Thursday, April 23, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig




Wanderers is a book by prolific science fiction/fantasy writer (and excellent twitter user) Chuck Wendig.  It's a pretty large novel - listed at over 700 pages on Amazon and showing up as 1500 pages in my Libby reader - but one that's gotten a lot of attention from people I follow recently due to its events being very familiar to current ones - featuring events such as a zootic plague, a racist demagogue,  an attempt by politicians to take control of a situation against the interests of science for politics, etc.  My history with Wendig books has mainly resulted in indifference - the ones I've read have always been solid but never more than that for me - but the repeated praise I've heard of this book got me to eventually pick it up from the library.

And well, there are parts of Wanderers I really liked and other parts that I just found uninteresting or uninspired. A large part of this book, especially the first half, features the response of the US - its people, its politicians and its government - to a potential mysterious medical disaster, and that part is both fascinating and depressing (in how similar it will seem to the current reader).  But the second half of the book devolves into less interesting ideas, particularly one which honestly has been done over and over again - and in much better and more interesting ways.  The result is another book that is at least solidly executed, but not one I can recommend that highly.


---------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
It begins with one.  Nessie Stewart, a teenage girl, walks out of her house in Pennsylvania with a blank stare on her face, totally nonreactive to her surroundings.  When her sister Shana tries to physically stop her, her body temperature heats up and her blood seems literally about to boil and leak out of her until Shana lets go.  And so off she goes.  And soon she's not alone, as hundreds of people, seemingly unrelated in any way, start to follow and join Nessie on a walk through America in an unknown direction.  Soon they are known as the sleepwalkers or pilgrims, and are followed by an entourage of family members like Shana, the shepherds, who are desperate to get them back to normal.

Benji Ray was once one of the most well trusted disease experts at the CDC, until a well intentioned lapse of judgment resulted in his disgrace.  But a machine intelligence named Black Swan, meant to predict outbreaks before they occur, sends its agents to Benji with urgent news: the sleepwalkers are a dangerous situation of some kind, with massive future implications.  Benji and his friends at the CDC will be forced to journey to the Sleepwalkers to figure out what's going on.

But Benji won't have much time - for America, on the verge of an election between the current president and a right wing demagogue, is a powder keg, and the sleepwalkers are a match ready to ignite the country.  And with white supremacists and a gullible preacher willing to take them as a sign of destruction, the country may tear itself apart if it cannot get any answers - and even if it gets them.

And the sleepwalkers themselves may be a harbinger of an even greater threat, one which Benjy, Shana and everyone else may not be able to stop......
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It's tricky to talk about Wanderers without spoiling too much - the book has a lot of ideas, and some only develop in the later acts, well into its page length.  So this review will include a bunch of spoilers in rot13 (to read rot13, just go here).

Anyhow, Wanderers is a loooong book, featuring over 700 pages and over 90 chapters separated into eight parts.  The chapters aren't short either, with many featuring passages focusing upon different characters as the story moves on, and the story jumps around at times to characters not in the center of the action, particularly to Matthew, a small town preacher who gets caught in the hysteria.  But for most of the book at least, the book never feels like it gets lost, with its occasional asides to events happening off center always feeling like they will payoff, and indeed they generally do so.

Wanderers is not really a character focused book, with it being more about its ideas and how the characters will react to them, but it does feature a few well done characters.  Shana as the 17/18 year old girl trying to deal with her sister the sleepwalker, her negligent father (and disappeared mother), and her own seeming lack of a future is the most well done, and she's an excellent lead character to follow, both for showing the human element around the sleepwalkers and in her own right.  Benji as the intrepid scientist is one of the other two main characters and is also generally solid, although I do mind one of our heroes being a guy who falsified data to make it more extreme to draw attention to a cause - even if good intentioned, in a world we live in in which scientists are accused of this regularly, it's not a good thing to suggest happens.  And then there's Matthew, our last really major character, a small town preacher who gets carried away until he's gone too far and desperately searches for a way to undo his mistakes.  It's a weird archetype for this book - I'm not really sure why the white supremacist antagonists needed a small time preacher to be duped into preaching for their cause given all the sympathetic ones there are in the world*, but Wendig makes Matthew work as a sympathetic character over his head for the most part (more on that below).  The rest of the minor character cast generally works as well, and some feel downright prophetic.

*Spoiler in ROT13: Va pnfr lbh guvax Jraqvt vfa'g njner bs gur tevsg naq rivy bs fbzr crbcyr vaibyirq va gur zbirzrag, ur yngre unf gur evtug jvat pbafcvengbe enqvb ahg ghea bhg gb or n cher tevsgre jub ibgrf qrzbpeng naq qbrfa'g oryvrir nal bs uvf ohyyfuvg, fb lrnu vg'f xvaq bs jrveq gb guvax gur juvgr fhcerznpvfgf jbhyqa'g npghnyyl whfg tb sbe n cernpure jub bcrayl be zber boivbhfyl funerf gurve ivrjf naq pna or pbagebyyrq.

Still, again this is more of an idea driven book than anything, for all the solid characters, and for the first half of this book, the ideas shine pretty damn well.  How would America react to a potential pandemic with no clear cause?  Well, the current events can give you some idea of that, and Wanderers' own plot feels damn prophetic in light of that, especially in how the government responds in terms of dealing with science vs politics.  It's a view that could've been considered as cynical maybe in the past but for sure, not anymore.  Similarly, the way extremists, having grown in power due to a right wing machine that stokes fires, would blame anyone they dislike for the situation feels damn right right now, and Wendig makes it incredibly believable and scary on top of that.  Add in the hints of a zoological plague, which features a long incubation period in which it is still contagious and yeah....feels somewhat prophetic.

