Wool (Silo Series: Book 1) – Hugh Howey – Episode 65
The Buddies enter into book 1 of the Silo Series, Wool by Hugh Howey, and it did not disappoint. The dark, futuristic dystopian story was right up the Buddies’ alley, and certainly scratched the itch (the doctors are still working on those other itches). Plus, Apple TV just released the first season of the show to pair with it. Per usual the buddies had some deep conversations about sociology and governance, plus opposable/disposable thumbs, germs being all mental, and why it isn’t always good to be the main character. So stay inside, breakout the StairMaster, read up on the Anaconda Plan, and join us as we tear through Wool.
Intro: (0:00-1:51)
Stock Up/Down (1:52-33:08)
Favorite Character (33:09-36:55)
Love/Hate (36:56-46:11)
Conclusion (46:12-47:53)
Next Book: THE RAGE OF DRAGONS by EVAN WINTER
Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂
I’m Dylan here with the head of it at the BBC key what’s up buddy Bernard checking in for duties the name Bernard is a bad guy’s name every time right Bernard the only other Bernard I can think about is um Westworld he’s a nerd too right yeah he’s a nerd for sure you go by Bernie I mean that’s the fact of the matter you change your name to birdie you know yeah Weekend at Bernie’s perfect yeah exactly all right well here at the BBC we’re breaking down some best sellers and this week we’ll be discussing wool a silo Saga by Hugh Howie if you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us in a past episodes you can visit our website buddybookhub.com sign door DMS on Twitter or Instagram buddy book club podcast you can listen to us on iTunes Spotify wherever you get your podcast so please download And subscribe keep Bulls hitting the charts on Apple TV apple plus I don’t even know what it’s called anymore it’s Silo technically I’ve had it on the list for a while I’ll talk about this in my hates a little bit but I thought it was like a book from 1940. it’s just the name and the cover of the book we’re so dated that I was just like ah I heard it’s good but you know we can hold off on it yeah for sure I got you the funny thing is my brother-in-law for some reason and I have no idea where this came from he’s visiting right now and at my father’s house he was like I picked up this book that was sitting in the bookshelf it’s called wool he goes it’s so much like silo
he’s like well that makes a lot more sense actually I thought it was going crazy uh but yeah so now it’s a hit show on Apple Plus Apple TV I don’t know what it’s called anymore uh we’ll probably do some some epies on the on the show itself but we just kind of want to talk about the book because I feel like it’s been a minute since we’ve done some dystopian World type stuff right yeah for sure well let’s jump into some stock up stock down Keith where do you get stock up for wool stock up the Anaconda Plan no d man I’m not talking about your Friday night I’m talking about Abe Lincoln’s or the unions famous Civil War tactic I think it was William Tecumseh Sherman’s plan Winfield Scott is according to Wikipedia but I always uh attribute it to Abraham Lincoln he’s the president at the time so we’ll give it to him for those unfamiliar basically the the North’s plan to be a more motivated and better trained and better leadership Army the North had the better trained better leaders no no the South did South was more motivated and had better generals and everything like that yeah yeah the leadership was much better for sure the whole point is like they basically surrounded the the coast and then they cut them off down the middle of the Mississippi River and they just basically sucked all the resources out so they like couldn’t communicate they couldn’t do anything which the Revolt starts in this book is exactly what they should have done we know where every single section of resources is there’s a food section there’s the power section there’s like the cat you know they’ve everything just lit really he’s like here here it’s siled if you will yeah oh nicely done yeah all you have to do is basically control the food control the power and they come to you like you don’t need to storm up there and like fight them at their place it doesn’t make any sense and I mean the problem is too is they just don’t have history books because I feel like I don’t know about you but at least in high school for me the things that they taught you about wars is one resources are vital look at to the Civil War look at Russia anytime anyone’s attacked Russia in the winter Napoleon or Hitler if they get completely dominated because they’re they run our resources they freeze the second thing is hearts and minds and that’s what they should have been doing as well is like just being like hey here’s what’s actually happening get more people on their side get more people on their side join forces increase the Army size and then you don’t have to worry about anything you know then you just control everything and you have to fight would you say that Clear Eyes Full Hearts you can’t lose is that what you’re saying don’t bring Timmy Riggins up right now the beat pad I’ll get the beat pad out if you bring it to me uh yeah no I mean it’s a great call and also you’re 100 right in the Civil War stuff I have a belly full of enchiladas I just came back from a real early supper but yes the South was definitely more motivated for one better trained and better LED just poorly equipped really you know poorly equipped was was one of the biggest issues and if you want to learn more about that and if we ever wanted to do some historical fiction I would a billion percent do some killer angels and Gods and Generals either way I love it Anaconda Plan big fan I do think that in The Silo itself though the food is kind of throughout they’re not running food up from the down deep to the up top or like they’re not running it from the mids to the up top and also to the down deep like the food is like every 10 levels there’s a a greenhouse habitat or whatever the case is but I do agree that in the down deep they’re controlling the generator like everything that’s power during the entire Silo so why can’t they kind of hang back in their area yes they don’t have Sun Tzu they don’t have the Art of War sitting on a shelf to like read and get you know get familiar with before this whole thing and they didn’t even anticipate for a rebellion does seem like they could have just been like all right we’re gonna start just like chopping off power I do Wonder though if they put the rest of the silo in the dark if the people in the mids would have then turned against them it would basically be like oh the down Deep’s shutting