I’ve been intending to read this book for a while. Not only is the author, Hugh Howey, a genuinely nice guy, but the book has been very popular among my peer group and quite a few people have suggested I read it. Thankfully bookclub decided it would be great to read the trilogy, so I’ll be reviewing Shift and Dust as well over the next few months.

WoolI didn’t entirely know what to expect of this story when I started. I knew it was dystopian and silo based (whatever that meant exactly), but I was hooked within the first few pages. I loved the sample I read and quickly devoured the rest of the book. It’s not short, over 500 pages but it feels short because I didn’t want to put it down.

About a third of the way in, I got a little worried with the number of deaths that this would be another George R. R. Martin style book but it wasn’t, just realistic. The middle felt a little on the slow side plot wise, but character and situation wise was still interesting and the action sequences occasionally had me confused.

The premise isn’t really something new. People in a small society being controlled and kept in their insular place while the world outside tries to recover, but there was something very fresh in this telling of it. The societies rules were a new take.

I’m very much looking forward to reading the sequel and loved this book. Not perfect but close enough and a relief to read a popular book that definitely deserves it.