If you're like me, odds are that you are debating purchasing Wool because of all of the hype. Makes sense, right? Here's a guy that's not only managed to beat the odds of self-publishing by writing something that has sold insanely well, but he's landed a movie deal and managed to retain his e-book rights. The great self-publishing dream. I just have to give you a little bit of a warning before you rush out to buy that paperback copy or download the ebook versions: this series will probably only be truly appreciated by a core set of people. The rest of us might like it well enough or recognize its appeal for others, but still shrug and wonder what all the fuss is about. The only advice I can give so far is that if you're going to buy this rather than get it from the library, go for the omnibus. You can't really judge this on the first book alone. I didn't really have a set decision about it until book 4. 
 I really wanted to like this series for the above reasons, but for various reasons I felt my attention continuously wandering. There are some pretty big flaws to the scenario, some of which I could overlook while others kept bugging me. One of the first and most immediate things that bugged me was that you have a silo full of people that have little to no reaction to the yearly Cleanings that occur. (This is where one or more people are sent out to wipe off the lenses of the cameras that show the surrounding ruined landscape, and it's somewhat unclearly stated that even if they do survive it, that this is a banishing and that they really aren't encouraged to return.) I can understand to a degree that some societies will adapt to horrible things such as a Cleaning, but I didn't really feel that Silo 18's people really felt like the type that would put up with such things. You can argue that this is because they aren't, which explains some things later in the book, but that's sort of a weak excuse because this went beyond being a society on the brink of rebellion and was more of a general thing. 
 There were also some inconsistencies between the initial short story and the rest of the series. I can understand this to a degree since I got the impression that the first story was meant to be a stand alone, but I wish that this had been fixed or addressed when Howey started planning to write the longer series. There are more than a few weak spots to the series as a whole that sort of irked me, although I might have noticed them more because I didn't entirely enjoy this book and it was insanely slow to start off with. I almost stopped reading about halfway through the book, all because I just kept waiting for something to happen. It doesn't help that this book can't quite decide which genre or reading group it's aimed towards. It's sort of billed as a dystopian sci-fi read, yet it focuses more on political power struggles and daily life sort of scenarios. The dystopian setting does somewhat play into the series more as the book progresses, but it's not as strong as I'd wanted it to be nor exactly the type I was expecting. The target reader group is a little harder to nail down, as the character ages and premise sound like it's targeted at adults while the text reads like it's more for a YA group. 
 All harshness aside, I can't deny that there is a definite appeal to this book. Once it got past its slow stage (the first half of the book), this did become more interesting and it was easier for me to want to keep reading. While I did complain about some of the problems I perceived with the book, it's not like Howey is a terrible writer by any stretch and I'd go so far as to say that he's better than some of the mainstream authors I've read in various genres. I just feel that he could have done a better job of it all and of merging the series as a whole together. It's the type of book that will launch a career but will be very mildly embarrassing later on once the author gets more experienced as far as his writing style goes. You can definitely see this progress through the books, where Howey starts becoming more familiar with his characters and more comfortable in a set writing style. I hope it doesn't come across too negatively when I say that I wouldn't mind seeing this re-written later on once he's completed everything and can work out all of the kinks in the series. 
 In the end I think that if I'd been more of a fan of this specific type of read (wandering genres, dystopian sci-fi that is set in one firm location with little exploration into what lies beyond- so far), I'd probably have liked this more. As it is, I can't really hate this either or really muster up any true displeasure to give it less than three stars. Once it picked up its full steam at the end, I'll admit that it turned into a bit of the page turner I so desperately wanted it to be for me. I'd recommend this for die-hard fans of dystopian sci-fi books, but I'm not entirely sure that I'll be purchasing the next book in the series. I'm mildly curious to the point where I might get it from the library when the next omnibus releases, but buy it? Nah. I'll leave the copy on the shelf to be snatched up by someone more eager. For all of my quibbles, I doubt that Howey will be lacking fans anytime soon.