Les Somnambules

Wanderers #1

by Chuck Wendig, Paul-Simon Bouffartigue (Translator)

Un nouveau monde, le nôtre ?

Dans un petit village de Pennsylvanie, Shana surprend sa soeur, Nessie, quittant d'un pas résolu leur maison. Lorsqu'elle tente de l'intercepter, la petite fille ne réagit pas à sa présence. Mutique, absente, le regard vide, elle avance... Croyant à une crise de somnambulisme, Shana commence à la suivre. Rapidement, elles sont rejointes par un deuxième errant, frappé des mêmes symptômes que Nessie. Puis un autre. Bientôt, ils sont des centaines à converger vers la même destination inconnue, tandis que leurs proches, impuissants, leur emboîtent le pas. Très vite, cette mystérieuse épidémie enflamme le pays.



Chuck Wendig tend à notre monde un miroir dans lequel se reflètent ses hantises les plus contemporaines : l'irruption de l'inconnu, la peur de l'autre, la défiance envers le gouvernement, la force rampante des discours religieux et extrémistes... Rappelant autant Le Fléau que The Leftovers , Les Somnambules est un portrait humain mais sans concession d'une société au bord de l'extinction.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Horror, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic, Audiobook, Apocalyptic

1306 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 2, 2019

About the author

Chuck Wendig is a novelist, a screenwriter, and a freelance penmonkey.
He has contributed over two million words to the roleplaying game industry, and was the developer of the popular Hunter: The Vigil game line (White Wolf Game Studios / CCP).

He, along with writing partner Lance Weiler, is a fellow of the Sundance Film Festival Screenwriter's Lab (2010). Their short film, Pandemic, will show at the Sundance Film Festival 2011, and their feature film HiM is in development with producer Ted Hope.

Chuck's novel Double Dead will be out in November, 2011.

He's written too much. He should probably stop. Give him a wide berth, as he might be drunk and untrustworthy. He currently lives in the wilds of Pennsyltucky with a wonderful wife and two very stupid dogs. He is represented by Stacia Decker of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

You can find him at his website, terribleminds.com.

Reviews

[Emily (Books with Emily Fox on Youtube)]

This audiobook is 32h long... 32 HOURS!!

Now let's see how the world ends...

Update: Took it out 3 times from the library and never managed to finish it because it was boring :/

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reminds me a lot of The Stand. In fact, the author admits to it within the novel. What Wendig doesn’t do is veer off into the cartoonish which King, at times, has a tendency to do. Don’t let its length deter you. It reads quickly and I finished it within three days. Wendig wrestles with potent questions here including the power of technology, extreme prejudice, the religious façade and violence of the Christian right, morality and the crumbling of society. What’s more he is able to inject into it both humor and the quirkiness of mankind. If you liked The Stand (I’ll go out on a limb here) you’ll like this even more.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the end of the world and I feel... uuurkkk...

Let me tell you something, my fine folks. I think I had more fun reading this book than I have for ANY apocalypse book. That's including the Stand, Lucifer's Hammer, or The Power. And perhaps a few others that I rank higher than the rest.

But let me be clear. I had the most fun with this. I'm not saying it has MORE to gloam onto than the Stand, but I had myself a few issues with the Stand. The whole moralistic good vs. evil, for example. And I had a bit of a rough time with some of the 70's sexism in Lucifer's Hammer.

Wanderers, however, is leagues above most of the current runs of epic dystopias. No, it's not a zombie apocalypse or a big meteorite spoiling everyone's day or the ultimate reversal of the sexes. It is, however, quite free of rampant female humiliation, gratuitous rape, and violence in general. This book is full of heart even while it DOES have a rather usual trope of religious nutters, white supremacists, and NRA hotheads. They're quite happy to be all opportunistic on humanity's ass.

What sets this above all the rest? Clever fundamental choices and trope inclusions, baby. Very strong science, too. And delightfully complex characters.

But for me? I love the pop culture references. Wendig is like, some kind of master with pop trivia and really sharp, maybe bloody, wit. His Miriam Black novels left me bloody with words. In Wanderers, he tones it down a LOT and he tames it for the sake of this story. So what that means is we'll be seeing some REALLY cool crap popping up subtly in the tiny spaces.

Like Fallout? Check. Like Matrix? Check. Like brilliantly chosen musical references, strange-ass details that HAVE to be memes that haven't happened yet, or setting choices that wind up being fantastic in-jokes for you modern pop-reference junkies? CHECK.

And in the end, I remained excited... exhilarated... throughout this read. Sometimes a book will sap my energy. Other times, rarely, a book will just pour it into me. This is one of those books. :)

Am I super happy to have read this? You betcha. :) :) I feel almost like I was watching the first season of Walking Dead the first time. Before it got all... you know. :)

[donna backshall · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a mammoth book, and I feel a sincere sense of satisfaction for finishing. I delayed reviewing, because I needed some time to wrap my head around ALL THOSE WORDS.

