What Came After

by Sam Winston

WHAT CAME AFTER is the Amazon bestseller written by Jon Clinch (THE THIEF OF AUSCHWITZ, FINN, KINGS OF THE EARTH) under his pen name, Sam Winston.

The apocalypse doesn't need plagues or zombies or bombs. All it needs is us.

Set in the very near future, WHAT CAME AFTER takes place in a too-credible third-world America that's been hijacked by corporations in the service of the wealthy. The Federal government has collapsed, health care is inaccessible, and private armies keep order. The upper class is concentrated in the cities, while the middle class-decimated by disease and poisoned by genetically engineered foods-labors on in a handful of desolate Empowerment Zones.

One man, Henry Weller, has had enough. With his five-year-old daughter going blind, he sets out across a ruined America to find her the health care she deserves. He'll have to face a strange and hostile world-from the financial districts of a walled New York to the armed camp of Washington, DC-but if he's successful, his daughter might see again.

And along the way, a revolution might get started.

WHAT CAME AFTER is shaped by issues on everyone's mind right now: poverty, corporate power, access to heath care, the outsourcing of government, parents' obligations to their children.

But at its core, it's a post-apocalyptic adventure in a desolate and treacherous world: THE WIZARD OF OZ meets HEART OF DARKNESS, at the end of the American dream.

From the critics:

"Sometimes I just keep hearing about a book on social media and I get so curious, I seek out the book myself. Case in point: Sam Winston's extraordinary WHAT CAME AFTER, an e-book about the end of the world. I started reading after dinner and didn't stop until I finished. This is no ordinary book. Character-driven, haunting, and gorgeously written, I think it's a classic"

- Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of PICTURES OF YOU.

Genres: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Fiction, Apocalyptic, Ebooks, Fantasy

238 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like dystopian novels. I mean, I hated The Road but as a general category I enjoy them. And I wanted to love this book, but Winston just wouldn't let me.

I hate being preached at. I'm even the "right" audience for this book Liberal, Left, 99% and it made me want to beat him about the head with my kindle. I don't care if I agree with your points, I still don't want your politics to ruin your book. And it did. For me, and I would guess for others (although most of the GR reviews are super positive). If you can't make your point without slapping me in the face with it, you need to go back and try again.

Let me try to explain. First off, the mechanism by which this apocalypse happened is really not explained well. There was a "Great Dying" but it isn't explained. Its not explained how PharmAgra ever started fucking up the food to begin with. Annoying, but ok, I can go with it I guess. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars are talked about a lot and "Black Rose" is possibly the least creative cover for Black Water ever. There is a total lack of subtlety throughout the entire novel. But what really turned me off was the discussion of torture and the reference to "Cheney all over again". Now I might have been ok with a Cheney reference if there was any indication that Weller knew history, which there wasn't. It was totally unrelated to what seemed to be happening; just another way for Winston to make sure that you know his politics. Hey, Cheney was an evil bastard who got away with shooting a guy in the face. I get that he's a cartoon supervillain but bringing him up just didn't work in context.

The plot of this novel isn't bad, despite all of my complaints about the writing style. The mechanism of the apocalypse wasn't well explained even though we couldn't be more than 40 years from now (and the date of the event). But ok, we can work with that. Weller himself was a sympathetic character, if a bit naive. I mean, who goes around showing valuable contraband to anyone they meet? And there wasn't a lot of suspense in the book, in fact the only time things got a little hairy was when Weller was in Greensboro and got caught by the possible cannibals. But even then there was never any doubt that Weller was going to live and that he was going to be successful in his mission. Winston needed to channel Stephen King for several things in this book. He needed some of King's ability to write in some actual suspense. He needed King's ability to explain the apocalypse and he needed King's willingness to kill off main characters.

Actually, if Winston had collaborated with King we might have gotten a great novel. What we got instead was a novel that had a lot of potential written by a writer lacking finesse.

