"Beware the Deus Ex Machina"
The book gives some nice backstory on the events between the viral outbreak and the start of the "modern" age from the latter part of The Passage (97 years after outbreak). Then it picks up after that, building up to a grand finale, where instead of letting the characters resolve the situation on their own, deus ex machina is used to resolve this book's storyline.
Although in retrospect I guess the first book had something arguably similar. It didn't stick out to me last time, but this time boy it sure did.
Scott Brick's performance was good, as in the previous.