you guys off like killing you because legitimately people would be dying The Narrative would turn and everyone would be against the people in the down deep the whole thing is like all right we’re just gonna openly talk about this now what are you gonna do about you’re gonna kill like 100 of us and then it comes to war you know like I mean Dennis is like all right come down here and fight us then you know that’s that’s one thing I didn’t understand whether they have megaphones or not but I would just be like non-stop on the megaphone being like whatever you guys think is real isn’t real we’re talking to other silos out here we know there’s at least 18 there’s probably 50 based on this seemed like that communication when they figured it out when Walker like figures that out with Shirley and they’re both on the same page like oh [ __ ] there’s like other silos out there they can’t communicate it to anyone they’re like keep trying but it’s like though we’re in the middle of a fight we can’t do this like no this is the most important thing like we need to spread the word because people need to know it’s like knowledge is the most important thing in that situation would be like we’re all being lied to here’s what we figured out join our side no I I agree but speaking about radio people that down deep and whatnot my first stock up is the trades so if we live in a white collar World unfortunately and everyone says oh go to college you know parents like go to college learn about banking go [ __ ] people over you know that’s that’s kind of the point of the world right now people yeah yeah yeah no you’re wrong there’s no love for the blue collar man anymore there’s no love for a little cell phone blue collar business you know we’re not here to make billions we’re just here to do some services do some trades help people out it’s good work it’s a good honest living that’s all that matters but people don’t want a good honest living they’re like I want to be the next Steve Jobs but no one wants to wear a black turtleneck it looks stupid I’d rather wear overalls so the trades though look how multi-faceted they are like Juliet she’s just a mechanic but because she understands like how things work you know mechanically she’s an engineer really yeah she really is you know but the way that she understands how things work she all of a sudden becomes Sheriff she’s like oh I’m gonna be way over my head next thing you know she’s figuring out police cases because she sees how it’s all just a process and she knows all of the different pieces to that process she just has to put them together simple as that and honestly it’s the same with the IT people unfortunately those terrible terrible folks and additionally on top of that especially the trades in general you always have something to fall back on I have no discernible talents I grew up in a white collar world if I got fired from my job I’d have to find another dumb company that’s going to hire me for some dumb job that doesn’t make any sense but if I was a plumber I’d be able to go and fix people’s homes if we get fired we just need to find another job another job another job yeah I just got to find another pyramid to jump in on it you know jumping on the Bottom Rung yeah so yeah I hear you it’s all about the trades and that’s why they win at the end so go Blue Collar appreciate you [ __ ] everyone else yeah you ever like fix something in your car by yourself without having someone else like help you with it like replace an air filter like something really simple updated my uh windshield wipers and I was like holy [ __ ] updated my windshield wipers this must have been feeling what a real man feels like you know just like this is the easiest thing ever and I’m like man this this feels good yeah exactly it’s exactly like that what else you ever stock up stock up elevators oh come on now we can’t talk about elevators yet no not yet well I did feel like half this book is just people being like God damn stairs these stairs suck I kind of relate to that I get that stairs do suck I know it was basically limiting just any any sort of communication and elevators fell into that I think the author says at the end of the book as well but I mean you think they’d have a private elevator right just to like zip up and down or something something like that where they could you know you think they’d have that the reason I relate to it I also like pulled a muscle in my back recently and instead of going up and down stairs has been like the [ __ ] worst and I have like Seven Stairs you know it’s not like a lot of stairs this is from speaking of knowing trades and being a white collar [ __ ] this I looked it up a lot because it’s like all about my leg and it’s like yeah it’s from people that just yeah yeah that’s what I have they’re like it’s from people that just are lazy overweight terrible ABS pieces of [ __ ] yeah or or pregnant and I was like I’m like all right so how do I how do I get like get rid of this they’re like don’t do anything continue to be a lazy yeah that’s the funny thing about it uh it’s though it’s the worst you should foam roll I relate to these 80 year old woman that’s going up and down the stairs for four days it’s the same thing with me foam rolling those glutes that’ll that’ll that’ll open up for you but I had elevators or the lack of elevators of my hate and like you said the author did address at the end in a q a and it makes a lot of sense for this dystopian Society I mean it’s a great little vehicle but ability for people not to share information is the key and if there is a semblance of a rebellion or something like a couple people are chatting it’s so hard for them to spread the word you know you can’t spread the word because if you pass off to a porter It’s Gonna Get You know it’s eyes on it and the only other way is to actually Lumber yourself up the stairs go find someone else tell them you know it’s just too difficult so I do love it as like a way that this society would make sense my only problem with it everyone in the down deep is mechanically minded they have the ability to come up within the idea of an elevator like it’s just such a simple things they could be like we could just easily be build this no problem and at the end of the book which I really liked is the author addresses that question and he basically says they can’t do it because it wouldn’t fit in with the society which is a throwaway but one of the other things he says which I found interesting was like the porters Union wouldn’t support it and the Portage Union’s like huge and that makes a lot of sense to me I was like oh cool the idea that there is this like you know Porters Union which is a huge