# Why didn't anybody tell me about Wool? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113 "2012-10-08T18:24:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/1 "2012-10-08T18:24:14Z")
(The book series by Hugh Howley, of course - I’m down with sheep hairs.) Okay, obviously somebody DID tell me, because I’ve had the sample on my Kindle for ages now, but I finally actually read it this weekend on vacation when I ran out of things to read and I am so hooked! I can’t get the damned thing out of my head! And then I read _First Shift_ which totally didn’t help! So, is the rest of his stuff any good? (And am I totally alone in being pretty sure that there’s nothing wrong with the air - that ain’t argon, and it’s what kills the cleaners and any uprisers who make it to the doors?) ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/2 "2012-10-08T18:34:40Z")
Yes, it’s awesome. I think I learned about it here, actually, read a sample and was absolutely hooked. I read First Shift after the Wool 1-5(6?) and really hope for more- I was sucked into them in a way I hadn’t been sucked into a book in a while. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/3 "2012-10-08T19:52:36Z")
I thought this was going to be a thread about how wool keeps you toasty warm during those nippy autumn nights. I seems to be some kind of book series…? But not about sheep? ---
**Author:** ![Implicit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/4 "2012-10-08T20:15:04Z")
If the purpose of this thread is to tell others about **Wool** , then perhaps some information and a few links will help. It’s a dystopian sci-fi series about a society living in an underground silo, by indie author Hugh Howey. You can try the first of the series, a 58 page short story, for free from [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Wool-ebook/dp/B005FC52L0/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1349726395&sr=1-2&keywords=wool) (or for $0.99 from [Nook](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wool-hugh-howey/1104684912?ean=2940013196292)). **Wool Omnibus (1-5)** can be found on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Edition-ebook/dp/B0071XO8RA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1349726395&sr=1-1&keywords=wool) or [Nook](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wool-omnibus-edition-hugh-howey/1110185323?ean=2940014544085) for $5.99. (Or $1.99 if you were lucky enough to snag it two days ago when it was the Kindle Daily Deal.) Massive [thread](http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1970119#post1970119) on Mobileread forum about **Wool** , including some posts by the author. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/5 "2012-10-08T20:15:47Z")
No, about post-apocalyptic underground silo dwellers. ---
**Author:** ![Keweenaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Keweenaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keweenaw)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/6 "2012-10-08T20:26:36Z")
I read it after Ridley Scott mentioned it in an interview. I enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction. I actually picked up the physical paper edition. My wife won’t set the kindle down long enough for me to use it. Ironically, she bought it for the kindle after I told her about how good it was. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/7 "2012-10-08T21:09:49Z")
Love it. Read it all at a couple of sitting, recommend it as much as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/8 "2012-10-11T00:45:28Z")
I’m in the middle of the first set and love it. Strongly recommend. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/9 "2012-10-11T01:40:23Z")
The truly amazing thing about Wool is that I have yet to hear of anyone who read it who didn’t really really like it. I’ve recommended it to a whole pile of different people with different reading tastes and every one of them has come back to me and told me how much they’ve loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/10 "2012-10-11T02:12:37Z")
Well, you’ve met me - I enjoyed it a lot but I thought 4 & 5 were kind of garbled. The premise began to not make sense to me on a couple of levels, and the characters became very silly, to the point where I’m not interesting in reading more books in the series. The premise is a maguffin, and the more you see of it, the less interesting it is. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/11 "2012-10-11T02:50:04Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Well, you’ve met me - I enjoyed it a lot but I thought 4 & 5 were kind of garbled. The premise began to not make sense to me on a couple of levels, and the characters became very silly, to the point where I’m not interesting in reading more books in the series. > > The premise is a maguffin, and the more you see of it, the less interesting it is. Yeah, this too. It stuck with me for a while, but after thinking over the story and the characters, I started to feel a lot more meh about it. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/12 "2012-10-11T12:57:35Z")
Nit pick It’s Hugh Howey, not Howley. I read the books and enjoyed them greatly…I read all 6 on the Kindle and treated them like they were one book…but frankly, had I read them individually, I would’ve felt that they were a little thin, I would be frustrated by how little happened in each one…in this book, our heroine travels up a bunch of stairs - the end. And Howey is really inexpensive on Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/13 "2012-10-13T00:36:26Z")
I just finished and I take back my recommendation. The pace of the five sections suggests a much longer epic than this. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/14 "2013-08-25T18:00:22Z")
I take it that by now, most of you have read Shift and Dust? ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/15 "2013-08-25T18:10:29Z")
No Dust spoilers yet please. It was just released a week ago. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/16 "2013-08-25T18:59:03Z")
> [@MoodIndigo1](#): > > I take it that by now, most of you have read Shift and Dust? I bought the omnibus after reading recommendations here, but I’ve yet to finish slogging thru it. The enthusiasm for the series is a puzzle to me. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anybody-tell-me-about-wool/637113/17 "2013-09-07T12:31:43Z")
Read Wool a couple of weeks ago, my daughter bought the omnibus and was quite enthusiastic about it, my expectations were low but couldn’t put it down. Daughter is not an SF fan at all so was rather surprised. On finishing it I started Shift and although I enjoyed it I didn’t mesh with it like Wool. I think that this was mainly due to a lack of empathy with the main character, unlike with Wool. Sitting here waiting for Dust to arrive 🙂