Wool

Yeah. I devoured this book. I'm going to need to read the rest of these immediately!

A really good book and series for anyone looking for that dystopian, survival, post-apocalyptic type of a read. Hugh Howey builds a pretty convincing universe, the story being told in slightly unexpected ways, but I cannot disclose anymore without spoilers! This is something I would consider re-reading in the future too.

This is one of those hidden gems with important commentary that I'm glad I stumbled across. Howey masterfully conveys desperation and the insanity one can feel creeping in when confined. I got through it pretty quick, but overall enjoyed it a good amount.

I give it 4 stars for its setting and plot idea

Gave up at 8%.

The first short story in a novel told through a series of short stories. Normally that would be enough to put me off, but it keeps getting good reviews. This was intriguing enough to continue on.

Amazing :)

I enjoyed the book, but I'm not yet sure I liked it enough to continue with the series. I really wasn't a fan of the writing, but the story was interesting and compelling enough to keep me. I think, contrary to the pacing of the show, this was almost too fast-paced. I also found the romance plot between Lukas and Juliette off-putting, it didn't make sense to me at the start as it formed so was hard to accept as it progressed and detracted from the main plot. Excluding the obvious differences in storytelling between print vs screen, I felt that the changes made by the show runners better represented / portrayed the central themes and character development than the book did.

Really enjoyed this one - engaging all the way through!!

Having watched the first season of the TV show I was pleasantly surprised by how fast paced the book is. I don't think the characters are particularly well rounded but I'm here primarily for the setting and that carries the narrative throughout.

enjoyable book for the most part! lots of dystopian, post-calamity worldbuilding towards the latter half of the book and such, though the pacing of the first third of the book was pretty slow.

i didn't enjoy the rebellion war and all that, felt like there were some plot holes that didn't really make sense to me such as why would they be able to manufacture guns in this scenario but be scarce for other materials (or why they would know how to make guns in general).

i also thought the romance between lukas and juliette was a bit unnecessary and took away from the main premise of the book a bit

i did like the way chapters were laid out to go back and forth between characters to setup suspense throughout, though i would've enjoyed if they continued with a particular character's for a chapter or two before switching at times for momentum

also, a lot of the side characters were very underdeveloped and was a contributing factor as to why the rebellion felt very lacklustre

the ending felt very rushed for me and also fairly anticlimactic so that was a letdown

overall, a decent sci-fi novel but probably wouldn't be too keen to read the other books in the trilogy for now

Všechny knihy od Hugha Howeye jsem si pořídil, protože se mi nechtělo čekat na další sérii seriálu od Apple TV. Jako obvykle došlo v rámci seriálu k větším zkratkám, ale přesto se mi líbí, jak je to věrné knize. První série seriálu ve ve skutečnosti první půlka této knihy, tak jsem byl rád, že mohu rovnou pokračovat dál a čím jsem v tom byl hlouběji, tím napínavější to bylo. Ke konci už jsem pomalu ani nebyl schopen normálně dýchat a o to víc se těším na pokračování knihy.

Read after the first season of the show.

Unsure why they decided to fill it out so much, the source material (book) flows much better. Although I do appreciate the extra details that they created for the show (surveillance).

Book characters are much better balanced; less 1 dimensional. Bernard and Jules especially.

Great read and awesome world overall!

3.5
I liked it. It kind of makes me want to read the series. I liked the shorts chapters.
I was surprised that she accepted to be sheriff this quickly actually.
I didn't enjoy all the mechanical stuff and the fight during the rebellion (I skipped some sections) but I still wanted to progress to see what happens.
Several twists during the books
One thing that bothered me was that the characters lacked description. You know their hair color and if they have a mustache, that's it.

Reading a book from my childhood again to see if it's as good as I remember. Not quite, but also, better than I thought.

I thought this book was really good! I think it dragged a little in the first third, but picked up quickly as the story pieced itself together. If the pacing at the beginning was a little faster, I would give it 5 stars.

I picked up this audio book because I just finished watching the first season of "Silo" on Apple TV+. No spoilers here, except to say the only similarities are the overall concept/universe and some of the central characters. The show fleshes out character stories and creates numerous characters who aren't in the book at all. The book goes WELL beyond where the first season ends, so perhaps avoid the book if you're into the show and don't want to have a good idea about where the second season may go. I will say that the show helped me imagine what the silo looks like and without this visual, I don't think my reading would have been as rich. The writing is adequate in moving the story, but it isn't great literature as there's too many cliches and frequent over description - which slows the plot to a crawl in places. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series as I do like the concept, the main characters and am curious to see how the author develops this quite believable world.

