If you are reading this, then the title of my review has done it's job & I am glad for it. Having cut my teeth on the works of Asimov, Clarke, Niven, Bradbury, Heinlein, etc, it has been a bit of a challenge to find more modern authors who have the ability to tell a story rich in character development, gripping story, imaginative, yet believable.
So, since book reviews are meant to guide the next possible reader, let me cut to the chase first, and then I will go to work on the review of the books:
******* BUY THIS SERIES NOW! *******
Do not waste your time trying the sample, just go ahead and buy all of the works in the WOOL collection (six, as of this writing) right now.
If you do not buy them all, and you find yourself without an internet connection and you just finished reading one of the books and you know there are others available you will be extremely annoyed, distracted, pi$$ed off, etc till you get the next one & start reading it.
Having read hundreds of books, many in the SciFi genre, but also many biographies, and historical works (european & british history especially) I was absolutely blown away by the Wool books. To be completely honest, I almost put the book down maybe 30 pages into it. I was on vacation on an amazing little island off the coast of North Carolina, no cars, no distractions except miles of beaches & ocean waves when I searched on my Kindle for some Science Fiction to read over the 15 days I was away. Since I often read SciFi books that are based well in the future, take place off-earth, etc, I was not really prepared for the way Wool opened. It was dark, depressing, and not what I thought I wanted on my vacation with the sun shining and the seagulls singing and the waves crashing on the sand. But I stuck with it, and that is why I am here today, writing this.
First of all lets backup for a second and talk about the name of the book. WOOL. You wear it (sometimes). But it has numerous other uses, including, apparently, as the name of a book. I didn't know what to even make of it. I mean look at most of the titles under SciFi, & you get the space war sagas, the alien invasions, the boy-meets-space travel stories, etc.... But WOOL?? I couldnt fathom it would be a book that would interest me for very long, and so I again reveal how mistaken I can be. Important Lesson learned? : Dont judge a book by it's cover, nor by it's NAME.
One of the many great yet very subtle parts of this work is when you actually connect the name WOOL with the line in the story that reveals the connection. It's not too far into book 1 and you know what, you might not even catch it, and it might not mean much to you- but it did, for some reason, to me.
It brought home to me that Hugh Howey had put me in a place that seemed at first to be so incomprehensible, but later came to be seen as a very possible, plausible place not so far removed as to be unimaginable, yet still so staggering in it's implications.
If WOOL had only been the short, single work of book 1, I would have been upset that it wasnt taken further, or approached it's potential. In fact, I didn't know there were more books at first and I really was upset. I thought "WOW- SO MUCH POTENTIAL, this was an amazing story, but look where it ended!?" And then I checked back on Amazon and saw the remaining books and grabbed them all (hence my earlier suggestion to do the same).
Without spoiling the story for those of you who have not yet started, I do want to say that this is one of the most fascinating, smart, stop-for-a-second-and-say- `Oh my god!' reads I have ever picked up.
I absolutely loved the way I first tried to figure out where this was taking place. Was it on earth? Somewhere else? When? How did it come to be...? Did any of that matter...? As I read on, and parts of those questions were answered I was very very pleased with the depth of the story, and so glad that there wasn't a flaky, thin, all-is-revealed at once to put it all together for me. It came together carefully, methodically, and at just the right pace.
The fact that the characters in WOOL are just people, with no super abilities, paranormal talents, etc, makes them all the more important to the way you see them move through the story.
While all of the books were gripping to me, I particularly enjoyed the flashbacks to see how it all came about. Without spoiling this particular part, I will just say that it was extremely well done and has some fantastic but subtle connections between the characters and story that could easily be missed. A great example of this: A sister of a congressman only gets mentioned briefly and almost as an aside in passing during a brief conversation, yet later you realize the implications of the circumstances and again have another "WOW" moment.
Yes, I realize that was pretty vague, but trust me on it. If you miss it, my apologies, if you get it, no other comment is required..;)
Well, this is by far the longest review I have ever written and I still feel like it is not even close to being as compelling and passionate as I had envisioned it when I decided it had to be done. But in closing just a couple of things to say: No doubt, this is a book I will read many times over, and as another reviewer summed it up so well, I only wish I could read it again for the first time.
Will it become a movie? I don't know, but I hope so, but ONLY if it can be done well (an example of what it should NOT be like: Steven King 'The Stand' book vs. movie. The movie was an insult to the book in my opinion). The Scott brothers certainly have the ability to do it right. I actually care less about the movie possibilities than the fact that the deal may help Mr. Howey devote more time to writing! We will see.... Regardless of the outcome of the motion picture issue, I hope that Mr. Howey keeps this series going for a long time. I do understand that talented authors, artists, actors, musicians, etc need to move on and create new works and new characters and new stories, but the selfish part of me hopes this story will keep intriguing us and challenging us for years to come in new installments and characters and situations. The foundation exists in as solid a form as possible.
In my opinion this is already a classic work of fiction, here to stay, and Mr. Howey should feel extremely pleased to be in this stratosphere of talent that comes along so rarely. These books will be talked about in classrooms, in living rooms, family rooms, bookstores, etc for a long time to come and I really hope you will enjoy them as much as I have.