industry in this ILO they’re not gonna if someone’s like we’re gonna build an elevator the porters Union would be totally against they just like control the elevators though they could be like the elevator people yeah for sure I see what you’re saying but there’s a reason that we got rid of that too as a society it was just stupid because then eventually people they’ll like play it out and be like wait we don’t actually need to pay someone to push buttons If the elevator was the only mode of transportation it’d be much more important than an elevator in a one building I’ve been watching the show so we’ll talk about the show a different time but they do have this throwaway line where they say that in The Pact which is like the book of all the rules and laws of the society in The Silo in The Pact it forbids basically mechanical like elevators it said like you know things that move up and down throughout the letters yeah whatever anything that mechanical that moves up and down throughout the silo there’s one floor more than you know the floor is typically 10 feet I think right or something like that do you think they’re like 50 feet is that why it’s so hard to get down that many flight of stairs well I’m sure there’s like different levels like I’m sure the down deep like some of the levels are like much bigger considering the Machinery they’re using I think it’s probably somewhat uniform throughout but I don’t think they’re like 10 feet each like it’s not 150 foot yeah you know I mean we used to work on the 19th floor right yeah and we the member fire drills like I’d be sweating by the end it wouldn’t take me four days if you multiplied that by five you know yeah it took us 15 minutes right yeah and I did think about that at the beginning and we’ll talk about this more when we talk about the show itself but it did help me visualize because I’ve talked before about how I’m terrible at visualizing these things for some reason it did help me visualize like the scope of this because in my mind when I was reading the book I’m like oh okay there’s like I don’t know a few hundred people in here you know maybe a thousand people in there and it’s like you know when I was thinking about the spiral staircase I was kind of thinking about like that James Bond level and GoldenEye when you’re climbing up and down the silo like the missile silo yeah and I was like oh just like a staircase that goes around the outside right yeah like yeah okay yeah I guess so but it’s more of a centralized staircase where every floor goes into which makes a lot of sense naturally yeah I think it’s more than we’d expect so my next stock up was germaphobes okay all right how do you feel about germs are you are you anti are you pro-germ uh I think it’s all mental go what does that mean I I think that if you think germs are a problem then they’ll be a problem they’re starting better yeah well you tell that to the Native Americans but let me bring that into it Jesus 96 of them died because of germs and you’re going to tell me that the germs are fake those are viruses it’s a little different than germs this is the same thing all right others is a different kid all right well my whole point is one I’m pretty okay with chirps mostly okay remember when you see each other you only allow me to fist bump you that’s like Howie Mandel I know that fist me it’s different uh so that’s the clip the key about germ germophones is just don’t drink from anyone else’s canteen because if you were a germaphobe and someone was like grabbing for your canteen you’d be like no I’m sorry like this is just for me that was supposed to be like an intimate thing that was like them kissing before they kissed oh okay because they had they hadn’t swapped spit yet right it was like in Seinfeld when uh Elaine shares the water bottle with a guy no I haven’t seen that episode oh you’ve definitely seen it it’s like the guy tries to kick out George out of the gym membership or another gym because he pisses in the shower belittle me by saying I’ve definitely seen anyone I definitely haven’t seen it so you told me you watched seinville all the time you’ve definitely seen the episode I’ve seen some episodes you haven’t seen all the episodes of Seinfeld no this is a this is an intervention right now this is tough really curb guy I’m a curb guy through and through it that’s eye-opening honestly the wife the wife loves love signs I mean honestly this validates hitch for me this really does you haven’t even watched all of Seinfeld how do you mean how do you do that I don’t understand if you were like I didn’t I didn’t really like watch the first two seasons I’ve watched the other ones I’d be like all right yeah that’s fair the first two scenes are whatever but just say like I don’t know that one come on bro grow up would you all right I’ll do better what can I say that’s all I can say but don’t judge results as a canteen because you’re gonna die it’s it’s really simple as that yeah all right fair enough fair enough also if someone that’s your enemy like someone you don’t get along with let’s say as well as like you know the mayor and the deputy when they’re talking to I.T every time they see Bernard they’ve seen him like three times going up and down and every time it’s like a little tiff like we want Juliet to be Sheriff he’s like definitely not Juliet definitely not her we don’t even know who she is she still heat tape from us that’s all we know and it’s a fight every time but then at the end he’s like let me fill up your canteens before we go any further let me fill up your can’t do yeah something’s going on there so if your enemy continues to offer you something every time you see them it’s probably gonna kill you really simple as that yeah I mean that’s a good point all right let’s go stuck down what do you got doc down looking to the Future I’ve had this before I think I did this the same stock down with the Mitch rap books but yeah I’m selling once again anytime a character seems to be thinking about like you know what everything’s gonna be all right that character is gonna die that’s the fact of the matter they’re gonna die within the next like 10 minutes of the book same thing happens in this you have Holston going outside being like Oh things are fine everything’s great outside and then we hit the real world right you know he takes the mask off he’s dead we have mayor John’s walking up the steps to your point you just mentioned it she’s drinking out of the water she’s like you know what I’m gonna probably hook up with the sheriff a little bit things gonna be good I’m gonna start being more involved I’m gonna start taking more walks good thing I got some of that petroleum jelly from