Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
A story that will wrap you up inside a world that may be imaginary, but not terribly far from reality. One of those books you get so caught up with that you don't realize how much time has passed.
Ik vind de plot goed in elkaar steken. Ik ben geen dingen tegengekomen die ik niet vond kloppen met het verhaal. Juist het ontbreken van sommige informatie is heel overtuigend. In een dergelijke situatie zou het heel raar zijn als mensen die volledig afgesloten zijn van de rest van de mensheid volledige informatie hebben over hoe het nou zit met die viralen. Ook het gegeven dat je niet weet in welke tijd ze zitten, vind ik erg overtuigend. Het zijn mensen die leven bij de dag. Die hebben niet veel interesse in welk jaar het nu precies is.
Ik vond de schrijfstijl meeslepend. Ik wilde toch steeds graag weten wat er nu zou komen, ondanks dat ik al veel aan voelde komen. Heel af en toe stond er opeens een opmerking van een alwetende schrijver in en die haalden me wel vreselijk uit het verhaal. Erg jammer vond ik dat.
Ook speelt mee dat ik The Road heb gelezen van Cormac McCarthey (een absolute 5 sterren) en dat ik merkte dat ik steeds aan het vergelijken was met dat boek, hoewel de plot natuurlijk een totaal andere is. Maar als ik tijdens een boek aan een ander boek moet denken, dan kan het haast al geen 5 sterren meer zijn, want dan zit ik er niet volledig in. Maar toch: de verhaallijnen zijn sterk en meeslepend. Ik kijk uit naar deel 2.
Ik vond de schrijfstijl meeslepend. Ik wilde toch steeds graag weten wat er nu zou komen, ondanks dat ik al veel aan voelde komen. Heel af en toe stond er opeens een opmerking van een alwetende schrijver in en die haalden me wel vreselijk uit het verhaal. Erg jammer vond ik dat.
Ook speelt mee dat ik The Road heb gelezen van Cormac McCarthey (een absolute 5 sterren) en dat ik merkte dat ik steeds aan het vergelijken was met dat boek, hoewel de plot natuurlijk een totaal andere is. Maar als ik tijdens een boek aan een ander boek moet denken, dan kan het haast al geen 5 sterren meer zijn, want dan zit ik er niet volledig in. Maar toch: de verhaallijnen zijn sterk en meeslepend. Ik kijk uit naar deel 2.
It had started off really well. It feels like a big Stephen King style thrill ride, but with an Iowa Writer's Workshop kind of flourish.
In my view the best part of reading "end of the world" books - "World War Z, "The Stand," "War Day," "Swan Song," etc. - is the evocation of panic in the reader. Panic that things are falling apart around your ears.
The best books of this type can take the massive scale of apocalypse and scale it so that it strikes to the heart of what it means to be human - a human losing everything, literally.
Cronin was able to create that feeling of the slide down the drain. The evacuations, the losing battles, the desperate measures put in place by the failing government. The survivor tales can be captivating if done right.
But about 250 pages in - the book shifts abruptly and for the worse. I won't reveal how or why, but I found it to become lesser than it was. I found the book picked up in action during the final 200 pages or so, but I was put off by the fact of this being a 1st book in a planned trilogy.
In my view the best part of reading "end of the world" books - "World War Z, "The Stand," "War Day," "Swan Song," etc. - is the evocation of panic in the reader. Panic that things are falling apart around your ears.
The best books of this type can take the massive scale of apocalypse and scale it so that it strikes to the heart of what it means to be human - a human losing everything, literally.
Cronin was able to create that feeling of the slide down the drain. The evacuations, the losing battles, the desperate measures put in place by the failing government. The survivor tales can be captivating if done right.
But about 250 pages in - the book shifts abruptly and for the worse. I won't reveal how or why, but I found it to become lesser than it was. I found the book picked up in action during the final 200 pages or so, but I was put off by the fact of this being a 1st book in a planned trilogy.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Suicide, Violence
This really isn't a book; it's a story of moderate interest with 650 pages of dreary boredom clinging to its backside. I was reminded of The Calculating Stars—I got tricked into reading the first two books in that because of the way they were packaged. I was, for a time, interested in the "Renfielding" of the sweeps and the morality-free psychology of the minds behind Project NOAH. Not a single thing once Wolgast dies is remotely interesting; the explicitly supernatural elements are goofy and clumsily handled. But most of all, I was shocked that was not, somehow, the first two books of the trilogy sneakily stuck together. (Still, it's not as bad as Do Not Become Alarmed, which—let us never forget—has a teenager eaten by an alligator almost certainly because the author realized that writing one more child for the rest of the book was going to be annoying. Also, no one killed anyone by throwing an octopus at their face. So this book has that going for it.)
This book has a little bit of everything: post-apocalyptic vampire/zombie hybrid plus excellent female characters!
Looking forward to the next book in the trilogy
Looking forward to the next book in the trilogy
What a frightening, horrible, wonderful novel!
It starts out in our near future and moves about 100 or so years into the future (although references 1,000 years forward are made).
The first third is frightening and seem very realistic. There are nice references to everyday things and our culture that makes this future believable.
When the terror reached its apex, the story is shot forward 100 years, making the new world fuzzy and archaic in relation to our own. It was not as scary because it had a fantasy world feel to it. I could identify with the near future but less so with the aftermath. I love fantasy, so this did not take away from the novel, but I was really amazed at the leaps and bounds this author made this story take. And it was done well.