Here goes: ★★ Two guilty stars because I invested over a week into Wanderers and I have not a bit of "OMG I HAVE TO TALK TO EVERYONE ABOUT THIS BOOK" compulsion to show for my commitment to this huge and wandering novel.

I don't quite know how to characterize my experience reading Wanderers. The first two-thirds of the book (~500 pages) feels like setup for the story. This is a LONG preface to the real action, and could probably be reduced to several chapters in a much-desired (for this reader, anyway) abridged version.

We meet the Walkers, who are basically regular people who hear some kind of calling, drop their lives, and in a zombie-like trance begin a walking journey as "a flock" to an unknown destination west. We also meet:
1) their Shepherds (family/friends who volunteer to care for the walkers)
2) the CDC scientists (studying the walker phenomenon)
3) the fear-mongering "religious" zealots (some, if not most, are not religious, just evil f*ckers preying on fearful worshipers)
4) a sentient piece of software known as Black Swan, that predicted a global plague resulting basically from humans trashing the planet

We quickly find that the Walkers are somehow immune to a quickly spreading fungus that promises to all but extinguish humanity, and many people fear the Walkers' immunity as much as their predicament. "The disease known as White Mask caused by a fungal pathogen Rhizopus destructans is going to decimate the global population. But we, the flock, are protected by the grace of Black Swan, an artificial intelligence inhabiting our bodies and brains with a connected swarm of infinitesimal machines existing in nano scale. Robots."

So, if you're patient enough to get this far, around 70% in we FINALLY get inside the Walkers' heads! We find out the members of The Flock are telepathically connected in a simulated shared reality. This view is WAY more interesting than all the fearful and head-scratching hubbub going on around the phenomenon, and particularly satisfying because we had to wait so long for it. Things ramp up a bit, and no spoilers, but be prepared to get stiffed on firm resolution of all the questions dangling out there for the full 800 pages.

I'll be the first to admit the delay in getting to the meat of the story was difficult to suffer. And the constant religious references and questions were annoying, enough so that I would almost classify this as Christian fiction, which I would have avoided had I been forewarned. (Note: I am not a Christian, but I heard enough preaching and religious bigotry, and then speculation about angels, demons, the Christian God, heaven, faith, "the divine", etc. to assume a believer would have a much easier time than I did with the rural American culture as portrayed by Chuck Wendig.)

Can I recommend this as a thriller? No. This slow, tedious build up is the exact opposite of thrilling.

As an apocalyptic epic, to go next to The Stand, Swan Song or The Passage trilogy? Ehh, that's a huge stretch, unless you're willing to go purely based upon word count.

As a sci-fi novel? Absolutely not, because there's not a lot of science to it and it doesn't go "out there" enough to qualify.

Maybe as a speculative study of the human condition? Okay, sure. Why the heck not?

