for anyone who has read Hugh Howey’s series of science fiction nowels - Why didn’t the silos have elevators? too big a strain on the power system, or part of the network of social controls?
Because the setting is a maguffin and the more you learn about it the less sense it makes.
The latter, IIRC. They didn’t want to make it too easy for the levels to interact. I don’t know how far you’ve read, so I’m just going to go with open spoilers for the whole series. Stop now if that’s a problem. Recall that there ARE elevators in the “control” silo - the one with everyone in cold storage. I seem to remember someone talking about how elevator shafts would have interfered with the failsafe mechanisms, too. The silos were all rigged with several floors that could be released via explosive and fall down to the bottom, crushing everyone in their path.
Agreed - I can’t recall if it was explicit in the text or implicit in the narrative/dialogue, but I came away with a clear impression that they wanted to keep the levels separate as much as possible, especially those people down in engineering. I think that part of it was the assumption that historical revolts had begun there.
Yes, definitely part of wanting to control people. It’s of a part with e-mails being so expensive. They wanted to limit communication from different levels to only those that were essential for the silo’s survival.
Everyone else covered it but I just have to say I really loved the Wool books (Wool, Shift, Dust). Sadly, I’ve read other books by Hugh Howley and did not care for them but Wool was a fun ride. Shift was great to finally learn more about what is going on. And Dust was… just okay.
Try Sand. I found it every bit as good a Wool. Actually I have a theory that they are set in the same world, just different parts of it.
For those who, like me, enjoyed the Wool books (despite their flaws), you might find it interesting that the author has given the blessing to other authors writing in his setting. Here’s a link to a list https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/72213.Hugh_Howey_s_Wool_Universe#21459227
and now Wool has gotten the graphic novel treatment http://http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DL6CY4K/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00DL6CY4K&linkCode=as2&tag=hughow-20