The Passage

Normally, I would begin this review with a summary and then go into what I liked or disliked about it. This time, I don't quite feel safe summarizing anything. Suffice to say, yes, this is a post-apocalyptic book about vampires. Yes, this is the first book in a series. It is horror, it is sci-fi, a lot of comparisons can be drawn between Cronin and Stephen King.. and yet? This is something entirely different.

Justin Cronin does not avoid the tropes of this genre, and in fact plays into them on several occasions... only to sidestep the stereotypical way of bringing it off and deliver something new and exciting. This is a book that you have to trust going into it. It constantly surprises, and every time I was tempted to put it down, it show more brought out something new to keep me thoroughly engaged. The pace is quick, and then it drags, lulling you into a false sense of security before excitement strikes again. In a lot of ways, it is a perfect horror novel.

Don't be dissuaded by the fact it is horror. Unlike the stereotype of this genre, the book is perfectly literary. It has something to say, and it does so with a distinct lack of pretension and bluntness. It never delves into the realm of inaccessible language or layered meanings, but rather, delivers on a more subtle scale. The book was well researched, well delivered, and is as respectable in its content as it is intimidating in its size.

I recommend this book one hundred percent to anyone who feels up to the challenge of its 766 pages. I recommend this book even to those who don't feel that they could read something of this length; this book is deceptive, and in the best way possible. This book has given vampires back their balls. show less

Is it possible in any conceivable universe that Justin Cronin did not read Stephen King’s The Stand before he wrote this? Or see the movie series “28 Days Later” and “28 Weeks Later?” No, I doubt it’s possible even in an alternate universe. Cronin has managed to combine the two, refashion the product to be suitable for Young Adult audiences, and spin it out to over 760 pages.

The book takes place some twenty years into the future. In brief, a team of scientists and U.S. military develop an experimental drug therapy out of a rare virus believed to “weaponize” human beings. To test the formula, they experiment on death row prisoners. After the first twelve inmates have undergone rather bizarre transformations, the lead show more scientist wants to use a child for the next iteration. Thus the choice for Subject Thirteen is Amy, a six-year-old girl who had been abandoned at a convent by a single mother.

The FBI agent sent to retrieve the thirteen subjects, Special Agent Brad Wolgast, balks at taking away a small child, and tries to escape with her. They are caught, of course, and returned to the top-secret Colorado bunker. But their future is uncertain: the “virals” as the once convicts-now vampire-zombies are now called, escape, break down the bunker, and go out into the world wreaking havoc.

The book resumes one hundred years later, and the reader gets a tour of the post-apocalyptic world that remains. One of the characters summarizes succinctly what it’s like in that world:

"Courage is easy, when the alternative is getting killed. It’s hope that’s hard.”

Discussion: The story is told from multiple points of view, and sometimes it takes a while to figure out who is talking. The book could have been abridged quite a bit without losing anything of consequence. There are some mysteries that are never resolved (although apparently a sequel is in the works). Oddly, we never really get to know Amy, who is the lynchpin of the whole book, not to mention, of the book’s universe.

Is The Passage better than post-apocalyptic books such as The Hunger Games or The Knife of Never Letting Go? I think The Passage just does not measure up to those books. But perhaps that’s not a fair comparison. Consider instead the series by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Life As We Knew It, The Dead And The Gone, and This World We Live In) which probably comes closer to The Passage in terms of the story line (e.g., massive kill-off of the population, and struggle for survival among the remainder). Certainly Cronin’s writing is much better, but otherwise I can’t really say I thought The Passage superior. And yet, I was not tempted to put it down in spite of its length. There’s also something about devoting all that time to characters that makes you miss them when the book is over.

What about this “passage?” What does the title mean? This is a question to which multiple answers are given throughout the book, some of which involve spoilers. But perhaps the most sensible answer is given right at the beginning of the story, when the lead scientist is sending an email to his friend about the virus project:

"When I ask myself why I should turn back now, what I have to go home to, I can’t think of a single reason….whatever happens, whatever I decide…I feel as if I’ve entered a new era of my life. What strange places our lives can carry us to, what dark passages.”

Another explanation comes in the form of one of the epigraphs in front of one of the divisions of the book:

"You who do not remember
Passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
Returns from oblivion returns
To find a voice.”

