A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope. From the mind of Chuck Wendig comes “a magnum opus . . . a story about survival that’s not just about you and me, but all of us, together” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).NOMINATED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington … BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • NPR • The Guardian • Kirkus Reviews • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • Polygon
Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.
For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them—and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them—the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart—or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.
In development for TV by Glen Mazzara, executive producer of The Walking Dead • Look forthe sequel in 2022
“This career-defining epic deserves its inevitable comparisons to Stephen King’s The Stand.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A suspenseful, twisty, satisfying, surprising, thought-provoking epic.”—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Run Away
“A true tour de force.”—Erin Morgenstern, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus
“A masterpiece with prose as sharp and heartbreaking as Station Eleven.”—Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M
“A magnum opus . . . It reminded me of Stephen King’s The Stand—but dare I say, this story is even better.”—James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Crucible
“An inventive, fierce, uncompromising, stay-up-way-past-bedtime masterwork.”—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World
“An American epic for these times.”—Charles Soule, author of The Oracle Year
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Film critic Roger Ebert once said, “No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.” The same is certainly true of books. Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers, sure to be the man’s magnum opus, clocks in at 800 pages and took me roughly two weeks to get through (a longer-than-expected number of days for me, thanks to some very limited reading time while I was busy attending StokerCon 2019). Thankfully, it’s every bit as good as I had expected, better in a lot of ways even, and I never felt burdened by the large page count. Wanderers never felt too long simply because of how damn good it is the whole way through. And frankly, I wouldn’t have minded it being a little bit longer just so I could spend some more time in this world, particularly during the book’s denouement.
Wendig’s latest has been picking up some comparison’s to Stephen King’s The Stand, but it’s a very superficial, easy-to-make comparison. Yes, both are door-stoppers of a book, and there’s some thematic resemblances, mostly revolving around a mysterious illness and a cross-country trip for the handful of humanity’s survivors to wage a Good vs Evil war for soul of the future. For his part, Wendig is certainly aware of these short-hand comparisons and is sure to name-check King a few times along the way. To me, though, if we really must compare End of the World tomes, Wanderers feels more like a kissing cousin to Robert McCammon’s Swan Song, in terms of tonality and odd illness afflicting the sleepwalking wanderers.
Apocalyptic novels are almost always a product of the time period in which they were written, influenced by the particular tensions of the day. Swan Song and The Stand are both products of the Cold War, rife with American attitudes of Good vs Evil. Wanderers, too, is clearly a product of its day, an apocalyptic epic borne necessarily out of the Trump regime and all its itinerant nasty fallout, like the belligerent rise of white supremacist groups and their roots in Christian Evangelicalism, climate change denialism, and mankind getting bit in the ass for its anti-science idiocy, as well as technological concerns, such as the rise of artificial intelligence. The state of current affairs provides more than enough fodder to craft an apocalyptic narrative, and more than a few times in the Real World over the last few years, I’ve certainly felt like we’re on the brink. Presidential candidate Ed Creel is very much a Trump analogue, running against a Hillary Clinton-like incumbent named Hunt. Creel’s campaign slogans, like HUNT THE CUNT and CREED SAVES AMERICA are sadly representative of America’s current (and likely on-going) state of political affairs. Wanderers is a tour through the bedrock of modern-day America, with all its sexism, racism, xenophobia, religious zealotry, anti-vax whackadoo, and violent political divisions. Wendig takes all of these elements and weaves in a modern-day American novel about the collapse of society and the possible extinction of humanity. But there’s also hope, a hope for a better tomorrow borne out of the tribulations of the present, a hope for some kind of rebirth and, perhaps, a renaissance for the future generations of Americans, should they live long enough to survive this current crisis.
It’s heady stuff, to be sure, but Wanderers never feels bogged down by the Holy Shit Everything Is Terrible state of the world writ large all around us. The apocalyptic elements, in fact, are fairly late game-changers that the narrative surely and steadily builds toward, with the bulk of this book concerning itself mostly with the pre-apocalypse that is the Now. Wendig introduces us to a fairly large cast of characters as the sleepwalker crisis begins and unfolds, and then weaves in various side stories to expand on the mysteriousness of Wanderers premise, as well as explorations of what this sleepwalker sickness is (both why it is and what it is), and nature of the mysterious artificial intelligence, Black Swan.
