Wool. That’s a hell of a title for a dystopia novel. If you haven’t read it yet I won’t spoil the titles’ meaning… You’ll get it quick enough and if you are like me, it will make you want to read more. Before I continue, I wrote this post for Cacotopian, a new blog about dystopian futures, writing and science fiction. Check it out here: Cacotopian
Depending on how you read Wool, it will be as several short stories downloaded as ebooks/stories, or as a full novel (omnibus edition) bought from a traditional bookseller. I’m glad I bought the full omnibus, as after each ‘story segment’ finishes, I REALLY wanted to find out more. Howey does a damn good job of 1. Making you care about the characters, and 2. offering cliffhangers that simultaneously answer questions and create yet more questions. That is a talent.
The world of Wool is a multilayered dystopian future where humans live underground in massive self-containing ’silos’. (Note… Don’t really know what I’m meaning fully by the term: “multilayered dystopian future”, but it sounds cool, so I’m keeping it in). Not everyone is playing fair, of course, and our protagonists find themselves finding out the horrible truth of their existence during each story and through every subtle twist of the plot.
There is a bundle of great characters in Wool. Jules is our main protagonist, a mechanic from the lower levels that gets elevated above her (supposed) station in the silo with disastrous consequences… And I was going to start telling you the plot, but that would be spoiling things. I suggest going and finding it for yourself! You can buy Wool on Amazon here.
If you want to know more about the author, and discover all about his rise to fame from self-published-indie-author to world-wide-known author, check out his rather honest blog here. Oh, and look out for a film of Wool in the future – Ridley Scott has bought up the rights for the story I hear…
Wool has all the great hallmarks of good dystopian future stories and has a twist on every level… All the way down to mechanical, and all the way back up to the outside world and to, ultimately, death.
What do you think about this kind of futuristic/dystopian story? If you have read it already do you think it will make a good film?
