I'm not sure why but going into this, i expected more of a survivalist theme for some reason. I found the threads of possibility woven throughout to be a little too plausible than I was comfortable with. I like my dystopia to feel a little more far-fetched. Set amidst the time frame of our own pandemic, and today being almost at the point where the bulk of the story takes place, I couldn't quite separate myself from "our history" vs a fictional dystopian future.

And in case you think this is a poor review, it is not. I just personally had to remind myself of some of those points while reading and focus on the characters and their actions and emotions. When exploring the novel as a picture of intertwining personal relationships in a society on the cusp of rebuilding and finding normalcy, it hits some heartwarming notes. It's not fast-paced, but it worked as a gentle character-driven story of found family when compared to my hangups with it being classified as a post-apocalyptic dystopian work of spec fiction.

The Review

This was a truly unique and gripping sci-fi dystopian thriller! The timing of this novel’s release was hard not to see of course, but what the author did so splendidly was not focus the entire novel on the actual “apocalypse”, but instead on the society that came after an epidemic that took out a large portion of the world’s population. The unique perspective, narratively speaking, highlights humanity’s persistence and strength in the face of adversity and overwhelming odds, even with the mental and physical tolls each of these characters are struggling with.

What the author really did a great job of was balancing the ever-shifting mythos of this dystopian world with the emotional depths of each character’s growth throughout the narrative. As a fan of Stephen King’s “The Stand”, I’ve always felt that this balance was necessary for a story about the end of the world to really feel emotionally connected to the reader, and the author perfectly hits the nail on the head with this read.

The Verdict

A masterful, heartfelt, and entertaining read, author Mike Chen’s “A Beginning At the End” is a must-read novel for fans of the sci-fi and dystopian thriller genres. The engaging way the author connected his characters and both the internal and external struggles each character faced made this novel become an instant hit. Be sure to grab your copy today!

this was an enjoyable reading the characters were great and I really liked the plot going on in the book. I look forward to more from the author.

This is, at least in theory, a dystopia set in San Francisco, after a flu epidemic has wiped out about two thirds of the population. However, it's a big stretch to call it a post-apocalyptic novel, as its real focus are individual stories of a runaway pop-star, a father and his daughter and a wedding planner.
I found it odd that, even if most of the population was wiped out by this plague, somehow the society seems to continue functioning quite normal: there's still internet, cell phone service, flight travel, restaurants, etc
I think this would appeal to people who don't care about the dystopian/post-apocalyptic side of it or those who are willing not to look too closely at it.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

A Beginning At The End
By: Mike Chen

REVIEW ☆☆☆
Forever I have loved dystopian apocalypse stories, and the irony of reading about a pandemic during a pandemic is not lost on me. But, A Beginning At The End didn't feel like the end of the world at all. The elements of despair, hopelessness, danger and the struggle to survive were absent. This story was more like a pandemic that killed so many was not a big deal and easily forgotten. So, the pandemic apocalypse was a no go in this book. The necessary everything needed to make this work did not work. I wanted to like this story so much, but I could not get past the holes in the narrative. A miss for me!

The current crop of apocalyptic sci-fi books shows clearly that fiction is a form of thought experiment and that science fiction is really about the present time. I’ve got at least 4 books stacked by my chair that I’ve had to put down because the authors picked pandemic for their apocalypse and I don’t want to read about them. Chen was coming to the Tucson Festival of Books so I started reading his book with its hopeful title in March, having forgotten—if I knew—that he picked pandemic, too. I was able to keep reading this one. Chen’s book centers around people, not ideas, and that’s why it’s readable and hopeful in the current situation.
A decade 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. The poor, as always, are stuck in one place or the other. Tensions are rising again, along with the threat of new outbreaks. The plot centers around Moira, a former child star voice artist who’s been hiding from her domineering stage dad for years; Rob, a single dad who has to keep proving to social services that he deserves custody of his daughter Sunny; and Krista, an event planner with a big heart and radical friends. Their challenges are both personal and communal, with society in such flux, but people of good heart usually find a way to achieve their dreams, especially with a little help from friends—and they do.
There’s definitely a difference between the newer sci-fi authors and the Boomers; Chen is definitely new school. The real feat that Chen pulls off is to embed his hopefulness in an engaging plot, with likable characters, and to keep the politics offstage and out of total war, through compromise. Usually in these books there are clear winners and losers; Chen has written a way into the future that is workable and believable because the only thing that works in our lived reality is compromise: nobody wins everything but nobody loses everything, either. If only the politicians would quit living in the fantasy worlds of total domination and move into the world where the rest of humanity resides. Books like this remind us of what’s really possible. Recommended. (Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the EARC to review.)

