Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey (CBR-V #13)

Cannonball Read V: Book #13/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 550
Genre: Scifi/Dystopian


5 stars: A favorite! Would read again.

Why did I wait so long to read this book?? It was fantastic. It was originally released as a short story (Part 1) and then the next five parts were released as novellas. The entire thing was eventually released as one volume called Wool Onmibus. 

Part one is a stand alone story, but sort of acts as a prequel to the rest of the novellas. I was sucked in after that first story. The stories take place in a large underground silo that houses thousands of people because something happend outside making it a hostile environment for humans. They have outside cameras so the people in the silo can see that there is nothing out there but dust and grey clouds. It is absolutely forbidden to express any interest in going outside. If someone does, they are sent out for "cleaning", where they are sent outside to clean the camera lenses and then die in the poisoned atmosphere. But what happened out there? Who build the silo? Why do the banished cleaners actually clean the lenses? 

Parts 2-6 of the book mainly follow a girl named Juliette. She works way down deep in the silo in the mechanical section. She had helped law enforcement with a murder case a few years ago, so when a new sheriff is needed, she ends up on the list. She ends up taking the job and gets curious about what happened to the previous sheriff (his story is in Part 1). 

I loved the suspense of this book. Questions were answered, but there was so much tension that I just wanted to keep reading more and more. Don't mistake this for another tired dystopian series. I can't wait to read the next part of the series (another collection of novellas called the Shift Onmibus).