Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Books read in 2012: No. 82 - Wool

by Hugh Howey

Started: Oct. 3
Finished: Oct. 3

Amazon link: Wool

Notes: This little sci-fi, post-apocalyptic e-book has caused quite the stir during the last year or so, bringing about four sequels (as of this writing) and apparently a movie deal. This is one of the stand-out successes of the indie book market. I thought it was time I read it to find out what it's all about.

Mini review: Very, very well written. One of the best indie books I've read. Has kind of a "Logan's Run" meets "Outland" kind of vibe, but that's not entirely accurate. The ending is ... I'm not sure how to describe it ... it's not exactly a twist ending, not even exactly a double twist ending, but ... you'd just have to read it. All that being said, no, I don't necessarily think this little e-book is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Written well, interesting plot, pretty likable characters, nothing stands out as bad. But ... hmm, I don't know ... I kind of felt like I'd read this one before, or seen it before, or something. Maybe from an old "Twilight Zone" episode or something? I don't mean to suggest this work is derivative, because it does mix together plenty of sci-fi and post apocalyptic tropes to create it's own almost-uniqueness. But that's part of my problem, this story is only "almost" unique. If you're the author reading this, or a big fan, please understand that I'm only being nitpicky. This was a very well written story, and I suggest it to anyone, even those who aren't sci-fi readers. I think part of my problem was I expected something a little more. Maybe I just read into the hype too much. But I will say this, the story almost ... almost ... lives up to the hype. I would have liked to have seen a slightly different ending, but I won't go into details on my thoughts concerning this issue for two reasons: 1.) I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who has not read this story, and 2.) I'm not sure anything I'd come up with would be any better than the ending that is provided.

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