I must admit that I requested this title and was approved for it some time ago. When it actually came around next in my reading list, wouldn't you know that an actual pandemic was hitting the globe. So, I'm not going to let how long it took me to get through this book affect my star rating of it. I had to read this book in pieces because the story was hitting too close to home in the real world. That being said, I hold that as a compliment to the author of this book. For someone who hasn't experienced a global pandemic before, the world-building of this story seemed much more realistic right now.

The story revolves around the intertwining lives of four citizens in the aftermath of a pandemic in the United States. MGS, as it's called, has wiped out large portions of the globe while decimating the infrastructure across the nation. We enter the character's lives a few years after the pandemic has scoured the country. Rob, Sunny, Moira, and Krista all live in San Francisco, one of the few larger Metros that helped rebuild society after the End of the World. All grappling with personal trauma in their lives that occurred pre-pandemic and during the events of the pandemic itself, these characters learn from each other what it means to really live in a world that has forever changed on a massive scale.

For a pandemic story, I very much enjoyed how the author built the setting. He gave you enough context clues to inform you, but didn't spend half a chapter explaining a function of this world that doesn't really add too much to the story. For the most part, it was a good balance. If you are looking for a pandemic book that focuses on killing zombies or surviving in a desert wasteland fighting off maniacal scavengers, this book is not exactly your fit. But, if you want a calmer look at a pandemic focused on the actual relationships and daily struggles that characters have in enduring and functioning in a post-pandemic world that has somewhat righted itself, this is for you. This is a character-driven story, not a plot-driven story.

All the pandemic or dystopian readers out there, this may be an interesting take on the genre for you to try if you want to glimpse an oft-neglected view of the daily functioning of a "normal" life after such events. With the focus of this story, it also makes it a plausible read for those not usually interested in dystopian type stories as well. I gave this title three stars. I enjoyed the journey of the characters. I felt like it had an interesting take of focusing on the relationships of the characters and letting the pandemic be the background of how these relationships intertwine. Considering this was read during an actual global pandemic, it was indeed a little too eerily familiar right now. Good read.

I would like to thank NetGalley for an e-copy of this book.

I have a real soft spot for apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic thrillers – The Stand by Stephen King is one of my favourite novels and If Darkness Takes Us by Brenda Marie Smith was one of my favourite books last year. It is true that it’s a slightly over saturated genre but there are some really good stories to be told within it. It took me ages to write this review and I’m not really sure why – I finished the book ages ago - 4 months ago in fact and well before publication day. I guess it didn’t really leave an impression on me - I didn’t really find myself enjoying or being moved by it in any particular way. I had to read a few other reviews to remember what actually happened in it.

Usually post-apocalyptic books are stories of survival or stories of the outbreak itself, or stories of corrupt governments taking control. That isn’t really the case here, a flu wipes out a reasonably large chunk of the population and life kind of carries on around it (I realise there’s a certain irony saying that sitting at home as my job and industry is currently wiped out by the Coronavirus!) The thing is it doesn’t really make the book stand out particularly well, there’s a bit of odd government laws thrown in and some survivalist groups outside of the main cities but they aren’t really explored. I didn’t even really understand whether they’d had 1 or 2 outbreaks or whether it was just in flashbacks. I didn’t really feel anything for any of the characters either – Moira irritated me, I hated that Rob was lying to his daughter and Krista just felt very self-serving. It was all a bit too long and with not enough action to keep my interest.

Overall, A Beginning at the End had a boring plot that really didn’t need the dystopian setting that the author had half-heartedly thrown it into. Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin Mira for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen is a post apocalyptic science fiction fantasy. This story follows a few of the survivors left in the world after a plague wiped out several billion people in the world by changing the point of view between them.

When the world was first battling a virus that was quickly spreading throughout the world and taking many people Moira was a young teen pop star that had spent her life controlled by her father. One night as she’s performing the crowd becomes chaotic as the news has hit the virus had come to their town so Moira took the opportunity to slip into the chaos and run from her father and stardom.

As the years pass a huge portion of the world’s population is overtaken by the virus leaving only a billion or so alive. Among the survivors is Rob who is now a single father to his daughter Sunny and Krista who is an event planner who just happens to be planning the wedding of the once former popstar Moira who now has a new identity. These four survivors find their paths crossing in the new world as they all try to navigate and survive.

