If you’re the homebody type who likes keeping fit by taking the stairs but isn’t particularly keen on having kids, then the Silo is just the place for you. Everyone else, though? Well, they all got totally screwed! In Hugh Howey’s sci-fi novel Wool, humanity has moved underground. Well, the few remaining souls, anyway. The Silo, drilled 144 floors deep into the earth, is the perfect setting for a claustrophobic sci-fi thriller.
Better Stay Inside the Silo
Human nature is predictable: lock someone up, and they’ll want to get out. At all costs. And as soon as you start reading Hugh Howey’s book Wool, you figure that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Surely, the whole story can’t possibly take place in this confined setting. They’ll find a way out.
But Hugh Howey has other plans. He says, “Yep, it all happens right here!” And you can forget hoping otherwise—Howey slams you right back down into the Silo.
That’s when you realize two things:
- There’s a reason this series is called Silo.
- Wool makes for a perfect adventure novel.
Wool is a Perfect Adventure Novel
You can tell that from the cliffhangers right off the bat since almost every chapter ends with one. Howey shifts quickly and daringly between characters and perspectives, propelling the plot forward with a momentum that sweeps you along.
Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I read such a gripping book! If you’re a frequent reader, you know it’s getting harder to find books that genuinely give you chills. But reading Wool, I found myself biting my nails in suspense a lot of times. The book is packed with tense, life-threatening moments where the lives of Howey’s characters hang by a thread. Howey skillfully draws these moments out, leaving you unable to put the book down until each intense scene finally wraps up.
Sometimes a good idea is all you need, and Wool is proof of that. The underground mini-society, the total dependence on one another, the hopelessness, and the constant claustrophobia combine to create an atmosphere that’s very hard to resist.
Even though, in many other ways, Wool reads like something an amateur might have cobbled together.
Something’s Off About the Wool
The basic concept and the adventures that stem from it hold up well. But when the author tries to delve into the workings of this cramped society or add depth to his characters, something goes off the rails. Actually, almost everything goes off the rails.
First off, the big deception, the trick they use to convince residents leaving the Silo to perform one last altruistic act, is total nonsense. Psychologically, it’s stupid. And basing the survival of an entire society on a technology that could fail at any time just shows a total lack of realism. Just like the doubly twisted premise that anyone wanting to leave the Silo is committing something akin to heresy. The punishment? They’re thrown out.
The big question here, of course, is: who’s the complete lunatic or raging idiot that would want to leave the one safe place on Earth and head out into a barren, toxic wasteland?!
This lack of realism also defines the pocket-sized dictator running the Silo, Bernard Holland. And clearly, it defines Hugh Howey too.
The two of them are wildly wrong about some pretty big things.
Comedy of Errors
They’re way off the mark, for example, in assuming:
- The Silo’s residents are clueless and can’t even put two and two together.
- The memory of everyone who lives or has ever lived in the Silo is about on par with that of a goldfish.
- Uprisings in the Silo, which happen every few decades, would be about as harmful to the place as a mild flu.
- In a skyscraper-sized staircase, communication would mostly grind to a halt if residents couldn’t send each other goddamn emails.
- Running a 144-floor complex requires a massive IT department taking up an entire floor, staffed with countless IT specialists.
I don’t know, but I’d bet that unless the Silo’s “founding fathers” downloaded several terabytes of porn onto the servers back in the day, most of the IT department would spend their days playing Minesweeper and Solitaire.
But Howey’s biggest misfire is assuming that computer geeks would be part of some nonsensical, pointless conspiracy reeking from a mile away.
Not a chance! Computer guys are the real good guys!
Just take dr. mork, our blog’s resident IT expert—as if he’d want to control anything! If he can spend his day watching wannabe HolyFans models on TikTok or playing Fortnite until dawn, he’s completely satisfied. Beyond that, he’s barely interested in anything else.
Descending Deeper and Deeper
At the start of the story, Mayor Jahns and Deputy Sheriff Marnes start their descent down the Silo’s staircase. This downward journey is a great way for readers to learn about the society in Howey’s Wool literally on the way down. Yet ultimately, the trip with these two characters falls into cheap sentimentality. (Sorry, but that’s just how it is—if you go 20 years without telling someone you’re in love with them and just stare at them every day like a smitten puppy.)
Jahns and Marnes are the two most fleshed-out characters in Wool. When they depart early on, only one character remains who Howey manages to give more depth than a paper cutout. Luckily for the author, that one person happens to be the main character, Juliette. If you said she practically carries the entire book on her shoulders, that might even be an understatement.
With Jules, who never gives up, digs for answers, and tries to fix anything that’s broken, you almost don’t notice that every other character is just a simple, rough sketch.
Except, of course, for Bernard Holland, who’s the complete opposite: overdrawn.
Horrible Bosses
One surefire sign of amateur writing is the presence of shouty, hyper-aggressive characters who instantly butt heads with everyone. In Wool, this applies solely to Bernard Holland. Petty, irritable, and pretentious, Holland is the poster boy for an insufferable boss.
And he’s also a conniving conspirator, an evil poisoner obsessed with his twisted vision of the truth.
But in real life, nobody who has the misfortune to work with him and even a shred of a moral compass would follow a guy like that. In a claustrophobic place like the Silo, he’d be the first to get a wrench to the head.
Character Tear-Down
Hugh Howey makes things worse by trying to develop Holland into a complex character who, despite being misguided, acts for the good of humanity. When Lukas, realizing how absurd the system is, confronts his boss, Holland’s face streams with tears. He knows Lukas is signing his own death warrant with every word. And so do you. Poor Lukas, though, has no clue. He keeps running his mouth.
This scene is the book’s low point – even lower than 144 floors deep.
Lukas, who has all the charisma of a computer keyboard, also happens to be the book’s romantic lead. Am I the only one who doubts that girls would actually go for such a clueless fool?
Summary
Hugh Howey’s Wool is a tense thriller and adventure story spun from a brilliantly unique idea. With a cast of poorly fleshed-out characters and unrealistic twists! But Howey’s luck holds – the book is so expertly crafted in terms of suspense that you’re inclined to overlook most of this.
Rating: 7.4/10
Wool (Silo #1) by Hugh Howey
511 pages, Paperback
Published in 2013 by Simon & Schuster
—
You may also be interterested in:
Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey