Science Fiction

Thanks to the OP for posting this. I was planning to come to make a SiloTV vs Wool compare and contrast discussion post.

I think this really needs a deep dive discussion. Moving and adapting across media necessarily involves major changes. I never expect a one to one correlation, and appreciate that stories have to be told in a different way across media. e.g., Othello opera has fewer characters and less content than the play by Shakespeare it was drawn from - but both are top ranked classics.

Sometimes, as with The Expanse, the television production outstrips a novel series in quality. I was jaw-dropped by the quality of the television deities. I had found the Expanse books so derivative of works by CJ Cherryh, and even a Star Trek book series called Vanguard, that I’d DNFd at the second book.

Hugh Howey’s work seems more original than the Expanse (although I it see similarities to the 1970s television series The Starlost, a Harlan Ellison concept). I’m yet to be convinced however that this isn’t another case where the television production outstrips the source material.

I watched the season of Silo and was very positively impressed. It was suspenseful, the production design was excellent and the characters felt rich and three dimensional. There are issues with Jules seeming impossible physical resilience, but the characters are three dimensional and the writers adhere to the ‘show, don’t tell’ maxim of good drama.

By contrast, I have just finished reading Wool up to the point where season one ended. As an avid reader of SF, I’m always searching for new books, trilogies and series so I’d been enthusiastically waiting for the end of the streaming season to dive into the books. I’d heard that the original story/novella was YA targeted, but that’s not something I consider an impediment.

I genuinely have to wonder if it would have held my attention had I not already watched Silo.

SPOILER~~ Other than Holstein, the Mayor and Marnes and to some degree Jules herself, everyone is two dimensional.

The story/plot is also thinner. The drama is one of more simple antagonists. IT, Barnes vs the silo residents. Too much is told, not shown. Too much is revealed too soon.

But so much of what made the show so compelling, that gave it such a rich fabric, that painted an indelible image of its society, are new to the show. 250 pages into Wool, we don’t know more than George’s name, that Jules had a clandestine relationship with him and that he died of an apparent suicide. We are told that Jules impressed Marnes sufficiently that he put her forward for sheriff, but not what she did to impress him.

I’m about to carry on with Jules as she keeps going past the hill outside. Still not convinced, I’ll be interested to buy book two ~~ .