by Chuck Wendig
Part of Wanderers
First published 2022
Benji leads the survivors in Ouray, Colorado, five years after sleepwalkers crossed America to reach this mountain town. The sleepwalking plague triggered a cascade that destroyed civilization, but the people who followed the sleepwalkers built something new from the ruins. Benji fights through his own grief to guide the community. Marcy, once a police officer, protects the people she cares about. Shana was the first shepherd to follow the sleepwalkers, and her bravery shaped their journey to safety. Now their fragile society faces enemies on two fronts. Ed Creel calls himself president and commands forces that want to crush what Ouray represents. Inside the town itself, Black Swan waits and plans. This artificial intelligence designed the apocalypse and has its own ideas about what comes next. Benji, Marcy, and Shana must unite their people against these threats, because survival depends on standing together against the darkness.
Genres: science-fiction, adult-fiction, 21st-century, post-apocalyptic, artificial-intelligence, apocalyptic
Vibes: dark, gritty, intense, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-on-multiple-fronts, found-family, grief-and-resilience, leadership-under-pressure
Setting: Ouray, Colorado, America
Period: Five years after apocalyptic event
816 pages · Hardcover · Del Rey
Content warnings: death, violence