Louise Glück, “The Wild Iris”

And finally, we hear from Justin Cronin himself (in a New York Times article), who says:

"The vampire narrative deals with the fundamental question, the basic human question, and that is, what part of being human is defined by the fact that we’re mortal? If you got to be immortal, would you be trading away your humanity? It’s the fundamental question of what is death to being alive."

I take that to refer to the passage between mortality and immortality. Indeed that's a passage that pretty much defines the book.

Evaluation: Generally I love dystopic fiction, but I think the real world is scary enough without having to come up with zombie-vampire-bat-thingies. Thus, the book was gorier than I thought it would be and sillier than I had hoped it would be. Nevertheless it has some appealing characters with whom you want to spend your time. Too bad a large number of them get eaten.

Note: I am clearly in the minority on this one. This book is causing a sensation, and Ridley Scott has already paid $1.75 million for the film rights. show less

This book represents, in my opinion, a triumph of execution over concept. It reads like literary fiction. The physical descriptions are beautiful, or stark, or horrifying, exactly as required. The psychological depth of the characters is amazing. Yet the core of the plot is straight out of a B movie: a viral-borne “vampire” plague. And a thousand-year-old telepathic girl is the key to saving the world. I can easily imagine tellings of this story that would come off as completely hokey. Cronin’s telling is far too intelligent and thoughtful for that, and I found it completely captivating.

The genre is a bit hard to pin down: Fantasy, perhaps, although there is a bit too much science injected into the explanation of the virus to make show more that classification entirely comfortable. On the other hand, the effects of virus are too fantastic to make plausible science, beyond the B movie grade. And of course there are the psychic phenomena: the telepathy and also what appears to be precognition - not to mention the ambiguous suggestions that God may be involved. At the same time, there’s not enough creepiness for horror.

There is a great deal of very gruesome violence, although Cronin doesn’t exploit it. He gives us no more than what is needed to convey the shock and horror of what has occurred – or the relentless repetition of these horrors. It is a terribly dangerous world that Cronin has created. The book is not for the faint of heart, not just because of the violence it contains, but because Cronin makes you care about the characters, their struggling humanity. He evokes your sympathy even for minor character with serious flaws, and then as often as not, he kills them before they have a chance to find their way to resolution or redemption, or to more than barely taste the happiness they deserve. This is no more than realistic, of course, given the extravagant hazards of Cronin’s post-apocalyptic world. I just personally find it hard to watch.

“The Passage” (the reason for the title is not made clear) is the first book of a trilogy. The second, “The Twelve” (a title that makes perfect sense upon reading book 1) is already out, and the third is promised to appear soon, as I write this. Cronin writes with such assurance, and shows such a depth of perception, that I can’t doubt that these other two books are as brilliant as the first. The first one left me so emotionally drained, however, that I don’t believe I have the stamina to read more, although a part of me regrets that. The promise is out there that the world will ultimately be saved and that is enough for me, for now, without having to see in detail how it is achieved. show less

I don't usually care about the next big thing -- at least, not in adult fiction -- but I read so many positive reviews of this literary science fiction thriller that I decided to pick it up, even though it was supposedly about vampires.

This is a long book, but it reads fast, especially the first 200-300 pages, so I read it in a matter of days. Very long days, where I got a crick in my neck from trying to hold up the stupid thing (until I went ahead and bought it on the Kindle to save my eyes and my shoulder muscles). The vampires are not really vampires, just like the zombies in 28 Days Later are not really zombies -- though both use some of the familiar tropes, the monsters are not traditional, and they are scientifically explained show more (sort of) by an outbreak of a government-sanctioned, man-made virus. Everyone is comparing this to The Stand, and I can see it, especially with the vague, quasi-religious slant to some of the characters (their "calling"), but I don't think this has the same focus on good vs. evil (God vs. Satan) that I read into King's book. Maybe that will be developed more in the next book (which will probably also be 800 pages, something that makes me both happy and dismayed). I really think 28 Days Later is a better comparison, if a comparison must be made, especially with the focus on how people band together to survive the monsters but end up in conflict with other groups of survivors, which often ends with them destroying each other. Man's worst enemy is man and whatnot.

I was most invested in this book when Wolgast and Amy were on the scene, less so with everyone else -- though the nail-biting suspense remained for me whether I cared about the characters or not. I faltered when the narrative switched to new characters a hundred years after the initial outbreak, and faltered again after those characters split up multiple times (I was starting to get sick of holding on to the tension for one group of characters while I read about others), but the narratives wove together so well that I ultimately became absorbed in every one of their lives. You know it's something good when you sit down to read an hour or two and don't stop until 6 hours later because your eyes are falling out of your head from exhaustion.

