Starred review from April 8, 2019
Wendig (the Miriam Black series) pulls no punches in this blockbuster apocalyptic novel, which confronts some of the darkest and most divisive aspects of present-day America with urgency, humanity, and hope. The day after a comet blazes over the west coast of North America, Benji Ray, a disgraced former CDC epidemiologist, is summoned to meet Black Swan, a superintelligent computer designed to predict and prevent disasters, which has determined that Benji must treat an upcoming pandemic. That same morning, Shana wakes up to find her little sister, Nessie, sleepwalking down the driveway and off toward an unknown goal, one of a growing number of similar travelers who are unable to stop or to wake. Shana in turn becomes one of many shepherds, protecting the travelers from a crumbling American society that’s ravaged by fear, dogma, disease, and the effects of climate change, while Benji grapples with his daunting assignment and questions about Black Swan’s nature and agenda. Wendig challenges readers with twists and revelations that probe issues of faith and free will while crafting a fast-paced narrative with deeply real characters. His politics are unabashed—characters include a populist president brought to power by neo-Nazis, as well as murderous religious zealots—but not simplistic, and he tackles many moral questions while eschewing easy answers. This career-defining epic deserves its inevitable comparisons to Stephen King’s The Stand, easily rising above the many recent novels of pandemic and societal collapse. Agent: Stacia Decker, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary.
Starred review from May 1, 2019
What if the only way to save humanity was to lose almost everyone? This was kind of inevitable: Wendig (Vultures, 2019, etc.) wrestles with a magnum opus that grapples with culture, science, faith, and our collective anxiety while delivering an epic equal to Steven King's The Stand (1978). While it's not advertised as an entry in Wendig's horrifying Future Proof universe that includes Zer0es (2015) and Invasive (2016), it's the spiritual next step in the author's deconstruction of not only our culture, but the awful things that we--humanity--are capable of delivering with our current technology and terrible will. The setup is vividly cinematic: After a comet passes near Earth, a sleeping sickness takes hold, causing victims to start wandering in the same direction, barring those who spontaneously, um, explode. Simultaneously, a government-built, wickedly terrifying AI called Black Swan tells its minders that a disgraced scientist named Benji Ray might be the key to solving the mystery illness. Wendig breaks out a huge cast that includes Benji's boss, Sadie Emeka; a rock star who's a nod to King's Springsteen-esque Larry Underwood; a pair of sisters--one of whom is part of the "herd" of sleepwalkers and one who identifies as a "shepherd" tending to the sick; and Matthew Bird, who leads the faithful at God's Light Church and who struggles with a world in which technology itself can become either God or the devil incarnate. Anyone who's touched on Wendig's oeuvre, let alone his lively social media presence, knows he's a full-voiced political creature who's less concerned with left and right than the chasm between right and wrong, and that impulse is fully on display here. Parsing the plot isn't really critical--Wendig has stretched his considerable talents beyond the hyperkinetic horror that is his wheelhouse to deliver a story about survival that's not just about you and me, but all of us, together. Wendig is clearly wrestling with some of the demons of our time, resulting in a story that is ambitious, bold, and worthy of attention.
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June 1, 2019
When Comet Sakamoto passed over Earth, no one thought much about it. But the next morning, the sleepwalking began. At least it seemed like sleepwalking, as 18-year-old Shana discovers her little sister gone from her bed. However, those caught in this malady cannot be woken, and those who try to stop them experience horrifying consequences. As Shana follows her sister and the others who come together on the way, she emerges a "shepherd," along with other friends and family members, who watch over their loved ones on their unknown journey through America. In the meantime, the response across the country ranges from religious zealotry to endtimes fear, which may not be too far from reality. With the addition of a government AI called Black Swan, a disgraced scientist, a charged election, and a growing radical militia, this story of a search for answers and survival moves beyond political or moral choices to the light and dark in everyone's minds and hearts. VERDICT A powerful story about humanity, technology, and the survival of the world. Comparisons to Stephen King's The Stand are warranted, as Wendig (Zeroes) shatters the boundaries of speculative and literary fiction in a saga that will touch every reader. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/19.]--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton
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