If you've read this far in my wandering review, tell me what you loved about it so maybe I can move my mind into loving it too. Or if you could take it or leave it, tell me this too, because I want to know I'm not sitting alone on this fence.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're reading this review, it means that you're interested in my individual experience with this book WANDERERS. I think it's safe to say that this is a highly anticipated release this year and it's certainly getting a ton of coverage. So, I'm going to honor the fact that you're taking a moment to see what I have to say about it--among the countless other reviews out there available to you. There won't be any plot details here--just my reading experiences and feelings.
I want to leave all your own discoveries with this book intact, should you choose to go on this epic journey for yourself.
You'll find this book being compared to iconic apocalyptic novels such as SWAN SONG by Robert McCammon and THE STAND by Stephen King. People will want to know, "Is it as good as___"
I'd like to say that I will happily shelve this book right next to those two books as my favorite apocalyptic horror novels. And I will recommend all three of them as such.
It's impossible to compare them. I think it's ridiculous to even try. They are all totally different and evoke different emotions as they are all written by talented individuals who express themselves in vastly different ways.
Stephen King released THE STAND in the Fall of '78. I would say that THE STAND is a character-driven story--focusing more on individual trials & tribulations as protagonists and antagonists navigate through a post-apocalyptic landscape. Heavy themes of Good vs. Evil with elements of fantasy & horror. Agent: Bioterrorism gone awry.
SWAN SONG like 10 years later. Robert McCammon uses nuclear war as a catalyst for destruction. Also, character-driven as readers get to follow several different groups of protagonists and antagonists as they navigate through a post-apocalyptic landscape. Also heavy themes of Good vs. Evil and like King, McCammon utilizes elements of fantasy and horror.
WANDERERS is 2019 like 30+ years after both of those books. It's the epic apocalyptic story of this generation-of our time. Sure, generation after generation will enjoy this book, just like we enjoyed King and McCammon's offerings so many years after their release but WANDERERS is only going to be THIS relevant, right NOW.
So it's exciting to weigh in on it as the intended audience.
Unlike King and McCammon, Wendig's agent of destruction is a total mystery for most of the book. The jury is out, so to speak, on just how catastrophic things will get--so this isn't a post-apocalyptic story, it's a "real-time" chain of events leading up to what "could be". See why the comparisons are already sort of a misleading?? Big difference between Pre and Post-apocalypse.
Also, Wendig doesn't employ any fantasy elements here--
This is "where the rubber meets the road" style realism. Everything feels extremely authentic and plausible--right down to each chapter having these social media blurbs in different formats that feel so real, I actually wondered a few times if Wendig ripped them from his own Twitter feed.
Let me just pause for a second to highlight the fact that Chuck Wendig is a prolific social media guru and his knowledge of how the world utilizes and empowers social media enhances the authenticity of this novel in a powerful way. I felt like everything was not only possible but probably actually HAPPENING in some ways; lending itself to the credibility and believability.
If you're at all familiar with Chuck's writing (I strongly recommend the Miriam Black series) you already know that Wendig writes in a compelling style that feels addictive. Once you're hooked, the pages don't stop turning and you'll be hard-pressed to find a good place to drop that bookmark. In a book as thick as this one, the pace is a welcomed delight--nobody wants to slog through hundreds of pages.
Right around the halfway point, I wondered if Chuck was going to deliver some horror or if this was going to rest comfortably as a solid apocalyptic, sci-fi, urban *thriller* and I will say that Chuck's antagonist delivers. This book explores a horror that lingers around the edges of our modern times that if left unchecked, presents a very serious and dangerous threat. We face manifestations of this threat every day. Chuck's antagonist personifies our political climate in a plethora of ugly, shocking ways. Terrifying to say the least.
Lastly, there is one common thread (one valid comparison besides genre and SIZE) that I found runs through this book, SWAN SONG and THE STAND--religion & faith.
I love the way King and McCammon wove it through their stories and I also really enjoyed Wendig's use of it too. The chapters with the Preacher were some of my favorites-his character arc and evolution is powerful storytelling. I appreciate what Wendig did there.
So there you have it. My unique and individual thoughts among the fray. I applaud everything Chuck set out to do with this book--it's a treasure and I thank him for it.
I loved my time with WANDERERS and I'm sad it's over.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Take a walk on the long side....

The premise of this book immediately grabbed my attention: a teenager, Shana wakes up to find her younger sister, Nessie, in trance, walking out of their home and along the road. She does not respond, she does not blink, just keeps putting one foot in front of the other.... hmmmm

Soon, Shana's sister is joined by more walkers (who will soon become a flock). Interesting things happen - needles cannot pierce their skin, they shake violently when grabbed and let's not forget the gore fest when one was grabbed, and the cop did not let go.

Every flock needs a shepherd and soon this ever-growing flock of walkers has family and friends (called Shepherds) following them, trying to keep them safe, etc.

So why are they walking? What has happened to them? Is this an epidemic? Is this the end of the world? No one knows. So, a disgraced doctor and members of the CDC attempt to find out just what is going on and how to stop/treat this issue or shall I say these walkers...errr…. I mean members of the flock. Then there is Black Swan....not going to say more about that.

This is a long book and it felt long to me - especially in the middle. I really think this book could use a little editing. Be warned there are some scenes in this book which might serve as triggers. Plus, the author is not shy about sharing his political beliefs and viewpoints.

While reading this book, I couldn't help but think about The Stand, The Passage and even to a small degree, the walking dead TV show (sorry, never read the comics). But, let's face it, King and Cronin wrote better books. This book is not bad but at the same time, it didn't really wow me. It's one I won’t remember. It took me almost a month to read since I wasn't engaged enough to want to pick it up and keep reading. But I finally finished and I'm not sure how I feel about the ending with the five-year jump.

I can see why some are loving this book. For me it was okay but not great.

I received a copy of this book from Random House Publishing Group -Ballantine and NetGalley. The thoughts and opinions are my own

[Cody · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ page 300. Yes, I’m still rating this book. I slogged through a third of it — I’ve earned the right to give it my rating.

What I need you, the reader of this review, to know is this book isn’t bad. Chuck Wendig has crossed his q’s and dotted his t’s. The writing is fine. Many of my friends have given Wanderers a perfect score, and I can understand why. If you’re a fan of big apocalyptic(?) novels in which the author seems to jerk off to some sort of quasi-Springsteenian sense of America—you know, where most of the people who dot the landscape are white, moderate liberals and the only thing you have to fear is cornfed hicks in MAGA hats—then maybe this will work for you. As for me, I’m done.

