Blazing Reader:

“If the lies don't kill you, the truth will.”

That's the tagline for Wool, the first in the Silo Trilogy — a series of novels by Hugh Howey. Set in the future, the human race has been surviving in silos buried beneath the surface of the earth for a few hundred years. They rely on a spiral staircase (pictured above) to travel up and down their narrow underground cities. 

Generations of humans have never been outside.

They don't leave because they've been told the air is poisonous. It will even eat through a hazmat suit. They know this, because occasionally someone breaks the rules and is kicked out. The denizens watch the exiled on a large video screen leave the airlock, stumble up a hill and die.

So it's safer to stay in perpetual lockdown. After all, they've seen how dangerous it is to go outside on "television."

Or maybe the video screen is lying. Maybe it's just CGI.

I read the first book to my wife and son about three years ago. This year, Jonah and I read the remaining two volumes. I highly recommend the tale. It goes places I didn't expect, was pertinent to our current battle with totalitarianism and had a satisfying  ending. There are a few far-fetched moments where you may need to put your disbelief aside, otherwise, I highly recommend this modern sci-fi classic. You can find out more on the author's website.

Stay sane and keep reading,

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/