Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Review of Wool 6 - First Shift by Hugh Howey

A prequel has got to be the biggest challenge a fiction writer can face, especially when you have previously created a universe as rich as the one in Hugh Howey's Wool series.

The speed with which First Shift (Wool 6) came out after Wool 5 was both inspiring and intimidating. 

Inspiring because such efficiency combined with such a quality result makes writing look easy, and I mean that in a good way. 

I'm also inspired by how thorough the continuity is in First Shift. I write and edit for a living (business writing only - I'm not tough enough to air my fiction) and haven't seen a hole in the plot.

I'm really only intimidated because of how quickly Hugh's work seems to come together.

As a result of watching the rapid success of the Wool series, I've been inspired to write something every day. Following the logic in the infinite monkey theorem, at some point something good has to come out.

Congratulations to Hugh on the success and quality of Wool 1-6. I'll definitely be making my way through his back catalogue (Molly Fyde, The Hurricane, Halfway Home etc).

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