So glad that I read this prior to watching the show (which I still haven't watched) Becayse this is easily a new favorite.

This is a prime example of how SF should be written. I loved that I discovered and learned about the world as the characters did. I loved the tension and pressure and relief I felt when the characters felt it.

I went in totally unawares to this book and couldn't be more delighted. Anyone who is a fan of SF set in “our” world should read this.

I went into this knowing nothing but the title and was somewhat dismayed by the premise of a pocket of survivors of humanity on a destroyed, toxic, dystopian Earth. Nevertheless, the characters seemed interesting enough - Sheriff Holston, Mayor Jahns, Deputy Marnes...And then Howey goes GRRM and kills them all off and leaves us in an even worse situation:»The silo was rotten to the core; an evil man was acting Mayor; a puppet stood where a good sheriff had been; and all the good men and women were gone.«Enter Jules, a gifted technician - who's sent off to face certain death next; or perhaps death is not so certain after all?The entire beginning was slow-paced and disillusioning: We get introduced to potentially interesting people who are promptly taken away. Most of their backstories are never told, many important facts omitted and only ever alluded to but never properly resolved.Sadly, the pacing is also very uneven: Initially, we accompany the characters at a leisurely pace, then things get rushed, literally, through the door. Immediately after, the pace slows down to a crawl but at least some suspense is building up - only to quickly and easily dissipate.This pattern repeats itself: We're watching the protagonists act, everything is moving quickly, then we “zoom in” on some (usually disastrous) detail and wade through endless descriptions of how those characters feel and how incredibly dark the darkness is.Unfortunately, the characters are neither very interesting, nor do they have depth but mostly appear as sketches of well-known archetypes. Thus, it's hard to root for or even like any of them. I for one only liked Jules for her unbreakable spirit and iron will but that's it. Her love interest is an unlikeable, opportunistic, weak individual. Jules' main adversary is a malicious follower who claims to be just carrying out orders and shirks any personal responsibility.Except for Jules herself, I didn't care about the fate of any of the characters. I also kept wondering where the story would go: Will Jules rescue her silo? Will she establish a better society?? (And how?) Will she choose to remain at the other location? What will happen to the people she encounters on her journey? Will we learn more about the backstory of the silo's origins? What will the future look like? None of these questions are ever answered or even alluded to. The ending also felt very rushed and so many unlikely things happened (particularly with one character who underwent a completely unbelievable transformation).So, characters without depth, a likeable heroine, uneven pacing, suspenseful page-turner parts, plot holes that could fit galaxies, a passionate rebellion and friendship, many stairs and much darkness, and lots of good intentions as can be deduced from the story and the epilogue:»This collected work is dedicated to anyone who dares dream of a better place.«For this uneven “ride” of a read: Three out of five stars.Blog Facebook Twitter Mastodon Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam

Very fascinating twist on dystopian fiction. Good characters, interesting twists, and it makes you think.

4.25 stars.

Such an excellent story that has one of my favorite audiobook narrators!

____

Audio read by: Edoardo Ballerini

I came into this book right after finishing the Apple TV adaptation as the show was compelling, mysterious, intense and had a unique story.

I found many of these same qualities in Wool but ultimately enjoyed the show more even though only half the book was covered.

The book came across as less intense and mysterious at least in the first half of what the show covered.

Overall though, I really enjoyed my read and want to continue with the series.

Positives
1. Prose - really great descriptions of events and ideas that read very well
2. Mystery - why the heck was this Silo built??
3. Multiple POVs - loved being in the mind of multiple characters, especially Bernard


Also, the people in this Silo gotta be fit with all the stairs right?

DNF 55%

Might come back, but I just think the characters are pretty bland and the plot has failed to grip me with its questions.

This was a re-read for me. It's been many years since I read it on Kindle and want to read(for the first time) the rest of the series. I enjoyed reading it all over again and want to note that if you have the 2020 updated edition, please read the authors notes at the end.

This was great! Good page-turner! I can't wait to see the TV series coming out in May 2023.