[ambimb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was on its way to being a five star review until about 30 pages from the end. I don't want to spoil it, but I can say that it sort of speeds to an action-packed, I'm-a-writer-hoping-this-might-become-a-blockbuster-movie-series sort of ending that leaves you hanging and, yes, hoping for a sequel. That's actually a good thing because the action is mostly fine and I always love a good sequel. It's great to have something to look forward to. The problem, or the reason this is only 4 stars, is that w/o the sequel I can't make up my mind about this book. It has so much promise and it's balanced on the edge of greatness, but is it really going to get there or is it going to go off in some crazy or mundane direction and ruin all my hopes? It's a little like "The Matrix" for me in that sense. The first "Matrix" movie was mind-blowing and seemed to be giving us an incredibly smart and captivating representation of ideology in action. It seemed politically smart in all the right ways and the promise of sequels seemed to suggest that the Wachowski brothers were going to give is some great ideas about how to challenge the dominant ideology of late capitalism that just makes us consumers (copper-tops) and lulls us into ignorance of our lack of freedom and the massive inequalities and injustices on which that ideology exists. Of course, the sequels to "The Matrix" did nothing like that. They were a huge disappointment to almost everyone. I still enjoyed them and don't hate them as much as many people seem to, but they didn't do anything I was hoping for; instead, they just went off on more or less mindless blockbuster hero-worship silliness. In short, they were just pretty much predictable Hollywood money machines.

And then we have "What Came After," which creates an absolutely fascinating dystopian future in which 80% of the population of the world has died, most of the food that grows is poisonous, and unless you are in the super-rich 1%, your life is ugly, brutish, and short. The big trick here is that a big agricultural corporation named Pharm-Agra (think: Monsanto) has bioengineered all crops to kill people; in order to eat them, you have to send them to Pharm-Agra so they can be deengineered. This means Pharm-Agra controls food production and consumption. Another company controls fuel and what's left of the highways, both of which are used primarily by Pharm-Agra for trucking food between the fields and the surviving urban areas. Both of these companies have private security forces to do their dirty work, while, a private army called Black Rose is for hire to do whatever anyone with enough money wants them to do. There is no federal government (which has another interesting and plausible explanation). In this world there is very little paper money anymore; instead, commerce is conducted through credits that are stored in a "brand" embedded in a person's neck. Most people have no "brand." Those people are "Generics." If you have a brand you are branded according to the company you own or work for and you're either "Ownership" or "Management." Management includes everyone who works for a company and is not an owner.

The book is largely a sort of quest story set within this world. The main character, Weller, is a generic who, through happenstance and his love for his daughter, ends up traveling through this dystopia in a way that it seems probably no one else has traveled in possibly decades. In this way he comes to see more of this world and learn more about how it works than possibly anyone else. This includes spending some time in a sort of socialist utopia, which, of course, has its own flaws. I guess the real question I wanted this novel to address comes down to this: Which is better? The flawed utopia Weller stumbles into, or the utter dystopia from which he came? It's never clear that Weller even recognizes this as a real question or issue, which is part of why this book is only getting four stars. Is Winston just waiting for Book 2 to take on this thorny issue, or does he not recognize it either? I guess we'll see. Or at least I hope so.

The book is well-written, the world is brilliant and well-conceived. It's a fast read, a page-turner, and I highly recommend it. I just can't wait to see what happens next.

[John Wiltshire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know. After a string of books I can't identify with I'm beginning to wonder if it's just me...This book is...lyrical. It's inspired by The Road, if not slightly derivative in its writing style, but to be honest it's beginning to annoy me. I have no problem with non-sentences. I use them myself. But not all the time. Okay, I opened the book at random just to illustrate what I mean:

He hollered all right come on in I won't try anything. For all the good talking to her might do. She sprang the lock and pushed the door open a crack and slid through. The door opening hard and the old woman stronger than she looked, using her shoulder. She kept an eye on him and put down a red plastic bucket. Just inside. Closing the door behind her but not locking it and giving Weller a look like don't you come near.