I found the book creepy and compelling and foreboding and beautifully written (if bloated at times), and I especially liked the slow reveal of the monsters' true nature as the characters seek to survive and understand what they're up against. This is definitely a top read for me for 2010. show less

What with broken government, ecological disaster and economic collapese, it was nice to escape for awhile into some post-apocalyptic vampire fiction.

The first book of Cronin's planned trilogy is, first and foremost, a hell of a story. It almost seems like several books in one: it begins like a standard-issue thriller, with military scientists run amok and one sane Fed who tries to stop them from inflicting their experiments on a friendless little girl. Our military Frankensteins in this case have the bright idea of using a South American virus to create near-immortal beings who will presumably be the ultimate soldiers. Of course, the experimental beings escape and start spreading the virus all over country, creating a race of show more bloodthirsty, soulless "virals."

Suddenly the reader is tossed 100 years into the future, to a Colony of survivors from the virus, and the tone of the book shifts dramatically: certainly still full of suspense and menace, but tinged with a wistful sadness. We meet an entirely new cast of characters and grow to care about them as they embark on an almost Hobbit-like quest for the source of a mysterious radio transmission that they hope will lead them to other survivors. The characters' struggle with hope and despair was the core of the novel, for me, and the source of its power. I was scared by the virals, but haunted by the survivors' chronic grief and longing for a better world.

Book due is due out in 2012. I can't wait. show less

The Passage is very much the book of the moment, promising to be as successful as The DaVinci Code or Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. It’s a big, thick blockbuster that harks back directly to Stephen King’s The Stand, and it’s every bit as fun and scary, while also being exceptionally well-written. Vampires stalk the earth! But these aren’t your teenage sparkly Twilight vampires, these are savage, hungry beasties who... but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Amy Bellafonte, in a wrenching opening section, is abandoned by her mother in the care of some nuns. Unfortunately, Amy has come to the attention of some government scientists experimenting on condemned prisoners, and a pair of FBI agents are sent to retrieve her. show more Despite himself, one of the agents bonds with her and decides scientific and experiments and Amy are two things he doesn’t want to go together, so he takes matters into his own hand. Unfortunately for him, the organisation he works for has a long reach.

The Passage has it all! Drama! Pathos! Science gone mad! Underground lairs! A doomed world! Flawed heroes battling against hopeless odds! It’d all be hopelessly derivative and a bit boring if it weren’t for the fact that Cronin writes like an angel and knows his pulp fiction inside out. so despite the 700 plus page count, he keeps you hanging on every word, right to the bitter-sweet end.

This is epic, world-shaking adventure, and the first in a trilogy that promises to set the trend for blockbusting literary entertainment in the future. No doubt there will be a film version along shortly, but trust me, it won’t be as good as the book. Try it for yourself and see. You won’t be able to put it down. show less

Justin Cronin's "The Passage" reads like one story by three authors. Three entirely different authors. The story begins with an army bio-experiment going horribly wrong, eventually leading to widespread devastation. In the first part, you saw the grittiness of jail and felt the oppressive Texas summer heat. This can almost be a Cormac McCarthy novel or the first True Detective. Elements of magical realism are brought in with Sister Lacey and are used sparingly throughout the story. This story completely cuts off and another picks up quite a ways into the future. In the second portion, the story becomes a dystopian science-fiction tale with humanity's declining remnant living on and among the last civilization's debris. Mad Max with show more hordes of zombie Predators as the villains.This portion can be viewed as dry by some without much action, but I found the world-building elements interesting and well-imagined. THEN we have the third part.

The third part.

In the third part we have a Young Adult series grafted on to move the story forward with considerable action. Some of the original characters are brought back in and the loop is closed. While nowhere near as maudlin as other YA series like the Hunger Games or Twilight, and far better written, the Third Part doesn't have the same intensity as the first part despite containing most of the action. It should make a fine TV series, though. Part of my cynical nature says the book was written with either movie or TV in mind. Portions end a little too cleanly and Cronin becomes less likely to kill off or disappear any major characters.

I enjoyed reading this and will likely continue on to the next in the series. show less