Hugh Howey

Silo

This Omnibus Edition collects the five Wool books into a single volume.The first Wool story was released as a standalone short in July of 2011. Due to reviewer demand, the rest of the story was released over the next six months. My thanks go out to those reviewers who clamored for more. Without you, none of this would exist. Your demand created this as much as I did.This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

Wool Omnibus

Strangely I really enjoyed this up to the point the Silo TV show got to, and then after that point the story dragged and I completely lost interest. I’ll read the second book at some point, but for now I’m good. 

Andy Nicolaides

shelby mosel

Matthew Royal

My "losing interest" point for a book is generally around 250 pages, but this 500+ page whopper kept me sneaking chapters at lunch. The first story of the 5 in this edition is the original and the best constructed, but Howey keeps the story compelling. Or maybe as a nerd, I feel in love with Juliette's Mark Watney-esque problem solving skills.

“Saving my friend is all about saving my friend. What I think will happen, when all those people on that fence see... I think it’ll make them come down on the right side of things, and with that much support, the guns and the fighting are meaningless.”

Thais Souza Passos

** spoiler alert **
           Jesus Christ, what a book! So well-written, so full of details and breathtaking moments!!!!!!! I'm looking forward to read the sequel!!! I felt bad with so many deaths (Hugh has learned that with Suzanne Collins, J.K. Rowling or Veronica Roth? What a mistery!!), but other moments like Juliette and Lukas's first kiss, and Juliette finding other survivals, and and and... so many things that I'd need more than 19 thousand characters to describe it. Congratulations, mr. Howey, for such an amazing book, and keep going. You can definitely reach the stars with it!!! YOU ROCK!!!

Adam

Wool was one of the first books I'd ever heard of to be self published on Amazon and make it big. It was released as 5 separate short stories in the same larger story that make up Wool Omnibus -- a tale of life in a silo in a apocalyptic world. The pace and way the narrator reveals the mysteries of the world was extremely well done Never did I feel like something was being hidden from me without reason -- but only that it would be revealed later once the main characters learned what was happening.

Yulande Lindsay

Excellent. Really enjoyed this series and looking forward to more stories about the silos. Important themes explored: truth vs. ignorance being the most important of them. Does keeping a society in ignorance "for their own good" lead to their safety and survival or ultimately their destruction? I recommend this series to anyone.

Michael Stuckey

This is a really cool "alternate" universe. It seems very plausible. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

Sarah Escorsa

I had never heard of Hugh Howey until I saw his name mentioned in a Goodreads review about authors who self-publish on Amazon. I was intrigued enough to download the Wool Omnibus, and was hooked as soon as I started reading. This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time. Thrilling, interesting, thought-provoking, great characterization (just love Juliette!), great writing (simple, clear, to the point) that sometimes leaves you feeling like you've been punched... 

Howey is a fantastic story-teller. The book is so well-crafted that the world and characters Howey created really come alive and immerses the reader in the story. A fantastic read, clearly my favourite of 2013!

Barry Hess

Pleasantly surprised by this self-published page-turner. Wool was a little rough at first but then it became a book I couldn't put down. If you enjoy post-apocalyptic books, pick this up.

Nat Welch

Was pretty meh. Interesting idea, but the writing and foreshadowing made you know everything that was going to happen.

Christian Bering Pedersen

Fantastic story, so well written. I couldn't stop reading once I started. One of my new favorite books ever.

André Nóbrega

I decided to read Wool following a friend's suggestion and also because I was curious to read a self-published work. I must say I usually have low expectations for these books, not only for failing to be published by a house (that can be for a lot of reasons beyond the work's quality) but also because there's a load of crap e-published these days. Hugh Howey had me surprised and convinced and I had to force myself to stop reading it all night long, such was my curiosity about the plot and the world he created.
I couldn't write a proper review by the time I finished reading but although I don't like writing about a book long after I read it for fear of my opinion loosing quality and detail, I felt it was unfair not to share how much I liked this work. I'll avoid a synopsis or plot details as much as possible because one of the best things about reading Wool is the suspense felt throughout and that feeling one is looking into a new world through a tiny window. I read the omnibus version, collecting all the five parts of this story. 

