951 pages
English language
Published April 29, 2016 by Wheeler Publishing.
"In The Passage and The Twelve, Justin Cronin brilliantly imagined the fall of civilization and humanity desperate fight to survive. Now all is quiet on the horizon--but does silence promise the nightmare end or the second coming of unspeakable darkness? At last, this bestselling epic races to its breathtaking finale"--
Simply wonderful. A well-told yarn of drama, horror, adventure, faith, and prophecy.
I wish I hadn't read this book.
The Passage (the first in this series) was a revelation. It was an original spin on the classic undead apocalypse supported by almost excessively deep characterization. The sequel was less impressive but still a good expansion on the world.
This book, the third, has lost the magic. In The Passage, the extended backstories of the characters deepened the horror of the main plot. This book has a similar devotion to non-vampire-related life stories but they don't connect with the action in the same way. One early hundred-page digression feels like an accidental inclusion from a different book.
On top of that, the plotting is awful. I was reminded of bad TV writing: characters withhold information from each other for no reason and the behavior of the vampiric infection changes from scene to scene. There are at least 3 kinds of vampire now and …
I wish I hadn't read this book.
The Passage (the first in this series) was a revelation. It was an original spin on the classic undead apocalypse supported by almost excessively deep characterization. The sequel was less impressive but still a good expansion on the world.
This book, the third, has lost the magic. In The Passage, the extended backstories of the characters deepened the horror of the main plot. This book has a similar devotion to non-vampire-related life stories but they don't connect with the action in the same way. One early hundred-page digression feels like an accidental inclusion from a different book.
On top of that, the plotting is awful. I was reminded of bad TV writing: characters withhold information from each other for no reason and the behavior of the vampiric infection changes from scene to scene. There are at least 3 kinds of vampire now and which one a person becomes seems to depend on how prominent the person is in the narrative.
It feels arbitrary, and that's a disappointment since the knowable characters and unflinching brutal logic of the first book are what made it work so well.
It's not all bad. Cronin prose remains strong and some of the scenes are as compelling as the ones in the earlier books. His spin on the vampire trope remains fascinating and plausible despite some unfortunate embellishments. I greatly enjoyed the historicity this book, especially the various meta elements presented as historical study from a much later period.
The strengths feel left over but the weaknesses are new. The last book was a good place to stop.
Excellent conclusion to an excellent story!
[b:The Passage|6690798|The Passage (The Passage, #1)|Justin Cronin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327874267s/6690798.jpg|2802546] is the first book I usually recommend to people. After all, who doesn't love a well-written book about the vampire apocalypse. Reading The Passage got me back into reading in an entirely different way. I began seeking about more genre fiction, rather than just reading the books recommended in the NY Times Book Review. It shaped my path as a reader. So the final book of the trilogy has been my most anticipated book since [b:The Twelve|13281368|The Twelve (The Passage, #2)|Justin Cronin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1331230956s/13281368.jpg|14373498] came out. But with great anticipation comes the great potential for disappointment. This book does not disappoint. Although there is one big dead spot in the book (you can skip the entire part of the book that's about Zero's past), Cronin manages to do what so many series authors have failed to do and actually provide a truly satisfying ending.
