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En el futuro la Tierra es un planeta devastado en el que el aire se ha vuelto tóxico. Rodeados por este paisaje desolado, algunos seres humanos sobreviven en un silo subterráneo. Allí, hombres y mujeres viven en una sociedad regulada por estrictas leyes que han sido creadas para protegerlos. El sheriff Holston, quien no ha vacilado en defender las reglas del silo durante años, de repente rompe el mayor de todos los tabúes: pide salir al exterior. Su fatídica decisión desencadenará una serie de drásticos acontecimientos que llevará al resto de habitantes del silo a enfrentarse a algo que sólo se conoce por las historias y cuyo nombre ni siquiera se atreven a susurrar. El fenómeno:En 2011 la librería online Amazon vio cómo en su web nacía un nuevo fenómeno de ventas a la altura de Cincuenta sombras de Grey de E. L. James. Espejismo (cuyo título original es Wool) fue autopublicado por su autor, Hugh Howey, en formato electrónico y a los pocos meses había conseguido posicionarse entre los primeros puestos de las listas de más vendidos del New York Times y el USA Today. Ante las expectativas creadas y con el aval de un éxito de público y crítica sin precedentes, la editorial Simon & Schuster decidió hacerse con los derechos de publicación en papel y lanzaba el libro al mercado el pasado marzo. Espejismo fue publicado originalmente como cinco historias cortas; el éxito conseguido con el primero de los relatos fue lo que motivó a Howey a continuar desarrollando el mundo que había creado. Con la estrategia de la publicación por entregas, y gracias al efecto boca-oreja, Howey consiguió captar nuevos seguidores con cada nueva publicación. Éste fue el inicio de Espejismo, un fenómeno que ha llegado a vender 800.000 ejemplares hasta la fecha y que se publicará en dieciocho países. Los derechos cinematográficos del libro han sido adquiridos por Century Fox y la adaptación a la gran pantalla contará con la producción de Ridley Scott y el guionista Steven Zaillian (responsable de obras como La lista de Schindler o Gangs of New York).… (más)
--- 2024 Re-read Review! --- I first read Wool in 2014 (TEN YEARS AGO, WTF!) after I found it in a charity shop, and promptly devoured the whole trilogy. I’d been thinking about rereading them for a while, but then when I saw Apple TV had made an adaption I decided I had to revisit the books before I give that a watch!
It actually felt like an apt read as I’ve also been replaying Fallout 4and obsessed with the Fallout tv series! Wool has a similar premised where people live in an underground locked vault, or silo in this case, after some kind of disastrous nuclear event that has left the outside an irradiated wasteland… Just without all the wacky weirdos!
The population of the silo live in a tightly controlled society based on the levels devoted to different occupations (supply, mechanical, IT etc). The only way to travel between levels is a giant staircase, a physically arduous task. Anyone who breaks the rules, the most important if which is questioning anything about the silo, risks being sent out “cleaning.” That is sent outside the vault, to clean the cameras that give them a view of the outside, before dying from radiation.
This is actually one of those books that is so good it’s hard to say much about it! It’s just great, it did everything I wanted.
The characters were good, I especially enjoyed Jules, and there is an intriguing conspiracy to unravel. It was originally self-published as short stories which might be why it never feels like it treads water, it’s fast paced and very tightly plotted. Chapters are relatively short which also makes is very easy to binge!
I’m not awarding 5 stars because I did find it lags for me a bit when the POV switches to the Mechanical conflict, mainly because I was so gripped by Jules I always wanted to get back to her. There are also some new characters that thrown in rather out the blue towards the end that didn’t have any payoff, and I was a bit confused by it.
One day we will get Apple TV again and I can’t wait to watch the TV adaption and see how they brought the silo and the staircase to life.
REVIEW SUMMARY I LIKED - A carefully conceived vision of a potential future of the human race that feels a little bit too possible! - Fast paced plot with a compelling conspiracy mystery. - Characters felt real and acted in believable ways. - I also found it strikingly visual (I’d love to see the staircase).
I DIDN’T LIKE - I enjoyed some POV more than others. - Confused by the purpose of late addition characters who raised too many questions that had no answers.
