It goes nearly 150 floors deep, each level connected by a staircase – there are no elevators in the Silo. The population is confined to a Silo, taking it’s name from the grain silos that housed harvests back in the days when the population still lived in the open. What we in this age know of is gone and all that remains is a barren wasteland. Howey has presented a fascinating world here. Random House have picked it up for Australia and I was invited to read the entire series, now packaged together as the Wool Omnibus and do a review. It’s gone from a small self published exercise to a sensation with film rights sold to Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian and the rights have now been sold in over 20 countries. The readers demanded more and author Hugh Howey delivered with Wool 2, 3, 4 and now 5. The first Wool novel, featuring Sheriff Holston was released as a stand-alone novella in July of 2011 and became an instant success. What she finds out there will give her the chance to make a difference and to end the lies once and for all….if only she can survive long enough. Instead she sets off to get as far away from the Silo as she can and leave behind the tower of corruption and lies that have come from it. Juliette becomes the first one put outside who does not clean.

Unlike Holston though, Juliette came from mechanical and her friends still down there don’t let her down, giving her what she needs to ensure that she will survive out there in the wasteland for that little bit longer than anyone else. But too much knowledge is a bad thing and Juliette finds herself following in Holston’s footsteps. With the help of someone she knows in IT, Juliette cracks the code left behind for her to unravel. Juliette replaces Sheriff Holston but her time in charge is all too brief as she begins to suspect that there may be more to the Silo and the history of it and why it was created than the residents are being told.

When he uncovers the secrets of the Silo, there is only one path for him. When Sheriff Holston’s wife was put to clean, he is driven by a need to find out what she discovered that made her so desperate to go outside. Never, ever express a desire to leave the Silo or you will be granted your wish. You are put outside for cleaning, a job from which people do not come back. If anyone breaks the rules of the Silo, the sentence is clear. The Silo is divided into three sections each containing 48 levels and each floor has a designated purpose. The population now live in what is known as the Silo, a building that extends over 140 stories below the Earth’s surface.

The world outside is no longer hospitable, stripped of vegetation, left a barren wasteland with the kind of toxic gases that will kill a human in minutes. Copy courtesy of the publisher via Net Galley

Wool omnibus