Chuck Wendig seems to play dress-up here: he’s trying to look a little like Stephen King, a bit like Robert McCammon, maybe a touch like Michael Crichton. But in the end he looks like a big goof. What is this book trying to say? I made it three hundred pages, and I still don’t know.

The “epidemic”—the cause of the “apocalypse” (quotation marks used to indicate there’s really a whole lotta nothin’ going on here in this lard-ass story)—is a bunch of characters, one day, begin sleepwalking .... together. As a group. The group grows by day, and scientists are stunned. Is it a disease? Group hypnosis? I’m a patient reader, but I can take only so much of a bunch of paper-thin disease control specialists sitting around and spitballing theories.

As for the “Walkers” themselves, the reader gets to know none of them. None. Why should I care what befalls them? The head “Walker” is the little sister of a main character, another cardboard cutout, and two of the main characters briefly interview the wife of another Walker. Out of a group of hundreds, the reader is aware at all of only two. The author failed to make me connect with these characters, and he failed to bring to life this outbreak, this apparent tragedy. And c’mon—a sleepwalking epidemic is no nuclear war or superflu.

And this is Chuck Wendig, so of course there’s politics and apparently this guy doesn’t know satire because Ed Creel is Donald Trump and Nora Hunt is Hillary Clinton, and it’s painfully obvious, but Wendig seems to think he’s . . . clever. Of course Hunt, the current President, sits on her hands and and fails to act but is, generally, given leeway by the characters, despite doing . . . well, nothing meaningful. At least in the first few hundred pages. Meanwhile, all Creel supporters are written as backwoods, know-nothing rednecks. Yawn. The politics—like most everything else in this novel—comes off as shallow, easy, snappy. This is fodder for your airplane ride at best. I’m tired of some mainstream male “horror” writers writing only in black and white. This shit is why I muted Chuck Wendig on Twitter long ago.

This book is a big nothing. Whatever. It didn’t work for me. If it works for you, fantastic, I’m glad—sincerely. I’m just let down.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I read this book, I assumed it was written mid-2020 and was a commentary on what was going on in the world politically, with COVID, etc. When I saw it was published in 2019, I was kind of creeped out. Wendig is some sort of prophet because the specifics of the plot are so close to the reality of the past year, it is scary! Getting into details would be a spoiler, but just know that if you try this you will be saying “No way . . . how did he know this was going to happen!?” a lot.

It is a good book and worth a read. As I have been stressed a lot by the events of the past year, maybe it wasn’t the best timing to read it, but I still got into it. For people who enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction, this is a must read. One caveat is that it is quite long – which seems to be a theme with books like these (The Stand, Swan Song, etc.) so be prepared to invest a lot of time.

[Khalid Abdul-Mumin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanderers tells a very realistic and haunting portrayal of a country (and world) changed by a mysterious pandemic that defies understanding and the various ways (of both good and evil) that humans typically employ in dealing with unexplainable phenomena.

The story arc follows a number of characters amongst which there's a girl that's trying to do right by her sister and the world at large whilst navigating a different and changing topography; we've also got a scientist searching for answers both within himself and without; a preacher that's constantly yearning, to understand and embody the numinous, his role in events, in enlightening people while going about it all in questionable and often amoral ways...

The writing is lean and top notch, the characters are very well fleshed out and multi-dimensional and the pacing is okay while the plot is intriguing and interesting but the execution left me wanting more. I liked the science aspects of the story very much especially the machine intelligence portrayal and the epidemiology.

I'll be very interested in continuing with the sequel. Recommended.

2022 Read

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this form NetGalley for review.

I’m generally rooting for the end of humanity these days, but if the apocalypse is gonna involve this much walking then I’ll be pretty angry about it because I’d much rather sit on my ass while the asteroid hits or the nukes fly or the zombies start gnawing on me.

A small group of people in rural Pennsylvania start walking in a trance like state one day. They can’t be snapped out of it, needles for sedatives won’t penetrate their skin, and if you try to physically stop one of them things get awfully messy. They don’t need food or water, and they absolutely will not stop. As they move across the country more and more people start joining them.

The public gets increasingly freaked out by these walkers, and a variety of people get pulled into the situation. A tough teenager frantically tries to take care of her younger sister who was the first to start walking. A former CDC doctor who trashed his career for a noble lie tries to learn the cause of the sleepwalking. An aging rock star runs away from his messy life to join the people shepherding the walkers. A preacher begins publicly painting the walkers as harbingers of the apocalypse, and he’s handsomely rewarded for his efforts by a pack of right wing conspiracy theorists who are backing a lying sack of shit for president. Behind it all is a secret that is either the salvation of humanity or its dooooooomm!!

