What a curious novel this is. Built on the premise that humanity dwells in a 'silo', a vast underground bunker that's spread out over 150 floors, Wool presents a dystopian society that in someways innovative and in others curiously dull. Reading like a cross between The Amtrack Wars and 1984, Wool tracks a rebellion in the making as the protagonist is sentenced to 'cleaning', being forced into the hostile outside environment ostensibly to clean the cameras that keep track of the world beyound the silo. A punishment detail, nobody survives this experience, though obviously this is about to change, and secrets are about to be revealed.
Openly post apocalytic, Howey, has made some interesting choices, some of which served to throw me out of the novel. For example this terrifying world has email and enough food that people can become fat, but no lifts and reproduction is done according to a lottery. It's a minor niggle but at the same time I found it did little to draw me into the story as I kept wondering why and how the society would actually work (perhaps the indication that there have been multiple uprisings is an indication that it doesn't, and serves a commentary on the brutality of authoritarianism, I don't know - it just feels as if it hasn't been thought through properly).
The story itself is fairly well done, with strong characterisation, though the swift escalation to revolt felt a little contrived. Hinging purely on one event, there feels as if there's no real reason for it, aside from a perceived injustice, and consequently feels like there's nothing behind it aside from the author's will. Admittedly the other revelations, do confirm how unjust the system is but their impact is rather curtailed by the fact that, as of the end of Wool, only one character knows about them.
Wool is obviously setting up a larger story, one that feels too familiar; of revolt and overthrowing the system. As a consequence I won't be along for the ride.
