Is Apple TV’s ‘Silo’ Based on a Book? Here’s What It’s About
“Silo” is a new sci-fi TV series on Apple TV+ created by Graham Yost and directed by Morten Tyldum. The show explores the lives of the people living in the Silo and their challenges as they question the validity of their rules and wonder if there’s more to life. Starring Rebecca Ferguson, who is also an executive producer, “Silo” promises an intriguing and thought-provoking story. Since this is quite an interesting premise, people eagerly await the show & fans-to-be are wondering whether there is more to the story and whether it was based on the book, some true events, or something in-between. This is what we set out to discover today as we explore the inspiration behind the upcoming series. Let’s see whether Apple TV’s Silo was based on a book and, most important, what’s it about?
Apple TV’s Silo was based on a series of books of the same name written by Hugh Howey. In a hazardous future world, people live in a deep underground silo with strict rules and are divided into different levels. They soon discover that there’s more to what they have been told, and the status quo is challenged in a series of events. The Silo books series so far is comprised of 3 novels, three short stories, and a graphic novel following different characters, some serving as prequels to the original story.
Now that we’ve covered that the Silo series is based on book a series of books, to be more exact, it’s time to explore the books in a bit more detail. If you’re interested in more and want to explore the world Howey created before you start with the show, stay with us and keep reading!
Silo was originally titled Wool, and it was a single self-published short story
Hugh Howey is the mind behind the Silo series, and despite today’s popularity of the books, the series had rather humble beginnings. Howey started working on the series in 2011. At first, he only published a single short story titled “Wool.” The short story was imagined as a standalone story and was published through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing system.
Eventually, the potential of the story was recognized, and it was further expanded upon through several entries.
How many books are there in the Silo series?
The Silo series was composed of several novellas later bound in books. Nowadays, the Silo series gathers three books and three short stories that are part of The Apocalypse Triptych anthology. The order of the main books in the series is as follows:
- Wool (2011)
- Shift (2013)
- Dust (2013)
Howey announced in 2021 that he was working on another book in the Silo series, with the events of the book being set inside Silo 40. But before we can analyze the upcoming projects, we need to analyze the story.
What is the Silo series about?
The first book in the series starts with a novella Holston. We know that people are living Silos because of yet unknown to us catastrophe that took place sometime in the past, and details of the catastrophe are vague. All we know is that the outside world is toxic, and allegedly it is impossible to survive on the surface without lethal consequences. Holston is Silo’s sheriff and has a good reason to believe that Silo’s IT department, which manages most of the day-to-day operations, is lying to all of them.
Holston is likewise grieving the loss of his wife, who was convinced that the world is livable and died while she tried to explore it one day when she volunteered to go on external sensors cleaning mission. Three years later, Holston also decides to go outside and see a healthy world, but he later realizes that it’s a computer-generated image and the world is toxic. He dies near his wife’s abandoned body after removing his helmet.
Following the events that transpired with the Holston, Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes travel to the lowest region of the Silo to interview Juliette for the role of sheriff. They encounter various areas of the Silo, including the mysterious IT department, and Bernard, the head of IT, demands his own preferred candidate for sheriff. Jahns and Marnes meet Juliette, and she impresses them with her responsibility and independence and agrees to take the job. Jahns and Marnes begin a romantic relationship, but Jahns later realizes they were both poisoned by Bernard. Juliette completes a vital maintenance project while Jahns falls ill and eventually dies.
In the last novella in the first book Juliette gradually meets other members of the IT department, including Lukas, an astronomer that helps her uncover the true mystery behind the Silo, which of course, we won’t spoil.
The second book in the series called “Shift” serves as a prequel to the first book, “Silo,” We eventually, piece by piece, realize how the catastrophe happened. We learn that humanity was developing sort of nanobots that were smaller than human cells and could maintain and diagnose various problems with different systems, including human bodies.
The CBS network re-aired a program about propranolol, which is a medication that can erase memories of traumatic events. The program discusses how a single pill can effectively eliminate the memories of sufferers of extreme trauma.
Around the same time, something catastrophic took place on Earth, and the best part is humanity remembers nothing about it.
We don’t know to what extent the Sile TV series will follow the books, but we’re sure it will be one mysterious ride. The first two episodes of the Silo TV series are set to be released on Apple TV+ on May 5.
