Wool is the first in the series by the same name.  We are dropped into a world that is skillfully described.  Not only does the author create a vivid partial picture of the world, but the characters seem to pop off the page.  Readers are instantly sucked into "the silo" where these characters live dwell.  Next, the author gives us pieces of flashbacks and current happenings between a man and his wife for us to put together like a puzzle you cannot wait to finish.  A puzzle, which has a picture you haven't yet been allowed to see, but are certain you'll recognize once you do.  And, just like that, the wool is removed. You realize things are not as you thought, not as the characters themselves believed. You find yourself fumbling for the next set of chapters in the story, Wool 2: Proper Gauge, so that you can get your hands on the remaining pieces of the puzzle and see the big picture.

Yes, this story is reminiscent of several others I have read, but it is intriguing enough that I just don't care.  I want to know more, I want to learn what they learn as they learn it.  I want to know ... Why are the people within the silo told "to never want out..."?  Why does wanting out mean instant death?

Holston's wife, Allison, a computer whiz, demands, "No good coming from the truth?  Knowing the truth is always good." Surely that must be true.  There are those, youngsters mainly, "souls who had not yet come to grips with where they lived, who did not yet feel the press of the earth on all sides, who in their minds were not buried at all, but alive."  But, for Holston and his wife that time has passed.  They have discovered things, they want to know more, they want to find out, no matter the cost ... they want outside.

I've already started on book 2, Wool 2: Proper Gauge, and will read the other books in the series as well.  I also plan to see what else, if anything, this author has written because I really enjoy his writing style.  He has an ability that many lack - the ability to write an interesting story with believable characters in an intriguing world in under 100 pages.

{Reblogged @ 10/2013 to fix formatting issues due to GR import}