I swear I did not choose that passage deliberately. Random. And it's all like this. It's gets really tiring to read after a while. After a little longer it gets tempting to mimic... In a review. No punctuation needed where it wasn't before and couldn't be again. Come again. Sense gone. But for some reason this seen now as the way to write. A book. All books no books.
Ack, it's tiring to write like that too.
Also, this is a dystopian world. I consider myself a bit of an expert on dystopian as I've read pretty much every novel out there on the subject. But I cannot get a handle on this one at all. I feel the need to read a synopsis or something. I want to ask what? why? when? how? Why the world is as the way it is, and how it stays like it, is just not making sense to me at all. At one point the author says Fidel Castro is still alive, but in another that they have no people alive now who can remember movies or normal American life. As Castro is 80 now this doesn't make a bit of sense to me. I will persevere, but I'm getting a little tired of having to make an effort with my reading.
I'll update when done.
Finished this one today. I'm pretty so-so about it to be honest. I really couldn't emphasise with the main character really. The novel came over more as an excuse to create a semi-post-apocalyptic world than it did to actually tell a story. I wasn't that bothered at the end whether Weller survived or not. It's all told so remotely that he doesn't really come over as a real person. Much of the dialogue is told in reported speech with that annoying run-on steam of consciousness style of writing.
I also still have issues with the whole dystopian plot. I think we're about 60-100 years after the fall of America, and yet Weller can come across a car and with a bit of tinkering get it on the road. Tyres decay at the same rate. You can't just find new ones (unless they'd been stored in refrigerated, dark conditions. In vacuums?). There are no birds. Yet we're told China survived and thrives intact. Birds...fly? Migrate? They'd be back in America within a few years.
I think I'm missing something, but the book didn't grip me enough to think about it for too much longer.

[Beach Bum · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many reasons a person might read a dystopian novel, but a wild guess about the chief motivation for some would be to taste, ever so vicariously, how bad things can get. This is particularly true for people with a political bent, pundits and futurists from both the left and right of American politics like to froth at the mouth whenever their specific groups are out of power warning us about how the other side is out to crush everything good in the country. Whether these political agents actually believe the propaganda they like to spew or just use it to keep the unwashed masses fearful of the boogeyman they want their members to believe is hiding under their beds is just one of those things that have to be judged on a case-by-case basis.

Since the election of President Obama the right wing has been exceptionally inflamed with fears that he is a secret Kenyan-born anti-colonial/Islamic/socialist out impose the tyranny of Sharia law on the United States or is the actual biological spawn of Satan. In fact after the recent purchase of my Kindle I was browsing the long list of cheap books by unknown authors and found a “novel” that had a ragtag group of true red blooded Americans patriots out to overthrow a fictional president curiously similar in accused background as Obama. At least the author had the good manners to put a disclaimer on the advertisement saying that his work “might be offensive to some.”

I will do something dangerous here and make an assumption that anyone with some semblance of a rational mind will have to admit that the vast majority of nightmarish scenarios that have members of the right wing running around like Chicken Little are simply insane. I doubt I have any conservative readers but before anyone’s nose gets out of shape I will admit my fellow liberals are very good at espousing their own brand of insanity from time to time. Except in the case of many liberal dystopian nightmares, I am forced to write that we have good little bit of evidence on our side that we are dancing dangerously close to the abyss. The final result of what may happen after such a fall can be read about in a book called “What Came After” by Sam Winston, which I recently finished.

You would pretty much have to be living under a rock these days avoiding all news media, or just watching Fox News, not to have heard one of many reports saying that since 1980 a huge majority of American have seen their real worth decline an insane amount. At the same time the richest amongst us, a small minority, have seen a huge Midas-like increase. The same is true for how the national infrastructure of roads, water systems, bridges, power lines and many other vital things that support our ability to stay competitive globally is absolutely falling apart from lack of repair and replacement.

Now throw in the Conservative talking points about how all government and taxes are evil and that the free market is the solution to everything from the ingrown toenail to male pattern baldness. For good measure add the real life worship of corporate profit above all else with the deranged phantom of Ayn Rand floating around infecting certain members of society and the end result is the dystopian world of Sam Winston’s book.

Set twenty to thirty years in the future it would be an understatement to say that the United States has at a minimum fallen to third world status although it would not be pushing it to say that good old America has more in common with medieval, Dark Ages Europe than say real life Haiti or Liberia. The federal government has not just gone broke or been physically taken over by corporations it has been “disassembled.” The main cause for this was a complete collapse of the economy and the persistent, deluded myths of libertarian philosophies and the core Republican belief that government services should be outsourced so it could be done cheaper and better.

The result was a few massive corporations effectively in control of the country. A monolithic banking corporation issues some sort of monetary scrip everyone uses. A pharmaceutical/agricultural corporation that makes medicine, for those that can afford it, and grows heavily genetically engineered crops that if I understand correctly will poison those who eat them if the plants are not processed. What few roads that are still operational are controlled by a corporation called “National Motors” whose main job it seems is to transport supplies that keep the rich comfortable.

The big winner in the United States pulling a full-fledged reenactment of the fall of the Roman Empire is a corporation called “Black Rose.” They provide the lion-share of the security with corporate headquarters in none other than the former United States Capitol building.

