The Passage

long and absorbing

This is a very fine and well written book though it is difficult to classify - part horror, part science fiction, post-apocalypse tale, part quest. It bears a resemblance to Stephen King's 'The Stand', but much better plotted with a far more convincing backdrop - indeed the vision that the author paints is truly mind blowing in its scope, timescale and detail - frighteningly plausible in its way. And although the book is very long, it is never less than absorbing - and clearly part of a trilogy - but if I say more as it might ruin the ending! The only ting it lacks, arguably, is a bit more humour to lighten the atmosphere occasionally.

The only slight negative point is the narration. I do like Scott Brick as a narrator, but on this book he is a tad slow for my taste, and he adopts a somewhat doom-laden tone. A brisker ore deadpan delivery would I think have been better, but that said, he holds the attention easily, with good characterisation. Sound quality is first class. Still if you are thinking of buying the book, do listen to the sample before you commit yourself as it's a LONG book!

A five star listen for me, and I think anyone who likes Science Fiction/Fantasy post-apocalypse/quest type tales will enjoy this book too.

113 of 123 people found this review helpful

"The Passage (Unabridged)" by Justin Cronin

Where do I start - which, I suspect is where Justin Cronin was at the beginning of this enterprise, but it does beg the question - why did I start?

Let me set my pack out - I usually love: long, descriptive, even rambling, behemoths of books, something I can get my teeth into, but this was a great disappointment. Showing such promise from the jacket notes, long and rambling, yes, but I felt without point or direction. The first third of the book read like a separate book altogether and was really rather good, with structure, character and pace and I was engaged until this point. Without giving too much away: sudden time shift and... I thought I had missed something and my iPod had jumped, but no, this was it. The book was dark, (literally) and dreary from then on with no fulfilment.

You know that wonderful dual feeling of joy and bereavement that you get when you finish a good book and you want to immediately write to the author and give them your undying love, I wanted to send JC a slap in the face for wasting my time.

The narration was indeed excellent.

35 of 39 people found this review helpful

Approach with extreme caution

With loads of hype, and a brilliant first third of a story, this title has been drawing a lot of readers to it. I fell for it, and for the first few hours of this audiobook, I was captivated.

Then the narrative jumps ahead in time one hundred years, and Justin Cronin's ability to tell a story falls apart. You're treated to a whole new cast of characters that you have had no opportunity to invest in emotionally, intellctually, and so on. And Cronin makes the decision that to handle this problem, all he needs to do is to tell you everything about everyone ad nauseum, while in the meantime, nothing happens ... and nothing happens ... for what must take up hundreds of pages. And, although we get a few isolated scenes that pick the pace up, the book never recovers the brilliance of its first part.

Had I not purchased this as an audiobook, so that I could listen to it whilst ironing, loading the dishwasher, or jogging (in other words, if I'd had to trudge through this during what I consider to be my quality reading time), I'd have given up on it about halfway through.

Beware, and not in a scary way befitting a good horror novel, but in that bland way, like a tortuous staff meeting at work that drones on and on endlessly while you're sitting there thinking of all the things you'd rather be doing.

Beware in that kind of way.

68 of 79 people found this review helpful

Best audio book this year.

What can I say, ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. From the first word to the last I was totally gripped. For me, I put this right up there with 'Dune' which I consider to be the best audio book I've heard, and I've been a member for a few years now. This book will introduce you to characters who you live the story with, its superb, plenty of gripping action, yes, dying heroes to keep you on your toes and a twist at the end which nearly doubled me up with 'what the hell !!!!' If there's gonna be more, what can I say but bring it on, I'm dying for more! 10 out of 10 for me.

28 of 33 people found this review helpful

Almost Thomas Hardy-esque in its narrative

Having been quite interested by the comments written by others and having avidly read Stephen King's 'The Stand' many years ago, the premise of this book looked quite interesting. I looked beyond the comments made about the change of characters referred to by other readers and decided to plunge in. I won't spoil the story by describing it to all, but suffice to say that characters in the first part DO return in the last part.

