Sci-Fi month: Review of Wool Omnibus
Title: Wool Omnibus EditionAuthor: Hugh Howey
Genre: Science fiction, dystopia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Goodreads Summary:
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.
When I first encountered this book, it was in one of the book club groups I was in. Someone was saying something about how this book was really good, so good that it became popular enough to go from self-published to big publishing. Then I just kept seeing it around, and everyone who had read it had nothing but good things to say about it. This book was on my radar for months before I actually read it, and I had really high expectations. I was definitely not disappointed!
It's hard to talk about this book without revealing anything, because the brilliance of this book very much depends on discovering things for yourself. I went in knowing next to nothing about the plot, half the fun was watching connections formed between characters and places, and putting together puzzle pieces. Like you, most of the characters don't really know the truth about anything so you're all along for the ride.
There is so much interesting critique on our priorities and society today. The best part about dystopian novels is their social commentary, and after the whole Hunger Games and Divergent bandwagon, I felt like that had been lost. Wool has so many sharp insights, which made this engaging and intense book even more memorable.
I highly recommend this book!
I absolutely loved the first short story. It was just about perfect. The rest of the omnibus, while good at making me turn pages to find what was next, ultimately didn't do quite as much for me.
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