The Passage
Ratings248
Average rating3.9
This is a great book and a great setup to what should be a quality trilogy. It's an improvement on The Stand, which Cronin has said directly inspired it. It's also a rehash of The Stand, with repeated archetypes and events (beyond just the viral apocalypse). I docked it a star because while I thought the ending was appropriate, it frustrated me because the whole ~800 pages are really just setup. Kind of like reading the Fellowship of the Ring then having to just wait an unknown amount of time for the rest of the story.
I really, really liked this book. To say more might spoil it and I think it's best enjoyed without knowing too much going in.
I should mention that I definitely wouldn't file this as a “vampire” book. It's totally not.
This was a fantastic book. The characters are very fleshed out as the book goes on. There are some loose ends that you want to find out what happened. The time jump in the book was a bit off kilter but later it made some sense why the author did that. I still would like to have that story of the in between time. This is a very different take on the vampire story. Being a made made virus. You could almost see it happening in real life. I'm looking forward to reading the next book. There are a few questions raised that I would have liked answered. 1)Amy is supposed to be almost 100 but she seems to be only about 15 years old in appearance. Does she age slowly and then stopped? 2) what happened to Amy in those years. She was 6 when she was left alone. How did she survive? 3) Why was the doctor developing the virus in the first place and why would you want a super soldier that had criminal backgrounds.
Definitely the most fun novel I've read this year. Nothing profound, but a ton of fun if you're into the genre(s).
[b:The Stand 149267 The Stand Stephen King https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1213131305s/149267.jpg 1742269] with vampiresones that glow, but not sparkletwelve special snowflakes.
A big DNF.
I struggled on to nearly 40%, with an increasing loss of interest in the story, when yet another section of clichéd backstory prompted a desperate urge to skip pages.
For me, a desire to skip pages means it is time to read a different book.
What embarrasses me is that I read nearly 40% of this book. It reads like a classic writing school idea of how to write a book - multiple story threads (tick), new character new backstory (tick), introduce key past event(s) in character‘s life which will be used later to explain behaviour or purpose in life (tick). I just don't think it is any good.
The cover describes The Passage as an epic and it's definitely not false advertising. It covers many years and many ideas to bring an original take on a post-apocalyptic world. Definitely worth a read!
Başlangıçtaki havasını ve temposunu ilerleyen sayfalarda koruyamıyor maalesef. Tek solukta okunacak bir kitap değil ama devamını okumaya niyetli miyim? Niyetliyim.
کتاب خیلی خوبی بود و علیرغم قطور بودن، نتونستم زمین بزارمش و زود تموم شد. منتظرم ببینم ادامه ماجرا چی میشه.
A good read for doing loft work and moving house. By that I mean that I was able to tune out and tune back in without really missing too much. Enjoyable but forgettable.
I enjoyed the majority of it, although at times I found it disjointed - as though the author was trying to tell too many stories at the same time. It could have been a lot shorter. But still good. I'll continue the series.
This was my third time reading ‘The Passage' and I still enjoyed it as much as the first time. I'm not quite sure why that is.I'm a sucker for survival stories, anyway (if you'll excuse the pun), so that is already a huge plus.
Blood-sucking vampire super-soldiers - virals - created by man, have made the human race all but extinct. There are just a few pockets of humanity trying to survive. After almost one hundred years of terror the virals' behaviour starts to change. They realise they have nearly exhausted their food supply and they have to reduce the attacks on the survivors giving them time to multiply but also giving them time to fight back.
On the surface this is a horror story about survival but it is more than that. It is a tale of love in all its forms: husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister. Each time I read it I see more and that for me makes a cracking good story.
Not your typical vampire story at all. This is a hefty book, with lots of different characters and narratives. It unfolds puzzle piece by puzzle piece, which made putting it down each night fairly difficult. With so many characters in a book, it'd be easy to gloss over some of them, but Cronin gives each one depth and even evokes sympathy for some of the criminals and monsters.
In the end, the book is about so much more than monsters or government conspiracies. It's about survival, humanity, hope beyond all odds, and other typical post-apocalyptic themes. Yet Cronin made these themes feel new.
Since it's the first book in a trilogy, it of course ends with a cliffhanger, and a pretty big open question about who Peter really is (or should I know this and I missed something?). I hope we get to read more about the colonists in the next book, before their apparent demise comes about.
I loved this book and am dying for the sequel. Vampires, post-apocolyptic United States, supernatural powers, girls saving the world – too much good stuff all wrapped up in one book.