However, the author does spend a lot of time describing small actions by the characters and some events that occur in excruciating detail and length - to the extent that at times I was running the book on double speed to get past some of it. And at one point, we are treated to an extremely lengthy reading of what seems to be the New York Telephone Directory (in the last book). I thought at first that it was a joke - but no, name after name after name. It was almost as though the author was trying to sell the book to the publishers on word count!

And as for the end itself.....

This is a good book for those who suffer from insomnia - but in saying that, I did listen to it all the way through to the end! Be prepared for a long haul!

16 of 19 people found this review helpful

Like fingernails down a blackboard.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

It says much for the quality of the book that I was willing to endure ten agonising hours of a narrator who left me wanting to claw my eardrums out. The almost complete lack of any range in intonation is truly breathtaking. On rare occasions he switches from his default "mournful hopeless whining" and graces the listener with "mournful whining hopelessness" but he switches back soon enough. Yes, that's the right tone for some scenes but hour after hour after endless hour left me unwilling to endure it any more. The narrator was, if it is possible, even more unbearable than the narrator of Oryx and Crake. I might read the paper book sometime, but if you really MUST wade your way through this, consider availing yourself of Audible's functionality of speeding up the recording. This has the twin virtues of making the tone slightly less offensive on the ear and of forcing you to listen to the narrator's mithering for a little less time. Good luck...

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Two stories in one book

The first third sets up a story, some likeable characters, and a world ripe for the picking as we learn price by piece of the looming threat. The last two thirds abandon this by dropping the characters, and the world. Jumping into the future with careless abandon to tell a much less interesting story, told about much less interesting people and a bland and predicable world. Such a disappointment, can only assume the author was hit over the head with a hammer 15 hours in.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

This book fills a much-needed gap

Despite the supposed pre-release hype overload, which passed me by completely, I found 'The Passage' on Audible linked from Stephen King's tremendous 'Under The Dome'. His even better 'The Stand' contributed to choosing this, but while it bears comparison in its post-apocalyptic theme it certainly does not in its readability, its pacing, its characters, its plot, or in its entertainment.

Cronin seems to confuse the epic with the merely long: I can't remember the last 850-page book I read in which so little actually /happened/. It opens well enough, though, the enjoyable first part setting the satisfying if fairly hackneyed near-future scene, the threads of the cast's stories drawing them towards a shadowy military installation and its doomed experiments.

There is then not so much an evolution of the plot but a saltation - a completely new story, but it's not a very good one. The characters stop being interesting, few develop in any satisfying way, and while there's lots of travelling around for the next sixty chapters they don't seem to go anywhere. I finished it two hours ago, and beyond a couple of set pieces I can hardly remember what happened. My plot precis could fit in about twenty words.

Overall it feels like a literary novelist - and the man can certainly write a sentence - choosing to demonstrate his genre flexibility with a move into highbrow sci-horror, but it simply pales as entertainment next to a King, Straub or Koontz who could have made so much more of this. Too long by far, too light on plot, too heavy on backstory for characters with such a short lifetime; and as the first in a trilogy (I'm told) demonstrates a kind of 'Lost'-esque hubris about the stamina and dedication of his audience.

Thirty six hours of investment, yet I have no interest in the next two parts. The abridged version of this might make for a tighter narrative. If you try it at all, save yourself twenty hours of padding and try that.

17 of 22 people found this review helpful

BRILLIANT!!!! FANTASIC!!!

When I brought this book I wasn't sure that I would enjoyed it. It took me a long time to get round to listening. I listened to the 1st 5 hours and then came back to it whilst on sick leave, could not put it down. I even feel asleep listening. I cant wait to for the next installment ( I trully hope that there is). Althought a little disappointed at the end. The narrator is excellent and very descriptive. Recommended*****

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

you need to be tenaciuos

This book is so frustrating, it keeps changing its mind from one grand plan to another and goes on and on and on. It is not badly written and has flashes of brilliance, but I think it needed a good firm edit or to be split into a number of books. It would be great to be able to flip back to an earlier section now and then to remind ourselves who is who, but cant do that in an audio book. Narration good.

10 of 13 people found this review helpful