Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

 

For whatever reason, the blurbs--even the couple-three that *explicitly* compared it to *The Stand*--weren't enough for me to twig that this was a novel of apocalyptic fiction. There's nothing wrong with apocalyptic fiction, though it's not really my fave, and I figure my failure to grok the messages I was receiving is at least partly my fault. It's a good novel, though there's some misdirection going on at places in it, and it's not as grim as apocalyptic fiction can be, which is nice--the end is ... mostly hopeful-ish. I saw at least one part of where the book was going about 100 pages before it got there, but that just means Wendig was playing fair. Apocalyptic fiction does have a tendency to have an air of "...and good riddance!" to it, and this novel does go there, but it's not persistent about it. Lots to like about this book, more if it's more your thing.