title: Summer of the Apocalypse
author:  James Van Pelt 
description: After a deadly virus annihilates most of the world's population, 15-year-old Eric undertakes a perilous trek across a devastated Colorado landscape to find his missing father. Forging through a wasteland of abandoned autos and dead bodies, Eric survives crazed looters, wildfires, and a hangman's noose before joining a ragtag community of fellow survivors. Six decades later, after watching his brethren fall prey to illiteracy and a scavenger lifestyle, Eric embarks on another journey through a vastly transformed America, with the objective of rescuing lost knowledge from an abandoned library. His adversaries this time include wolves, feral children, and brutal survivalists. His encounters with the nastier side of human nature paradoxically provoke recognition of humanity's inherent goodness and give him hope for the inevitable renewal of civilization. Van Pelt's first novel is a solidly written, if somewhat routine, contribution to apocalyptic fiction, whose redeeming qualities arise from Van Pelt's deft subversion of contemporary, disaster-driven fears to forge a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. <i>Carl Hays</i><br><i>Copyright &#169; American Library Association. All rights reserved</i>
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  ![Cover](images/cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Summer of the Apocalypse
  
  
    
  
  
  ### James Van Pelt
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When a plague wipes out most of humanity, fifteen-year-old Eric sets out to
  find his father. Sixty years later, Eric starts another long journey in an
  America that has long since quit resembling our own, but there are shadows
  everywhere. Shadows of what the world once was, and shadows from Eric’s past.
  Blood bandits, wolves, fire, feral children, and an insane militia are only a
  few of the problems Eric faces.
  
  
  Set in Denver, Colorado and the western foothills, Van Pelt’s first novel is
  both a coming-of-age tale, and a story of an old man’s search for hope in the
  midst of disaster. Eric’s two adventures lead him through a slice of modern
  America and into the depths of one man’s heart.
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## James Van Pelt
  
  
  ## SUMMER OF THE APOCALYPSE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Chapter One
  
  
  ## SAD NEWS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Eric wished he could enjoy the warm August sun that