I’ve got very mixed feelings on this one. There’s a lot of stuff I liked, particularly some of the core idea of what’s behind the sleepwalkers once it all gets revealed. There was a pretty cool and clever story to all of that. Wendig also has a readable style that keeps you turning pages, and he’s built up an intriguing scenario here that really held my interest for the first couple of hundred pages. But then the problems started creeping in.

First off, this is way too long. I’m glad I got an e-copy because it’s gotta be a real kitten squisher in print form. And it just doesn’t seem that necessary. There are big swaths of the story where not that much happens. Yeah, some of that was trying to develop characters, but it really doesn’t matter though because for the most part these people are still exactly who I thought they were the entire time. Unfortunately, that means that they’re all jerks or pushovers from start to finish.

Even the ones you’re supposed to sympathize with the most I found irritating and weak. Shana, the older sister of one of the first walkers, is supposed to the tough teenager with a chip on her shoulder, but it all seems like posturing because all she ever really does is be snarky to people. Benjy, the disgraced CDC doctor, should be our hero, but he seems so naïve, helpless, and completely overwhelmed at all times that there’s nothing there to root for. And some of that would make sense in a book like this where people would feel insignificant when faced with something like this, but the structure of the scenario leaves them so little to actually do that they feel completely pointless.

In fact, this entire novel is incredibly passive, and the people in it really don’t matter that much at the end of the day. There’s a few minor things they try to accomplish here and there, but usually they even screw that up. You could take every single other character out of this book and just make it about the sleepwalkers while eventually revealing what’s behind them, and the entire story pretty much ends up exactly where it eventually does. I also didn’t care for what seems like a sequel set up in the end. I’m not sure if that’s the case, but Wendig left plenty of room to return. I’d be more interested in that if I thought that any characters in the book might actually be able to impact the story.

Overall, I didn’t hate this one, but the potential it had early on seems to just fade away as the book goes on and on.

[karen]

this:



was arcstack before i got this beautiful 800 page beast (in a slipcase, no less - fancy ARC, why you so fancy?) about a mysterious epidemic, societal breakdown, post-event survival, journeys across a shattered american landscape - i.e. ALL OF MY JAMS!

sorry, arcstack, i think we have to have a talk.

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!*

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow... This epic book was a lot! Not just in length, but there were so many conflicts: spiritual, physical, mental. Reading during our current global pandemic was frightening in a way I didn't expect.

I enjoyed delving into these characters... some that I thought would be around until the end just disappear from the story with no explanation. The ending was definitely troublesome. Of course I have ideas about the next stage in this new humanity, but I would love a sequel to find out what "really" happens.

If you are looking for an intense experience (warning for one graphic rape scene) and you are willing to make a commitment, this is a great novel! I'm thankful to my fellow GR reviewers for the recommendation!

[Reading · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never read a book that's been such a slog before, by God I feel like I've walked across America.

This author fair likes to ramble on, the book could actually be cut in half during a proper editing process.

I mean, I like his writing style but he needs to edit and stop rambling.

Also, there's way too much politics. The authors political views are a distraction and it killed it for me.

Promising start. But, downhill from there.

[LIsa Noell "Rocking the chutzpah!" · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a diaper load of shit this was. Great start then a fizzle.

[Zoeytron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comet streaks across the night sky, and as it does, the lady who foretold the event dies in her sleep.  Sleepwalkers start to dot the landscape, flocking together as they move.  They are causing quite a stir, some call them the Devil's Pilgrims while others refer to them as God's Chosen Ones.  Before long, life is tip-tilted to an alarming degree, shadows are long, time is slippery, and people are dying.  Opportunistic baddies try to take the reins even as the good guys attempt to figure out what is happening to the world so they can fix it.      

I agree that comparisons with The Stand are unavoidable for a number of reasons.  I have read The Stand multiple times, but can't imagine returning to Wanderers for a second read.  As another reviewer mentioned, this had more of the tone and feel of The Passage, and I concur. At any rate, I liked it, just didn't love it.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review of WANDERERS can be found at High Fever Books.

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 a 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 advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread May 2022: 4.5 stars

Still a super-enjoyable story, for all the reasons stated in my original review. I'm glad I reread it in advance of the upcoming sequel, Wayward, because it turns out I forgot a lot of pretty important details!

First read July 2019: 4.5 stars

If you like end of civilisation stories, this is a good one. The idea of a fungal pathogen was super creepy for me. I cringe every time I even think the phrase "fruiting bodies."

Characterisation was well done, and with good variety. Considering how long the book is, I was surprised at how evenly the momentum of the story was maintained throughout. Wendig's trademark conversational and easy style of storytelling is very much in evidence.

