Hugh Howey

Bestselling author of Wool and other books. Currently sailing around the world.

Learn more

Get ready…

A huge nod to Kitten for the title layout design. You shall be getting some credits in the print edition. :)

55 replies to “Get ready…”

Now that is truly amazing! Definitely provides the full “government secret” feel.

Well done, Hugh and Kitten!

I love it! I literally just squealed when I saw this. I am even more excited now (if that is even possible)! Great job Kitten!

I will say when Im looking through books in the kindle store my initial investigations are based on the cover art. This cover would definitely pique my interest. Great job! I really like the clean simple lines and and blue print color pallet. Maybe it’s the engineer in me; I’d say it’s a keeper!

I do the same as you @Zygote! As much as we are told to “Never judge a book by its cover” we all do it!

The thing I love most about all your covers, Hugh, is that they are not only covers. They are so symbolic of the books themselves and so creative. If I ever get around to penning my best seller, I will hire you to make my cover.

O my word! The plot thickens…. The design, layout is amazing. This is what makes your books different from the standard run of the mill. I believe that sooner rather than later you will be able to start your own “movement”. I can see fans wearing coveralls, drawing silos and mapping routes….

That new cover is certainly eye-catching.

I am ashamed to say that if I had seen one of your early covers, I would have passed Wool by, despite how charming and appropriate they now seem in retrospect. I found Wool late, and only after learning about the buzz surrounding it.

I’m glad you found them! And I kinda prefer to have something spread by word of mouth than a flashy cover and top billing in a bookstore. There’s something “underground” about it, if you’ll pardon the pun.

By Post Author

The cover looks good but if the Jefferson Memorial/DC/ etc. is not part of the story line I would not want it on the cover.

@Bob: Yay… I’m just everywhere these days! XD But on a serious note… That is Awesome and I am deeply honoured to see that!

Also… on an… annoying side note… speaking of mock-ups of the Silo’s… I was just messing around in my favourite graphics program (That’s not a graphics program) mocking up how I see the silo’s (Well, at least a floor of one anyways…) was getting to the touch-up stage and boom… Crash…

The moral of this story… save… save often… NEVER EVER not save at all… every 10 minutes or so… save…

Ok… So I got bored (READ: Ignoring homework due tomorrow cos I CBF… and my brain died…) so I was thinking about it and thought about how I think the silo’s would look… well… at least a floor (As stated above…) and this is how I imagined it while reading it (Mostly)
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/2857/floorplan1.png
And then I figured… Hell, why not… what would it hurt?
http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/4254/floorplanwall.png
Just remember, this is how I see it… (Hence the draft at the top… Just cos a draft is made don’t mean that’s what the building would look like…)

I am a programmer and not a graphic designer (All though Indy in the former requires a little of the later… hence… well yeah… Also, originally I wanted to be a GD but… there are just waaaaaay too many of them… nearly every man and his dog is a GD these days…) So I will never charge for any of my GD… That and I despise my own work… but that’s off topic and a little down… now back to the point…
Thank you for the compliment… I am honoured!

Also… I am hoping you were talking to me or… ummm… Huh? I didn’t say anything… what choo talkin’ bout Willis? (That’s the right quote right?)

Now I am spamming (Please someone reply in between this and my last post…) but yeah… you distracted me… How close was I to how the Silo’s should look?

Yeah, I was talking to you. I need nested threads in these comments. Maybe I’ll hire a web developer when I’m rich and famous.

The covers are sweet. I’m making one of those my wallpaper.

What did you edit those in? Gimp? PS?

By Post Author

I actually… am ashamed kinda to say this… but as stated waaay above, I do my graphics in a non-graphics program… but it does vectors so much easier and grouping and all that… (So yes… other than the DOD logo all of that is scalable, shift-able, colour-able, edit-able, blahh blahh-able after the fact…) but I use Flash…

You did that in FLASH?!

You are some kind of weird design-savant. Which I say with awe and love.

My only tweaks would be a circular staircase in the middle, and that the floors aren’t quite so big.

I really should do a CAD rendering of a silo with cutaways.

By Post Author

I agree with the CAD… now THATS something I fail at… I can’t even use blender very well…
And about Flash, I have been using it to mess about with Animation, I learnt AS2 and then just started using it as my main graphics tool for creation of stuff when AS3 screwed with everything… (That clock app I made, the pictures and stuff for that was done in Flash… the coding and stuff in VS2010) but yeah, I have been using flash from when it was still owned by Macromedia and was only Flash 6… So it’s more about experience than skill…

kitten that is awesome! I think it’s an interesting way of looking at the silo living conditions, maybe you could work up what you think floor 1 looked like with the jail, resteraunts, shopping and exit…when you have time…;)

I just might do that… unless Hugh beats me too it… Right now I am doing a bit of TAFE work… Stupid Database Design… What does DD have to do with Programming? Yeah, we as programmers use Databases but we hire DD people to do the designs for them… Grrrrrr…

Looking at the plan the the exposed single stairway, it occurs to me that the silos need horizontal fire barriers every 5-10 levels. Something to segment and contain the main shaft in the case of a fire or to contain smoke generated by a fire.

What I mean is Kitten is that the plan has one central stairwell with is the only means of egress from each level and is also the only vertical travel passage in the silo. Barring hidden ladderways which Hugh has not revealed this makes the stairway extremly vulnerable. Any fire on a lower level is going to have to be contained from other levels or it will kill the entire silo. This could be a major plot point because as we have seen, wars are fought in these silos and having a massive fire barrer slab floor with a huge hatch every five levels or so would allow one side to seal off levels from the other easily. Or, the side occupying the lower level could just light a fire in the central stair and the heat and flames would kill those above.

It occured to me when I began reading about the Silo world that this is the same as living in a submarine only stood on end. What is the greatest fear of a submarine? Fire. Combating fire/ emergency operations would be one of the main occupations for a large portion of the residents. Combine this with the authors use of hydrocarbons as the main energy source and flamible organics as a large function of food production and the danger is all to real.

I design buildings and even today no structure could be built with only one exit or means of egress. Looking at the plans I could see a radial pattern or ladderways at the quadrant of each level allowing vertical movement in an emergency. These could be sealed off from the population and even kept from them unless there is an emergency.

@Chad: That’s very interesting. It’s true that should be one more point of entry and exit. Something to consider for our Silos of the future.

Oh sorry dude… my last comment wasn’t directed at you, this site died (Literally, downforeveryoneorjustme said the site was down) and that post was me trying to see if I could still post… sorry for the confusion.

The biggest problem I see with a fire is not so much the flammability, but combustion producing CO, CO2, and smoke (airborne carbon). These things are much more deadly in such a small contained ecosystem. I would expect that masks are available on each level, as well as some form of automated fire control, e.g. sprinkler system.

Comments are closed.