But well, Wendig isn't content to just deal with those issues, and expands the plot ideas to include things such as how things would respond when things get downright post apocalyptic (Wendig is not optimistic) and the value and danger of artificial intelligence.  It's this last one which is probably my biggest disappointment with the book, as the book never has enough time to truly deal with the implications of same - so Benji has reservations of it - named Black Swan here - and of the infringements on freedoms for all of 5 seconds every now and then, but other pressing concerns prevent him and the book from really focusing upon this trade off in any way, a pattern that continues all the way to the end.  But it's not the only issue of the second half, such as events transpiring in a way to make certain other plot elements and characters feel totally irrelevant, and yet the book keeps focusing upon them anyway.*  Wendig does bring it all together in the end, but it just at the time feels kind of pointless, when so much more interesting stuff is happening - and some of it is definitely excessive.*

*Spoiler in ROT13: Onfvpnyyl va gur zvqqyr bs gur obbx, gur erny qnatre rzretrf, n mbbybtvpny cynthr qrevirq sebz Ongf (fbhaq snzvyvne?) pnyyrq Juvgr Znfx, jvgu n fhcre ybat aba-flzcgbzngvp crevbq va juvpu vg'f pbagntvbhf, naq juvpu vf 100% sngny.  Ng gung cbvag, gur jbeyq ortvaf gb snyy ncneg, jvgu bayl gur fyrrcjnyxref nf cbgragvny fheivibef.  Qrfcvgr guvf, jr fgvyy fcraq gvzr frrvat Znggurj gel gb vasvygengr gur juvgr fhcerznpvfg zbirzrag gb trg onpx uvf fba - jub vf boivbhfyl n gehr oryvrire naq abg tbvat gb pbzr jvgu - juvpu nyy whfg srryf cbvagyrff.  Jub rira pnerf?  Naq juvyr vg qbrf yrnq gb Znggurj riraghnyyl pbairetvat qverpgyl jvgu gur sybpx sbe gur svany pbasebagngvba, vg nyy whfg srryf yvxr n jnfgr bs gvzr.  Ernyyl gung'f ubj n ybg bs gur juvgr fhcerznpvfg nep srryf, jvgu gur znva nagntbavfg Bmnex oehgnyyl nohfvat Znggurj jura ur qvfborlf va jnlf gung whfg srry pbzcyrgryl haarprffnel ba cntr.  Jr trg vg, abj tb onpx gb gur fyrrcjnyxref naq gur qvfrnfr naq jung'f unccravat nyernql cyrnfr....

Finally it ends in a way that just centers back upon some ideas that were not really focused upon earlier, and feel underwhelming, with a final act that just isn't as interesting as the earlier ideas and is centered around something that I've seen done multiple times with perhaps more success.  It's never pulled out of its ass, and the seeds for it are certainly planted early on, but it just feels like a silly way to end.  And that follows from a climatic confrontation that seems to exist solely for the sake of existing I guess?  None of that makes this book bad - it's a fine solid book, but it just left a less appealing taste in my mouth that made me less interested in recommending it.

Ending Spoilers in ROT13:    Va n ynfg cybg gjvfg, vg gheaf bhg gung gur ovt guerng, gur yrguny cynthr Juvgr Znfx, jnf npghnyyl perngrq naq fcernq ol Oynpx Fjna gb phyy uhznavgl qbja gb n fznyy senpgvba fvapr uhznavgl jnf qrfgeblvat gur cynarg, jvgu gur Fyrrcjnyxref nyy onfvpnyyl vgf freinagf naq jbefuvcref, naq Funan'f onol frg gb or gur ubfg bs vgf zbfg cebzvarag anabobgf.  Fb lrnu, rirelguvat jnf pnhfrq ol na bhg bs pbageby NV jvgu ivfvbaf bs orvat n qrfgehpgvir fnivbe!  Juvpu jryy, oyrpu, jub pnerf?  Gur obbx qvqa'g rkcyber gur qnatref bs NV orpnhfr vg jnf gbb qvfgenpgrq ol gur qnatref gb gur uhznaf, fb vg'f abg yvxr guvf vf gur pbapyhfvba gb fbzr ybat rkcybengvba bs gur inyhrf naq qnatref bs NV, vg whfg VF n guvat.  (Gb fnl abguvat bs gur irel vqrn orvat xvaq bs fvyyl, gung ab bar jbhyq ernyvmr gung gur cynthr jnf abg 100% yrguny be gung pregnva nagv shatnyf pbhyq fnir crbcyr jura bhe cebgntbavfg Orawv ernyvmrq vg ng bar cbvag naq fnirq uvzfrys jvgu gur fznyy fhccyl.)  Juvyr gur vqrn bs guvf jubyr guvat vf cynagrq va bar bs gur cer-puncgre arjf negvpyrf rneyl ba, vg ernyyl whfg qbrfa'g srry frg hc jryy rabhtu gb znxr lbh npghnyyl pner nobhg vg.  Vg'f n gjvfg sbe gur fnxr bs n gjvfg naq gubfr ner ynzr, nf pbzcnerq gb bgure obbxf jurer gur vqrn bs n cynthr sbe gung checbfr vf rkcyberq zber va qrcgu.
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