Wanderers is a big book, both in terms of content, subjects, and characters. It’s as rich as it is long, and there’s a lot for readers to unpack. It’s one hell of a meaty read, and the narrative is constantly engaging and evolving, straddling the line between Biblical End Times and scientific examinations of the collapse of everything. It’s dark and serious, but there’s also plenty of room for romance, love, and humor in between all the various losses and tragedy. I was surprised to find myself laughing out loud more than a few times, despite the grimness surrounding much of these characters. One woman, for instance, describes her appreciation for a man by telling her friend, “I would mount him like a piece of taxidermy.” Another wants to “tap that ass like a whiskey barrel.” It’s the seriousness that lingers, though, like the fist pumping rousingness of a racist bastard getting told off by a powerful woman of color:
“I know you. I know your kind. You pretend like you have this…ethos, this patriotism or this nationalism. You love your white skin and pretend that it’s hard armor instead of thin, and weak, and pale—like the dime-store condom that split in half around your father’s dick when he gave it to the dumb, truck-stop janitor that was your mother. I got your number, Big Man. I know you. I know you’re weak and unwanted, so you take it out on everyone else.”
Wendig’s latest stands proudly beside The Stand and Swan Song, offering as many differences as there are passing similarities to those works, showcasing 21st Century concerns and points of view that are wholly its own. Wanderers is necessary update to the canon of epic apocalyptic American spec-fic, examining the collapse of society and the mass extinction of humankind through the lens of USA 2019. This is a wholly modern-day end of the world, unshackled from the nuclear concerns of the Cold War and built off the spine of contemporary issues and problems close to home and rooted deeply in the soil of America. Some of these issues are necessarily ugly, the problems impossible to solve. But there’s enough beauty and hope sprinkled throughout that you can’t help but root for the good guys and gals to win, regardless of the odds stacked against them. At the end of the day, few things are as American as hope, and Wanderers gives us plenty to hold on to, even as it chills us with all its what if? horrors.
[Note: I received an advance reading copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
A riveting examination of America.
A harrowing portrait of an unraveling America… terrifyingly prophetic.
This is SWAN SONG for the 21st Century. For those of you who like the fat doorstop paperbacks of the mid-80s to early 90s, Wendig has your summer read. It’s his best book yet.
At about 800 pages, Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers is a hefty investment of time – and time well spent! Filled with excellent writing and engaging, memorable characters, Wanderers takes on an apocalypse. It begins as a young girl “sleep walking,” It grows into a flock of unwakeable “afflicted.” Many worry the “walkers” might be demonic. Others feel they’re weapons. However, the wanderers and their protectors will not be deterred from their destination.
This book questions current events such as political and religious extremism, scientific responsibilities, artificial intelligence, and race relations. There are even nods to pop culture, including a Gaiman reference. (I do wish I’d have known about the rape, if only to prepare myself mentally. However, it could be argued that it was necessary to establish the evil nature of the villain and further humiliate the other character.)
Of a necessity, many characters inhabit Wendig’s troubled world. There’s an especially repugnant bad guy and a character who unwittingly falls into his scheme. Teenaged Shana’s cynical love endears. Benjamin always tries to do the right things, sometimes in the wrong ways. But the most intriguing characters were a bad-butt ex-cop and a rascal of a rock star.
Certainly, Chuck Wendig inspires thought as readers follow in the footsteps of Wanderers.
Well, the end of this book knocked me upside the head! Wow! “Humankind was a disease. The earth was the body. Climate change was the fever. Kill the parasite(disease) and save the host.”
Really enjoyed this story. When I vacation, I look for caves in the area and I love to tour them. So I am very aware of the syndrome that is a big part of this story and it is terrifying if something like it could jump species! I will say no more, you need to read this one, cause it also has nano bots and AI.
If you ever wanted to know what America’s soul might look like, here’s its biography.
Quite the epic post-apocalyptic tale
I have to admit that the thought of reading an 800 page post-apocalyptic story didn’t have quite the allure it might have had in younger years. In fact, the thought was rather daunting.