the down deep I scooped it off one of them generators because I am about to get sloppy right now she’s going up you know but he’s going down oh I do see what you’re saying so yeah no so that’s you think everything’s gonna be good Dad yeah she’s dead right away yeah obviously so yeah so you just daisley don’t look to the Future like I’ve said before I’ve said it again and another stock too just in general with that is that I think I’ve talked about this before but if you’re ugly too you’re you’re a piece of [ __ ] the only person they describe is ugly is Bernard they’re like and then Bernard walked in everyone else is gorgeous Bernard’s an ugly piece of [ __ ] he’s gross and that was all they said I’m like oh so this guy’s bad I guess but yeah don’t be ugly yeah well I had a similar one to your to your first one in that my first lockdown was being the main character in a book yeah because normally you know yeah yeah it’s a great situation so we got Holston and we’re like oh sweet like this is the main character it’s you know the book’s starting off he’s the main character like he’s the sheriff of The Silo he’s gonna find some stuff out this is cool great he’s dead oh okay well he’s been talking to Mayor John’s all the time so she’s the main character like it’s about the mayor she’s running this whole thing I also thought she’d be bad too yeah she’ll be a good main character bad main character doesn’t matter she’s the main character nope she’s dead and then it’s like oh okay okay whatever who’s wholeson’s number two Deputy Marge who’s also in love with with the mayor like he’s the main character got it got it got it got it got it nope he’s dead and this is like a court we’re a quarter of the way through the book and legitimately every people we’ve been introduced to are dead and like only then do we meet Juliet and unfortunately I had seen the cover because it’s like oh like the cover of the book is the new TV show so I knew who the main character was based on that so I was like okay there’s going to be a young woman who’s the main character which is unfortunate because I would have been a little bit more mind blown in the fact that we’re a quarter of the way through the book and everyone that we’ve been introduced to and like learned about is dead so don’t be a main character in a book if you’re if you’re in a Hugh Howie book if like you get cast for a Hugh Howie show and they’re like you start reading the first 15 pages of this game you’re like oh it’s all me it’s totally A Game of Thrones it kind of threw me off guard and honestly it was refreshing and super enjoyable because I was basically under the mentality that no one is safe so when Juliet goes out I was like maybe she will just die who [ __ ] knows you know for sure what’s good too is like most if there’s a sequel or there’s a big series they’re not gonna kill off the main characters because then they just have to keep on adding new characters but he’s like nah I’m gonna have three books and people are gonna die at the road yeah he’s like oh that’s awesome yeah well he also addressed that in his questionnaire and I guess we’ll talk about this now he at the end of the audiobook he has like you know asked the author questions which he wrote himself which I I really like that’s the part that I really liked was that at the end he’s like did you write these all yourself and he’s like yes I did and not only did I like it because they were all like very base level questions so he could have definitely thrown it out to the world but instead he went anti-silo and basically said I’m gonna be full transparent here I just made these up like I didn’t want to throw it out there to the world I knew the questions that I wanted to answer and I answered them some would say it’s some similar to uh the Buddy book club’s reader email questions but no probably not at all probably completely different exactly like that yeah so I I respect it uh what else you have for stock now talk down virtual reality in this book virtual reality is [ __ ] awesome they basically have the 8×2 strip they put over the mask warps reality to make it look a million times better where is that for us 20 years ago probably at this point I was in Faneuil Hall and they had virtual reality we haven’t been proved on this yet how have we not gotten and this is really what I want I mean this would really solve also my back problems not move ever again no the opposite I want a track pad where you’re playing war zone and you’re literally running miles in order to fight oh you know you’re jumping over things you’re you’re sprinting and it becomes the best most athletic best people and so basically you’d have to like start the game it’s like all right you’re gonna run a mile to start we’re gonna get your time for a mile we’re gonna get your endurance and you’re gonna be put in a slot with all these other people that run the same mild times and then you’re just going to improve over time if you want to become better right and it becomes more like an athletic game and then you’re killing two birds with one stone I’m no longer a piece of [ __ ] that’s getting a back injury from not doing anything and then also it’s I’m having fun I’m exercising you know why can’t we get that wow why are you so jacked like I’ve been playing Madden yeah I’ve needed to be strong over the middle I gotta lay some people out you know so well it’s funny you said because I remember going to Harvard Square in Cambridge Massachusetts one of the big things they had there was this VR shooter which was you put the this giant headset on like straight out a blank check you clip in at your like harness clipping but it had a track pad so you were like track padding around oh really and then shooting yeah it was like a whole oh wow like you said I was just 20 years ago yeah exactly what the hell no [ __ ] it was probably more than 20 years ago it was like 25 years ago you know I was like 10 years old because I loved GoldenEye at the time so I was like oh my God this is gold night of the future this is gonna be amazing I know and now all we have is like Mark Zuckerberg putting on some like cardboard glasses being like I’m in virtual reality playing Fruit Ninja it’s like no this is not what I want speaking of video games my next talk down is going outside and definitely not something you want to do in in this book and if you have some sciatica this is good for you because you could just stay inside people like do you want to go out you’re like in The Silo you’re like I can’t you know my back they’re like you’re like it would require me to walk up like four flights of stairs I just can’t go outside it’s just not gonna happen for me all you have to say is I want to go outside and you’re like no no I definitely do not want to go outside I can’t even move but do you remember we were talking about video game aspect do you remember the Wii when like in between games or whatever it would say like do you want to go outside do you remember yeah it’s a fascinating move for like a video game company that’s like trying to suck you in to just play more video games but in between different games like if you’re playing like Wii sports or whatnot it would say do you want to put the controllers down and go outside pretty wild so if you imagine if there’s we in The Silo and they’re like do you want to put the controllers down go outside you have to bash that thing yeah absolutely not it’s a test though that’s how they they get you out of there yeah it’s not smart it’s a rebel thing also related to this is cleaning just don’t clean just you know people that say cleaning’s positive negative just don’t clean and I’m a big cleaner myself so if I’d have to really changed my mentality what was the reason for cleaning I thought I feel like it should have been more vital to society because I remember when you described the book they’re like well they have to go out and clean otherwise but it’s otherwise like they just don’t see that well like who cares I also think there’s a there’s another maybe hate around that in the sense of okay like Holston has to think because every time someone goes out they clean like they just even though they say they’re not seriously are they like solar panels that would have made more sense right yeah solar panels are cleaning off in order to make sure they have energy it’s like we’re gonna die if you know yeah you’re gonna kill everyone else because the idea is what Holston says which is he’s like oh I have to clean these cameras so that everyone else can see what I’m seeing but he would know that hundreds of people have been out before him and they’ve all cleaned and he didn’t see what they saw it just doesn’t make any sense that because they said like even when Juliet decides not to clean Bernard’s like oh my God this is the biggest deal like this never happens when it does it’s always a rebellion and you don’t think like one of those hundred criminals or whatever would just see this beautiful landscape and be like [ __ ] everyone back there I’m just walking away I mean that’s what I when Holston was like I’m gonna go clean and I was like no bro like what have some spite in your heart one time yeah so I agreed with you that it should be more of like the solar panels charge the whole Silo you have to go out there and clear them off and maybe they do maybe the future books they they’re like talk about importance they made it more sound like it was like you’re just doing it just as like a tradition rather yeah it is it’s just so so people can see through the at the cafeteria while they’re having their Frosted Flakes yeah you can see this this terrible landscape with all these dead bodies everywhere like that’s exactly what they want to look at what’d you think about the like class structure and stuff do you think that was a fun way of bringing this whole story together because you know we had it with um Brave New World had its own kind of class structure and obviously Red Rising had its class structure this was like a little bit quieter I feel like you know I didn’t realize they were wearing different color shirts for difficult like I figured them like overalls kind of thing or like they didn’t really that didn’t seem to be a huge theme whereas I feel like most class books or dystopians are like big on like oh they’re not part of my group you know this was just like I didn’t even realize I had colors on to one point they’re like oh yeah they’re wearing like the red shirt crew it was in the blues or whatever yeah I didn’t even realize it wasn’t really throwing home which I I like because I don’t think that’s book is just like a class book it was more of like a disinformation and yeah try to keep Society yeah which I think was a cooler take because they’re not all the books focus on that really yeah and they and in the show there’s not really colors but there is like a class struggle but I did I did think that was interesting as well just like the down deep was like kept low even though they were like the good you know blue collar workers and then at the top was all the people that like held the information but were also in the dark they didn’t even know what was going on I thought the class stuff was well done in that it wasn’t overt like this is a clear class struggle but as it progressed you could see the divisions between those classes well my next talk down is I.T just in general this can be a quick one like [ __ ] those guys you know whether it be at work or anywhere else like they think they know everything because they like to handle your computers and yes trust me if I had an issue with my computer at work who do I go to I go to it so it makes a lot of sense that they would be kind of like the leaders in The Silo but at the same time like they’re looking at my history on my phone that’s a work phone like I don’t want them seeing that [ __ ] you know what I’m saying yeah they’re managing servers so the servers are doing all the work they were a little uppity honestly it’d be like I’m doing all the work digging these holes but you have an excavator or you know I mean it’s like they’re talking about how like important it is and all this stuff it’s like but you’re not doing [ __ ] that’s like the [ __ ] computer doing it you’re not doing it you know they’re watching these and they don’t know and a lot because you can’t like you can’t know too much so they’re just like making sure the servers run and if the servers don’t run like they fix them and they only know like the process to fix them you know it’s not like they can create they can just manage yeah they’re operated yeah I.T overrated in general help desks no we’re out on the help desk no thank you uh my last one big why are you familiar with that grocery chain sounds familiar yeah it’s Connecticut and Massachusetts never never been in one but I know it’s a thing but it’s a stop down for me so actually I’m not talking about the grocery chain here I’m talking about the the big why in general the book Big Y uh because when you read a book you want to know who what where when how why right those are the things you want to learn and this book we never and we know it’s part of a series so I guess that makes us feel a little bit better but we never learn the big why of like why this is happening we learn everything else which is great and fulfilling and I’m okay with it normally if if I didn’t get the why I would be like super frustrated but in this case I was down I thought it was such a great way that all the other things were answered but we still don’t quite understand the big picture of why these silos are being created and I’ve never wanted to just jump into another book I think more than this because I just I need to know that like I need to know the y aspect but at the same time I feel totally good after reading this book I don’t feel like I was left without answers being answered I don’t know how that made any sense to me how did you feel about that I guess what’s the why that you’re missing the why being why are there 50 silos why did this in general get created they said that like there was a country or whatever that saw that they were in the league in like Seattle the only reference they had was they saw Atlanta so maybe they are but they said basically it was a country who saw that they were at currently at the top but on the decline but wanted to hold their position so they build all these silos and whatnot and potentially like nuclearly attacked the entire world so they’re the only ones left there’s also gonna be a dumb question or thought but is it possible the silos were nuclear missile silos that were like you know they basically were housing that nuclear missile they opened up they shot them and they just like shot him everywhere and then they’re like and now we’re gonna live here they’d be way smaller than that I mean these silos are massive like 10 000 people live in them and you couldn’t fire a newly or miss a lot of this particular Silo it just wouldn’t make any sense you could fire nuclear missiles at a submarine yeah I’m saying you could probably fire it out of a piece of it but it wouldn’t be like the entire no they’re shooting 50 of them off you would just immediately be able to repurpose that like build the stairwell in the center it was already built for that they’re like here we’re gonna build these 50 silos once we hit the armor gun button they hit it and the 50 Bombs all [ __ ] shoot off from the silos and then everyone lives there for the rest of the time there are 150 stories deep like days there’s no need for that for a nuclear missile silo I like the idea the questions that I would like answer is like how is this like poison everywhere is that radiation is that some sort of noob thing and then yeah I guess the why do you think it’s gonna be answered in the future books I think so I mean we got pieces of it but it’s been so long and who knows what these testings are that they’re doing like we talked talk about before like superhero origin story I need to know the origin story of how this whole thing happened but we didn’t get that answer and I still felt good about it did you feel good about reading the book like you’re like oh that oh yeah for sure even if it were just one book on its own I think I would be okay with it if it were one book on its own I think it would end a lot darker I thought it was just going to be like and then everyone dies and everything goes back to normal and I was like oh because I kind of like it it’s like oh this is the next rebellion and then we just reset with the same [ __ ] over and over again like 1984 type ending you hate him when you’re reading it and but then you look back you’re like all right that was a cool message shit’s gonna stay the same it doesn’t matter you know I don’t think it needed to be answered but I’m excited to read the future ones you said you had a character Walker yeah well anyone named Walker Walker’s a badass name so Walker Texas Ranger obviously but he’s basically Q from James Bond or Alfred or one of these like technologically savvy types that can do everything and build everything love that fix the radio saves Juliet just cool I liked him a lot and he’s like I’m not leaving this [ __ ] place kind of like me in my room and with this [ __ ] sciatica but uh anyway same difference what about you I like Walker too I mean Walker Juliet they were both great but I think Walker was was probably the best I also found it funny that he never left his room and in my mind it was just like a garage kind of thing with like tools everywhere like where does he [ __ ] does everyone just bring him his food what is this man like actually look like is he massive or is he just the scrawniest person ever just like malnourished because he just spends all his time tinkering what is kind of funny too is throughout the book we’re not really privy to the privy the atmosphere or just in terms of like the the senses that are going on but when you meet solo she’s like oh this dude is completely gross just smells like absolute [ __ ] everyone so this immediate first thing he’s like yeah all I do is like walk around and Destroy bathrooms yeah wait what I rewinded that I was like but did he just say what I think he just said he’s like yeah I just completely eviscerated there’s a bathroom until I can’t stand the smell and then I leave I was like wait what I loved it I mean we really never talked about Silo 17 but you have no Plumbing you can just go level after level after level just filling toilets like what else would you do honestly like what else would you do I guess you could kind of like hang over the railing and just like poop all the way down if you’re doing like a garden right wouldn’t you need the manure there yeah but I don’t know if you need like a daily human waste yeah I convinced myself that needs it I actually kind of like the idea because you have The Silo in the middle why aren’t you just pooping over the railing or like figuring out a huge toilet below yeah good point like figuring out a water in there toilet contraption that would suck that when they drain it out well Juliet goes down there you know she’s like all right we’re gonna run the generator and he’s like yeah it all sounds good and she goes down and by the time she gets to the lower levels she’s like oh my God there’s four feet of [ __ ] here what is happening yeah SOLO was interesting also interesting was the potential incest is is that what was happening there I don’t know they siblings I thought they were all one family maybe like a pack of kids that were left after the the Rebellion or whatever the case was yeah they did say the baby had like four hands so they didn’t say that I’m kidding I know that’s not the thing is it yeah if you have incest it’s more likely to have four hands get the [ __ ] out of here in fact check that your fact checking me about something that’s much more likely to deformities also if it had four hands like wouldn’t that be better talk about like positive mutations basically an X-Men yeah I guess that that’s like monkeys have Disposable Thumbs right on their feet so that’s four hands what do they have Disposable Thumbs what is it what’s the word for it a disposable they got Disposable Thumbs oh what’s what is the word when you’re what do we have for thumb I have two imposable what’s the word imposable is that not a thing what’s it called you’re Googling it so you got opposable opposable disposable uh I’m not gonna be placed opposite the finger of the same hand opposable thumbs oh that’s not just saying that forever okay hey guys look at my Disposable Thumbs people like you just take them off and throw them away what happens that’s what makes us humans is we’ve opposed to both thumbs right indeed
all right what’d you love about silent love great dystopian there’s like an adult version of Giver hey giver’s actually a good analogy because I was thinking because I had this on my love to dystopian novels and I was thinking about like what else we had read and like where do we draw the line between sci-fi and dystopia but I think the giver is a good this is similar to that but for adults you already mentioned but I really like there’s a lot of death because a lot of the YA books the problem with those is There’s a Hero and you know that person’s going to be the center of the attention throughout the book and it’s gonna be a typical story arc with like them discovering that they’re in some sort of not perfect society and then having to revolt against it and all this stuff that comes with it whereas this is just like nope this person’s gonna die this main character’s gonna die this you know it’s just this whole thing where you’re like oh geez like I can’t really trust that this one person’s gonna be the hero it could be anyone or could they all could die yeah agreed and I just like the character switching in general about different perspective different characters really like that yeah especially when they’re in different places and like getting Lucas’s personal effective was was really fun because he’s got it coming at this from a whole nother place than Juliet and her crew is he had a really weird situation or that whole thing where he was like locked in the server room and I thought that was fascinating too like him getting all the stuff to like basically be Bernard Shadow Bernard also stalked down Bernard like being able to pick his Shadows anytime he gives him one Authority they immediately turn on him he was terrible at that like uh Billings he was like oh yeah Billings this is my guy this is the guy coming up no he’s gonna be the guy that’s gonna kill you at the end so uh yeah no and then Lucas totally turns on him but I also loved the visor screen thing because they were kind of explaining it and I feel like I was pretty good at like figuring some of the stuff out in this book and when they were like oh like it’s two by eight or whatever the case is like what would be two by eight that they would need this for and I was like oh [ __ ] that’s the helmet screen like that’s what’s going on here is they’re just fake we knew about that with Holston I wish we almost didn’t know that because that would have been a great reveal we just didn’t hear from Holston again we could have been like oh maybe he survived or maybe something happened with him but like we knew from his experience that that he had some visor going on there yeah did you know that it was going to be Bernard in the suit at the end and not Lucas no no yeah I immediately thought I was like oh I bet they just like because you can’t see into the visor because she was saying like I can’t see can’t see his face yeah I was like oh it’s probably Bernard in there but then I had to do a double take because I was like [ __ ] huge I don’t know this guy always kills everyone yeah you never know yeah maybe he’s just like [ __ ] Lucas not yet she was like okay well Bernard is admitted that he’ll just kill people off and there’s only certain people that make sense for cleanings right why would Lucas ever make sense for that he he’s told you all the secrets he’s like too much information to do a cleaning he’s gonna be the one he’s clearly gonna Revolt yeah he’s gonna not gonna clean they were gonna burn him up and just say like oh it was an accident they burned him up or something like that I guess yeah he seems like he just like shoot him in the head in the little chamber there they already said like there’s lots of killings outside of cleanings he said there’s like 14 that year and there’s been one and cleaning so he’d murder 13 other people yeah uh do you have any other loves uh you already just mentioned it quick but the shadow I really like the the idea of an apprentice that’s like all right this guy’s gonna follow you around they’re young but they’re gonna learn it’s a cool idea I wish we did more of that in uh high school and college and not just get thrown to the wild when we actually have to go on the workforce what would you have apprenticed for in high school I I think one of the trades I think would have even if you didn’t want to go into the trades I think that’d been a cool thing just to to have under your belt yeah these people are actually doing real work and you can do it too but also when you go into the the real world maybe you have an appreciation for this you know it’s like when you if you become a server or done any sort of service job you start tipping more after that you start like really appreciating those people because it’s like because you deal with so many shitty people that’s like you got to be extra nice because they have to deal with that all the time yeah it would have been great and I know there are schools that are like this but it would have been so great if there was just like a car at school that they would just like someone would walk you around to be like here’s how to change tires here’s how to change air filters change wiper blades yeah exactly stuff like that so yeah I’m with you on that I would have shadowed all of those people if I had the opportunity but uh would you I already briefly touched on it but the name and the cover I just think Silo would have been a better name a which is probably why the show named that uh well it was there’s I think wool was mentioned one time in the book it was actually twice and it was wild it’s not a catchy name and then the cover obviously the cover is now replaced by the Amazon show but like the original cover when I remember looking it up it says wool and like black lettering and it’s a red cover with just like staircases around it but it looks so old it looks like an old graphic design like dust and shift look way better oh this is like an old book well I think it’s because Hugh how he self-published it