The last few years I’ve been putting off reading Justin
Cronin’s remarkable saga, The Passage.
This procrastination resulted from no perceived flaw in the book, but rather my
desire not to begin the much lauded trilogy until the final book, City of Mirrors had been published. It
has been out for nearly a year, but like many a reader, I had become
distracted by other fare. After finally checking it out last week, I finished the 766 page book in three days. It was
that good. Unlike many post-apocalyptic/sci-fi novels, The Passage doles out its plot with reserve. This suits me. Unlike
many novels fitting within the aforementioned genres, wherein the first 20 pages outline and foreshadow
nearly every plot development, Cronin’s work is a masterpiece of suspense, a real
page-turner.
The story begins to unfold through a series of emails. A
scientist, Jonah Lear, relays updates on a daring journey to discover the cure
for everything in the South American jungle. He is chagrined to admit to his
friend that he has received funding for the expedition from USAMRIID (US Army
Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases). Soon he finds his
expedition co-opted by the military, for reasons he cannot ascertain. The
emails then begin to take a troubling turn as the team nears their destination.
Fast-forward some months. FBI agent Wolgast has been tasked
with retrieving death row inmates for an experiment in the Colorado mountains. It
soon becomes apparent to the reader that the subjects of the experiment have developed
a power more insidious than is perceived by their keepers. Lear sends Wolgast
on one final mission. He and agent Doyle are sent to claim one more target, a
six year-old girl, Amy, abandoned by her mother at a convent. Wolgast, who lost
a daughter of his own, develops a bond with the girl. One that will prove
fateful for them both when the 13 original subjects break free from their
captors and unleash an apocalyptic terror upon the continent, and possibly the
world.
Some years later the reader is introduced to one of the last
surviving colonies in North America, possibly the only enduring colony. They
have scraped together a semblance of a life, by finding an ingenious way of
keeping the “smokes” at bay. But time is running out, and some members of the
colony appear to have fallen under the sway of a presence who has invaded their
sleeping minds. Several brave members strike out across the Dark
Lands in order to find both answers and solutions. The discoveries they make on
their journey are unsettling and never predictable.
This book kept me up nights and I’m eager to get a start on
the second installment, The Twelve.
Any fans of suspense, sci-fi, horror, or just plain well-written novels would
do well to take a look at what the New York Times hailed as "A
blockbuster…astutely plotted and imaginative." This work is available for
check-out as an EBOOK, 12-disc audio book, and hardback novel.
-Jennifer Wilson
-Jennifer Wilson
