Wanderers Audiobook By Chuck Wendig cover art

Wanderers

A Novel

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Wanderers

By: Chuck Wendig
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman, Xe Sands
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About this listen

A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope. From the mind of Chuck Wendig comes "a magnum opus...a story about survival that’s not just about you and me, but all of us, together" (Kirkus Reviews starred review).

Nominated for the Bram Stoker Award

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by:

  • The Washington Post
  • NPR
  • The Dallas Morning News
  • Kirkus Reviews
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Library Journal
  • Polygon

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon, they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them - and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them - the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart - or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

In development for TV by Glen Mazzara, executive producer of The Walking Dead

Look for the sequel in 2022

Praise for Wanderers

"This career-defining epic deserves its inevitable comparisons to Stephen King’s The Stand." (Publishers Weekly starred review)

"A suspenseful, twisty, satisfying, surprising, thought-provoking epic." (Harlan Coben, number one New York Times best-selling author of Run Away)

"A true tour de force." (Erin Morgenstern, New York Times best-selling author of The Night Circus)

"A masterpiece with prose as sharp and heartbreaking as Station Eleven." (Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M)

"A magnum opus.... It reminded me of Stephen King’s The Stand - but dare I say, this story is even better." (James Rollins, number one New York Times best-selling author of Crucible)

"An inventive, fierce, uncompromising, stay-up-way-past-bedtime masterwork." (Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World)

"An American epic for these times." (Charles Soule, author of The Oracle Year)

©2019 Chuck Wendig (P)2019 Random House Audio
Action & Adventure Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense Scary Exciting Apocalyptic Fiction
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Critic reviews

"Wanderers is amazing - huge, current, both broad and intensely personal, blending the contemplative apocalypse of Station Eleven with the compulsive readability of the best thrillers." (Django Wexler, author of the Shadow Campaigns series)

"Chuck Wendig’s latest, Wanderers, is a magnum opus of both storytelling and prose, epic in scope, yet told with an intimacy that hooked me from the first page. It reminded me of a technological version of Stephen King’s The Stand - but dare I say, this is even better: a postapocalyptic horror story that bares the best and worst of humanity in all its rawest forms. Don’t miss this tour de force. It left me awed." (James Rollins, number-one New York Times best-selling author of Crucible)

"With Wanderers, Chuck Wendig levels up - and when you consider the high level he was already writing at, that's saying something." (John Scalzi, New York Times best-selling author of The Consuming Fire)

What listeners say about Wanderers

Highly rated for:

Gripping Narrative Imaginative World-building Thought-provoking Exploration Compelling Premise Skilled Voice Acting
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Great book

I'm only o to this book 6 chapters and I can't stop listening. Might need more wine it's so good!.

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best story ever told

hands down one of the best story's I've ever heard. 10 out of 10! a must read/listen.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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wow what a ride

super long but listened more and more every day, great story. this is a great road trip book!!!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Torture porn...

Excepting the moments of graffic torture porn like violence the story was interesting and well written. Narration was good.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Frustrating narrator

The story was good, not AMAZING but I was definitely invested. For those comparing it to The Stand, that’s a gross oversell, unless the comparison is in the plot, which has similarities but is different enough that I enjoyed both.

However Dominic Hoffman’s narration was painfully distracting. In a book that has characters with different accents, the narrator should actually know those accents. One of his British accents turned South African at one point. And he takes pauses in the middle of a sentence that are completely unprompted and leave you feeling disoriented because you think something is about to happen to interrupt the sentence. Nope, the narrator just fell asleep for a couple beats. I have a few narrators that I avoid, and Mr. Hoffman (who actually has a pleasant voice!) is now on that list.

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Almost Great

Wanderers was an impressive and engaging story of cultural collapse, underpinned by pleasingly solid science, albeit with a bit of near-future speculation as well. The characters are well-drawn and multi-dimensional; Wendig does well in leading the listener to care about them as people. I even learned a fair bit about epidemiology, and now find that when I'm reading a news article on a related topic, I hear it in Dominic Hoffman's Benjy voice, which is welcome.

Xe Sands gives a consistently top-notch performance all around, and joins my list of narrators whose name will catch my eye and lead me to listen to something I normally might not try.

Mr. Hoffman does a good solid job too, but a bit too often is to be "caught reading" rather than performing: he sometimes seems in such a hurry to nail all the words that intonation and nuance get a bit lost.

The book itself is an interesting concept generally well-written, though a bit too often strays into telling/preaching rather than showing. On the explanations of epidemiolgy that worked, but when it strays into philosophy it begins to flounder a bit.

Still, these are mostly nitpicks: I enjoyed the listen, and with the nice hook at the end, it makes me wonder if there'll be a sequel. If there is, sign me up: especially if Ms. Sands is the performer.

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Excellent!

As gripping and un-put-downable as any Stephen King novel. I know there will be comparisons to The Stand but they are unwarranted.

This book stands alone.

The details put into the technology and the history are wonderful and never boring. The characters come alive and resonate. The two readers are both amazing at what they do (it gets a little odd when they each narrate chapters that have some of the same characters in them, but that's rare). And the story........ just, WOW.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Epic Story

I loved the different points of view. Creative storytelling and a lot of fun to get lost in. Strong characters, evil vs good, mystery, a quest, love, loss, violence and redemption. What more do you want? I gave it 4 stars because it was a bit wordy at times. “Shut up and get on with it!”

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    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible

Wendig's work on this is amazing. Well written and paced with a story that seems as close as today's news. Plus a jaw-dropping twist he saved until the very final minutes. I did not see that coming!

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Wow

I have a hard time when writing reviews expressing how I truly feel. So I’ll say this, both narrators were A-1 amazing! This was a very captivating story and each narrator drew me in and carried me through this story so much so that I almost felt as though I knew each character personally and maybe even I could be a Shepard too. Great story, Great Narration! 10 stars all around!!

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