In Wanderers, we followed a series of characters spread across the USA an aging, hedonistic rock star, a disgraced former CDC doctor, a pastor, and the teenage daughter of a farmer. While Wanderers shared some DNA with King’s masterpiece (not exaggerating, it’s a masterpiece) it was very far from imitation and with its follow up, Wayward, Wendig shows just how right he was that his story would not be overawed by the shadow cast by The Stand. If Chuck Wendig ever had this crisis of faith in his idea, he did not abandon it and I am extremely grateful for this. I, like many writers I know, have had that moment while working on an idea when the thought strikes that it’s a bit similar to another story…maybe more than a bit similar…maybe more than a bit similar…maybe I’ve ripped it off…and just like that, the idea is abandoned. No, the reason I know Chuck Wendig is braver is because at some point in the inception of his 2019 novel, Wanderers, he must have considered the behemoth of Stephen King’s The Stand and gone, “My pandemic horror can hold its own here”. This isn’t because we’ve both faced off against some Lovecraftian entity and I ran screaming while he fought it off-but for the record, I would run screaming.
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