The Passage

A Novel (Book One of The Passage Trilogy)

By: Justin Cronin

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Adenrele Ojo, Abby Craden

Length: 36 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller.

This thrilling novel kicks off what Stephen King calls “a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction".

Now a FOX TV series!

Named one of Paste’s best horror books of the decade.

Named one of the 10 best novels of the year by TIME and one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Esquire, U.S. News & World Report, NPR/On Point, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, BookPage, and Library Journal.

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

An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy - abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued, and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape - but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world. Look for the entire Passage trilogy:

• The Passage
• The Twelve
• The City of Mirrors

©2010 Justin Cronin (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

“[A] blockbuster.” (The New York Times)

“Mythic storytelling.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“Magnificent...Cronin has taken his literary gifts, and he has weaponized them...The Passage can stand proudly next to Stephen King’s apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand, but a closer match would be Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: A story about human beings trying to generate new hope in a world from which all hope has long since been burnt.” (Time)

Why did I wait so long to listen to this?!?

This book has been recommended to me so many times. I never gave it a go because as soon as I saw the word vampire in a description I moved to the next book. THIS book was just amazing and the narration was outstanding. I laughed, and cried, and sat on the edge of my seat. Please do not read the descriptions and make assumptions as I did. I will be recommending it to all my friends, and I will encourage them to go in blindly without reading anything about the story before hand.

A Wonderful Journey

I thoroughly enjoyed this journey. The Characters came to life and I rode the waves of their lives, weeping, joyful, anxious at their near destruction.

Perfection!

Absolute perfection! love the story, love the narration. The narration was particularly well done and I love how the voices really add depth to the story. Really one of the best I've purchased.

Excellent Story

the story really shows the humanity of the characters and subverts negative societal assumptions of groups of people who fall between the cracks. A story that shows how people become corrupted unwillingly.

Fantastic book

This was an excellent book with characters I grew to love and saddened when they were gone. The elements of premonition & deja by were subtle yet important. Loved it

Fantastic read

Does not fit squarely into any genre
Part horror
Part dystopian
Part epic drama spanning 100+ years
The villains and the heroes are normal people
The monsters they create
Not quite vampire
Not quite zombie
Not quite like anything I’ve ever read before
I’d compare to Stephen Kings “the stand” but better.
Can’t wait to start book two

Favorite book/series

This is my absolute favorite book and favorite series. I’ve read all three at least twice. This is my first time listening. The writing is just so wonderful. Completely immersive world building and character development. And the narration is perfect. He did a great job. On to the next one!

Great story

Very long but totally engaging and hard to put down. Ready to start the next part of the trilogy!!

An absolute Adventure

Let's start with likes. First off, the narrator is superb. the exerts extremely well done and the overall "putting the listener into the story" was top notch. The story itself is excellent. Great concept, the people are likeable and the enemies are well, enemies. The way the book focuses in on so many characters and gives each one their own way for you to like them is a breathe of fresh air, even when they die. the attention to detail is also superb. I've finished many a book and been like "well, that didn't add up", but this book delivers on a very nitty gritty detailed book.

Downsides: I feel that in audible, I don't get to see the names over and over which could be this reason. I got lost so many times when the story changed up and who was who I had to rewind and restart many times. with how detailed the book is, I kept getting lost on whom was whom. I also feel that the characters in the book connected with the enemy alot more than me. Other than one characters story, which I am sure was setup for a reason (I might see in book 2), the enemy is just the enemy. Ruthless killers and one way to kill them and you gotta be faster than speed itself. Which brings me to my third point. All of the characters should have died a thousand times. With how the enemy was constantly described they had one weakness and other than that you are dead. Yet over and over and over and over a main character gets lucky. with how detailed the book is, I'm surprised this took place. Again, I haven't gotten to book 2 and the main protagonist could have been doing things behind the scenes I am unaware of.

Other than my personal minor issues, this book was amazing.

I loved the characters and the story from start to finish.

I was one of the few viewers who tuned in to watch "The Passage" during it's 10 episode run on FOX in 2019, not knowing that the series was based on the novels by Justin Cronin. This book was so descriptively well-written and so masterfully narrated by Scott Brick that I was caught up in the drama and the interaction between Amy, Brad Wolgast, and all of the other characters from my first listen. Each chapter was gripping, terrifying, and at the same time, heartbreaking. I am very much looking forward to listening to the next two novels in the series.