If you believe Hugh Howey, the television adaptation of his postapocalyptic book trilogy Silo may never get released, despite the millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours Apple TV has thrown at the production. Sure, the dystopian drama--which stars Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, and Rashida Jones and was produced by Justified creator Graham Yost--has a release date of May 5, and the show has already premiered at Cannes and in London, but the author still isn't ready to call it a done deal. "To be honest," Howey says, "it's still a gradual process. I think it'll probably hit me on June 30, the day the finale airs. Even when I walked onto the set of the show for the first time in England, I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, are we really doing this?'" It's an understandable feeling, given Silo's long road to the screen.

It was difficult to sleep at night, wishing good men dead. This was but one of the hurtful things I felt in my bones and wished I could ignore. It was an ugly truth waving its arms that I turned my gaze from, that I didn't like to admit even to myself. But while my bag warmed me with the last of its power and my breath spilled out in white plumes toward the roof of our tent, while the flicker of a whisper stove melted snow for midnight tea, I lay in that dead zone above sixty thousand feet and hoped not just for the failure of those above me, but that no man summit and live to tell the tale. Not before I had my chance.

Some authors excel at long form stories and some are best in the short story. A few are great at both. Hugh Howey is interesting because most of his books are comparatively short, and even his most famous work (Wool) was published as a series of novellas. This series of short works covers most of Howey's short stories collected in one place, and as you may expect, it's hit or miss. There are some good ones and some that miss the mark, and a few new Wool stories too.

I got completely lost in this book as hurricane Irma roared around my house in Miami. No really, it is that good. From start to finish the work is thought provoking, completely engrossing and yet fun and easy to read. The groupings of the stories into six sections (Aliens and Alien Worlds, Artificial Intelligences, Silo Stories, Fantasy, Algorithms of Love and Hate, Virtual Worlds, and Lost and Found) gives you an indication that this book covers and incredibly wide range of topics. So much of this is new ground and when Howey delves into trope themes (like alien invasions) the stories are completely fresh.