Unsurprising is that in this, as in pretty much every other story of this type, as bad as the illness is and as bleak the prospects of survival, the real horror comes from the people. White supremacists, religious nut bars, the unfortunately usual and expected cast of characters messing up the apocalypse for everyone else.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

My son keeps yelling, "It's a one.", but I thought it was okay.

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Reviews:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/06/738974...
https://locusmag.com/2019/11/tim-prat...

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[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like stories with an end of the world scenario, then there's a better than average chance that this book will entice you. It's apocalyptic, not post-apocalyptic, meaning you experience the cause and effect. Immediate comparisons will be made to Stephen King's The Stand (the book jacket even has a blurb saying such). I don't think Wendig would deny the comparisons, or even mind them. In fact, I believe he'd be flattered, and here's why: Wanderers doesn't try to be The Stand. Certain similarities are truly there, but if anything, those similarities pay homage to the book he clearly admires. A plague. Walking across the country. A town in Colorado. Wendig even mentions the name Stephen King in the story. But, this book introduces a technology that is barely heard of today, not to mention tomorrow. What's scary is the definite possibility of it all. Well, maybe not all. Some things have to remain a wonder. I can't say that I loved it like I did The Stand, but I did like it. A big cast of characters is kept intimate, or small, by keeping the points of view to a minimum – roughly to a half a dozen main characters. You get to know them well, but maybe not well enough. In a big book such as this, I'd expect to know a little more from their past, the thoughts they've kept inside, including a few more tangents. Although Benji or Shana can be considered the main protagonists, it was the character, Marcy, that I liked most. She has real, tangible vulnerabilities, and probably why I liked her. In the scheme of a long story, these are not major details that should hold you back, so if you're considering, I still recommend you try. Wayward, the second book, is coming this Fall. It may not be at the top of my list, but I will look forward to it.

[Lisa Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This massive, 800 page book seemed like a huge reading undertaking... but once I started, I savored every word, paragraph, and chapter. Did it need to be this huge? Why, yes. Yes, it did.

Wanderers is truly epic in scope. What starts as a weird local event -- a sleepwalking girl who can't be woken or stopped -- turns into something huge and eerie (and to some, horribly frightening) as Nessie is joined by more and more sleepwalkers in her journey across America. Escorted by family members and friends who look after them, the flock moves endlessly forward. Meanwhile, the CDC scrambles to find out why, and right-wing militiamen, politicians, and conservative rabblerousers see the flock as a harbinger of end-times, and use their existence as an excuse to ramp up their hateful, violent rhetoric, whipping their public into a frenzy.

Just what is causing the sleepwalking phenomenon is revealed over time, as is the connection to a money-hungry tycoon's mysterious death. The weirdness of the sleepwalking is leavened by the beauty of the human interactions and interconnectedness as we get to know the various shepherds, their motivations and fears, and their own sense of running out of time.

Parts of this book are terrifying. Strangely (or not), I was much more disturbed by the human evil and hate-mongering than by the pandemic threat to all of humanity. Nature, science, possible extinction -- these just are, without good or evil. Instead, it's the people of Wanderers who inspire admiration for their bravery, sacrifice, and wisdom, as well as despair over the cruelty that people display toward one another.

This book takes our current crises related to climate change, increasingly drug-resistant bacteria and viruses, and hate-filled politics, and spins these into a tale that feels prophetic, cautionary, and disturbingly real. Wanderers forces the reader to ask "what if"... and then see how the scenario plays out in full, grisly, technicolor detail.

I suppose I should add, if not already clear, that this book contains violence and cruelty and should be approached cautiously (or not at all) by anyone who may find themselves triggered.

That said, I just loved so many of the characters, felt completely invested in their journeys and ordeals, and could not stop reading. At the risk of sounding incredibly corny, reading Wanderers made me feel like I'd been on a journey too. A terrific read.

[Gabby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made a whole reading vlog for this one, check it out here: https://youtu.be/UKJ9Bhah2_o

[Viking Jam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rating: 1.5/5

Review: This was quite the grande attempt at combining “2001: A Space Odyssey”, and “Andromeda Strain”. Throw in a splash of zombie like symptoms and voila! Seems like there is a plethora of pandemic/apoc novels floating around these days….some good, mostly bad. I think this novel fell into the ‘bad’ category although it shouldn’t have.

Writing for the masses. This novel tried to appeal to the movie goer that enjoys dramatic dialogue interspersed with over-the-top violence by the government or conveniently placed tropes in the form of militia or white extremists.

