By the Feet of Men

Grant Price

Cosmic Egg Books (SEP 1) Softcover $18.95 (344pp) 978-1-78904-145-3

Grant Price’s By the Feet of Men takes place in a post-apocalyptic future. Part adventure tale, part dystopian novel, it’s an immersive story about survival and how the notion of the future keeps people going.

Climate change and other disasters have made life on Earth precarious. In this new world, Cassady and his partner Ghazi are Runners, transporting crucial goods through valuable terrain. With water, fuel, and food in short supply, every run carries risks, especially since religious fanatics, cannibals, and rivals litter the landscape.

One assignment leads Cassady and Ghazi to a site where other Runners are also camped. They discover that the teams were brought together for an important mission. A group of scientists have developed technology that could restore the world to its state before the Change, but a deadly illness has infected their hidden location, and evil forces are trying to eliminate them.

Cassady, Ghazi, and the other Runners form a convoy to bring medicine through the wreck of Europe and the Alps region, which is controlled by the totalitarian group known as the Koalition. The convoy faces many obstacles, including from each other, as they try to give humanity a shot at fixing what it broke.

Price’s world building is gradual and expert. The book opens with Cassady and Ghazi on the road, and other details fill in as the story progresses. The destruction of the world is relayed in snippets, fleshed out with examples of people reacting to natural disasters in a way that makes their situations worse. The characters, rather than the dystopia itself, drive the story.

By the Feet of Men is a future-focused adventure with meaningful individual and global stakes.