January 2017

The Wool Omnibus  by Hugh Howey

Publisher: Broad Reach Publishing
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: Novel (530 pages)
Rating: 4/5 stars

I know, I know, I’m late to the party, but I was selected to write a short story for an anthology related to Hugh Howey’s ‘Wool’ Series, so it was time to sit down and give this a read. I was really pleasantly surprised! Usually a series with as much hype as this doesn’t live up to it, but I definitely felt it did.

Mr. Howey has developed a fascinating world. The descriptions, the imagery, all top notch. While maybe not the most original or believable story throughout, it was more than good enough. My biggest issue was that the ending felt a bit rushed. There is so much detail in every page, yet all of a sudden the story wraps up. It felt a bit contrived, and Juliette’s character seemed to change a little merely to fit the needs of the story.

That wasn’t enough to ruin it for me though. Dystopian fiction just isn’t usually my thing, but after reading this I can’t believe books like Divergent and Hunger Games made it onto the silver screen before this. It was made for the movies.

If you don’t want to read this entire thing and have to pick just one book in the omnibus, part one is the way to go. It totally sold me on the premise of the underground world Mr. Howey has so lovingly crafted, and was a beautifully haunting story. Honestly, I think my biggest problem with the end portion of the omnibus might be that this first part was so strong. Nothing else in the book affected me like those first few brilliant chapters.

This book can be purchased for kindle here.