Chefs don't have time to write. While I was working on Smoke and Pickles, I was running a restaurant — a daily regimen of testing recipes,...
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Amy Sawatzky, January 30, 2013 (view all comments by Amy Sawatzky)
I borrowed this from the library because I'd read both raves and 'meh' reviews and was a little wary of 'another vampire' book but I was truly wowwed - this was a smart, fascinating read that kept getting better despite its length.
Now I can't wait long enough for the library's copy of "The Twelve" to find out what happens next so I'm finally buying copies for myself. Of the three main acts, the 2nd act in First Settlement lagged a bit by the end though it did set up character backgrounds well. A well-imagined world, far closer to sci-fi than fantasy, with believable and varied characters. For anyone who enjoyed "World War Z" for its' socio-political-economical surmising, this is sure to be loved.
Erin Kendrick, January 30, 2013 (view all comments by Erin Kendrick)
This book feels epic. It almost feels like 3 books in one: before the outbreak, during the outbreak, after the outbreak. It is horrifying in it's accuracy of how something like this would actually happen and creates a very good image of the individual people that would be effected and how groups of people could cope to deal with a new world.
frostel1, January 1, 2013 (view all comments by frostel1)
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Wonderfully written. I am already on the hunt for the next in the triology
"Review"
by Stephen King,
"Enthralling....You will find yourself captivated."
"Review"
by Entertainment Weekly,
"Magnificently unnerving...The Stand meets The Road."
"Review"
by The Dallas Morning News,
"Great entertainment...[a] big, engrossing read."
"Review"
by San Francisco Chronicle,
"Mythic storytelling."
"Review"
by Time,
"[A] magnificent beast of a new novel...a story about human beings trying to generate new hope in a world from which all hope has long since been burnt....What makes The Passage special is the extraordinary level of verbal craft and psychological insight....Cronin has taken his literary gifts, and he weaponized them."
"Review"
by The Washington Post,
"Imagine Michael Crichton crossbreeding Stephen King's The Stand and Salem's Lot in that lab at Jurassic Park, with rich infusions of Robert McCammon's Swan Song, Battlestar Galactica and even Cormac McCarthy's The Road."
"Review"
by Jennifer Egan,
"A wild, headlong, sweeping extravaganza of a novel, The Passage is the literary equivalent of a unicorn: a bona-fide thriller that is sharply written, deeply humane, ablaze with big ideas, and absolutely impossible to put down."
"Review"
by Men's Journal,
"Addictive, terrifying, and deeply satisfying. Not only is this one of the year's best thrillers; it's one of the best of the past decade — maybe one of the best ever."
"Review"
by The New York Times Book Review,
"A blockbuster...astutely plotted and imaginative"
"Review"
by Publishers Weekly (starred review and Pick of the Week),
"Fans of vampire fiction who are bored by the endless hordes of sensitive, misunderstood Byronesque bloodsuckers will revel in Cronin's engrossingly horrific account of a postapocalyptic American overrun by the gruesome reality behind the wish-fulfillment fantasies...manages to engage the reader with a sweeping epic style."
"Review"
by Kirkus,
"Literary author Cronin turns in an apocalyptic thriller in the spirit of Stephen King or Michael Crichton....The young girl as heroine and role model is a nice touch."
"Review"
by Booklist,
"[An] apocalyptic epic....Expect a lot of interest in this title."
"Synopsis"
by Random,
Named one of the ten best novels of the year by Time and Library Journal — and one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post • Esquire • U.S. News & World Report • NPR/On Point • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • BookPage
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.
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