Review

I first came across Hugh Howey, when someone in the writing community on Reddit, linked to his excellent collection of essays on the topic. I loved reading that. And so, the next thing I did was figure out what books he had written. The silo series popped out to me. And so I ordered the first book at the library. I picked it up - a glorious hardcover. I started reading it. And then, for some reason I could not continue - maybe I got a car and started commuting to work like that. I do not remember. The point is I could not read Wool then. Oh, I wish I had!

Wool is the first book in the Silo series. It talks of a world where humanity is reduced to living underground in silos. The book is grounded, a bit like Game of Thrones - where bad things can happen to characters you’re rooting. There is a memorable list of characters from Mechanical and elsewhere. There are twists in almost each act of the book.

After reading the notes by Hugh at the very end, I figured out why. He wrote the first section of the book after losing his dog. He wanted to write a sad story then. So he did. He self-published it, and it took off.

People demanded more, so he wrote more, forming the book as it exists today in the novel form.

I absolutely loved reading it and hope you do too.