Hugh Howey Silo Trilogy
Latarsha Dorrance
We had a Q&A session at a Boston event last weekend, and a reader wanted to know if they could ask questions about DUST. Most of the audience had only read WOOL, so I suggested we do something online at a later date. And then yesterday, I received an email from a reader with a load of questions, and after firing off my responses, I thought they would make a good launching point to really dive into the trilogy.
Dear Mr. Howey,
I have just finished reading the trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed the entire series. However, some threads were left unexplained and I would be most grateful if you would be kind enough to answer the following questions so I can sleep at night!
Almost everyone was put to sleep, not just the women. Only a single shift remained. There were pockets of hysteria, but most of these people were prepped for this from the beginning. Donald was an exception, as he joined just the day before.
Silo 1 collapsed, but the sequence to collapse other silos would have to have been engaged. Donald knew how this worked, having done it once himself. He was destroying the place that could destroy the other places, leaving them to live their lives without threat or intrusion.
The length of time spent underground was to ensure that no pocket of humanity anywhere else survived, and also to kill off the memories of those who might whisper across generations. The nanos were programmed to create a dome of death around the silos to prevent any silo from escaping early. Everywhere else, nature was thriving.
It was meant to highlight the dichotomy in the Bible of salvation or damnation. Juliette could have used the blast charges to go out and get revenge and kill. She used them instead to open up the 51st silo, which was their salvation. We make choices like this every day. Do we use our energy to build things up or tear them down? How is religion used? How should it be used?
Not entirely true. Without Silo 1, I believe the line of events at the other silos would accelerate. The IT heads spoke on occasion to Silo 1, and every new IT head had to go through that initiation period. With all that suddenly gone, and no Silo 1 to run things the way they intended them to, the other silos would either crash, or find their way out much sooner than originally intended.
Yeah, at one point I thought for sure that the world had survived to some extent (probably not 100%), but that life was moving on from the event without anyone in the silos realizing it. That Juliette would finally leave, only to find civilization carrying on with their daily tasks almost like nothing had ever happened.
I, too, recently finished the series. Congratulations on a fantastic work. Most impressive to me was the subtlety of the narration; you treated the reader as an intelligent listener to the story, and I appreciate that. Keep up the good work and thanks for a great read.
I have just finished Dust. I enjoyed the trilogy and Shift was my favorite. I wanted to ask a few questions:
1. Why was it only men in silo 1?
2. When the bombs went off and everyone first went underground to the silos, did the whole of the planet get wiped out that day? Were there no other countries or communities in the whole world that survived?
3. Where was the President in all of this?
Hi, i just finished this awesome trilogy (the french edition), and was wondering about the dome when i found this great topic.
I loved these books, and read the first one in 24h over a weekend and the others in the week following :)
I especially loved how Donald felt like on his first shift. A totally clueless and drugged clerk embodying the figure of stability and authority against his will ! These chapters on the power of symbols were awesome.
Masterful Trilogy! I loved so much about the story. Also liked the way characters and their intentions often seemed to be headed in one way, but then situations overtake them with unexpected outcomes. One burning question, did you have the entire story written in outline or in your mind when you wrote Wool? Or did some of the major plot components come during the writing of Shift and Dust? Thanks for a fantastic read!
Also, Hugh, I wanted to beg you to have Audible find a new reader for Wool. I have recommended the series to others and they drop out, never listening to the other books because the two options for narrorators of the Wool collection are just so bad!
In the epilogue of Dust it talks about the survivors carrying a body along with them but it never says who it was. Can you please clarify if it was a character we met in the books or just an unknown person from 18???
It was one of the dead residents of Silo 17, body preserved by the good nanos sent by Anna from Silo 1, that the survivors took with them to provide a proper burial. The mentioned survivors carrying the body are just one group of many.
Hi, late to the party on this, so not sure if anyone still reading the comments. I loved all the books, but am still quite confused with what happened to Silo 40, and the other silo in the blackout. I saw Hugh say some survivors of 40 made it to others? What happened? I seem to have missed all of this bit!
