A review by matthewcpeck
Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey

3.0

An imaginatively bleak but unevenly written epic about humans living in a vast underground silo beneath a toxic future Earth. Howey is a skillful tale-spinner, and the stratified world of Silo 18 is told at just the right pace, with the twists and cliffhangers arriving at reliable intervals. The prose, though, serves as an argument for editors in the world of self-publishing - clunky sentences and unnecessary explanations are legion in the first 2/3 of the book. Howey seems to have grown significantly as a writer by the fifth, final section of the book, which includes a set-piece in a dark, flooded silo bottom that's heart-stoppingly scary. WOOL is at its best in physical, visceral sections like this, and worst at dialogue and emotional scenes (people are NOT weeping this much in real life, at least not in my experience). It could also spur some philosophical arguments, which is what makes science fiction so important. Is it sometimes better not to know the truth?...