Gave up on it. Got a little long and weird. I liked how it started, but then around the end of the first third of the book, it sort of changed flavor, and I stopped caring.
Contains spoilers
I was intimidated at the beginning because of the multiple stories and scenes going on but once it all came together it was magical. I instantly liked Brad, but my approval grew more when he was debating taking Amy and leaving Doyle at the carnival. Everything changed once Richards started shooting people. Following the characters along their journeys was a rollercoaster of emotions, but in the end I'm glad there are two more books in this series. Time seemed to fly by in this book! It made me think about the things I take for granted such as light and daytime. Overall, a great read.
Finally finished this gi-normous book!
I'm still disappointed in the transition that takes place near the middle. The author spent the first 250 pages building a really exciting story, just to drop me in the middle of some boring town with relatively boring characters! I then spent an agonizing 150 pages reading about this boring town before reaching the point where the two stories start to tie together. After that point, I began to enjoy the book again, but I never got back to that stay-up-all-night-to-read-this-awesome-book feeling again.
I won't rush out to get the next book, but I can't swear that I won't pick it up at the library down the road ...
Cronin has to be the master of character development. I don't care how little a character's role is in a book you are going to know the whole back story of that characters life. I love vampire stories and this was a cool adaptation of that. Can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy
Very quickly into the book you realise that Justin Cronin must be a big fan of Stephen King. If this book does not remind you of “The Stand” I really don't know what will. Sadly, the book is never able to achieve even close to the tightness or storytelling capability of that masterpiece. The science is not explained very well and neither is the explanation on how it resulted in the post apocalyptic future. The book could probably have been saved with the 100 year leap that takes place in its midst but its this leap that makes it even more difficult to read with too many characters being introduced and more confusion being added. Thats where I gave up the ghost. This Passage was more than I could take!
I have no qualms about giving a rating of five stars to “The Passage.” Justin Cronin's writing is on par with Stephen King. In fact, “The Passage” in some sense can be compared to King's “The Stand.” But some of the plotline also reminds me of Max Brooks' “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War,” since parts of the book take place in a far future time looking back to events as referenced in one of the main character's diaries. This is not a quick read and will take a commitment of time to complete the book; however it is well worth it. Cronin unwinds the story slowly, making sure to cover every detail completely. The reader gets to know and comes to care about the characters and their struggle for survival. Similar in theme to many modern day horror fiction tales, a viral apocalypse is mistakenly unleashed upon the world by a covert military lab in the western United States. When the infected escape the lab, a growing carnivorous horde of monstrous vampire-like mutated humans is set free that will bring modern civilization to an end, leaving the dwindling number of the human race to seek survival in any way possible. The story picks up around a century later and the reader is introduced to the core group of protagonists living in a California sanctuary; a sanctuary harassed by virals by night and whose days are numbered, as the supply of electricity to maintain the warding nighttime perimeter searchlights will eventually fail. As tensions rise within the sanctuary the small core group leaves on a dangerous quest to find the source of a mysterious radio signal in the Colorado mountains. With them will travel a strange ageless girl, Amy, who after approaching the sanctuary had been mistakenly wounded by one of the guards. With her recuperation it is discovered that she has the ability of telepathic communication and seems to have some mental connection with the virals as well. The reader follows the small group through their trials and tribulations as they fight to reach their goal and possible answers to the survival of the human race; some will not survive the ordeal. This is the first book in “The Passage” trilogy but can be read as a stand-alone story if the reader so chooses.
1st read: 6/23/2010 - 7/16/2010
2nd read: 3/11/2013 - 4/4/2013
3rd read: - 5/1/2018 - 5/19-2018
It's an updated vampire story from a literary writer fulfilling his daughter's wish for a hero in the shape of a little girl. It kicks off strong. Cronin reminds me of early Stephen King and just nails the “American” voice. The small towns and the people in them. The highway gas stations, roadside diners and the idea of space. (I'm totally grabbing The Stand after I finish The Twelve.)
Cronin jumps post-apocalypse and falters with sci-fi tropes like the new patois of a fallen America. Flyers for “frack”, gaps for pants. And he fumbles around for a suitable name for the death-row inmates, turned military experiment gone horribly awry (natch). Smokes, dopeys, virals, dracs, glowsticks - anything other than vampires ..although there is a nice nod to Dracula.
Big, chunky read perfect for the winter break that led me right into the next book.