Now, the one thing that makes this post apocalyptic read stand out to me the most was the fact that we don’t have a wasteland of a world left but what seemed like normally functioning cities with cell phones, restaurants, air travel, and on and on. However, while I enjoyed watching the characters in their “new” normal and how they came together I did think that things going on in the world building would often contradict things we were told if you sit back and think too hard about the setting. For example cities are fully functioning but where does the food and other goods come from? When farming is mentioned it seems like a hippie commune supporting itself, not the masses. So basically in the end while I found the story enjoyable to an extent I also questioned it leaving me to rate it at 3.5 stars.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

A Beginning At The End by Mike Chen is a tale of humanity's survival following a slatewiper pandemic that killed off over two-thirds of the population. Those left either live in Metros (remnants of large cities), or out in 'Reclaimed Territory' (more like homesteaders, reclaiming areas away from the Metros). There are piratical gangs that prey on travellers too. Nearly a decade after the initial outbreak, a new evolution of the virus is threatening another pandemic.

In the midst of this, peoples' lives go on. Rob struggles to prove he is 'socially normal' or risks losing his daughter, Sunny. Moira has doubts about her upcoming wedding, that her deepest secret may be revealed, and her overbearing father may find her. Rob and Moira become acquainted with each other through Krista, the event planner working with Moira on her wedding. As the threat of a new pandemic begins to loom over them all, each begins to grow and change, learning who they really are, who they can trust, and what they value most. Each learns to accept their past and forgive themselves and others.

I adored Sunny! She's a very intelligent child, and certainly can be sure of herself. That leads her to some trouble later, as she's determined to find Krista's doctor uncle who she thinks has made/can make her mother better. She serves as a glue that begins binding this small group together. Her relationship with her da is great, and Sunny quickly wins over Moira and even Krista. I liked that, despite this being a post-apocalypse story, it's very much more people driven. It's just these few characters and how they are coping, as opposed to the much broader, less personal scope I've found in other post-apocalyptic fiction I've read. Not that I dislike those types of stories, but seeing the more personal impact was nice.

I felt the pacing was slow at times, especially for the first third to half of the book, but it wasn't a deterrent to me. Once they have to find Sunny, things really pick up, and we get a broader look at how society is functioning after the initial pandemic. I quite enjoyed visiting the campus reclaimed territory run by Narc, one of Moira's friends. I admit, I was confused by the MoJo story thread, as it really seemed minor key, overall. It didn't detract from the overall tale though!

Recommended, especially if you enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction!

***Many thanks to the Netgalley & Harlequin/Mira for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I already convinced one library book club to read this book this year. Probably more to come! I loved the characters and how they developed as a result of the epidemic.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the early copy!

I decided to put down this novel because I did not connect with the writing style.

Some things I loved: The relationship between Sunny and her father, the relationship between Krista and Sunny, and the bad-assery of Moira. The writing from Mike Chen was as wonderful as his previous novel that I read. He adds humor in the perfect places, and heartwarming notes when it seems right.
Some things I didn't love: The first half of the book dragged for me. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I really wasn't into it. I put the book down for about a month then returned to it. Once I was about halfway through, I began to enjoy it more. I didn't love this post=pandemic setting. It sort of felt like the world was in safe-mode like a computer is when an error has occurred. I guess that is actually how it was supposed to have felt, but it wasn't my ideal story. That isn't the author's issue, just mine. Maybe that's why this story picked up for me once the threat of another outbreak really came into view? I also though that the Mojo aspect of the story felt completely unnecessary. Moira was a compelling enough character without the added storyline of her Dad searching for her post outbreak, and her hiding from him.
All in all, I enjoyed this book.

Thank you for the advanced copy! All opinions are my own. :)

A new take on post apocalyptic fiction and I was all aboard. If you liked Station Eleven or want to see the building of a utopian society then this is the book for you.

The world building after the major medical event is excellent and as we fall in love with the characters of Rob and his daughter Sunny we are able to see the vast emotions at play between the two of them. We look thru the eyes of four survivors and their experiences of this rebuilt society and come to care for them greatly. There is a secret there waiting in the wings and as it is exposed we watch how the foundations crumble or becomes more firm for each one of them.

We see the will to carry on and to create. To make somewhere to love and live and Chen makes this a beautiful book. I highly recommend it.

A Beginning at the End
Mike Chen
MIRA, January 2020
ISBN 978-0-7783-0934-5
Hardcover

From the publisher—

An emotional story about what happens after the end of the world, A BEGINNING AT THE END is a tale of four survivors trying to rebuild their personal lives after a literal apocalypse. For commercial readers who enjoy a speculative twist, or their sci-fi with a heavy dose of family and feelings.

Six years after a global pandemic, it turns out that the End of the World was more like a big pause. Coming out of quarantine, 2 billion unsure survivors split between self-governing big cities, hippie communes, and wasteland gangs. When the father of a presumed-dead pop star announces a global search for his daughter, four lives collide: Krista, a cynical event planner; Moira, the ex-pop star in hiding; Rob, a widowed single father; and Sunny, his seven-year-old daughter. As their lives begin to intertwine, reports of a new outbreak send the fragile society into a panic. And when the government enacts new rules in response to the threat, long-buried secrets surface, causing Sunny to run away seeking the truth behind her mother’s death. Now, Krista, Rob, and Moira must finally confront the demons of their past in order to hit the road and reunite with Sunny — before a coastal lockdown puts the world on pause again.

