Book Review: Wool

I love post apocolyptic/dystopian books.  I think it's pretty cool all the different ideas writers have imagined for how life will unfold after we destroy the world.

Wool by Hugh Howey falls into this category (although some seem to think it's described better as science fiction).  I believe that this book is only available in electronic versions.  So that's pretty cool by itself.

First I'll give you a little peak into what it's about. All of mankind (the few who are left) lives in a underground silo. The outside is so toxic and dangerous that going through the airlock is a death sentence. Even talking about outside is taboo. But some people have questions and the answers aren't as straight forward as they've all been lead to believe.

I really liked how he kept you in the dark about the world and slowly revealed where you were and how everyday life worked.  Sort of as if you had just beamed in (mixing my genres here) and had to figure out your way around by yourself.  I find it super annoying when an author does that but doesn't reveal enough.   Mystery is good, too much mystery is annoying and confusing.  Wool had just the right amount to keep the read interesting.

I read the first five books of this series in such fast succession that I'm not really sure where one ended and the next began. But I do remember really liking the first one and wanting to read the next one right away.  JR said he figured out what was happening early on but I did not expect that last little twist at the end.

I think it's around the sixth book that you start to see everything opening up even more.  But of course that just raises more questions.  I love it!  It's like chocolate.  You have some and you just want more!

It was hard to talk to JR about the books since he started them after me, and I didn't want to give anything away, and I couldn't really remember which parts happened first. 

A lot of our conversations went sort of like this.
JR: I'm at the part where (person) does (action) and I'm wondering if (thing) is going to happen next.
Manda: Oh, yeah.  When I was there I thought I had it all figured out.  I was all, maybe this is what's going on and then they'll do this and then it will all work out!  But I was wrong.

I'm reading the 8th book now, Third Shift: Pact.    They're all shortish (not super short) but he's written them all since 2011.  That just blows my mind.

Anyway. These books are awesome.   Go to Amazon and buy them all now (oh hey, looks like you can get the first five in paperback next week!).