--- Original 2014 Review --- I'd been aware of this book as both an awesome science fiction story and a self-published success. Initially published in five parts through Amazon it very quickly built up a loyal following, large enough to warrant a publishing deal. I found it in a charity shop a couple of months ago so it made the way to the top of my To Read list! (Excellent haul that round of the charity shop, this gem and I got BioShock: Rapture in basically new condition!). Having now read it I can see how it captured an audience to quickly! It's brilliantly written, tightly plotted and a really intense read!
At some point in the undisclosed future (a few hundred years) humanity lives underground in silos because the surface of the Earth is a grey uninhabitable toxic wasteland. Society within the silo is tightly controlled with many rules. The most important is that you should never speak about leaving. If you express a desire to go outside then you will be sent outside for "cleaning." This means you are sent out in a suit and you clean the lenses on the cameras that project an image of the outside surfaces onto the walls of the cafeteria. Everybody sent out to clean dies, but they always clean the lenses first. Always. Even those that protest that they won't do it always do when they get outside. After the old Sheriff is sent out to clean (three years after his wife), the Mayor and the Deputy go down to the bottom levels of the silo to recruit a mechanic named Juliette to fill the position. Once she reluctantly accepts her curiosity about why her predecessor would choose to go outside, and she soon learns that asking too many questions is a dangerous thing to do.
Hugh Howey is a very imaginative and accomplished writer! Firstly, it’s such an original concept and yet somehow seems so.. possible. The mark of great science-fiction, my favourite kind anyway. The setting of the silo is very well written, it hardly takes any pages for you to feel like you know it and understand how it functions.. with just enough being a little bit “off” about it all. It also is definitely read best without any spoilers! Don’t ready anything that could contain a spoiler. There are lots and lots and little twists and turns.
The characters are multi-dimensional and believable, even if somebody seems little bit of a card board cut out, like Bernard who just reeks of "don't trust this guy", at the start eventually the layers will be peeled back. Juliette was an excellent heroine. It takes about two-thirds of the novel before she becomes the centre of the story and it all happens very organically. She's smart, an excellent mechanic, brave and very tough, resolute, full of integrity, kind and a good friend. She also still gets believably scared, terrified even. Her role in the story and the fate of the silo again happens very naturally and I'm a little in awe of how well plotted it all is. It's just effortless, the progression of events feel realistic in the way that it's a case of a sum of parts and not one particular person or revolutionary that kicks everything off alone.
There is a sense of the fact that so many little things aren't quite right about the way the silo functions, and then the way that tension begins to build - and it's so intense in places! - that events are inevitable. There is nothing you can do about human nature, we just aren't designed to live that way. I loved the fact that by the end of the novel when you have more of a picture of the situation humanity is facing, you realise that everything you had been wanting to happen up until then was the real danger to the survival of the silo. Perhaps there is a better way to run things, but at least the silo had been doing its job for hundreds of years up until then.
I'm really intrigued by this world! I've ordered the other two books. The next one is a prequel and I'm looking forward to finding out just how and why the silos came to be. I love this book.. honestly it's so intense! Intense the exactly the right word.
Also if you think the title is stupid.. which it initially sounds.. once you start reading it make a lot of sense!
Maybe more of a 4.5 than a straight 5 but I'm happy rounding up. It was really entertaining and very well written, with some excellent characters. If you've been thinking about reading this for a while, pick it up!
A thoroughly enjoyable yarn. Hugh Howey's style is very easy to read and the tale is paced beautifully. Although the high concept is fairly familiar, the characters are very enjoyable and the narrative plays out in a satisfying way. I will definitely read the other books in the trilogy. ( )
A post-apocalyptic world, where the survivors are kept in the dark about what happened in the past and about the reality of the present. A well written page turner. Part of a trilogy. ( )
The novel has been compared with the post-apocalyptic fiction of Cormac McCarthy and Justin Cronin, and is more character-driven than conventional sci-fi.
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
This collected work is dedicated to anyone who dares dream of a better place.
To those who dare to hope.
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do.
