"Wool" ~ Hugh Howey

"Wool" tops my list of must reads for the year. This book is amazing.  The book opens with a group of people living in an underground silo.  Why?  Who are they?  Why are they there?  "Wool" was initially released as a short stand alone story.  Readers demanded more and Mr. Howey obliged.  The rest of the story was released over six months.  Thankfully I found it after it was finished.  Waiting to find out  what happens would have driven me crazy.

The worst crime you can commit  in the Silo wanting to go outside.  The punishment, they let you.  In this post apocalypse world, the Silo's inhabitants have one view of the world.  The screens on the top most level showing a desolate world of brown.  Nobody knows why, they just know they can't survive out there.  The story opens with the sheriff stating that he wants to go outside.  This means he will be sent outside to clean.  The will put him in a self contained suit, strap wool pads to his hands to clean the camera feed sensors and let him go.  Nobody makes it very far before their suit disintegrates.  And everybody cleans before they die.  Every...single...person.  Even the ones who swore they wouldn't.

You spend the first part of the book with the sheriff, who's wife was sent to clean three years ago. Then you shift to the mayor and the deputy sheriff as they journey through the silo to hire the next sheriff.  Howey's created an amazingly believable world.  It makes sense and functions well.  You see the how, but again you just can't quite put your finger on the why.  The third shift takes you to Juliette, the new sheriff.  I love Juliette.  As a mechanic and engineer, she's looking for the pieces that don't fit.  That don't make sense.  She's us, the reader, at this point and actively taking us with her as she tries to figure it out.

 And after that?  I'm not going to tell you.  Go read the book.  All I know is that I couldn't put it down.  I finished it and bought the next two books in the series.  Shift provides the backstory for the Silo as it bounces between the past and present.  Dust brings it all together.  Did I like them as much as "Wool"?  Almost.  I had some story issues and some character issues, but over all, I highly recommend the whole series. Why did I like "Wool" better?  "Wool" is that magical first experience before you have anything to compare it to.  Before there is history, context and explanations.  Did I say go read it?  Go read it.