Political soapbox. Throughout the novel it becomes very obvious where the author’s perspectives lie with regard to the current tapestry of political ennui. Every bad group or person is this amalgamation of WHITE people, and the author goes to great lengths to generalize about the inhabitants in certain towns and their racial perspectives based solely on their geographical placement.

Been there done that. Like I mentioned before, this story line has oft been abused in a myriad of ways. There is nothing new, creative or inventive about this work. If you enjoy traipsing along for a long walk to nowhere, then be selectively bored.

The author did his research and that comes to the fore but does not in any way add to the story line. Clinical processes and facts are a real downer and lack the potential to capture the reader via symptomatic expressions. Cut the zombie walk down by at least half and curb the political finger pointing and you might have a winner here. Oh and write for the reader not the Hollywood studio executive.

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely obsessed with how good this was!!!

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Epic in scope, with a definite point of view, this novel is certainly a journey. The writing is fun and descriptive, with a few different narrative quirks depending on which POV we are following. The plot itself is a bit of a shapeshifter, with new revelations changing how we experience the different stages of this particular apocalypse. I enjoyed all the plot points and the way the story kept building on itself, then zigging when you expected a zag, digging itself deeper into its own lore. Like any good story about the end of things this story focuses on individuals, and how our worlds are both intimate and expansive at the same time. The characters work hand-in-glove to help create a colorful world, one that isn’t in any way a stretch from the current reality but rather reflects our own societal disruptions and weaknesses, and maybe some strengths, too, back to us. The main characters were interesting and engaging, if sometimes a little bit expected.

I have to say though, that even though I enjoyed the narrative flow and the particular plot points as it progressed through them, I really felt the page count by the end. I think it is largely because there is a whole ancillary plot with a minister, and his struggles with family, power, and ultimately, faith, which felt really unnecessary. His character and his family felt contrived and not particularly interesting, his struggles, and their outcomes, felt pre-ordained and somewhat hoary in execution. His storyline offered an interesting reflection on the nature of truth, our constant struggle between wanting to help others while also wanting to be popular, the tension between being woefully human and thinking we know how best to help others, and how slippery the slope is when we start making exceptions to our sense of morality. I like the reflections, I do, and I see the role they play in the larger story, but they felt ham-fisted and blunt, and definitely added to my sense of fatigue with the story.

Still, I had a good time with the story. Even though the pacing feels a little sluggish at times the actual narrative structure keeps you entertained and eager to discover what will happen next. The story reinvents itself along the journey with strong socio-political commentary which gave a sense of verisimilitude. The prose is creative and engaging, and it pulls you along, always dangling another mystery just in front of you. There is a large and diverse cast, and they had distinct personalities which made the story dynamic and approachable. We are left asking questions not simply about technology/AI, climate change, and pandemics, but about humanity, about sacrifice, about responsibility and stewardship, about community. This story doesn’t always show humanity reaching for the best answers to the existential questions posed, but in humanity’s flailing it does offer a type of blueprint for developing the world we want to live in, one individual at a time.

(Rounded from 3.5)

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that was....something. I don’t think I have had my feelings for a book so drastically shift like that in a while. I was a little apprehensive because of the size of Wanderers (approaching 800 pages), but once it got going I was entirely onboard! It wasn’t until later on that I began to lose interest and was just slogging through to the end.

It started off so cool too! I was reading it with a couple of other people and we kept messaging each other every time something insane happened like, “oh my god has X done X yet?? Wtf!!!” But by the second half of the book that had fallen away. We were dragging ourselves (and each other) across the finish line. There were probably a few things that contributed to that, but while I was tearing through the first half I was genuinely expecting this to be a five star read for me.

I haven’t really read many post-apocalyptic books, like The Stand or Station Eleven, and in some ways that worked to my advantage. Whatever the tropes are, they’re unfamiliar to me, so I can’t complain about this book resembling another too much. And since this was written pre-COVID-19 but post-Trump, a lot of the responses in the story from the media, government, American citizens, etc. ended up being pretty spot on. It was like watching a slow-motion replay of a car crash you were in—probably a little too accurate & uncomfortable.

But the things that were misses by Wendig were big ones for me. The pastor character, in particular, was ridiculous. His arc served no purpose except to shock the reader. His descent was wholly unbelievable and he seemed like a vessel to ham-fist a religious perspective into a story that did not need it. Additionally the rockstar made even less sense as a character. He felt like a former ‘cool guy’ stand-in for Gen X dads that want to feel relevant again. So I guess I see why Chuck Wendig decided to include him.

And maybe I should put this in spoiler tags, but I also want to warn potential readers: there’s a graphic sexual assault scene that did nothing to further the plot and was only used to reinforce the ‘badness’ of a character. Unnecessary does not even begin to cover it.