But I’ve enjoyed Chuck Wendig in the past and I do love a well-written tale of TEOTWAWKI.
That written, I dived right in and the story kept my interest. There were only a couple short parts that felt draggy.
A pandemic of monstrous proportions crosses over from bats to humans and quickly the world falls into chaos. A sentient Artificial Intelligence helps gather a group of what become known as wanderers or sleepwalkers, all heading to an unknown destination – the hope of a decimated world.
I liked the characters, at least most of them. Wendig did a super job with the world building (or actually describing the world in chaos). There was a varied cast of characters including some likeable strong women.
All in all, it was worth reading and I thoroughly enjoyed most of the journey.
I received this book from Del Rey Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
A brilliant, Hollywood-blockbuster of a novel.
4.5/5 Stars!
WANDERERS was a fun listen, alternating between two narrators, one male and one female. This format worked really well for me and I enjoyed this tale quite a bit.
It’s an “end of the world” book and even though the terms “walker” and “sleepwalker” are used, these are not really zombies like THE WALKING DEAD walkers, and they’re not sleepwalking either. This is why the book was so interesting and different.
The characters developed quite a bit throughout, none of them the same as they were in the beginning. None of them are perfectly black or white characters either, which made them seem more realistic to me than say, Mother Abigail from THE STAND or Sister from SWAN SONG. Even though the setting of WANDERERS brings those books to mind, it’s completely different from both of them.
Overall I loved listening, and I very much enjoyed the ending because it was surprising and eerie. I can’t say more about it without spoiling the story, so I’ll just end with this:
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
*Thanks to my local library for the free audio download. Libraries RULE!*
DNF
Trust me: You’re not ready for this book.
Wanderers is amazing — huge, current, both broad and intensely personal, blending the contemplative apocalypse of Station Eleven with the compulsive readability of the best thrillers.
Beautiful and harrowing — and timely as hell.
I absolutely loved this book. It took forever to read it and that was good. I’m kind of tired of all of those short books that I’ve read. The characters were easy to get to know and fall in love with. And they were very diverse, across all walks of life, some good, some bad, some very wicked. I would compare it with Dean Koontz’ new series, but I won’t divulge the reason…no spoilers here. The book moves along swiftly and it you set it down, it calls out to you to come back and read more. It is an apocalypse theme but there are no zombies. I could see it being true in the future…mostly.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit!
Plenty of other reviewers will tell you (including a plethora of quotes on the back of the book itself) that it’s similar to other “end of the world” stories like King’s The Stand or McCammon’s Swan Song, and kind of is, in parts at least. But those parts aren’t great.
In fact, what interested me the most here was the first two-thirds of the book which focussed less on the upcoming pandemic and more on the walkers. Why are they walking? Why are they impervious to needles? Why do they not need sustenance? Intriguing stuff! It’s therefore a bit unfortunate that the final explanation is a bit rote and not quite as satisfying as I would have liked.
Once we get into “apocalypse” territory, the book swerves back onto the well-worn road of good vs evil that you have read elsewhere a hundred times before. The main antagonist is – believe it or not – a racist, republican, redneck drug-dealer. Who would have thought it? It’s unfortunate because some of these cookie-cutter villains are at odds with the more well-developed characters from the earlier parts of the story (Shana in particular is excellent), and the story ended with a rather confusing epilogue that didn’t quite work for me.
Netflix ripped off your story. They made a movie.
An amazing tale on par with Stephen King’s “The Stand”.
Frighteningly timely and topical in a way that will–and should–disturb you no matter which way you lean politically.
Masterful storytelling, although there are parts where the narrative rambles.
This book came out before the current health situation, but it’s an eerie look at “what if”.
I’ve long been a devoted follower of Chuck Wendig’s gritty psychic Miriam Black, but he’s outdone himself with Wanderers. This multi-layered, multi-POV doorstopper of a book chronicling individuals’ struggles to avert the end of humanity (and find their own in the process) is worth every page. I’d recommend for fans of The Stand *and beyond* as that’s one SK literary nut I’ve yet to crack.