The Passage by Justin Cronin is getting RAF from hoi polloi like Stephen King , and Ridley Scott has already optioned the post - apocalyptical vampire epic from the PEN / Hemingway Award - succeed literary source . But is it any practiced ? Bookslut ’s Janet Potter evaluates . Spoilers forrader …
No one in the publication or entertainment humanity can be blamed for getting jolly frantic when a lamia Book of Revelation trilogy lands on their desk . The Passage , issue forth in just shy of 800 page , is the first installment of that trilogy , with a movie already in the works . Justin Cronin has written two previous book , both myopic , graphic symbol - driven novels , one of which earned him the PEN / Hemingway , so he ’s taken quite a leap into the realm of sci - fi / revulsion / thriller . The question of the The Passage is whether that bound is take ably , or whether he ’s write a book of the moment .
The playscript spread with a handful of storylines barrel towards each other . The administration has get word a virus , you see , that can turn humans into immortal fighting political machine , and it is doing this in a hidden bunker in the mountains . So far the computer virus has been administered to twelve death row inmate . FBI agent Brad Wolgast , the everyman of this section , travels around with his partner convincing these inmates to sign on their lives away to the government . He has a few queasiness about the military operation , but no real objection until he discovers that the thirteenth subject he has to pick up is a six year old girl , Amy .
Wolgast and Amy forge an immediate bond and he stays by her side even after he takes her to the bunker , where she receives the computer virus . Inevitably , the test subjects break out and take up demolish the world . Although the terminal figure is avoid , even mock , in the book , the computer virus essentially turns a mortal into a vampire . Those infected are adult , stronger , faster , like to tope blood , and can infect others . Although Amy is given the virus , she does n’t undergo the same transformation . She may even be some kind of livelihood counterpoison , and during the vampire prison-breaking Wolgast and she carry off to escape .
Then , all of a sudden , you ’re readingThe route . Wolgast and Amy live in an isolated cabin in the forest for a twelvemonth , chop wood and deplete canned food and reading to each other . The vampires are multiplying and the nation ’s defenses collapse . Before long there is no more news , as any remain survivor have gone into concealment .
Then you skip ahead 92 years to a dependency of survivors . It ’s the second time that Cronin wipes the slate clean , essentially gets disembarrass of all his characters , and starts over in what feels like a completely newfangled novel . This one sticks , though , thankfully , and you ’re with the settler for the rest of the book . They live in a walled city , protect by enormous lights that do n’t exactly keep the virals from stress to climb the walls , but usually disorient them enough so they can be shoot before they get in . And yes , “ virals ” is what they ’re called now . Cronin takes a novelist ’s due joy in inventing the structure and jargon of a young civilization , with their own profanity and way of telling metre .
The dependency is working pretty well . Besides some little instances of unreciprocated love , nepotism , or incompetency , the settlement is successful , with a noticeable lack of villainy . It ’s even post - racial . Perhaps Cronin thinks that the virals provide all the enmity the settler need , because not a one of them is a bad someone . There are some unsuccessful person , but no tough guys . ( The first matter they do when they startle making the picture show is become some of these guys tough . ) It ’s as if this post - revelatory band is so busy enduring that they ’ve been rubbed clean of vice , experiencing adorable disarray when they come across things like a Las Vegas casino or romance novel .
But perhaps most significantly for the novel , they are unproven . Peter , our main guy wire , has a legend for a sire and a tough guy for an older brother . He is ripe for a hero ’s quest , and the world needs a hero . The dependency ’s power supply is running out , so the colonists ca n’t last out safely behind their walls much longer . On the potency of a hint as to how they might defeat the virals , seven of them leave the colony .
Up to this point , The Passage has been first a thriller , then a two - person drama , and has been just recital in both incarnations . But when Peter and his supporter leave the colony , Cronin leaves behind the modest aim of a well - write futurist vampire page - turner and adopt the classic , mythological assumption that civilisation is almost over , but there ’s a small chance it can be pull through . He ’s shoot for epic . He set himself in the field of Stephen King and Frank Herbert , even Tolkien , when he tax himself with a gigantic fate - of - the - humankind trilogy .
He sets about his task dutifully . His use of common narrative motive is encyclopedic : the folksy wisdom of an old black woman , a sodding - hearted boy who ca n’t live up to his dead sire , opposites pull , a love triangle , a plentiful suburban married woman in a loveless marriage , a wizened army superior general , a prostitute with a heart of gold , a nun with a heart of stone , the unlikely bond between a single man and a kid , even buddy pig . Short of a loyal blackguard finding its path home ( a sawhorse comes close but does n’t make it ) , he uses almost every conceit in the western canon . He does n’t freshen up any of these devices . He utilise them like so many prerequisites in the epic teller ’s checklist . His skill is in the manual dexterity with which he layers all these stories together into a believable anthropology of civilisation ’s death . He may be follow a recipe , but it ’s a good formula , and he determine not to tamper with it .
What ’s interesting about Cronin ’s brand of apocalyptical epic is that it ’s altogether man - made . Even the enemy are formerly human . There are no wizard or aliens to act as sages for our bomber , the closest they get to an seer is honest-to-goodness black women ( two of them ) who have survived from before the outbreak and trade in enigmatic conversation . Drama does n’t play out in Middle Earth or on the satellite Dune , it ’s in places like Colorado and Maine . Some of the elements of The Passage that try credibility could be explained away by the trapping of science fiction . The preternatural good of Peter and his protagonist would make more sense if they were all hobbits and centaur , say , and their continual power to fight off horde of lethal lamia would be easier to believe if they had sorcerous weapons .
The science fabrication of The Passage , however , is all on the side of the virals . The colonist are just really good masses . Their journey is relayed as a series of singular , occasional conflict , and each has its own suspense and service of process to the bang-up story , but less than 30 Thomas Nelson Page from the ending of the book of account Peter basically says , “ now we bang what we have to do . ” The Passage , like any trilogy ’s opening Bible , is one very long piece of music of scene - setting . The fiber are bring in , the mythology is give , and the major task at helping hand — that of understanding how the virals came to be and how to arrest them before the humanity end — is slowly patch together . But most of the major activeness is yet to follow . At the start of their quest Peter and his friends were hoping to save themselves , or salvage the colony . Now they ’ve amount to realize they have a chance to save humankind .
I do n’t bang which was more prevalent in Cronin ’s thinker while he was writing The Passage , the movie version or the sequel . The barren landscapes , human vs. monster fight tantrum , and band of seven attractive immature survivors beg to be put on screen . At the same metre , the potential of Cronin ’s trilogy has yet to be recognise . The episodes of The Passage are Sir Frederick Handley Page - turners , and are tied up neatly , but the larger conflict of the trilogy have only been introduce . ( The novel terminate , in fact , with at least four different cliffhanger . ) Cronin ’s intervention of the settler ’ deepening apprehension of the virals and their quest to bring them down will be the final deservingness of the series . If one of them ever show a character flaw , it would n’t be the worst thing .
In the end , I conceive I ’m rooting for Cronin . The Passage is a sprawl work of suspense , stuffed with every type of character or subplot under the sunshine , and still manage to have forward impulse . The underlying mythology of the trilogy is whole , and he ’s plant seeds of conflict and enigma that can easily fill two more volumes . There ’s no reason to recall that he ca n’t pull off the larger-than-life chef-d’oeuvre he coiffe out to drop a line . I desire he does .
This military post by Janet Potteroriginally appear at Bookslut .
book reassessment
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