Wool

On one or another of the blogs I follow, someone recommended Wool. And it had something like a thousand 5 star reviews, and quite a few 4 stars, and almost no 3, 2 or 1 star reviews, so I got it.

I have no idea how it got that ratio of 5 star reviews. Absolutely no idea.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic silo, or underground city. The silo has access to mineral ores and an oil well, which may sound improbable, but renders the place self-sufficient. Nobody has to go outside, which is good, because no one who does, even in a sealed suit, lasts long enough to walk up the hill. The outside is a toxic wasteland.  Sounds interesting, in a rather depressing way.

And that is apt, because the first interesting character, dies. Second interesting character, dies. Third interesting character, gets permanently exiled. This doesn't kill her, but does take her out of the setting. If the point of the story is "an interesting setting", then "take your interesting character out of that setting" may not be the best move, from a storytelling standpoint. I'm 55% of the way through, and I'm on the fourth character who was intended to be interesting, but hasn't qualified yet. Thinking back over it, the others weren't all that interesting either. The first one was suicidal for reasons, the second was old and tired and regretful, the third was curious but passive.

It's not bad, it's just not good. I think we're supposed to be intrigued by the silo and ...something. The history, who set it up, something like that. The fact that I'm not sure what aspect we're supposed to find intriguing is probably a strong indicator that I wasn't all that intrigued. Add a depressing setting and fairly bland characters, and the sum does not entice me to read further.