have a very tight narrative, it tells the story and gives just enough detail to help me mentally construct the world around the characters but then as part 3 goes on the whole thing seems to become a bit more fuzzy and nebulous and I kinda missed the more direct and pointed nature of the first two parts.

[Scott]

I just finished this yesterday. And I loved it. I usually don't read the PA/dystopia genre but I'm really glad I read this. I listened to the Audible audiobook and found the Holston (sp?) parts to be a bit slow and I'm not sure I would've continued had the audiobook not had all of it. And this became one of my favorites I've read in a while. I even recommended it to a friend who is much further into the genre than me and I rarely recommend books lol

The only thing that kind of bothered me was the use of modern jargon. This is supposed to be several hundred years in the future yet they still refer to IT as IT. There were a few others like servers, mice, e-mail. They weren't major but it did take me out of the story a little bit.

[kvon]

I'm a late finisher. I thought it was good, but not the best thing ever. I liked the hooks at the ends of the first three books, where you realize the conniving is bigger than it seems.

I actually preferred another dystopic story called Yarn that I kept remembering because of the title similarity.

[Neb]

Just finished it, long after the S&L wrap up. It took awhile to get it from my library, but it was worth the wait. I really liked it. Brilliant post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Among the best I've ever read. Couldn't put it down. Arthur Clarke with better fleshed-out characters, or something on par with John Christopher's "tripods" series (The White Mountains, etc.) for adults. Looking forward to reading "Shift" and then "Dust".