I think that Anna switched the gas lines to provide good nanos at an earlier date to prevent future silos from being murdered. Then, when things went down at Silo 17, they received the good nanos. Her adjustment stayed in place until Thurman fixed it later to kill Silo 18.
I found Shift a bit awkward at first but once I sorted out the shifting (no pun intended) timelines in my head it all came together. My favourite section of Shift (and sorry if this is a spoiler but no way to hide) was when Shadow died. This was so well crafted and written I actually had to read the chapter a couple of times over to realise Jimmy was reverentially carrying his beloved friend up to the garden for burial. Very poignant, very moving. As the owner of a black cat starting to reach here elder years, definitely touched a spot.
The Amazon link in the second paragraph may confuse some folks because Amazon removed the comment functionality (along with all existing comments) back in 2020. So there is a review, but no response.
Originally, Wool, the first book in the Silo trilogy was released as a 59 page short story. Over the next six months Hugh Howey continued the story, which was eventually released as the Wool Omnibus, and then formed the first complete book in the trilogy.
As with any series of books, it is difficult to review the later books without giving away some huge spoilers. In this instance I will only give the briefest of outlines for the second and third books.
First up then, Wool, the starting book of the trilogy. It is a mix of dystopian future and post-apocalypse, with everyone living in a huge underground silo. Thousands of people in a silo that extends over 100 floors down, and there are no lifts or elevators, so if you live on a lower floor and want to visit someone near the top, you have no option but to walk. Some of the very oldest inhabitants can recall a time when their grandparents mentioned about people living in the surface. The younger generations dismiss these stories as wild fantasy.
WOOL was the first book I completed in my adult life, after school so it holds a special part in my heart. as a screenwriter, this is still a book (and The Plagiarist) that I turn to for inspiration. thanks, Hugh for inspiring us all.
I read the Silo books years ago and still LOVE them. What a fantastic world you created. And also that you have allowed other authors to play in your world. I have read many, many fan fiction Wool novels. Thank you so much! Thanks for the opportunity to have this amazing boxed set!
I have toyed with the idea of writing for, well, forever it seems now. In a forum I lurk they shared the Wool short story and I was immediately hooked. I read the entire thing during a Christmas break. I have only been kept awake reading for a handful of books, and this series kept me sleep deprived (and loving it) throughout the whole thing.
Since then I have recommended it multiple times, given it as a gift. But also, I have become a fan of Hugh the author (and the person I think). I enjoyed his take on life, have participated on a couple of webinars with him, and find a lot of inspiration as a writer from his personal story.
I loved this series and would thoroughly enjoy reading all of it again, especially from such a gorgeous set of books. WOOL was my choice for my book club this past year, and that turned a lot of members on to a genre they had never read before.
So very excited by this. Read Wool to my Grade 5 class and one of my students (now in Grade 8) chose it as his favourite book from that entire year. Looking forward to reading it to my 6s and 7s this year!
Rereading Wool and the rest of the Silo series was oddly comforting while trudging through the depths of the COVID lockdown, and made me happy I was able to share the journey with my silo-mates. My teenagers finally understood why I love Wool so much, and they look forward to reading all of the series.
Wool changed my life for the better. I started writing which led me to know so many great people in and around the bookworld. I will alwahs be grateful for Hugh Howey and how giving he was to other authors as he himself started his writing career.
Honestly this set, this story, is what led me to the rest of your work. Sand in particular was a great follow up to read after I was done and wanting more. The box set looks great and congrats on everything.
After reading Wool, you were the first author I felt a desire to contact to let you know how much I enjoyed your work. This has led to many other great stories of yours, as well as several author Facebook friends and their wonderful books. I love a good story! Would love to win this set!
WOOL was one of the first books I read when I was just easing my way back into reading for leisure after a lifetime of being traumatized by assigned reading in school. I immediately loved it (and still do)! If there is one book/series I could go back and read again for the first time, it would be this one. This new boxed set is beautiful!
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