Given the hints about extensive life support equipment used to keep the last chief executive of the Republic going it easy to guess that fine stalwart of human compassion Dick Cheney is the man who ushered the United States into that good night freeing us all from the threat of the federal government taking our money. But wait, there is more, the country has not just been liberated from corrupt federal bureaucrats but even state governments have disappeared leaving civilization just along the coasts and in a few scattered spots like Chicago and Houston.

What down home Red State people like to call “Fly Over” country when they want to separate themselves from the nasty liberal elites has been declared Empowerment Zones. I have to admit the exact purpose for these zones was never really explained fully but given the Orwellian speak done these days it has a very uncomfortable ring of possible truth.

In the book as food prices rocketed into orbit as the economy collapsed a huge chunk of the population starved to death and when the dust cleared the result was the survivors barely living at some subsistence level. This is where I have to introduce the main character of the book, a poor but intelligent man named Henry Weller.

Henry is an old-fashioned Mr. Fixit who has created a mechanical workshop from equipment he has salvaged. After one of the very powerful men working for the baking corporation drives his ancient hummer into a ditch Henry is able to fix the wrecked vehicle. Before driving off Mr. Banker makes the mistake of having a picture taken with Henry and his family and writing on it something to the effect that he owes Henry big.

A few weeks later while Henry is looking at the photograph he gets the idea to going on the long and dangerous trip to New York with his young daughter to have Mr. Banker use his influence to cure her increasing blindness. What unfolds is an odyssey that should scare the living hell out of any observant person because while this is just a work of fiction all the elements for a similar future are already here. Needless to say, I highly recommend the book.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I enjoy reading dystopian/Apocalyptic stories, I found What Came After to be quite a let down. The characters felt too one dimensional. The good guys were clearly good, and if they made a mistake it was just that and not an evil act. Meanwhile the bad guys were the exact opposite. They were clearly bad, with no redeaming qualities to be seen. Any good actions on their partsseemed more accidental than the mistakes the good guys made. The author failed to truly bring them to life by seeming to view their actions through the lens of his own world view, never considering that they may have other motivations.

Too often the main character was able to escape from danger by some fortuitous event. It felt highly contrived and lacked realism.

Though I noticed some similarities to The Road, I can safely say this book does not even compare to that one.

Lastly, the story seemed to end abruptly, with the only mentioned death being two minor characters that made no difference in the long run.

I cannot recommend What Came After.

[Nawnee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever since reading Stephen King's The Stand I've been a fan of post-apocalyptic stories. This book reminded me more of Robert R. McCammon Swan Song, it was nuclear war that cause the post-apocalyptic fall out not some supernatural entity or some strange disease. I think Sam Winston really paints a dark and terrifying portrait of where we're going. Scary and uplifting at the same time.
What makes his book unique is the source of the trouble is all too real, making this a stunning and provocative expication of what might yet come to pass. He had even added in the down fall of our economy as what I see as a starting point, it's disheartening to look at ourselves in this light. I think everyone should read this book and take this journey with Weller and his daughter to find redemption amidst the ruin. This could be exactly where we are headed as a mass consumption nation that wallows in our gross negligence. I can only hope that this book will lend some insight, and appreciation for what we have as species. Possibly we can find a resolution and try to put a stop to this before there's no way back.


Sam Winston has a beautiful writing style, which might sound odd since he's writing about such a brutal and ugly topic. I Highly recommend this book it's an unforgettable read. This will possibly cause thought provoking conversation, and compelling arguments. His writing by it's self is thought provoking and engaging. You won't be able to put it down once you've started, you will probably stay up late just to finish this book in one sitting.

I received this book as a free book from Goodreads. I plan on convincing my friends to read it as soon as possible to I have someone to discuss it with.

[Kathryn Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is set in America in some future where everything has collapsed. The farther you get into the story, the more details you get about what happened.

America has collapsed into third world status. Companies were built up until they controlled everything, then collapsed. The "great dying" happened which winnowed out most of the population. People began eating food they grew themselves and the genetically modified fruits and vegetables caused mutations, health problems, and "bad DNA." The difference between the healthy and rich is so extreme that main character Weller is appalled at what he finds in the city.

The style of writing is unique. Much of the story is void of quotation marks, but I found the flow unusual and refreshing. I'll definitely be buying the short stories of "before what came after."

