In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.

His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

Listening Length

17 hours and 43 minutes
Author

Hugh Howey
Narrator

Amanda Sayle
Audible release date

April 9, 2013
Language

English
Publisher

Audible Studios
ASIN

B00C9M7P5K
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	17 hours and 43 minutes
Author	Hugh Howey
Narrator	Amanda Sayle
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	April 09, 2013
Publisher	Audible Studios
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00C9M7P5K
Best Sellers Rank	#8,529 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #73 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #136 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #288 in Dystopian Fiction

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

18,335 global ratings

5 star		74%
4 star		18%
3 star		4%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Dan McCoy

This review contains some philosophical spoilers.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 12, 2023

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Just a damned good yarn!

My brother referred this book to me. I love the way Mr. Howey (once I read the afterward I really want to call him Captain Howey, shout out to Twisted Sister.) I really love the way he tells the story. The shifts in perspective and the deep understanding of human nature is glaring.

He made me look deeper at many unspoken fears. Most unfounded. Many legitimate. But all are very common. And these fears are not isolated nor restricted by oceans, deserts or imaginary lines on a map. If anything these barricades fuel them.

As humans we fear the unknown. As citizens we allow government to manipulate us with this ignorance. Allow them to incite emotions against other people. Both domestic and abroad.

How wonderful could our "Silo" be without the ugly discrimination and bigotry that our species has decided to cling to so rabidly. And this work of art makes it categorically clear the these feelings and emotions are just that. A decision. A choice.

Thank you Hugh Howey for the challenge you have put forth. I for one have made an effort all of my life to move beyond this horrid plague. Too many times I fail. And every time I do I'm ashamed.

Helpful

I read through the poor reviews first as someone suggested, more reason for this 5 star one.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 7, 2022

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Someone had suggested to read through the poor reviews before purchasing the book because they insisted the poor reviews were most truthful. However, the poor reviews were only indicative of one thing, that is that the small percent of 1&2 star reviewers seem to all share a lack of basic understanding and common knowledge needed to finish a book respectfully and understandingly. Now, is this a perfect book?! No, but far from being rubbish. I enjoyed the read and finished it in a day.

However, my 5 star review in no way is indicative of a perfect book, yet a reflection of how perfectly satisfied, while still intensely curious, I felt at the end of it. I loved it for its suspense, hope, fear, twists, self-righteousness and justifications from differing perspectives, and a sense of realness to it even if the silo’s designs and tech seem unrealistic. Please remember it’s not a Hard-Scifi genre which I also love, but wonderful imagination. Your specifications and dimensions do not need to be exact in the world of fantasy and fiction.

Here I will begin many *spoilers* so scroll on past if need be, I’m mostly picking apart points made in the poor reviews for fun lol.

One thing that kept coming up was the lack of elevators, probably because those reviewers lack simple inferencing skills. The reason there were no elevators designed in the silo was not directly explained in the novel, however you should be able to deduce that it was intentional along with why porters were “favored” over wires; to keep people and their thoughts separate and only confined to their own “classes”. Think of how easily thoughts and ideas could spread if it were as simple as a text message, or if it were easy to travel between floors. Something that was highly discouraged in this dystopian world.

Also, people are reviewing that it doesn’t take that long to climb a flight of stairs as if these are normal flights of stairs. They have simply disregarded the sheer circumference of the silo, so no, you can’t compare the flights of stairs you walk up and down in real life and say, I can climb it in 3 minutes. Shut up Kevin lol.

Next, I read a comment about the mayor being kept out of the loop, stating that it was unbelievable for her to be in charge of the entire silo without knowing anything about how it runs. Again, it was intentional. The less someone knows, the easier they are to control. Duh, basic politics.

