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)

pretty good!

kind of an elevated ya book, but not elevated by much. great performance by the narrator.

Awesome!!

Well written and fabulously narrated. I will most likely listen to this over and over.

I hate to complain about any book, but!

This book had me telling people about this wonderful book with interesting people in it that were caught up in some engrossing stories. But then it happend! The book shot ahead 100 years and a new book started! No kidding, it seemed to me it was written by a different author as well. It went from great to something that did little to interest me. It went from interesting to drawn out. It pains me to say anything bad about a book because just because I don't like something doesn't mean you wont unless we have the same taste but I feel the need to point out what I see as a problem in this book!

Back to basics

Make no mistake, this is a vampire story. It harkens back to classic vampire tales, in which the vampire was a metaphor for our fear of contagion. In this version, the contagion isn't metaphorical, it is literal.
Good horror must touch on our greatest fears, and plague/contagion is one humans have faced for centuries. Perhaps because we have been less fearful of plagues in recent decades, modern vampire stories focus on the superhero qualities of vampires, and their sex appeal. That doesn't work for me. A vampire must be dreadful, not charming, and needs teeth and claws, not a samurai sword. And they are never good. I just cannot understand the appeal of the ubiquitous angst-ridden-teen modern vampire stories. Cudos to the author for getting back to basics.
I almost didn't buy this book, however, because Scott Brick is the narrator. I would echo the other comments about his style. This is a long book, and that means a whole lot of Scott Brick. Still, it was well worth the read. It seems like it was written with sequels in mind. Maybe a different narrator next time.

Holy cow...

Yup, it's almost 37 hours long, but it's the kind of book in which that kind of length makes you SO GLAD.

I began this book on an 8-hour drive. When I got home I literally ran out of chores do while I listened. I had to force myself to turn it off so I could get some sleep.

I even listened at the grocery store -- I don't recommend doing that, by the way. I forgot half of what was on my shopping list. At one point I caught myself staring blankly in the Paper Goods aisle -- for how long? Five? Ten minutes? -- because THE LIGHTS! THEY WENT OUT!

I've already ordered a hardcover copy as a birthday gift for my college-age son. He's gonna love it.

WAY TOO MUCH FILLER

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This book has way too much filler, the author goes into character background too much and takes away from the main story. Even characters that end up being irrelevant and one that get killed off. If you trim the fat then the main course is a good story line.

Was The Passage worth the listening time?

Worth the listening time? The main narrator brings life to the story. If I sat down to read this book I would have never finished it. Kuddos to Scott Brick keeping me somewhat interested

Worst Ending Ever...

I read that Stephen King loved this book. I decided to get it. I must say, that I enjoyed it. Though most of it is really slow, it's still somehow interesting. It's a long, long book and even though it is slow most of the time, you stay with it because you just know it's gonna take you on an adventure and no matter how bad things get, problems will be solved or we will at least be left with some kind of hope.


As the book is winding down. The last few minutes, all seems well. I am listening and enjoying the bliss of a good book coming to an end as I drive down a lonely road last night. But, then all of a sudden, the book is over! Almost mid sentence! I thought, that's it? You're kidding me, this how you chose to end the book? I invest all my time in to these characters that at best were just interesting enough to keep reading and this how you reward me for all the hours? WTF were you thinking? Sure it was a good story up until the ending but this is it? I feel robbed.


All I am saying is that Mr. Cronin better be at his PC writing a sequel that involves some miraculous event that keeps our lovely journal writer safe from the final massacre while Peter, Lish and gang go about cleansing the world from remaining 12 viral families. I don't care if it's twelve more books but if this ending is how the story truly ends, well, I must say, it makes this book a waste of time to even read.

Partially pathetic

The general plot is good although not really unique but taken from several other sources. I liked the first and the last part of the book. The whole part in the sanctuary though is totally overloaded with boring details about uninteresting characters and adds an absolutely unnecessary length to the book (really don't understand why). This whole bit and some other "passages" are a bit pathetic and - sorry to say - the whiny voice of the reader amplifies this effect to an extent that I sometimes wondered whether what the intonation implied actually contradicted the words of the author.

What's all the hype about?

This was a so-so book, bloated and now I find out the first of 3. I won't be buying the others - by the time they come out I will have forgotten the large cast of characters in this one. It just didn't grab me at all, and I gave it 3 stars just for length.

Don't let the hype sway you. If you like this kind of thing - apocolyptic futures, vampires, etc. - buy it, but if you're on the fence like I was, look for something else. The length didn't make up for the bizarre and sometimes inconsistent story.

Read this book.

This book is amazing. I read it in one day (and was very tired the next day) and immediately told every one I knew that they also had to read it. So, when I saw that it was available on Audible, I snapped it up right away. This is the kind of book that I could listen to even with a mediocre narrator, but that has proven to be unnecessary. Scott Brick does an amazing job. I can't wait for the sequel.