Pages2Screen: Wool to Silo

Pages2Screen
Today, I bring you another post in my occasional series Pages2Screen, where I compare movies/series to the book or books they are based on.

Wool to Silo
When I saw Apple TV adapting Hugh Howey's  Wool  for the small screen, I was intrigued, to say the least. The trailers made the show look full of suspense and mystery. It had been several years since I read  Wool , so even though I was familiar with the source material, it wasn't so fresh in my mind as to ruin the viewing experience.

Wool

Wool  was a book I had a hard time getting into and finishing. When I read it, I wasn't familiar with the term DNF (did not finish).  Wool  was a novel I nearly DNF'd. I kept reading because the world was interesting and the story suspenseful.

My problem was with the characters. I don't recall identifying with or liking any of them. At least not enough to want to follow them through a fairly hefty novel. As I remember, I was immediately taken with the original sheriff, who is killed in the first couple of chapters. I failed to identify with the new sheriff or the supporting cast, so even though the plot was intriguing and suspenseful, the story became a real slog.

This brings me to a general observation about Howey's writing. Currently, I am reading  Sand  and enjoying the hell out of it. Once again, Howey creates a fascinating dystopian world full of suspense. However, I can't say I find the characters all that great. They're good. Good enough given the story's other finer qualities, but none light a fire in my heart or mind.

Silo
My wife decided we'd watch  Silo  together. After the first episode, I was almost ready to give up. It was slow, and I already understood the world, so any world-building revelations didn't capture my imagination. She, however, thoroughly enjoyed it, so we kept watching. Boy, am I glad we did.  Silo  is excellent.

First, I'm surprised how much I remember the story from reading  Wool . Overall, though, that didn't bother me too much. Why? I enjoyed the characters more in the TV series than in the book. I think they humanized the main character, Juliette Nichols, quite a bit by including a romantic angle in her backstory. Maybe I'm misremembering but I don't recall her having a romance as part of her backstory in the source material. In the book, she is driven almost to the point of fanaticism with the need to discover the truth. Romance/love/etc. had nothing to do with her motivation.

Conclusion
If you read this far, then you can guess I am recommending  Silo  over  Wool.  The Apple TV series has all the attributes that made the source material a hit and a vastly superior take on the characters. If you've already read  Wool , I suspect you can watch and enjoy  Silo . The series does an excellent job of bringing Howey's dystopian vision to the screen. 

Having watched  Silo , would reading  Wool  be worthwhile? Hard to say. I didn't enjoy  Wool , but aspects of the story have stayed with me for years. I will say this. Having watched  Silo,  I plan to give the rest of Howey's Silo Series a go.  Shift  and  Dust  are on my TBR.