Another comment mentioned the lack of an emergence of some sort of religion in the silo. First of all, I’m glad there wasn’t more than a few mentions of god here and there. Besides, they had knowledge of their mechanics, of farming, hydroponics, IT, of basic medicine and science. Religion would usually form from the lack of those basic needs. However, the closest you get to ideologies in this book is better than religion, it’s the yearning for more knowledge, for exploration and new discoveries. Of finding the truth and not trying to create false idols to assuage the lack of it.

Finally, though there are a million things I could continue on from the poor reviews, I’d like to just tackle one more common complaint easily. The complaint of why there are many “holes” or “things that don’t make sense” in the silo. It’s simply because it is not meant to. It literally is a dystopian society, if everything made sense and worked out, there would be no story.

In conclusion, I’m glad I read the poor reviews, it reminded me of people who Google how to spell the word “the”, and how to shampoo their hair.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Reader_1000000

***** IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE TODAY, READ THIS REVIEW! *****

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 25, 2012

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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.

70 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Mischa

A Hollywood-aspiring novel that doesn't really deliver

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

Did not really enjoy this. The plot is interesting, and the initial cycle through a few characters is slightly unexpected, but in a good way (you keep guessing who is the main character). But after a while it settles on a slightly boring plot, with a typical "hero" and "villain", very basic dialogues, and poorly fabricated "edge-of-seat" moments. It feels like it was written with the hope of becoming a script for a Hollywood movie, and hence reads like one. If that's what you're after, you will enjoy this. If you want a well developed, unexpected, imaginative read, then don't bother.

I struggled to finish it, and am not bothering to read the sequels. Cannot understand why it is so highly rated here in Amazon.

11 people found this helpful

Dani Reviews Things / Love in a time of Feminism

What a ride

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 16, 2019

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It took me far too long to finally read this book, and it took my work book club choosing it for me to actually go for it. I’ve had it on my Kindle for a while, but I opted for the audiobook, which I’m happy I did, as it allowed me to just keep “reading” while I had to do other things, like travel to work.

Through the eyes of several characters, we learn about life in the Silo, an underground bunker where people have lived for generations because the outside world is too toxic. In this closed system, there are rules that must be followed, the most important being to not question the way of things or wonder about the outside world. Order must be maintained for everything to function optimally. If you break this rule, you’re sentenced to Clean, meaning being suited up and sent outside to clean the cameras being used to monitor what’s happening up top. No one survives a Cleaning.

From the get-go, I was questioning the way things were. I have a tendency to question rules and authority, and I want to know the whys and hows behind everything; I would not have done well in the Silo, that’s for sure. What I loved was that I kept assuming what would happen next…only for Howey to subvert my expectations. There were a lot of “wait, what?” moments, particularly in the first half of the book.

Once I hit the midway point, the surprises stopped in some ways. By that point, I’d figured out the world, and the biggest surprise (for me) had been revealed. This was when the plot and tension really ramped up, and when I started to feel resentful towards anything that kept me from listening on. There were moments when I definitely thought all hope was lost, and I was amazed at how characters managed to find a way forward.

In some ways, this book made me think of The Martian. The suspense combined with technical and operational details kept me intellectually engaged, while the more human details had me emotionally invested in these characters. I love reading about human ingenuity and how people find a way to survive in the worst situations, and Juliet especially was a great character, both within her head and through the eyes of others.

Like any good dystopian story, Wool exposed social structures and political power dynamics that may have started with the best of intentions but then became warped over time. It showed how ideas and discontent can spread, and even explicitly called this a disease.

The ending was very satisfying, but it was definitely not the end of the road. A lot of questions were answered, so many more were introduced, and I’m looking forward to first going back in time with Shift before continuing where things left off with Dust.

