Wool (Books 1-5) Omnibus by Hugh Howey

Synopsis:

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

Ease of reading:

540 pages. Wool took me 7 days to read. It wasn’t difficult to read, but I think I slowed down because I was enjoying the world building and character development.

Where to buy:

Amazon sell the Omnibus edition on kindle currently for $9.99 (NOTE: The Amazon page shows only books 1-3, but the notes specify it is infact books 1-5).

Review:

Main Entry:
wow  [wou]

Part of Speech:
verb

Definition:
amuse, delight

Synonyms:
bowl over, break one up, charm, cheer, crack up, entertain, go over big, kill*, knock dead, knock someone’s socks off, make laugh, make roll in the aisles, slay, tickle, tickle pink, tickle to death

Review:
I don’t even have a more eloquent way of saying that. It’s the only thing I can really say about Wool.

Hugh Howey paints a vivid picture of a world that is so stark, it’s deadly. What started out as a rather in-your-face world builder and character developer (Books 1-3) of which I thoroughly enjoyed, turned into something I truly didn’t believe it could.

*I’m getting ahead of myself here… wait for it*

Books 1-3
Have you ever found yourself reading a book and wondering what the colour of the grout is in between the tiles in the bathroom the protagonist just walked into? Well, guess what?! Hugh has provided an intensely intricate picture of his world, it’s full of bursting-from-the-seams description. The great thing, however, is I didn’t feel like he’d simply listed each item in the silo, he gave you the information almost by osmosis. It seemed to seep into my brain through my eyes as I read about the simultaneously exciting and scary situations the characters found themselves.

I liked book 1, I LOVED book 2 and my love for this series of books just grew from there. I loved that they were short enough to be short, sharp and easily digested, but long enough to draw you in before slowly devouring you. Hugh is a master of intrigue and threw plot twists in that, while you could see them coming, you didn’t know how you ended up there.

I felt that books 1-3 were your primer. They introduced you to the characters, they thrust the life that they lived onto you and forced you to see it in all it’s simplicity and complication. You saw the structure and the method behind the happenings, and also the dangers lurking just below the surface.

Books 4 and 5 are a completely different matter.

I seriously can not tell you much about these books without ruining some sort of plot point or surprise. It’s just too much! I don’t think I’ll ever be the same after the nail-biting goodness that is Hugh Howey’s Wool.

The characters are real, living and breathing inside of your head, the antagonists are sneering and manically laughing in the dark recesses of your mind and you find yourself getting lost in the sheer realness of the writing.

I think I went partially insane while reading this book.

Be warned: Wool is not a little something to pick up. It has teeth and will bite you with its razor sharp fangs and will not let go until you have ridden its wicked tale until the end.