Besides the characters, I had a problem with the pacing in the back half. Some major plot details are revealed around the middle and unfortunately the story loses most of its tension. This book was probably at least 200 pages too long, which is probably why the negative reviews keep calling it a Stephen King knockoff. Like I said, I can’t comment on that comparison, but I’ve read a couple of ridiculously long King books and at least during those my attention was held the entire time.

Now I’m going to move on to usually my least favorite part to discuss in this type of book: the science-y stuff. Initially I was impressed with the research and explanations that Wendig put into describing pandemics and diseases. The biological science was so well elaborated on that it made his lazy depictions of various pseudo-tech bullshit even more egregious. Anything related to computers or AI or even vaguely on the technological side (I don’t want to go too deep into this because I don’t want to spoil anything) was just glossed over like a ‘science is ✨magic✨‘ solution that left me wholly unimpressed. I’m not a person that’s ever been great at science—it’s not usually my thing. So I feel like if I’m eye-rolling at these half-assed handwaving explainers then it’s gotta be pretty terrible.

I also know some people have said they don’t like the ending. For me, I don’t usually care what the author decides for the ending but how it is executed. So, plainly, I think he ended it badly. What started off as an interesting commentary about humanity and climate change and what it means to be part of a society was just thrown out the window for a dumb Black Mirror-style sendoff. It felt like the author ‘JJ Abrams-ed’ the ending, meaning that he asked all these inquisitive, interesting questions in the beginning but had absolutely zero answers prepared by the end. If you’ve seen the show Lost (by Abrams) you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I’ve heard this is going to have a sequel. I will not be reading it. If this is adapted I might watch it just because then they have an opportunity to rewrite the back half. And I hope if that happens that they do decide to make some major changes, because as is this books is such a waste of what has some great potential.


**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I don't know how I feel about this book. I enjoyed much of it, and other parts of it really ticked me off. It felt grand on an epic scale, but then certain parts made it feel small and not so epic.

Pros- good character development, interesting storyline, cool concept

Cons - twice as long as it needed to be, unnecessary rape scene, end with little to no closure whatsoever.

Overall, I enjoyed it enough to finish, but I didn't love it and I think it would have benefited from an editor who could help slim it down and get rid of a lot of unnecessary fluff. Also, seriously, if you're going to put in a rape scene, it had better have some significant point in the story... rather than just a little bit of shock value. *shakes head* I thought you were better than that, Chuck.

[Adriana Porter Felt · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Please don’t read this book. My review will save you several long hours of your life.)

“Wanderers” tells the story of a disease that threatens to wipe out all of humankind. It shows society’s reaction: chaos, breakdown, and a bid for survival in the face of human frailty. It’s set in a thinly veiled version of 2019 America, with political tension, racism, technology, and climate change as major themes. At times, the book feels like an unimaginative anti-Republican lecture. The mysteries within the book kept me going to the finish — 800 pages! — but the end brought relief, as if I’d completed a chore.

Why read this book:
— You are in the future, and you want to understand what Americans were afraid of in 2019. This book offers a comprehensive illustration of those fears.
— The series of mysteries are intriguing enough that I didn’t stop reading. I wanted to know how it ended.

Why not read this book:
— The core story did not need 800 pages. All suspense wears off by the time you get to the action and twists at the end. “Wanderers” would have been better with some ruthless editing.
— The “bad” people are caricatures of rural Republicans. They’re racist, gun-obsessed bullies and rapists. They’re gauche. The most powerful among them control the rest of the population with biased news. The author really lays it on thick. I may be a true blue California Democrat, but I have no patience for an 800-page anti-Republican screed. It’s boring, unimaginative, and I’d much rather read a book with complex and semi-sympathetic villains.
— One of the major romances in the book is...terribly written. Out of nowhere, suddenly two major characters are screwing and saying “I love you.” The romance fills two plot holes, but the author doesn’t do much to convince the reader of the romance.
— The book heavily features an “Artificial Intelligence” with godlike characteristics, accompanied by a programmer who doesn’t seem to know anything about programming. I could forgive this if the book introduced a new angle on powerful technology, but “Wanderers” doesn’t have anything new to say about machines as gods.

n.b. “Afterwar” and “Wanderers” share much in common: an American civil war in the near future, reflecting Trump-era anxiety. Between the two, “Afterwar” is a MUCH better book.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Running against the herd here, but this one simply didn’t work. Speaking of herds, if you’ve watched enough Walking Dead, you know about the dead 💀 wandering in herds. Here, you get a similar phenomenon with eyes bulging and consciousness seeping out they walk toward a goal like the folks in Close Encounters with shepherds tending to them. The survival of the species might be at stake, but that all gets lost in a story with shifting points of view and an attempt to throw politics religion and rockstardom in together. In the end, you didn’t care where this was going or where the end was. Onward!