A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Some things cannot be undone. There is no reset. But we as a people can be smarter, better, and more focused on keeping it at bay. All of us carry this responsibility.”
A few weeks back, I asked some fellow readers if they would read a pandemic book during this pandemic. Many said no, but quite a lot said yes, so I decided to find the pandemic book I’ve heard the most about. A Beginning At The End.
Turns out, A Beginning At The End isn’t just a pandemic book, it is a refreshing, innovative and hopeful look at what we as humanity can be after a pandemic. Poignant, touching, beautiful, it is everything I wanted to read right now, but didn’t know I needed. Somehow Chen has turned a story about a pandemic into a story about family, survival and hope, showing us how humanity will prevail if we don’t give in to panic or fear, because we have each other. And we’re all family these days.
The story follows four survivors six years after a global pandemic wiped out most of the planet’s population. The survivors are rebuilding the country, split between self-governing cities, hippie communes and wasteland gangs. But when there are reports of another outbreak, the four survivors must face everything they lost, and everything they still stand to lose.
This isn’t your end-of-the-world, zombies-coming-to-get-you, post-apocalyptic book. Instead, it’s a beautifully written, mesmerizing look at the world moving from dystopian collapse to a fresh start. And what it means to be human.
If you’re feeling hopeless or despair about the state of the world or humanity right now, I highly recommend A Beginning At The End. This is meaningful, hopeful sci-fi with heart.
Yes, please! 😉
I am interested!