The Passage

‘Will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction’ Stephen King

By: Justin Cronin

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Amy Harper Bellafonte is six years old and her mother thinks she's the most important person in the whole world.

She is.

Anthony Carter doesn't think he could ever be in a worse place than Death Row.

He's wrong.

FBI agent Brad Wolgast thinks something beyond imagination is coming.

It is.

THE PASSAGE.

(p) 2010 Penguin Random House LLC©2010 Justin Cronin

Critic reviews

Enthralling ... Read 15 pages, and you will find yourself captivated; read 30 and you will find yourself taken prisoner and reading late into the night. It had the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve. What else can I say? This: read this book and the ordinary world disappears (Stephen King)

Cronin's massive novel transcends its clichés and delivers a feverishly readable post-apocalyptic-cum-vampire chiller. It's not only a brilliantly told story, with thrilling plot twists and graphic action sequences, but a moving psychological portrait of survivors facing up to the poignant fact of a lost past and a horrifically uncertain future

Enthralling ... richly imagined. Above all, Amy is a superb creation, believably human yet beguilingly enigmatic

If you only take one book away with you this summer, make it The Passage. It's an absorbing, nightmarish dream of a book, a terrifying apocalyptic thriller, populated by believable, sympathetic characters. Once you start reading it, you won't want it to end

Epic, apocalyptic, heart-wrenching, catastrophic, mesmerisizing...

An exhilarating epic ... the breathtaking plot eventually circles back around, and the conclusion will leave you gasping. A modern classic in the making

Dense stuff with intriguing characters, Cronin's story of a supernatural government experiment that gets out of hand is surprisingly gripping. Full of plot twists, action and vampires. It's a dark epic that matches the best of Stephen King

An epic thriller, the story hinges around Amy, a six-year-old girl used as a test case by the government for a covert mission involving a deadly virus. And yes, she manages to escape... We loved it

Cronin is a skilled writer. Most of the characters are well drawn and he tackles the philosophical issue of gaining eternal life at the cost of your soul in between the throat-ripping battle scenes. I turned The Passage's pages feverishly to find out what happened next

A gripping story and a richly drawn cast. This is an epic that often bears comparison with Stephen King

Read 30 pages and you will find yourself taken prisoner and reading late into the night

Magnificent

Magnificently unnerving . . . The Stand meets The Road

Cronin has given us what could be the best book of the summer. Don't wait to dive into The Passage

Justin Cronin has written a wild, headlong, sweeping extravaganza of a novel. The Passage is the literary equivalent of a unicorn: a bona fide thriller that is sharply written, deeply humane, ablaze with big ideas, and absolutely impossible to put down (Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad)

Addictive, terrifying, and deeply satisfying. Not only is this one of the year's best thrillers; it's one of the best of the past decade-maybe one of the best ever

Tops

The main reason i gave this 5 stars is not because it was one of the best books i have read, although it certainly is great, but because this book is so bloody long and it never loses you, and there is no way for myself that it seems that long... great....

How can an ending sneak up on you after 36 hours?

At first I thought I'd scream at the melodramatic narration (Scott Brick), trying to make every syllable drip with nuance, but either he settled down or the story just got me in, because I really did look forward to my daily commute to hear the next chapters.

It's an epic, and I'd often rewind because I thought I'd missed something, only to find it was explained further down the track. In that way, it may have been a better story to read than listen to. Also, so many characters make it a bit hard to keep track of everybody, but ultimately it was an engaging story and well worth the cost of the download.

As others have said, it's only part 1 of a possible 3 books. The ending was a bit of a cliff hanger - in fact I often felt through out the book Cronin was writing it with a movie screen play in mind.

The story reminded me of the movie I Am Legend (Richard Matheson book) and a little of the book Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. (which is also a great audio book)

LOVED IT!!!!!!!!

I am going to read book 2 now as the book one was totally captivating. I couldn't put it down, more please.....

Fantastic listen.

When is the next one coming out???? It cannot finish like that. The dude that reads it is a mite bit monotone, interesting concept,

Worth the time

Definately not the story I had anticipated. I love a long read, with lots of characters and complicated parts. The beginning was excellent and for a while, I couldn't stop! I kinda wished he could have kept up that type of storytelling for the entire book but the pace slowed in the middle with the need to establish characters and set the background for the next book. Hope the next installment is as good as the first part of this book. Be a winner for sure if so.