Wool is a post-apocalyptic story, in which we are shown a small society living isolated from the world in an underground silo. The only ones "allowed" outside are the worst criminals, mainly the ones who dream exactly of going out and exploring the world once more. The rest of the people are left viewing the one leaving - as if it was a medieval execution - dying quickly in spite of the protective suit, though not before he has time to clean the sensors that allow the silo to see that part of the outside world.
The author alternates between some characters' point-of-view, avoiding a typical omniscient narrator that would spoil the skin-crawling mystery and the tendency the reader can't help but have to try and solve it over and over again. The world and the plot is revealed remarkably slow and steady, with some flashbacks and parallel stories without ever becoming tiresome. Even reading the omnibus one notices the five separate parts that in fact correspond to two stories, but it has no negative effect on the reading experience. If any, it felt even more interesting, though I was happy to have all the volumes to read non-stop.
The political system is, as one would expect in this setting, based on the control of information and social and professional status, a more than physical distancing between the people and the prohibition of certain conversations, expressions or words. A matter-of-fact "Big Brother is watching you" with the predictable efficacy of being applied to an enclosed society, with the silo's levels used to separate the social groups. The silo isn't only here to create a limit, the author makes the most of the concept of limited space and resources and it's impact on the organization of the community and on each one's personal life that is at times actually painful to think of. Wool's society is ultra-regulated, with it's foremost value being security and some associated predictability of people's behaviour, so that they are only allowed to know what is essential for their survival and contribution to the community and live in a conformed fear. One feels that they survive with the single purpose of surviving, doing everything just the same as always and expecting everything to keep going smoothly and unwavering. This is all conveyed by the author especially with some of his descriptions of daily unremarkable procedures, that are specified step by step and to such detail that, if sometimes almost over the top, on the other hand is awesome in placing one's mind exactly where it should be to feel Wool.
The characters are interesting, have depth, and though sometimes acting a bit too immaturely, I was left thinking if that is more due to their life (or absence of life experiences) than to some kind of failure by the author. Their development was very well executed with perhaps one less credible exception.

As it is, Wool is a great example of what one can achieve with a dystopian futuristic work with a surprising but believable world and interesting characters with whom one can empathize and who take us on an excellent if often scary voyage and leave us thinking about what is the core of the human being, what is left after all of us have been destroyed, isolated, lied to and controlled for hundreds of years. There is no better science fictions, or actually no better literature, than that where the world-building and the characters the inhabit it cooperate in conveying the message to the reader, never overwhelming or dissolving themselves on each other. I'm a fan of this story and of the author and I can't wait to get my hands on the recently published Shift, prequel to Wool.
Lastly, I must also congratulate Hugh Howey on his accomplishment, not only for his perseverance but also for the quality of his work (now published on paper by Century - Random House Books) and for selling the rights for a film that Fox is producing and Ridley Scott might be directing.

This review was originally published in Portuguese and English on my blog.

Dans un monde postapocalyptique, quelques milliers de survivants occupent un silo souterrain de 144 étages. Presque tout y est interdit ou contrôlé, y compris les naissances. Ceux qui enfreignent la loi sont expulsés en dehors du silo, où l'air est toxique. Avant de mourir, ils doivent nettoyer les capteurs qui retransmettent des images brouillées du monde extérieur sur un écran géant. Mais certains commencent à douter de ce qui se passe réellement dehors.

Jurassic Jones

J'avais très envie de lire ce livre qui me promettait plein de belles choses. Son résumé m'avait vraiment attiré. 
Et finalement, j'ai dû l'abandonner... C'est très rare que je n'aille pas au bout d'un roman. Celui-ci en fait 730 pages et je suis arrivée à la 250 pages. 
Mais l'histoire avance vraiment avec trop de lenteur, même si l'on peut comprendre cette lenteur, elle est vraiment mal utilisée. 
J'ai trouvé les personnages parfois très clichés. Ils ne sont heureusement pas tous comme ça, j'ai adoré le personnage de Jules qui a vraiment beaucoup plis de saveur.

Casie Blevins

Could not have loved this book more. It blew me away!

Jolie

This book is fantastic. The story is of a post apocolyptic society that lives in an underground silo. It is alluded to, but never right out said, that nuclear war broke out and the people in this silo is the last of humanity. The book starts off with a cleansing....which means the people of the silo sends a condemed man/woman outside in what I would call a haz-mat suit to clean the cameras. Then they walk off and die. The book takes off from there and there are a few twists in the plot that even surprised me.

Silo

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