Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I became interested in Wool from reading Hugh Howey's posts on Kindleboards and vicariously enjoying his incredible success with the series. I launched into the first book with gusto. Howey's prose is clear, smooth and evocative. Anyone worried that Wool is less than professional in writing or presentation needn't be. I've read plenty of traditionally published books that aren't as well written or formatted. The first book presents us with a world in which the last survivors of some kind of holocaust live in a 134-floor silo, protected from a natural environment that has become wildly toxic. The concept is great and Howey makes the most of it, providing a number of twists that regularly notch up the suspense. Howey's main strength, though, is in his ability to create well-rounded characters whom we care about deeply and immediately. In this regard, I think he's actually better than some of the s-f giants of the past, such as (because someone else made the comparison) Isaac Asimov, whose work I positively devoured in my youth but whose characters were rarely more than two-dimensional cutouts moved around to serve the plot. (And if there is anything more cringe-worthy than a "classic" s-f writer's attempt at flirtatious dialogue, I don't know what it would be, unless it's listening to an elementary school orchestra. But I digress.) Howey writes real people who would be at home in any "literary" novel, which is a particularly high achievement in the s-f world. So, why just four stars, aside from the fact that I'm a tough grader? SPOILERS AHEAD Some things about the concept I just didn't buy. I'll take a few "givens" in s-f, of course, but ultimately s-f requires a willing suspension of disbelief that I never quite achieved with Wool. For instance, the physical action hinges on the central stairwell that characters must travel...laboriously. I'm sorry, but I didn't buy that there were no elevators. I get that electrical power is limited, and I get that the overlords (my corny term, not Howey's!) don't really want people socializing and communicating, but...no 134-floor structure is going to function without elevators. You need a freight elevator. NEED it. Absolutely no one would design and build a 134-floor silo without an elevator for moving heavy stuff. And there will always be executives who demand an elevator. The aged mayor having to hike down 130 floors, and back up again? Nope, didn't buy it. The evil, powerful guy would have had a secret elevator. There would have been an elevator for emergencies, if only a crude people-mover that people stand on. The mechanics would have worked up something for themselves, maybe disguising it as something else. The cleaning bothered me, too. Keeping the lenses clean really isn't that big a deal. There would be a way to remove them from inside to clean them, or send someone out briefly and bring them back in, or something. Again, I get the sociological imperative of the cleaning ritual/punishment, but I didn't entirely buy it as a method anyone would come up with to keep a populace in check. So, these are pretty big pills that I just didn't swallow. Still, I gave them to Howey as the price of admission to his world. There were a couple of other problems, though. MORE SPOILERS I really had a problem with the poisoning. Poison is slipped into someone's canteen (an important person), and there is virtually no investigation into the incident. The poisoning could only happen in one place, and a limited number of people had access to the canteen at this time. This crime wouldn't have kept a real-world cop busy for a full day, but Howey's sheriff doesn't, apparently, launch even the most basic inquiry. I can understand if Howey didn't want to sidetrack his story with a murder investigation, but I felt that he really gave it short shrift. The main problem I had with Wool, though, came with the last two books, when the pacing ground to a snail's pace. Jack London wrote a killer short story called "To Build a Fire," detailing a man's effort to build a fire in the wilderness to keep away wolves. What works brilliantly in a short story gets really tiresome in a novel. With Wool 4 and 5, the minutia began gathering underfoot until this exciting read became a slog. I'll admit, I started speed-reading. Normally I like to savor a book, and Howey's writing is worth savoring, but Wool 5 in particular became tedious, as did the back-and-forth between our main character's story and the story of a secondary character who was far less fascinating. So, ultimately, I have to give the Wool Omnibus a four-star rating for a great start and a less stellar finish. I have every confidence that Hugh Howey will continue to make a name for himself and look forward to his future works!