I had to read the last few pages several times to fully understand what was happening. Cronin is skilled tying up loose ends but leaving a lot to our imagination. I love it when authors don't dumb things down for their readers.
Two things, however. He uses the lovely, descriptive word "scrim" at least 3 times in this novel. While 3 out of almost 800 pages isn't much, it jumped out at me. But that's my quirk.
And lastly, when I logged onto GR to write this review, I saw the full title as "Passages, #1", implying there are more novels to come in this world. Right now I have negative feelings about this. This novel was so wonderfully whole in and of itself, I can't conceive of how more novels to expound on the events in this story can add to it. Perhaps my distrust of this concept will diminish by the time the next novel comes out.
I definitely plan on reading Cronin's other novels. The man knows how to tell a story.
It starts out in our near future and moves about 100 or so years into the future (although references 1,000 years forward are made).
The first third is frightening and seem very realistic. There are nice references to everyday things and our culture that makes this future believable.
When the terror reached its apex, the story is shot forward 100 years, making the new world fuzzy and archaic in relation to our own. It was not as scary because it had a fantasy world feel to it. I could identify with the near future but less so with the aftermath. I love fantasy, so this did not take away from the novel, but I was really amazed at the leaps and bounds this author made this story take. And it was done well.
I had to read the last few pages several times to fully understand what was happening. Cronin is skilled tying up loose ends but leaving a lot to our imagination. I love it when authors don't dumb things down for their readers.
Two things, however. He uses the lovely, descriptive word "scrim" at least 3 times in this novel. While 3 out of almost 800 pages isn't much, it jumped out at me. But that's my quirk.
And lastly, when I logged onto GR to write this review, I saw the full title as "Passages, #1", implying there are more novels to come in this world. Right now I have negative feelings about this. This novel was so wonderfully whole in and of itself, I can't conceive of how more novels to expound on the events in this story can add to it. Perhaps my distrust of this concept will diminish by the time the next novel comes out.
I definitely plan on reading Cronin's other novels. The man knows how to tell a story.
Not my thing. And it wasn't my thing for 800 pages. Urgh.
3.5 stars. A bit long in the tooth (ha!) but a creative and unique look at the vampire genre. Echoes of Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Matheson and more. Looking forward to rest of the trilogy.
It is likely too early to write this review. This book is going to gnaw at me for the next many moons and I should probably wait to write a review until my brain buzz calms down. But I'm pressing on regardless. We never know what tomorrow will bring. We never know what today will bring! What if I am attacked by virals on my way home? You'd never get to read what I thought of this book! However, what if I did know what tomorrow will bring? What if I knew parts of the future? Not the whole puzzle that is the future. Maybe a few corner or edge pieces. Or maybe a big glob of connected pieces in one section of the puzzle. What if each of us held a section of connected pieces, but until we joined our piece clumps, we'd never know the whole puzzle? And what if the way to finish the puzzle meant waiting 100 years?
Thankfully it took me less time to read this book. It was very hard to put down. One day I sat in my office's lobby to get to the end of the chapter I'd been reading on the train. Another day I escaped at lunch to read some more of it outside on a bench while I munched my sandwich. It was a ham sandwich with some lettuce and mayonnaise. A bag of pretzels and an apple to chase it down. I was drinking water out of an emptied plastic bottle that originally held orange juice (which I had also drank). Someday someone may find this review and find it a valuable record of life in the year 2014.
Elements of the above two paragraphs are found in Justin Cronin's The Passage. What are they? I'm not telling you. He cleverly mixes the action of the present with excerpts from journals written by various characters, and read many (MANY) years in the future by a conference convened to study the fall of civilization as depicted in the book. Characters who seem insignificant, aren't. Characters whose survival seem central to the story, don't survive. (Or do they?) Mysteries build, some are cracked, and others open up. I expected the book to end or at least progress differently than it did. Cronin takes an end-of-civilization story and makes it about the people. Not just a corner of civilization and how they deal with it, although I thought that, at first. But about the people whose decisions are the crux of the survival of the human race. These characters don't know it. The reader doesn't know it. But that's how it happens.
Do yourself a favor, pick up this book. I will forgive you for putting it back down--but you won't be able to do it easily. Your journey, your passage through time spent reading this book, is reward in and of itself for the effort spent.
Thankfully it took me less time to read this book. It was very hard to put down. One day I sat in my office's lobby to get to the end of the chapter I'd been reading on the train. Another day I escaped at lunch to read some more of it outside on a bench while I munched my sandwich. It was a ham sandwich with some lettuce and mayonnaise. A bag of pretzels and an apple to chase it down. I was drinking water out of an emptied plastic bottle that originally held orange juice (which I had also drank). Someday someone may find this review and find it a valuable record of life in the year 2014.
Elements of the above two paragraphs are found in Justin Cronin's The Passage. What are they? I'm not telling you. He cleverly mixes the action of the present with excerpts from journals written by various characters, and read many (MANY) years in the future by a conference convened to study the fall of civilization as depicted in the book. Characters who seem insignificant, aren't. Characters whose survival seem central to the story, don't survive. (Or do they?) Mysteries build, some are cracked, and others open up. I expected the book to end or at least progress differently than it did. Cronin takes an end-of-civilization story and makes it about the people. Not just a corner of civilization and how they deal with it, although I thought that, at first. But about the people whose decisions are the crux of the survival of the human race. These characters don't know it. The reader doesn't know it. But that's how it happens.
Do yourself a favor, pick up this book. I will forgive you for putting it back down--but you won't be able to do it easily. Your journey, your passage through time spent reading this book, is reward in and of itself for the effort spent.