Review of the Wool Omnibus (Wool 1-5) by Hugh Howey

I feel like I am on a bandwagon having read Wool, but bandwagons become bandwagons because they have something that resonates with people.

In the Wool series, Hugh Howey has created something he couldn't have foreseen. Amongst other things he has made readers care about his characters, imagine a believable future and he's kept them wanting for more.

I don't know if it was his original strategy, but I am glad that Wool started out as a novella. If you can grab your audience, engage their emotions and curiosity in a short form, you're probably a pretty good writer. Either that or your story has fired the what-if chemical in the readers brain, as Isaac Asimov did in the Foundation series, Frank Herbert did in the Dune series, Virginia Andrews did in much of her writing. These three writers created such a legacy, there are still books being published as prequels, sequels and spin-offs of their original works.

I'm not comparing the content of Wool to these others, but it already has the potential to grow beyond the scope and grasp of its creator. This is something most writers dream of.

I'm either brave or stupid

This year saw me enter a bold and brave new era of my life. I became a father. Jacques was born on the 5th of January. 

Being a parent has changed my perspective in a way I never could have understood before. I used to be a bit nervy, overly conscientious and easily stressed. 

Now it is as though all of my anxiety bubbles away in the back of my mind just for him. Work doesn't phase me anymore, money isn't a problem and people don't annoy me as much as they used to. My highs and lows in a day can often be a direct result of whether or not he was ok in the morning, or slept ok overnight.
I had a dream a week or so ago in which someone hurt my partner and Jacques. It was very nasty and in real life they would have been dead. My reaction in the dream was to pick up an axe and take revenge. My heart was racing and I had tears in my eyes when I was woken by my concerned partner.