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun. Pretty much a straight-up post-apocalyptic odyssey, but with sly references to everything from Joseph Conrad to Bruce Springsteen if you keep your eyes open. It's well set up for a sequel, and I don't object to this at all.

[Suzie Deborah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Futuristic end of the world

The story started out well, but became unbelievable halfway through. Too many twists and turns and escapes to be believed. The ending was an abrupt let down.

[Genger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story

No romance, dystopian timeline. Cliff hanger. Rich versus working joe. Corporate monopoly mentality with toxic repercussions. Definitely worth the read

[Chris Daruns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the post-apocalyptic genre and was excited to tear into this because of the stellar reviews it got. Overall it was a good read and worth the 4 bucks.

Overall I did really like this book (which is why I wrote a review for it). Its failings for me might not be as noticeable or even important for other readers. This is a fun book about a guy traveling across a changed America in search of the treatment that will save his daughter's sight.

I do have some major gripes with it though: (Spoiler alert)

The book is a compelling look at a future where corporations have taken over everything and supplanted the US government. That being said, the author should have done more homework about how this future economy would work rather than piecing together several liberal nightmare scenarios (like private military, GM franken food, a single super bank, environmental destruction, depopulation, only the rich get health care, etc) and calling it good. While I understand the certain concessions have to be made for the sake of the plot, it was never explained how these big, huge, all controlling corporations were able to stay big and huge when the majority of people were dirt-poor serfs unable to buy anything they were selling. For example, how does GoMobil (the energy company) survive when no new cars are being built and no one is driving but a few truck drivers? How does Black Rose keep its military hegemony when it has ONE Chinook helicopter with which to control all of New England?

There were too many poorly written sentences. Much of the action was written in a series of sentence fragments that try to add tension but ended up confusing what they were trying to describe. "Fell to the ground" is not a sentence. "He fell to the ground" is. I could have excused this if it had been a rare occurrence. Unfortunately, it seemed like there was at least one on every page. On a good note, there were very few spelling errors and missing word errors. I get that it's hard to self-edit and then self-publish, but a lot of this seemed like 2nd draft material and not final copy.

About Weller, I liked him. I like that his "super power" is being really good with machines. However, this power seems to be used as a cop out rather than any real sort of plot device. He just magically fixes things along his journey without any reference to time or effort. I am not very mechanically inclined but as anyone who's ever changed their car's oil can attest, it would take longer than a day to convert a tractor from using gasoline to ethanol. Again more research was needed here.

[David King · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What Came After" by Sam Winston is an enjoyable dystopian novel that explores a world that has been contaminated by genetically engineered crops. If people eat these crops then it can result in death or mutation. Therefore, a large proportion of society has died and Pharm-Agra, the very company who created the poisonous crops in the first place are the only ones that can de-engineer the crops so that they are safe to consume.

The story itself follows Henry Weller, a regular guy who embarks on an adventure across the United States in the hope of finding a way to heal his daughter's failing sight. This adventure enables both Weller and the reader to see more the world, the people living they and how they are interlinked.

Sam Winston has done a great job in painting a world where our technology and greed has resulted in a world that we can barely survive as a species. However, he also manages to show us that the human spirit still endures as people try their best to get through in any way they can and provide some sort of future for their children. One thing to note is that there is definitely an anti GM food feeling to the novel and I don't think large powerful capitalistic organisations are well loved either here. So if you politically lean strongly to the environmental left then you are probably going to nod your head in agreement as you witness the bleak future that appears in the book.

This utilisation of corporate control within the dystopian world as part of the plot reminded me a little bit of the Jack London classic "The Iron Heel". The only real issue I had with the plot was that it seemed to be lacking any real suspense. As I read the book I never felt like there was a chance that Weller would actually die and fail to complete his task. It was still an enjoyable enough adventure story but the lack of suspense just ensured that I only really found it be just okay in terms of keeping me hooked and entertained.

Overall, it was an enjoyable and entertaining book that had me following Weller's journey across the wastelands with a form of curiosity as I wondered what type of person or society he was going to discover next. I think most fans of dystopian literature will find something here to enjoy as it has been well constructed and tells a story that is different from some of the more supernatural style dystopias we usually get subjected to these days.