Citas
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
He’d only ever seen a gun once, a smaller one on the hip of that old deputy, a gun he’d always figured was more for show. He stuffed a fistful of deadly rounds in his pocket, thinking how each one could end an individual life, and understanding why such things were forbidden. Killing a man should be harder than waving a length of pipe in their direction. It should take long enough for one’s conscience to get in the way.
We get no credit for being sane, do we? I get no credit, even from me. From myself. I hold it together and hold it together and I make it another day, another year.
He sounded flustered. Juliette watched him busy about the stove, his movements jerky and manic, and realized she was the one cloistered away and ignorant, not him. He had all these books, decades of reading history, the company of ancestors she could only imagine. What did she have as her experience? A life in a dark hole with thousands of fellow, ignorant savages? She tried to remember this as she watched him dig a finger in his ear and then inspect his fingernail
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
En el futuro la Tierra es un planeta devastado en el que el aire se ha vuelto tóxico. Rodeados por este paisaje desolado, algunos seres humanos sobreviven en un silo subterráneo. Allí, hombres y mujeres viven en una sociedad regulada por estrictas leyes que han sido creadas para protegerlos. El sheriff Holston, quien no ha vacilado en defender las reglas del silo durante años, de repente rompe el mayor de todos los tabúes: pide salir al exterior. Su fatídica decisión desencadenará una serie de drásticos acontecimientos que llevará al resto de habitantes del silo a enfrentarse a algo que sólo se conoce por las historias y cuyo nombre ni siquiera se atreven a susurrar. El fenómeno:En 2011 la librería online Amazon vio cómo en su web nacía un nuevo fenómeno de ventas a la altura de Cincuenta sombras de Grey de E. L. James. Espejismo (cuyo título original es Wool) fue autopublicado por su autor, Hugh Howey, en formato electrónico y a los pocos meses había conseguido posicionarse entre los primeros puestos de las listas de más vendidos del New York Times y el USA Today. Ante las expectativas creadas y con el aval de un éxito de público y crítica sin precedentes, la editorial Simon & Schuster decidió hacerse con los derechos de publicación en papel y lanzaba el libro al mercado el pasado marzo. Espejismo fue publicado originalmente como cinco historias cortas; el éxito conseguido con el primero de los relatos fue lo que motivó a Howey a continuar desarrollando el mundo que había creado. Con la estrategia de la publicación por entregas, y gracias al efecto boca-oreja, Howey consiguió captar nuevos seguidores con cada nueva publicación. Éste fue el inicio de Espejismo, un fenómeno que ha llegado a vender 800.000 ejemplares hasta la fecha y que se publicará en dieciocho países. Los derechos cinematográficos del libro han sido adquiridos por Century Fox y la adaptación a la gran pantalla contará con la producción de Ridley Scott y el guionista Steven Zaillian (responsable de obras como La lista de Schindler o Gangs of New York).
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Google Books — Cargando...
20
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
--- 2024 Re-read Review! ---
I first read Wool in 2014 (TEN YEARS AGO, WTF!) after I found it in a charity shop, and promptly devoured the whole trilogy. I’d been thinking about rereading them for a while, but then when I saw Apple TV had made an adaption I decided I had to revisit the books before I give that a watch!
It actually felt like an apt read as I’ve also been replaying Fallout 4 and obsessed with the
Fallout
tv series! Wool has a similar premised where people live in an underground locked vault, or silo in this case, after some kind of disastrous nuclear event that has left the outside an irradiated wasteland… Just without all the wacky weirdos!
The population of the silo live in a tightly controlled society based on the levels devoted to different occupations (supply, mechanical, IT etc). The only way to travel between levels is a giant staircase, a physically arduous task. Anyone who breaks the rules, the most important if which is questioning anything about the silo, risks being sent out “cleaning.” That is sent outside the vault, to clean the cameras that give them a view of the outside, before dying from radiation.
This is actually one of those books that is so good it’s hard to say much about it! It’s just great, it did everything I wanted.
The characters were good, I especially enjoyed Jules, and there is an intriguing conspiracy to unravel. It was originally self-published as short stories which might be why it never feels like it treads water, it’s fast paced and very tightly plotted. Chapters are relatively short which also makes is very easy to binge!
