This book is so smart and so human. Told from a sequence of different character's points of view, the world of the Silo slowly unfolds around the reader. The first narrator is Sheriff Holston, one of the peacekeepers of a society living entirely in a self-sufficient underground bunker. This is the Silo: 150 stories deep into the earth, containing hospitals, schools, apartments, high-efficiency farms lite by grow lamps, factories, generators, mines and more. Holston has been a good and fair lawman, but his faith in the world was shattered when his wife discovered some secret that drove her insane. She was sent to cleaning- the highest punishment available to a citizen of the Silo. She was put in a toxin-proof suit and sent up out of the Silo into the ruined wasteland above the surface. Now Holston feels his own grip on sanity wavering as his desire to follow his wife to her doom grows stronger and stronger. The second of the book's narrators is Major Jahns, who sets out on a journey from level 1 all the way to the deepest levels of the Silo. The third narrator is Juliette, a mechanic from the deep down, pulled unwillingly into a new job she never trained for. Each of these three makes choices that will effect the very survival of the Silo and every citizen living in it's fragile shelter. I strongly recommend this to everyone who loves good sci-fi.