Wool

Hugh Howey

Random House

Otago Daily Times, November 2nd 2013

Although there are fears that the rise of e-publishing spells the end of hard-copy books, Wool is an example of how the two media can complement rather than compete with one another.  It has also seen a return to the days when writers such as Dickens and Twain produced serialised versions of their novels well before they came out in in their full-length form.

Howey first published Wool as a series of self-contained chapters for download to e-readers and had not considered collected them together in a print edition until approached by a publishing house.  I’m very glad that he did, because the resulting novel has been a critical and popular success and is one of the best books I have had the privilege to review in a long time. 

The setting is post-apocalyptic, with what is left of humanity huddled within the walls and stairways of a massive silo deep beneath the poisoned ground awaiting the day they can re-emerge.  The origins of the Earth’s collapse are lost in the past, and life within Silo is all its inhabitants have ever known. Few travel far beyond the levels on which they live and work, and the only reminder the outside world exists is by way of view-screens on the highest level, which show the bleak, lifeless landscape far above. 

In such confinement, it is essential to maintain peace and order, a state achieved by a mixture of legal sanctions and a self-imposed ignorance. Anybody who breaks the rules or dares to ask forbidden questions is sent outside to clean the external cameras, removing the toxic dust from the lenses and renewing the vision of the dead world to remind the rest of the population that there is no alternative.  Even those who swear they will refuse this final task and just walk away change their minds when they reach the surface, a final act of penance that defuses the tensions and restores social harmony to Silo. 

Despite this, things reach a breaking point every few generations and a wider rebellion breaks out, although to date all have been successfully controlled before irreparable damage can occur.  Wool details the beginning of a new cycle of discontent, with a few individuals beginning to ask if what they are being told about the world is really true.

One of the corollaries of serialised publishing is that each instalment has to leave the reader eager for the next, and the resulting novel is tense and fast paced. But there is also room for some complex character development, and as the plot unfolds it becomes far less black-and-white than it initially appears, becoming as much a study of moral compromise as dramatic action. Under what circumstances can questionable means be justified by the necessity of their ends? Is it better to withhold information from a population to maintain control, or risk making it freely available even if it leads to destruction and despair? 

I didn’t want to stop reading and am delighted to learn that Howey is currently serialising accompanying stories, with another omnibus print edition to follow.  I am tempted to buy myself a Kindle so I don’t have to wait.

https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/post-apocalyptic-vision-entertains