oh really so he like self-published it in stages so he like did this the first part as like a I don’t know kind of Andy weird essentially yeah a little bit with the novella it got popular so that he like kept self-publishing these other little novellas like through the Amazon on self-publishing system so I didn’t think he had like a big marketing oh that’s fair group to like do that stuff so I I do agree with you there and it’s even funny because in the show when Holston goes out they like put a little wool in his pocket and I’m like to Caroline I’m like that’s why the book’s name is wool and she’s like why I was like because they put whoa in his pocket she’s like that’s so that’s all you’ll hear about it ever again I was like yeah don’t it’s like in the book they only say it like once so it it really didn’t make a lot it should have been called destroying toilets I mean I understand what he’s coming from it’s a little thematic or something you know symbolic is it what is a symbolic of if you got the wool you’re going out you’re it’s a sacrifice to some degree like the cleaning would have been a good name too yeah okay we like Silo better though yeah yeah Silo is a great thing yeah the only hate I guess was the whole idea around like no asking questions and stuff like that it’s like oh you’ll get sent out cleaning this world is full of questions like it’s just asking for a question too really and I know they’ve been in a society for a while but I find it hard that there wouldn’t be super curious people we can’t ask any of these basic questions like this has to be a problem and I know that this exists in society so I’m willing to suspend disbelief for this because you know there are lots of totalitarian regimes where you’re not allowed to do stuff and people live their daily lives and just put their blinders on and go about it but it’s just like why are we here no one’s asking those questions what’s happening I feel like there would have been more uprisings well you could think the same way as like we’re on Earth right now we look into space like we’re oh we’re in a big area you’re not looking at a space and being like Oh my God why are we trapped in this little tiny planet right like that’s the same way to mentality think if you were just born in a silo you wouldn’t know there’s a huge world but people in space will be looking at it as being like wow that’s being in that tiny planet never known yeah but there’s all rules about just asking normal questions like very simple questions of like why we can’t have certain things why we can’t go here why we can’t go there why can’t I fall in love with somebody that I want to fall in love with you know why can’t I travel up multiple floors this at once like well you know not it’s like you ask that you’re gonna go outside it’s like why like that none of that makes any sense to me yeah you sound like someone needs to go to cleaning I’ll be honest yeah I feel like there would just be more rebellious groups because like oh every 100 years or so whatever is a rebellion well they’re definitely right about like the whole sickness thing is once you get like a little bit of taste of like oh maybe things aren’t as they are then you start asking way more questions all of a sudden but if you’re just like oh everything seems checks out and then you believe everything then your soul is in your fairy tale I mean it makes sense yeah no and I know that it exists in real life so yeah it’s not really a super hate but it was just kind of I wouldn’t I wanted like a rebel group that was within there that they found or something like that you know some opposite of Specter or something in the golden eye stuff like there’s this Secret The Rebel Alliance is hiding out throughout all the silo just waiting or something yeah they they’re like mechanical tapped into once they started rebelling some leader came down and was like we’ve been working on this for years yeah yeah my last name is just the extended drowning and suffocating outside scenes I mean obviously they were well written they’re just very uncomfortable to to read or listen to Just the brutal like I feel like I might be suffocating like outside or I’m about to drown like those two it was basically a horror film for those two scenes The Silo 18. was it 17 or 17 whatever yeah whatever the one that they weren’t in that whole place was a was a horror film oh it’s always dark lights are like flashing the Harry sounds all over the place I felt very uncomfortable obviously it was great but I was just uncomfortable the whole time yeah and the fact that it’s it’s massive and they’re wondering like oh like why did these doors open that I feel like I already closed there could definitely be other people that have been living there without you knowing it for that long so for sure I don’t think it’s addressed in the series unfortunately but I don’t think they make it that far but uh I’m really excited to see that on the screen Keith wool would you recommend it to our listeners I was a big fan I think it’s going to be slotted at number eight for me book wise uh my top ten oh wow it’s a top ten breaker yeah I think so it’s Gonna Knock uh Dark Matter off the list but I think uh you know there’s a type of book that’s right on my own I mean really it’s just my bread and butter right here so not surprising that it’s uh gonna end up in the top ten yeah what about you I honestly don’t know what my top 10 is like I don’t know what the back half of it is but it could slide in there it was it was good it was very good I enjoyed it I’m excited about more of it I’m excited about the series in itself was just like super fun but yes I would definitely recommend it I thought it was great what was it like 15 hours the audiobook yeah it’s perfect that’s right in my wheelhouse I would definitely recommend it bottom line all right what do we account of next The Rage of Dragons by Evan winter this one we got recommended by a BBC listener it was I think it’s supposed to like comparison was like Red Rising me Game of Thrones or something crazy like that so we’re like all right that sounds too good to be true so we’ll see that’s the case have you started yet I have have you no good top 10 for sure really locked in locked in whoa I’m like and I’m only like I don’t know I’m oh man I’m hoping so I’m super jazzed I think this would make a phenomenal TV series and I’m only two hours and you’re like yup yeah write it up so yeah we’ll come at you with Rage of dragons we might have another one in between we’ll see if you haven’t got it yet go get it enjoy it and uh we’ll catch you next time alrighty I like it yep all right Keith you enjoy yourself love you brother bye now oh