Hi!
I was wondering if any of you all have seen the SILO apple tv series and what you all thought about it. I’m a bit late to the party, but thought it was a fun, mystery, sci-fi show with a cool premise.
“In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant underground silo that plunges hundreds of stories deep; there, people live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them.”
As well, has anyone read the book series? Does it have a satisfying ending? I’m interested to check it out, but don’t want to spoil myself. I’m debating just following along as a fun, intriguing, tv series rather than investing into the books.
I’m in the middle of the first book. So far there are plenty of differences to keep me interested and the show only covered about half of the first book. I do like the way the show made everything feel more tense, bit the book goes about things a bit differently.
I read the book series, it was amazing, I couldn’t put it down. I found the ending was very satisfying. Hugh Howey said in his Reddit AMA that he would continue the universe after the show has ended, and I can’t wait.
Thanks, I’ll check it out!
I thought the world and the production really great, and the world feels very lived in. Set design was cool and I enjoyed how its shot. Without going into spoilers, I found the central premise very interesting, and the constant question of what’s outside the SILO and whos pulling the strings quite an enjoyable thread to pull at. I do think it relied a bit too much on dramatic irony for tension, and think that when reveals are made to characters, they fall a bit flat since often the viewers know ahead of time.
I loved Rashida Jones in the first couple episodes, and found her performance really believable. I initially didn’t really like the main character of Juliette Nichols, but thought her characterization really improves with the last 3 episodes of the season.
Looking forward to season 2
I was in the process of reading the book when I heard about the series. All I have to say is that , once again with tv adaptations, the writers are doing fan fiction. So while the premise amd character names are the same, too many characters have wildly different motivations and arcs. I don’t want to go to into spoilers so I’ll leave it at that. The books are way more interesting. The show dives too much into overused tropes like “forbidden love” and “protect the family”. Same thing happened to the Witcher series. A bunch of writers couldn’t hold back their ego on reinventing the material that already existed that was actually great and what the audience loved.
So yeah read it if you liked the series, it’s all better
Thanks, thats a strong recommendation, I will definitely check it out!
It agree, the threatened harm to love one’s as a means to fall in line was a bit overdone, but probably realistic.
It’s also not at all what Juliette does in the book. She’s almost entirely motivated by Holston’s cleaning and it’s myatery. Also the whole Peter Billings scared for his family and his “syndrome” doesn’t exist. The whole point of the book is critical people questionning their way of life that find and help each other out. The show is really lazily written by people who did not understand or knew the source material. And that whole “big brother” camera room is a fucking joke. Bernard is a much better antagonist in the novel. No need for Sims as the ruthless killer that loves his son(sôooooo fucking dumb) and the judge that actually was invented for the show. He easily fit those three parts and that makes for a more fleshed out and complex character, just like real life. But ok I’ll stop, I’m just tired of poor writers butcheringn an already existing amd well thought out book. There is no excuse, they’re just writing by numbers.
My only problem with the show is: if they’ve all been living for generations in this silo, why do they have such varied accents?
I think it’s more of an issue that Juliette and her father’s actors couldn’t quite scrub their natural accents very well for the show. If you notice, young Juliette’s actress had an american accent which adult Juliette does not.
The mayor also had an English accent. And even beyond that, the American accents are different from each other as well and aren’t as homogeneous as they should be considering the setting. Its distracting.
Good point! I see that as a missed oppurtunity to reinforce the segregation and control, i.e. the people in Mechanical are so segregated from the people up top, and that’s even in how they talk. but tbh that doesn’t really track, they all just talk different. would have been cool, kinda like how accent is addressed in the Expanse
I haven’t watched the show yet but the books were very good.
The author came out of no where and self published on Amazon. Now he just boats around without a shirt. Occasionally he docks, finds a shirt and signs some books.
(I follow him on Instagram…only exaggerated slightly)
Is this based on the wool series? That was a pretty intense read, no idea the show was out.
I’ll check it out and report back, thanks!
Really enjoyed the tv show, am planning to read the books
I have not watched the show, but I have read the books. Kind of simple, young adult. It doesn’t ask much of you, and didn’t really leave a lasting impression. Great premise though. I also read Sand by Hugh Howey, and can’t for the life of me remember any of it, whereas a lot of people seem to really love it, so maybe I am just the odd man out here.
The book are worth reading. I loved reading this series and I will probably be signing up for Apple TV to watch the series when it’s finished.
I just finished this a few days ago and my mind was blown. I plan on reading the books because I don’t know if I can wait til another season comes out to see what happens next. With the strikes going on (I stand with them) I bet we don’t see a new season until late 2024 at the best.
i read the book and you can tell it was written in pieces. It’s far from my favorite sci-fi, but if you’re just really craving dystopia I think it’s alright.
I’ve only read the first of the series so far (WOOL).
The TV show is only about a third of the way through that first book.
As a mechanism for getting plot into your eyeballs, it’s an effective read. It’s the kind of prose that more established authors might be a bit snobby about (the whole Maintenance metaphor gets over-used) and I genuinely mistook it for a YA novel (which SILO fans don’t like anyone saying), so I’d only recommended it if you want to get yourself ahead of the TV show.
That said, every TV show has a 5 season play nowadays, so you could read the books in a few days, or just wait about 10 years.
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 series. 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, Bernard 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~~ .
Thank you for the nuanced take. From others comments it seems to be the core difference between these two mediums is that the TV show is a more character driven telling, while the book series is more idea/plot driven. I think that is often required in a TV adaptation, and as I’m now watching S1 of Foundation (can you tell I’ve just recently subscribed to Apple TV), a much more character focused telling than the originals, I’m thinking this holds true.
Ultimately, I suppose the difference is what we want out of our science fiction stories. Either way, the contemplative vs the character driven, I think the best Sci fi stories are able to do both. In so doing, these stories are able to hold a mirror to humanity in an indirect way, which is why I think this is such a great genre.
I’ll be reading the first book in the interim as we wait for season 2, and report back my own opinions.
I said I’d report back… great season 1, watched it twice. Not watched last episode yet though.
