4.5 out of 5 stars
On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads
How I discovered this book: Started watching Apple TV series, sought out the book.
In a Nutshell: 'In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo.
Inside, men and women live an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies.'
As is usual, the actual story differs a fair bit from what I've seen of the TV series so far - only 3 episodes, though, so I'm reserving judgement. This first installment was originally called 'Wool', and I still don't know why, unless it refers to the stuff that gets pulled over one's eyes.
The book opens with characters who are not seen again once their stories have been dispensed with, leaving a slowly unfurling chaos in their wake - probably, according to 'the rules' of novel writing, a total no-no, but it really worked for this. The protagonist for the rest of the novel is engineer Juliette Nichols, who works in the 'deep down', keeping the machines running. As often happens with men writing female main characters, she's a man in all but name, but that didn't matter too much, because I liked her well enough so could suspend any disbelief; also, her backstory provides reasons for her somewhat hamstrung emotions. The most vivid characters for me were Walk, an elderly technician, Lukas, who studies the stars., and Jahns, the mayor when the story opens.
The theme of the story, throughout, is the growing sense that the inhabitants of the silo are being lied to about why they are there, what happened to humanity before the silos existed and what's really outside, and that's just for starters. A few who know more are keen to make sure that truths remain hidden; investigating too deeply can be dangerous.
It's good. I remained interested throughout and loved the concept of one's whole life being governed by one's place on that never-ending staircase from top to bottom. Look forward to seeing what happens next.
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