The Passage

A Novel (Book One of The Passage Trilogy)

De: Justin Cronin

Narrado por: Scott Brick

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This thrilling novel kicks off what Stephen King calls “a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction.”

ONE OF PASTE’S BEST HORROR BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Esquire, U.S. News & World Report, NPR/On Point, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, BookPage, 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

Praise for The Passage

“[A] blockbuster.”—The New York Times Book Review

“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

“The type of big, engrossing read that will have you leaving the lights on late into the night.”—The Dallas Morning News

“Addictive.”—Men’s Journal

“Cronin’s unguessable plot and appealing characters will seize your heart and mind.”—Parade

Reseñas de la Crítica

“[A] blockbuster.”—The New York Times Book Review

“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

“The type of big, engrossing read that will have you leaving the lights on late into the night.”—The Dallas Morning News

“Addictive.”—Men’s Journal

“Cronin’s unguessable plot and appealing characters will seize your heart and mind.”—Parade

“Cronin has given us what could be the best book of the summer. Don’t wait to dive into The Passage.”—USA Today

“Great storytelling . . . vital, tender, and compelling.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“Cronin gets it just right; the combination of attentive realism and doomsday stakes makes for a mesmerizing experience.”—Salon

“Magnificently unnerving . . . A The Stand-meets-The Road journey.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Imagine Michael Crichton crossbreeding Stephen King’s The Stand and Salem’s Lot in that lab on Jurassic Park, with rich infusions of Robert McCammon’s Swan Song, Battlestar Galactica and even Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.”—The Washington Post

I didn't know what I was getting into

This came up in my recommendation list for a few months, so I got it. I am more into the sci-fi and fantasy aspect of genre. When the story started, I started getting the feeling this would go into far future sci-fi with quantum entanglement destiny binding. Then the world ended and a few stragglers were battling for survival against a plague of vampires.

Quite honestly, this kind of shocked me and I didn't see the vampires coming at all.

The best audio listen for me so far

I have now listened to several audio books on my daily commute (1 hour each way). This is by far the best so far. I'm only about 2/3 the way through the book, but thought I would share a favorable review.

I very much enjoy the skill of the author to develop the characters and scenes. I find it very enjoyable to listen to. And I also very much appreciate the skills of the narrators. The first male narrator was able to differentiate the characters very well, and really nailed the dialect of the African nun (I've spent a few years in that part of the world).

I'm not a horror story fan, not by any means. And I didn't know this book was somewhat along that genre. The immediate preceding book I listened to was the Abraham Lincoln, vampire killer book. That one was absolutely stupid. I had no idea this book had a vampire theme also, so had to laugh at myself for getting two consecutive books with similar topics. But I found this one to be very engaging. There is very little in it that is simply gratuitious horror nonsense.

My daily commute passes too quickly. Actually, I'm worried about my safety because I'm a little too much into the story while driving a fairly dangerous highway.

Reader almost ruins a good story

It's always nice when a reader becomes transparent to the story instead of trying to make it their own as this one does. And while he does a fair accent for the nun, other than that he characterizes pretty much every other character in one of four speaking styles. Just painful to listen to, almost gave up several times.

There BETTER be a sequel !

I listened non-stop (almost) and when the end came it was like the "road just ended." As though the author got tired of writing and just wrote "the end." There certainly had better be a sequel and when there is one, I'll be the first to get it.

Great story but disappointing ending.

Why is it so many sci-fi writers can't come up with a good ending? It was such a good, engaging story, up until the author abruptly dumped me with no explanation about what happens to characters I'd come to care about. I'm not a reader who needs everything answered but this left me really disappointed. One could tell that he was starting to get tired of writing this when he started to leave major events dangling with no explanation and then changed his mind on a vampire solution that had been protected for all of the book and then provided no other one. Ok, is there a volume two that I'm missing?