Fever

This took over my top spot in my favorite genre (post apocalyptic/pandemic) over The Stand and One Second After. Hard to do. This book has it all, even a gut wrenching mind boggling murder mystery. Had a ton of Road Warrior/Mad Max vibes as well which kept the pace at break neck. The amount of new information and knowledge for rebuilding a society up from its most medieval bases was fascinating. Meyer can write with the best Pulitzer winners out there. This book crosses so many genre and it kills me that more people don’t know of it. Everyone I recommend it too comes back to me with that blown away , thank you so much look on their face. My favorite read three years running. Also check out his thriller/detective novels, especially Trackers which is a new series streaming.

A mysterious illness swept across the world, killing off 95% of the population. Months after the disaster peaked, 13 year old Nico Storm and his father, Willem, drive across the blighted landscape of South Africa, trying to survive in a new and terrifying world. Coming to a small town with hydroelectric power equipment still intact, Nico’s father dreams of creating an ideal, rational society out of the ashes of the old world. The community grows and so do its enemies. Loyalty, honor, and optimism must wage a war against fascism, zealotry, and violence. This is an epic book, as the post-apocalyptic genre lends itself to. The book spans years, from Nico and Willem’s first days scavenging, through to the development and success of the community that they establish. The book’s true focus is not necessarily on the post apocalyptic world, but rather on the nature of humankind itself. The book is written from Nico’s perspective, and focuses on the defining moment of his life: the murder of his father. By unwinding the story of the post-fever world and the development of a utopian community, we unravel the events which led to Willem Storm’s assassination. This is a very human novel. There are no monsters or mutants here to provide danger, simply people. In that regard, the book strongly reminds me of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. The tension and suspense come not from creepy-crawlies out to eat our protagonists, but the very very scary question about what will triumph in a global catastrophe. Will “the better angels of our nature” win the day, or will they fall to the petty evilness that lurks in the human psyche? I think it is this question which makes the post-apocalyptic genre so compelling. Can we put our faith in human nature? This book was well written and grand in scale. The South African setting provided a new point of view for me over here in the United States. Anyone with a love for post-apocalyptic tales should check out this book. An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.