I’m not awarding 5 stars because I did find it lags for me a bit when the POV switches to the Mechanical conflict, mainly because I was so gripped by Jules I always wanted to get back to her. There are also some new characters that thrown in rather out the blue towards the end that didn’t have any payoff, and I was a bit confused by it.
One day we will get Apple TV again and I can’t wait to watch the TV adaption and see how they brought the silo and the staircase to life.
Read this review and more on my blog!
REVIEW SUMMARY
I LIKED
- A carefully conceived vision of a potential future of the human race that feels a little bit too possible!
- Fast paced plot with a compelling conspiracy mystery.
- Characters felt real and acted in believable ways.
- I also found it strikingly visual (I’d love to see the staircase).
I DIDN’T LIKE
- I enjoyed some POV more than others.
- Confused by the purpose of late addition characters who raised too many questions that had no answers.
--- Original 2014 Review ---
I'd been aware of this book as both an awesome science fiction story and a self-published success. Initially published in five parts through Amazon it very quickly built up a loyal following, large enough to warrant a publishing deal. I found it in a charity shop a couple of months ago so it made the way to the top of my To Read list! (Excellent haul that round of the charity shop, this gem and I got BioShock: Rapture in basically new condition!). Having now read it I can see how it captured an audience to quickly! It's brilliantly written, tightly plotted and a really intense read!
At some point in the undisclosed future (a few hundred years) humanity lives underground in silos because the surface of the Earth is a grey uninhabitable toxic wasteland. Society within the silo is tightly controlled with many rules. The most important is that you should never speak about leaving. If you express a desire to go outside then you will be sent outside for "cleaning." This means you are sent out in a suit and you clean the lenses on the cameras that project an image of the outside surfaces onto the walls of the cafeteria. Everybody sent out to clean dies, but they always clean the lenses first. Always. Even those that protest that they won't do it always do when they get outside. After the old Sheriff is sent out to clean (three years after his wife), the Mayor and the Deputy go down to the bottom levels of the silo to recruit a mechanic named Juliette to fill the position. Once she reluctantly accepts her curiosity about why her predecessor would choose to go outside, and she soon learns that asking too many questions is a dangerous thing to do.
Hugh Howey is a very imaginative and accomplished writer! Firstly, it’s such an original concept and yet somehow seems so.. possible. The mark of great science-fiction, my favourite kind anyway. The setting of the silo is very well written, it hardly takes any pages for you to feel like you know it and understand how it functions.. with just enough being a little bit “off” about it all. It also is definitely read best without any spoilers! Don’t ready anything that could contain a spoiler. There are lots and lots and little twists and turns.
The characters are multi-dimensional and believable, even if somebody seems little bit of a card board cut out, like Bernard who just reeks of "don't trust this guy", at the start eventually the layers will be peeled back. Juliette was an excellent heroine. It takes about two-thirds of the novel before she becomes the centre of the story and it all happens very organically. She's smart, an excellent mechanic, brave and very tough, resolute, full of integrity, kind and a good friend. She also still gets believably scared, terrified even. Her role in the story and the fate of the silo again happens very naturally and I'm a little in awe of how well plotted it all is. It's just effortless, the progression of events feel realistic in the way that it's a case of a sum of parts and not one particular person or revolutionary that kicks everything off alone.
There is a sense of the fact that so many little things aren't quite right about the way the silo functions, and then the way that tension begins to build - and it's so intense in places! - that events are inevitable. There is nothing you can do about human nature, we just aren't designed to live that way. I loved the fact that by the end of the novel when you have more of a picture of the situation humanity is facing, you realise that everything you had been wanting to happen up until then was the real danger to the survival of the silo. Perhaps there is a better way to run things, but at least the silo had been doing its job for hundreds of years up until then.
I'm really intrigued by this world! I've ordered the other two books. The next one is a prequel and I'm looking forward to finding out just how and why the silos came to be. I love this book.. honestly it's so intense! Intense the exactly the right word.
Also if you think the title is stupid.. which it initially sounds.. once you start reading it make a lot of sense!
Maybe more of a 4.5 than a straight 5 but I'm happy rounding up. It was really entertaining and very well written, with some excellent characters. If you've been thinking about reading this for a while, pick it up!
View all my reviews (