10 people found this helpful

Roo I MacLeod

The world has gone to crap. The air is toxic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 10, 2016

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Finally a book I couldn’t put down. It has been a long barren spell for me, but Wool is a cracking read.
The world has gone to crap. The air is toxic. Wool opens in an underground silo, all 140 odd floors, self-sufficient, with the sheriff, asking the mayor to let him clean. Cleaning isn’t such a good thing for a man to ask to do. It involves going outside the silo in a crap suit to clean the many lens that offer the occupants of the silo a clear view of the crap going on in the outside world. The suit is fitted with woolen pads for the cleaning, but is deliberately faulty, like something you’d buy at Target or Primark, so it falls apart and the cleaner dies.
Now I found the beginning confusing, not quite understanding what Holsten’s - the sheriff looking to clean - problem was. It had been three years since he’s lost his wife to this cleaning bug, her dead decomposing body, visible in the screen on the wall by the cafeteria. And when he went out into the toxic world outside the silo, I expected the story to continue outside the silo. And when it didn’t I had to mourn Holsten, and learn to like another character, the mayor, but she also died. Murdered she was.
Can you see my confusion? Don’t worry, as I’m sort of thick, and slow at picking up on stuff like plot. This story sorts itself out and the pace and the intrigue kick on.
Because in Juliet, the author offers a grand character we can cheer for. She is a mechanical genius living in the bowels of the silo, but due to her assistance with an earlier murder her talents are recognized and rewarded. Juliet is offered the Sheriff’s position, and unearths’ the clues Holsten’s wife had discovered, and slowly we all begin to learn through Juliet, the secret behind the silo and the world outside.

34 people found this helpful

Paul T.

Undermined by a small flaw.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 22, 2021

Verified Purchase

Sometimes, it's the little things that bother you.

Howey has created a very believable post-apocalyptic society, confined in the underground and (apparently) self-sufficient Silo. It's a world designed to continue preserving life in perpetuity, and to that end Howey has considered every aspect - the farms, the factories, the political and social structure - and the power supply. But that's the thing that bothers me.

The silo has one generator. Just one. Oh, there's a backup to provide emergency power only, but the power needed for all normal functions comes from just one generator. Which means that any down time on that generator causes most of the silo to shut down. No power to the factories, no lights for the farms, everybody living in semi-darkness. Which means that the generator can't be stopped for regular, routine maintenance - and consequently the mechanics who look after it are faced with the possibility of a disastrous breakdown.

Howey uses this scenario to good effect in his plot, but it was ruined for me by the fact that it's such a ridiculous system. Nobody with a modicum of mechanical knowledge, or basic common sense for that matter, would design something without provision for proper maintenance. Any similar environment in the real world - such as an ocean going ship - has power requirements met by multiple generators, and it is therefore possible to take at least one of them out without interrupting regular power supplies.

Did Howey not think of this? Or did he deliberately design the silo to serve his plot? Either way, it spoilt the whole novel for me.

You might well think I'm making too much of a small point - after all, a lot of people have enjoyed the book in spite of this flaw, and many probably wouldn't even notice it. And, to give credit where it's due, the rest of the book hits all the right notes. Characters are well developed, the plot is complex but believable, word-flow is smooth and nicely paced throughout. I did think that the end felt a bit rushed - I think more could have been done with Bernard's fall from grace - but I could have overlooked that. Yet despite all the good points, I found it hard going. The story never really engaged me, and the only reason I could see was this issue of the generator.

Once the realism of a scenario has been undermined, it's hard to regain it. As I said, sometimes it's the little things.

4 people found this helpful

RJN

Wool has wowed me! Where’s the next one!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 24, 2021

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What a great read. I liked the general idea and premise of a bunch of people living underground and thought to give it a try. Then very quickly patted myself on the back for picking a winner. I am sometimes disappointed with stories that promise much but deliver short change, with poor writing that may appeal to younger less fussy readers. But I’m fussy and demand good meaty grown up stuff.
What a rush, I couldn’t put it down. Brilliant storyline, many unexpected twists and well filled out characters. And I’m feeling exhausted from all the stair climbing. So, stand away from the twisting spiral staircase, cos I’m off to get the other two books in the series.
Well done Mr Howey, and thank you.

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