Pulling the Wool over our eyes
Wool (Part One of the Wool Trilogy) by Hugh Howey (Random House, $29.99)
Reviewed by Fiona O’Kane
The Wool trilogy is a much-talked-about success story, with debut author Hugh Howey showing the world exactly how to go about writing your first novel. He started out self-publishing on Amazon, drip-feeding the release of the first book in the trilogy in sections to build his audience, and then did the same with the second. After he’d sold 400,000 copies, he got a mainstream publishing deal, whilst – very unusually – also maintaining control of the e-book rights himself. Oh, and then Ridley Scott bought the movie rights.
But does Wool live up to the hype?
Yes, it does.
This well-written book comes from an author who clearly knows his craft. The story is slick and paced well, with characters who leap off the page. At first there is a definite – and deliberate – sense of confusion as to what’s going on, as the characters themselves don’t fully understand the world in which they live. Gradually, more and more layers are revealed, and the story starts to really gather steam.
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