Most post-apocalyptic stories tend to give a wide view of the world after the critical event but Mike Chen chose to focus on just a few people, a compelling tactic. As much as I love PA, and I really do, it’s sometimes a little difficult to form a connection with the characters but that’s not the case here.

When the survivors of the pandemic begin to emerge into a new and unfamiliar, often frightening, society, their initial focus is on figuring out what to do now. It’s only a few years into our own future and that gives the story an immediacy that’s more than a little nervewracking, especially with the current news about the wuhan coronavirus. Yes, humanity is vulnerable to any number of possible end of the world as we know it scenarios but Mr. Chen chooses to look at the rebuilding of what we had, hence the very effective title.

Just four characters are the core of this story and, at first, only the father and his young daughter are connected. Later, fate brings them together with two quite disparate women; watching these four first form a tenuous friendship and then gradually become a semblance of family gives hope for their future. It also gives us hope that, given a similar deadly crisis, humanity will survive.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, January 2020.

When I started this book, I had no idea how much I would end up loving it. While it is classified as a science fiction/post apocalyptic tale, it's actually that and so much more. Because I found A Beginning at the End to have a lot of heart.

The book is set in the future, six years after a global flu pandemic wiped out much of the world. The nation is now divided between cities trying to rebuild and wastelands where those who don't trust the government and want to live by their own rules can be found. Chen's story takes us to San Francisco where we meet our cast of individual characters and during the course of the novel, we see how much their lives are destined to intersect.

We have Moira, who before the collapse was a pop sensation known as Mojo. She has lived in hiding for the past six years in order to stay off her father's radar, as he was determined to make her a star whether she wanted to or not. Then we have Krista. Krista is an event planner who has been hired to plan Moira's wedding to Frank. Krista desperately needs the money because in this world, you have to make payments and buy licenses in order to stay in the rebuilding cities. And finally we have Rob and his daughter Sunny. Rob works for an internet news agency, which has seen it's better days since the intranet has basically collapsed, and his wife Elena died during the initial wave of the pandemic - something he has yet to share with his seven year old daughter.

So pretty much the new government system is obsessed with familial ties. It believes that the only way for the future to have any hope is with the children, so they overstep their bounds and encourage things like procreation, adoption of the many orphaned by the pandemic, and making sure the existing children are adjusting. Rob has been closed off and going through the motions of life but when the government starts to question his ability to raise his daughter, he ends up being helped by a ragtag cast of people.

A Beginning at the End is primarily a character driven tale. Sure, the reader learns a lot about the fall of civilization as we currently know it, and learns of all the scientific advancements and technological breakdowns that have lead San Francisco to its current state. But first and foremost, it's a story about people and what they do to survive and it does a find job at displaying that family isn't just the people you are biologically related to.

It was hard to have a favorite character throughout this book as I really enjoyed them all. If I had to pin one down though it would be Krista. I loved he cynical attitude and really enjoyed seeing her open her heart to Sunny. I also enjoyed the scenes with Moira/Mojo and Rob as it was clear they made a connection early on, despite her engagement to Frank.

If you love science fiction, or even if you are like me and are still dipping your feet into the genre, A Beginning at the End is definitely a book you should consider picking up. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This story was not what I was expecting. It's a post-apocalyptic story about multiple people in different walks of life, and how they are dealing with the world after a world-ending event occurred. It has a lot of commentary on society. I loved how the story really focused on each of the individual characters and how contrasting their perspectives were.

*** Blog Tour ***

Mike Chen's novel Here and Now and Then was a family drama mixed with science fiction. A Beginning at the End is several family dramas in the midst of a 2025 post-apocalyptic San Francisco. The book is about individuals reckoning with the past and an action adventure story that leaves a neat, packaged ending. The book has a very clear message about family – the one we are born with and the one we choose – that resonates.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/01/a-beginning-at-end.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

Something about this just didn't work for me as much as Chen's other novel. I think it was probably the headspace i was in at the time, which was rushed and not as conducive to enjoying this time of novel. Might go back to it at another time though!

An apocalyptic event brings four strangers together in an international reboot after the MGS virus has decimated the human population. But, true to its title, this book is about rebuilding and recreating everything from new identities, to a new normal that resembles something like future progress.
Mike Chen has crafted a gripping story that highlights personal dramas against the backdrop of the greater threat of a deadly pandemic; where strangers become friends, and friends become family in order to survive. Not your ordinary end-of-the-world tale, this book had me engaged from the first chapter to the last.