It is a strange title, Wool, for a book that appears to have rather a dark theme judging by the cover as well as being worthily heralded as The New Hunger Games but it becomes clear as to what the wool refers in due course – and it is nothing to do with cuddly sweaters, blankets nor sheep.
Howey’s book is indeed a dark creation, literally. The action takes place in an underground silo, in an artificially maintained environment with no light except that powered by the silo’s generators itself. There are no windows, the only views of the outside world are generated by screens on the upper floors where the apocalyptic world from which the silos protect their inhabitants can be seen lurking on the horizon.
People are apportioned to different departments to engage in the different activities needed to keep the silo running; for example, Mechanicals and IT as two of the main ones that feature in the book. There are also government roles like mayor and sheriff and the book starts with the change over from one sheriff to another, a key event that sees the existing sheriff leave the silo to perform a “cleaning”. I’m not going to go into too much detail about what that involves as part of the joy of reading Howey’s book is the discovery of the society that he has created in his book; like an anthropologist encountering a new tribe, with their customs and celebrations and social constructs.
The action of the book focuses in on key characters, beginning with the outgoing sheriff, his deputy and the mayor, and moving onto the sheriff’s replacement, Juliette who is a Mechanical and a good one at that. We follow her as she takes on the new role and starts ruffling a few feathers, perhaps not realising the potential consequences of her actions.
It’s a claustrophobic environment which is very closely controlled and Howey is good at showing this. His world creation is excellent – and stifling in its order and discouragement of disorder. Of course, it wouldn’t be a thriller if all was okay in the silo and, instigated by the cleaning at the very start and gathering momentum with unfolding events throughout, the action of the book stems around a few key individuals who feel like something may be off kilter in the world that they’ve always known.
Book Two beckons…
Scuffed Granny 