The Passage (The Passage, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 16, 2011 Beverly rated it really liked it

• I enjoyed this book and now that I am vested in the storylines – will read the next book in the trilogy that will be released later this year
• This was an audio book for me – and it will probably be audio for the next book also
• There are multiple storylines, some are linear, some are not,so there is transition between past & current, but the author did a great job in writing this story as I did not get lost – (which can happen sometimes when listening to audio to a BAB (over 700 pages) with a ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 Katie rated it really liked it

Shelves: z2017-tbr

There are a lot of dystopian outbreak books out there, so it would be easy for The Passage to feel a lot like the rest of them. Instead, it stood out. Despite its length, the book moved quickly, easily transitioning from the beginning of the outbreak to almost a century later, with Amy, the central character, being the thread that ties everything together. If you like reading dystopian books, you'll love this one, and if you don't, you still may like it.

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Apr 12, 2011 Claire Fun rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, post-apocalyptic, kindle, long

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Hmm, a slightly...odd book this one. It starts well, and continues for a while, with the story of military experiments gone awry, and a small girl and the fbi agents sent to collect her for aforementioned experiments. I loved this section completely, all the set pieces were exciting and the characterisation was great, agents and nuns and criminals aplenty. Then something hits the fan and we jump to the next section of the book.

This bit is nearly 100 years later and gives us post-apocalypse fans Hmm, a slightly...odd book this one. It starts well, and continues for a while, with the story of military experiments gone awry, and a small girl and the fbi agents sent to collect her for aforementioned experiments. I loved this section completely, all the set pieces were exciting and the characterisation was great, agents and nuns and criminals aplenty. Then something hits the fan and we jump to the next section of the book.

This bit is nearly 100 years later and gives us post-apocalypse fans some appeal. I liked the p-a world they sent us to, a colony of people rarely venturing out from behind the safety of their security lights, and I thought the link back to the past & tales from the original 'settlers' were done well. There was a lot of different characters in this settlement and gradually we get introduced to the warrior woman, the techhead, etc, all full of unrequited love and worried about how long their future will be secure. I did, however, find myself a little impatient for them to leave the colony, and even after finishing the book I'm not sure why we had so much emphasis on the thoughts & emotions of the people we never hear from again (but then, there's a sequel, so maybe that's why). I did feel like the bad guys (aka vampire-like 'virals') were done pretty well & were nicely creepy. Yes, proper scary things with teeth and swooping (swooping is bad, as I'm sure I've heard somewhere).

Eventually we left, and went forth on a road trip (THE ROAD trip, har-de-har), cue lots of old military bunkers to hide in, and a looong journey to find brothers - and themselves, obviously. It is a road trip. I thought some of this was good - finding old towns or ruins I enjoyed, and the creepy haven was enjoyable and exciting. I didn't mind them meeting up with the military but I'm not entirely sure what the point was, and why one of the main characters left to join the army...it seemed a little like needless space-filling.

From there to the end was...okay. The least exciting bit of the book, when surely the romp to the finish should be the *most* exciting? They never made it back home in the end of *this* book but I assume they've left it for a sequel, and the bad guys are still partially around but not in such a mind-stealing way, and generally...well, it was a bit of a let down in such a long book. You expect in big epic books like this to have all loose ends happily tied up and to be entirely satisfied, and while I would be happy to read more in the series I can't say I was entirely satisfied, at all.

Also, a nice dog dies and nobody cares much, and that's not on. ...more

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Feb 08, 2011 Sunflower rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read-2011

Short answer: if you have read "The Stand" and "The Road" you don't really need another dystopia novel. Especially as long as this one.
Longer answer: It has a slow start, only really got going at the 100 page mark, the plot started to get really interesting at about half way, then had patches of brilliance followed by lapses. And as for the ending: you've got to be kidding me Mr Cronin!!! I finished 766 pages just to find a setup for the next book?? Were you hoping for a Harry Potter-like pheno ...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction, post-apocalyptic

A whole lot of book, but surprisingly doesn't collapse under its heft - at 780 pages you expect big sections that could have been sacrificed to the editor's pen without significant loss to the overall story, but Cronin manages to make much of what's going on necessary and relevant to his tale. I also appreciate Cronin's staying away from pat romantic two-by-two pairings for the most part, even though he could plausibly make the case with his Noah's Ark theme. Overall, leaves me curious to see wh ...more

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