[John Hillis · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Came After bears itself more than a couple similarities with Cormac McCarthy's dystopian novel, The Road. Any fan of The Road should give Sam Winston's novel a look. His main character, Weller, is an affable every-man in a world gone wrong, left soured and leeched of resources by corporate greed. Few cities remain, and most people live in harrowing hovels in a desolate and forgotten land. Weller happens upon a chance to potentially cure his daughter's blindness, and embarks on a journey to do just that.

The novel works best when Weller is on the move, encountering other inhabitants in the barren spaces. There are a few points where Weller's adventure pauses and he stops in one place for some time, and I saw these moments as a hiccup in the pacing--as a reader, I wanted to see more of the world and what Weller would come across next far more than I cared to see his interactions with lesser characters over a period of time.

While there could be questions asked to how the world in What Came After came to be, I did not get hung up on it while I read. I accepted what I was given. The specifics do not seem overtly known to Weller, and therefore, did not seem overly important to me. You know just enough to know what caused it. That's enough for me. What I did get caught up on, more often than I would have liked, were some of Winston's writing techniques. Paragraphs comprised entirely of sentence fragments to increase tension occur far too often, nearly every page, and become more confusing than they are effective. Also, Winston changes often between putting his dialogue in quotes and not, which, on top of being distracting, results in some strange shifts in tense.

That said, What Came After was an excellent read and I'd recommend it to any fan of dystopian literature. The world was unique and the story itself well enough constructed to look passed its small, but distracting, downsides.

I will be reading it again.

[Charley Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character, Henry Weller, is a good guy. He is a good husband and father; someone that one could look up to as a role model. As he maneuvers through the government-collapsed America, poisoned soil and corporate-run society the landscape of the story begins to scare you. Maybe this is because I don’t read dystopian novels, but it scared me. Chemicals poisoning our food so much it has to be sanitized after pulling it from the ground prior to eating it. The Zone is where the lower-class lives and they eat what they can as they cannot afford to have their food sanitized. Thus, there are many medical abnormalities found in The Zone.

Henry does a favor, fixing a rare Hummer vehicle, for a rich man. In return, the rich man, Carmichael, takes a picture with Henry and his daughter, along with Carmichael’s son. Carmichael writes that he “owes him one” on the picture. This seemingly inconsequential act starts the story on its way.

Henry starts to walk with his daughter to New York to get Carmichael to have Penny, Henry’s daughter, sight fixed by doctors the rich are privy to. The journey, turmoil and desperation that Henry goes through to ensure his daughter’s sight is restored. The book revolves around Henry’s love for his daughter. What is stronger than that? Nothing, as Henry shows through the disastrous environment in which this story takes place.

I took a horror pictures class from the 1940s to the 1970s when I was at college. Yes, it was an elective class, but I did learn something I hadn’t thought about prior to this class. Horror pictures are based on society’s fears. Such a simple idea; what else could make a great horror flick? Well, with the documentaries I’ve watched, blogs I’ve read, news etc about chemicals, organic versus non-organic, cattle feeding I can see why this would be a scary or dystopian novel. I recommend it.


My blog is at http://booksbeliefsattitude.blogspot....

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book I'd probably give 3 1/2 stars.

The idea is fascinating and really chilling, our current corporation-driven culture taken to its extreme. The universe is likewise interesting but as someone else said not fully fleshed out. There were some things I kept stumbling over though. If some incredibly rich person had their car break down in a horrible hovel, the people just stare at them and offer pseudo-help? Really? no one tries to rob them or do anything? ... doesn't make much sense. The Northeast was so biologically dead that there were no insects (I don't see us anywhere close to getting rid of those in a way that wouldn't kill all humans - and also there were still weeds including presumably those that would need to be pollinated) and then a few hundred miles south it's completely reverted to nature like it's straight out of Earth Abides? And, the highways are totally overgrown and collapsong but it's possible to drive some fancy car from North Carolina to DC on these ruined roads? . Heck, you can't even do that after one bad winter in Vermont for all the potholes. I don't remember the climate being addressed at all though maybe I just forget. Maybe everyone dies so greenhouse gas emissions stop? Also, what about all the other countries? The US basically collapses and no other countries get involved at all?

And yeah, the ending was abrupt and annoying. Despite all this whining I did enjoy the book... but I Just got caught on a lot of this stuff. I read The Windup Girl around the same time and I think they did a better job creating this sort of universe, but this book did a better job not (trigger warning) writing pages upon pages of robot rape fiction so I think I'm going to rate them the same.

