Review: Wool by Hugh Howey

Wool by Hugh Howey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wool is a short story, normally I would have blown through this story in a single sitting, but I actually stopped reading another book to pick this one up, then I went back to the other book and finished it. This probably says something about both stories. However Wool is actually a good read, in just 58 pages the author built an interesting setting, constructed an interesting leading character, and walked us through a compelling story.

I have two problems with this story, first I think this was the authors first work or he did not have a good editor, there were some rough spots that a good editor and another draft probably would have fixed. The second is the primary focus of the story does not really make much sense. I don't think I am giving much away by saying, this is a post apocalyptic society living underground, their only connection to the surface world is cameras that give them a view of the blighted landscape. Periodically the lenses of these cameras need to be cleaned, but instead of sending out trained professionals to do maintenance on sensitive equipment, they send criminals and dissidents out with a rag and Windex on a one way trip. While this makes for an interesting personal story for the main character, it is really kind of silly.

Wool is a good story, well worth the read in spite of the rather minor problems I found.


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