The Passage

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$12.99
Date Created :
Aug 26, 2010 20:51:36

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.

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±1±: Best Buy This may be a true vacation reading endeavor. I took this on over the course of a week while visiting Lake Tahoe this summer. I am thankful for the Kindle (not a shameless plug)after seeing the book sitting on the shelf of the bookstore. This is a book that could put you over weight maximum in checked baggage if you decide to pack it.

It is easy to be completely engrossed for the first 2/3 rd's of the novel. Characters are well developed and I felt the connection with them which is a credit to the author. It is more than just another apocalyptic story clone. Science, vampires, government gone bad, survivalist's, commentary on the good (and bad) of the human condition, immortality and the desire that man has to overcome all play out in a sometimes too casual fashion. I wanted the continual tension that this story had an abundance of. When it went missing, it felt a little empty. This was survival of mankind...the ultimate "all in"...the pace could have stayed frenzied and frantic as far as I was concerned and the novel seemed to be at it's best when portraying this world and its characters agonies and struggles...that seems to be the way Cronin wanted the world to be. The waves rise, fall and crest in this story, it's just that the set's are never quite as consistent as you would want them to be (a California metaphor if you will pardon me). It even created an active dialog with my teenage daughter who was debating the relative merits of the Twilight series versus this version of a very dark future, vampires and the not quite so vapid and two dimensional of characters that you can encounter in this genre of literature. I doubt that Cronin was aiming for the casual teen market with this one.

The last 1/3 rd of the novel to me seemed to be a little too much of the set up for the next in the series that we know will be coming. The tale still held form and kept true to itself..it just seemed to wander occasionally to get us on to the next way point. I know that this is a popular and profitable literary construct in this day and age, but, as a reader I want a ultimately satisfying read that stands on its own merits, that makes me want the next book to enhance and extend the story that I enjoyed. I don't want it to just be a continuation to pick up where the last story left off.

Don't get me wrong...I enjoyed this story and the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses. And some of those strengths are in the details and in the engaging characterizations that make this a lengthy novel to take on. A recommendation to read would be easy to elicit from me. Just be willing to understand and push through the inevitable low spots and be accepting of where this story is going to be heading.

Kudos to Cronin for a refreshing and creative take on this genre. on Sale!