[QuietIdea · Rating 3 out of 5]

About 50 years in the future, the government as we know it no longer exists, the pharmaceutical companies own everything, and nature took what PharmAgra didn't want. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer and the sick dropped dead. Anderson Carmichael just wants a car. Henry Weller wants his daughter's vision. Carmichael's got the ultimate bargaining chip; access to medical care. The dystopian story of how far a father will go to see his child healthy.

There were holes in the story...Little tidbits that weren't explained but maybe should have been. The Great Dying--Clues are dropped through out the story, one can safely assume mutated food, made people sick, less safely assume PharmAgra may have been responsible for it? but most definitely knew how to un-mutate the food. Branding--Little Microchips implanted in a necks, used to identify people. If you have a brand, you're a someone. If you don't, you live in the Zone. But what qualifies someone for a brand, which brand? and when are they implanted?

But the plot was interesting enough and I didn't mind the cliff hanger ending...I noticed a nicely drawn parallel between the first sentence and the last, and I love story ideas that make you think. And I can't help but notice parallels between the fictional future Sam Winston thought up, and the US's currently precarious economic standing. People are worrying about the affordability of food and people who can afford it are stopping to wonder about what's in the food they're so eager to buy.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another free book from amazon and I really have mixed feelings about this book. I'll start the good and then go to the bad.

I really thought the plot was good. It was a unique story. Although it is a dystopian, it is differently different from the normal government is the controlling force to more corporations are the controlling force, so all my liberal friends will be happy ;)

The flip side of the plot is that the world building was just mediocre at best. It tries not to do an info-dump, which I appreciate, but instead, it does not give out the info when needed and a lot of the book I was just confused. Also, it tries to blame too many different things as the cause of the collapse of civilization which was just chaotic at best, overkill at worst.

But by far the worst part of this book is the fact that it is written in a mix of third person multiple viewpoint and first person multiple viewpoint and it really does not work well. It is confusing and distracting. Sometimes even in the same chapter, we will go between both of them with multiple characters and it just does not read well.

I honestly think that some of these books are not being edited and that is the main problem. I think if this one was edited, that person should be fired. It could be a much better book then it is.

[Daniel Lemire · Rating 5 out of 5]

What came after by Sam Winston is an intriguing scifi novel. It describes a near-future dystopia where a handful of large corporations have taken over the USA. After being a puppet to powerful interests, the government has finally been abolished. In some sense, it is the anti-libertarian novel: what if we let the free market prevail? Eventually, some large corporations may become so powerful that they can use force to prevent competition. Though overall credible, I found the absence of any state a bit unbelievable because I view corporations and states as mutually supporting concepts: large corporations may try to control the state, but they rarely try to abolish it. The hero is out to save his daughter, at first, and then he becomes part of a larger fight. The writing is beautiful. Short sentences. Powerful text. An emotional roller-coaster. The novel would make a great movie.

[James Ronan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of dystopian, post apocalyptic novels. This is an easy, yet satisfying read. I liked the the food chain connection and in some ways it reminded me of The Windup Girl by Paolo Baxcigalupi (which if you haven't read you should stop what you are doing right now and start reading it!). The main character in this book lives outside, carries the burden of decisions made as a parent that he now regrets and hopes to change, and the novel is about that attempt. I was entertained, and that's really all I ask from a book. But, considering issues like the Monsanto Protection Act, Section 735 of H.R. 933 and block any other amendment or provision that would limit state or local elected officials from effectively governing food and agriculture at the local level, Genectic modification , and other issues this story is also a window to the future gone bad.

[Jacob O'connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few years ago I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It impacted me, and I still quote from it today. Sam Winston flips Rand’s theme on its head. Rand imagined the producers of the world boycotting and leaving society to fall apart. Winston envisions a world where runaway monopoly corporations take over. They crowd out the government and leave the country in ruins in their pitiless pursuit of profit.

Rand had a secret city where the innovators gathered in a capitalist utopia. Winston’s city is an oasis of socialist sensibilities.

What May Come is not near on par with Atlas Shrugged. It may not be remembered or quoted in future generations, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth reading. The story is fine, and it’s good for us to consider the consequences of our social compacts.

Which scares you more? Governments? Corporations? The “people”?

[emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, above all else, a literary adventure novel. It's dystopian fiction at its best. It's about economics, but it's not The Fountainhead. It's about a post-apocalyptic America, but it's not The Road. It's terrifyingly familiar -- our world, after the economy continues to progress exactly as it threatens to.

