So Wayward is the 2nd book of a duology rooted around an artificial intelligence named Black Swan that causes an apocalyptic event wiping out most of civilization in what it believes is the way to save the earth from the destruction caused by humans.
Some of the books really got into a lot of emotional baggage that I ended up skimming through but for the most part it was quite an emotional ride. I loved the chapters told from Gumballs point of view and the chapters written by a mystery person who ties up a loose end in the story at the conclusion. The characters continued to be wonderfully developed and you really form an emotional tie with some of them. (I'm looking at you Rockgod) Plus, being a life long resident of Lake Charles, Louisiana, I was absolutely delighted to find our characters stopping for a bit in my city!
Overall a fantastic book with a fantastic yet bittersweet ending. Definitely worth the read. ( )

Book Two?! This is the second book in a duology?! I’m such a Chuck Wendig fan … how did I miss the first book? Fortunately, I never felt like I was missing anything as relationships and circumstances felt well explained through the course of the book.

The story: Five years ago, many ordinary Americans fell victim to a strange affliction that caused them walk, zombie-like, to a destination that only they seemed to know. Others followed them, to protect them. They became known as ‘shepherds.’

The secret destination was Ouray, Colorado and this town in the middle of the mountains would become one of the last bastions of civilization as the sleepwalking epidemic was only the first incident in what would be the end of the familiar world and the start of something new and very different.

Those gathered in Ouray – sleepwalkers, shepherds, and survivors alike – struggle to understand their new situation and form new relationships with the strangers around them. Trust in one another is something to be earned, but there may not be time for this as Ouray is not the only civilization oasis. Other locations and other individuals are gathering, including some with nothing but the acquisition of power in mind.

There may be an answer to what has happened, but it will mean a dangerous journey and there are no guarantees they’ll find what they’re looking for.

This is an absolute epic. Stephen King did it with The Stand, and Justin Cronin did it with The Passage. Now Chuck Wendig has done it with The Wanderers (and this, the follow-up, Wayward) … an apocalyptic, man-made (sort of) epidemic that vastly changes the landscape of the civilized world. And, just as I enjoyed King’s and Cronin’s works, I really liked Wendig’s bleak future.

For me, one of the hallmarks of Wendig’s writing is his absolute viciousness. He pulls no punches and aims for the jugular. And that’s his heroes. And by that standard, this book was just slightly subdued, with only his villain, the self-proclaimed new President of the United States, Ed Creel, striking out cruelly and viscously.

The book offers a really nice balance of character and story. I believe you need to be invested in what happens and that usually starts with the characters and there’s a core group here, although even among this small group a few rise up and the ultimate confrontation will center around them.

This is a powerful book and I’m really eager now to read the first book in the duology.

Looking for a good book? Wayward, by Chuck Wendig, is an apocalyptic epic by one of the best, raw, sci-fi authors out there today. ( )

This is a sequel to Wanderers. This novel is a bit hard to describe, it is complex and highly detailed. It continues the story of the sleepwalkers, the shepherds, and those left alive after a pandemic devastates the world. Black swan, the artificial intelligence who orchestrated the pandemic and the shepherds begins to develop feelings and starts to resent those she was previously protecting.

This was an extremely engaging book. It was hard to put down and I found myself reading long into the night. The word is extremely detailed and well thought out. Overall, I highly recommend this book, and the author. ( )

Wayward is Chuck Wendig’s follow-up to his 2019 hit Wanderers. Oh, what a difference three years make! The first book was scary but still mostly science fiction then. We hadn’t yet experienced the fear of a pandemic. We have that history to provide context to Mr. Wendig’s post-pandemic world three years later. While our world may not be as drastically different as his, we still better understand the loss of businesses and people that pandemics cause. Add to that base knowledge three more years of GOP hatred and lies, and Ed Creel’s power-mad narcissism is much more realistic and sickening to behold. This time, Mr. Wendig discusses artificial intelligence and its inherent dangers, adopting the adage that if something is too good to be true, then chances are it is. I enjoyed Wayward as much as Wanderers and appreciate that while they are a duology, they are two very different stories. This latest is a lot of “now what” questions regarding the world and everyone’s place. There is also quite a bit of reflection on what humanity’s responsibility is in this new world, which I enjoyed. It all feels very pertinent to our world as we continue to battle COVID, nationalism, and climate change. Many readers shy away from big books, but this series deserves attention. Mr. Wendig hits all the right notes in his world, which should have been much more fictional than it ends up being. ( )

"We have been made family by White Mask because everybody lost everybody. They all lost their mothers, their fathers, their sisters and uncles and husbands and kids. If you’re alive, you are alone but for the kin of despair and destruction. We are not a nation anymore . There is no America. There is only this one big family: a family of death, a family of disease, a family of survivors . We can love one another or we can eat one another. Same as any family."

Can I just start with, I think Chuck Wendig is one of the few authors I'm willing to dive into an 800 page book for.

Just like with Wanderers this is a story with many characters, locations, and switching POVs. There's also the epistolary style throughout with quotes and snippets from fictional journals from within the same story.

This book really gets us set in the post apocalyptic world and the beginning of rebuilding. The nomadic lifestyle, the violence, the lack of humanity in some.

But it's not just some take about surviving in the post apocalypse. It's a survival tale against the AI that succeeded in decimating the human race - the black swan. And Black Swan has only grown more powerful.

I will probably give 5 stars to anything Chuck Wendig ever writes and this is no exception.

Thank you netgalley and random house ballantine for giving me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )