/lit/ - Literature

>>10785016

Hugh Howey - Silo Trilogy

Just finished, literally within the last five minutes, the last book of this series.

Wool was compelling and interesting if not the most inspiring writing. I remember feeling annoyed at what I thought were plot-holes and the unsatisfying ending of the book. I had trouble visualizing exactly the size and scale of the Silo (especially how narrow the spiral staircase is) until at least halfway through the book, but once I finally got it I felt like it had an excellent sense of place.

Shift was frustrating and annoying at first. The initial main character was almost intolerable but I suppose that the author was making a point. I wish it had been more of a pleasure to read those parts of the book though. Once it got to the meat of its story, I was eventually won over by the eeriness of the setting. Very otherworldly. I thought the comparison to the afterlife was heavy-handed but probably only because it fit so perfectly.
I didn't care much about Jimmy's story but I understand why the author thought it needed to be told.
I did really appreciate how well the author was able to construct such a radically different setting that still fit exactly into the world he'd already created.

Dust I just finished, still forming opinions. Finally got all the storylines put back together which was satisfying after the frustration of the last two books. By this point I got really tired of the way the author kept setting up "obvious" or "inevitable" deaths to establish a sense of urgency, but then drawing them out as long as he liked. It felt manipulative especially after having put up with the same shit in the last two books. I enjoyed the very sensible resolution to most of my "plot holes" from the first book.

Overall the series was compelling but frustrating at times. I appreciate how the author set out to write a story as ambitious as any grand-scale space opera sci-fi, but confined to just a tiny corner of the Earth. He made me feel awe and wonder about a subject that might've seemed uninteresting. The entire conceit relied on only one or two pieces of imaginary sci-fi technology (albeit big ones). I wonder if the author intended the series to be a grand metaphor for the dreams of sci-fi readers, if he imagined pulling the wool from our eyes with a simulacrum of the Fermi Paradox. If you've read it you probably know what I'm referring to. I don't know if that was the theory behind the design of the books or just a side-thought that he could work in nicely.

I feel like there were some loose ends, but maybe just things I haven't figured out yet:
What happened to Silo 40 and their friends? In the very end of the last book servers 40 and 38 are still running incredibly hot even after Silo 1 bombed them.
Is the reader to believe that they came so close but didn't quite make it, didn't quite solve the mystery?
How do the oil wells work? The silos are are too close together for them to have independent wells.