Mr. Winston imagines a new, highly stratified society (complete with a Blackwater-style privatized military and Monsanto-style ultra-GMO agribusiness). Our hero, Weller, embarks on a quest to barter America's last new car for his daughter's eyesight. The thing is, the texture and the details here are so real that this is both utterly fantastical and utterly realistic -- it's the logical extension of our world today.

[Dick · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Came After is another of the dystopian novels that I have been reading. I enjoyed the characters - especially the hero, but felt that too many things fell too easily into place. From the very beginning of his trip to save his daughter's health, he too easily got away from the people trying to do him harm. And this happened from the beginning to the end of the book.

It was fun reading about how he got out of the various jams that he was in, but toward the end when he finally getrs back to NY with the car, I think that he would have been whacked by Mr Cameron when he tried to take off with the car.

Still and all, the story got wrapped up pretty nicely, and left the door wide open for a sequel.

[Jenee Rager · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. And I truly did like the bones of the story, the plot, how the US got to where it was, but I never really got totally into it.

Something about the author's writing style just didn't jive with me. It was somewhat "jerky" for lack of a better term. It's as if the book was written as separate short stories and then combined. The characters never flowed, and seemed one-dimensional I had a hard time caring about why they were doing what they did. As a whole the book never did it for me, but there was a lot of potential and the story line was at least unique so that's a plus.

[Celeste Behrman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slooooooow read. Nothing interesting happens until halfway through the book. And the ending is ridiculously abrupt to the point where it felt like a cliff-hanger. Although I will not read a sequel if one is written. The concept was interesting, but I did not really like the implementation. Writing style was odd as well. It reads almost like an outline. Most of the dialog is written the way you'd recount a story to someone else. Lots of incomplete sentences (I realize I am doing the same thing in this review, but this is not intended to be a novel).

To sum up: interesting idea, really poorly executed.

[michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was simply just blah. It was a very interesting premise - not to distant future, all of the pesticides we have put into food have finally done a great deal of damage and corporations have taken over and gotten rid of the government. Unfortunately, the plot itself didn't live up to it and the author changed who was telling the story numerous times. I wanted to finish it to see what happened, and then the book just ended. No resolution, no real ending. It was a free amazon book and definitely not one I would actually pay for.

[Mei · Rating 2 out of 5]

Someone before me said: I wanted to like this book but Winston wouldn't let me. I fully agree.

This book had several interesting ideas but they were all brought up as glancing blows and interspersed with long narratives. I think the idea was to represent the protagonist's place in the lower echelons of society, but for someone as supposedly smart as he was, it felt disingenuous.

Characterization felt like caricaturization.

And everything that should have been tense had its tension leaked out by its impossibly quick denouements and easy fixes.

[Sachin Waikar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winston nails it. He paints a darkly beautiful portrait of where we're going. Scary and uplifting at the same time. THE ROAD, with hope. Journey with Weller and his daughter to find redemption amidst the ruin, calm within the chaos of exactly where we're headed as a mass consumption machine that swallows souls. What comes after reading WHAT CAME AFTER? Insight. Appreciation for the vision and craftsmanship. And maybe even a little bit of resolution . . . to try to stop what seems inevitable.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both utopian and dystopian at once, this book explores a post apocalyptic America we all hope could never exist. Much like The Road by Cormac McCarthy this story follows a father and child on a journey through what is left of the country. Winston's version has much more positivity and less darkness. Although there is a stretch in the middle where the main character is stuck for a while and I felt it went on too long. Otherwise I really enjoyed this book and the author's writing style.

[Dean Lombard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic novel. Set in a future where the economy and ecology have largely collapsed and a handful of monopoly businesses run everything. Food crops are genetically modified to be poisonous unless processed by the monopoly agribusiness. In this world a guy with an obsolete skill is of immense value to someone...
It takes a little while to really get going but nevertheless steadily reels you in to its unpredictable conclusion. Highly recommended

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not since Stephen King's The Stand have I read a post-apocalyptic novel with so much punch and verve. But unlike many dystopian and post-apocalyptic books, WHAT CAME AFTER doesn't rely on the supernatural or science fiction for shock. Rather, the source of the trouble - us - is all too real, making this a stunning and provocative expication of what might yet come to pass.