Are you plot-driven or character-driven?

I’m reading a very good book called Wool by a chap called Hugh Howey.  Wool is a Dystopian thriller set at some unspecified distant future, and follows the lives of a community living inside an subterranean silo years after some so-far unspecified apocolyptic event.  I’ll get around to doing a review on it when I’m done, but I thought it was worth mentioning because it is the first book I’ve picked up based on a less-than-positive review from Publisher’s Weekly:

Wool’s success as a self-published e-book is not surprising given its one-two punch of post-apocalyptic wasteland and futuristic dystopia, but Howey’s immaturity as a writer, especially the bland characters and conflict reminiscent of B-movies, overshadows his intriguing world.

A bit harsh. Anyway, when I read this I thought: ‘Great! I’m in the mood for a plot-driven action fest’, so I was a little surprised when Wool turned out to be a well-paced, well-thought-out, atmospheric thriller with great characterisation and an excellent, flowing turn of prose.
Is it a literary work? No, but then I don’t think it was meant to be.  
A good book has to be driven by characters and plot. The level to which you expose your reader the reader to both depends on the kind of novel you’re aiming for: a pacey thriller, or a deeply meaningful work of art. But at some level you will definitely need both. 
If you decide to spend your whole novel traipsing around the inner world of your characters’ dreams then I will probably think, ‘Well, they’re lovely people but why do I care what they think?’
If you spend your whole novel in a ditch firing laser guns at a superior enemy then I will probably think, ‘Well there’s a lot going on, but why do I care that Captain Duke Steele of the Galactic Rangers now has a hole in his head?’
The trick is balance, and I reckon Howey balanced Wool extremely well.

Or at least, he has so far . . . 🙂

Incidentally, Howey runs some useful hints for self-publishers, so if you want advice on gettting your novel formatted for print or electronic distribution then it’s worth stopping by.

Book Review: Wolf by Mo Hader

Okay, I’m going to be honest here; I was a bit nervous about picking up Wolf because the last couple of Mo Hader books have been a struggle to finish. She seemed to have lost her way a little, but in the main I really enjoy her writing so I thought this one was worth a punt.
Anyway, I’m glad I did, because Wolf marks something of a return to form. Once again, we find DI Jack Caffery of the Somerset Police being dragged into the pit by his personal demons, and at the same time trying to find a killer for whom the term sick in the head was invented.

The plot is ambitious, far-reaching and maintains an exhausting level of tension from the very first page. And I mean that: I finished the book and went for a massage. There are a surprising number of characters who drop in and out of the story, but each one is carefully crafted, so you’re not left wth the impression that the author is just plugging space with people. In fact I hope we see some of them again in later novels.

As we roll towards the conclusion, Hader lets of the handbrake and there’s no putting the book down. There’s the inevitable ‘big reveal’ and I’m sorry that I mistook the clues she left for holes in the story! Thinking about it now, I should have known better.
As usual, the novel is quite graphic in its depiction of violence (sexual and otherwise) so I’d probably not attempt it after a heavy meal, but all in all, wonderful stuff.

Mo Hader is back!

Nine out of ten, but my God who’d live in a house near a Somerset forest?