Last Exit by Max Gladstone

 

They met in college.  Each of them had come to college thinking they wouldn't fit in, as they hadn't fit in growing up.  But they found each other and formed a group that would have lifelong connections.  Zelda was a Southern girl from a small rural fundamentalist town.  She found Sal, a brash Brooklyn girl and they fell in love.  Ramon and Ish were roommates and best friends.  Sarah was the most traditional of the group and kept them grounded.

The five found a secret about the universe and hit the road to save the world.  They found alternate universes and fought the rot that was threatening ours.  But at the end, Sal took a step too far and was lost in an alternate world.  

It's ten years later.  Zelda has never left the road, crisscrossing the country, hoping to find a way to get Sal back and repairing the rot where she could.  She finally realizes that she can't do this journey by herself and calls the others back together along with Sal's sixteen year old cousin June who insists she come along to find her cousin.  But the trip is perilous with horrors in other alts and a new enemy, The Man In The Cowboy Hat.  He tracks the group and its unclear what he wants but clear that he intends to get it.  Will the group be successful this time?

This is a magnificent American road trip.  The relationship between the characters is heart sustaining.  Zelda is faithful to her first love and determined to do whatever it takes to be reunited with her, no matter the price she will have to pray.  The others have moved on in life, with professions like doctor and engineer but know they left something undone in their past.  They come together to save Sal but more importantly to save the world.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  It may be Max Gladstone's best work and that's saying a lot.