The Passage by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sigh. It frustrates me how little genre fiction book critics read. So when a no apologies sci-fi book makes a bunch of best of the year lists, I assume it must be the pinnacle of the craft. Sadly, this is almost never the case. (And the Passage is sadly no exception.)
Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, with a solid premise, and some very good characters*, and one off the charts action scene. But one of the best books of 2010? Eh, I'm skeptical: There are quite a few plot holes, and some major flaws in characterization, the main one being the main character doesn't have much of a personality. This is going to be a major problem if she's the only character who is going to survive the duration of the series as seems likely. Worse yet, from the perspective of calling it one of the best books of the year: there's not much new. Vampirism caused by a virus? Check. Peeps pretty much nailed that one and it's not alone. A post-apocalyptic society where the survivors come to terms with humanity's fragility? Come on now, that's the plot of 75% of YA fiction in the post Hunger Games era (and 40% before). The narrative told in a mix of straight up third person narrative, characters journals, email exchanges etc? That was passe like 20 years ago.
Again, none of this makes the book bad. In fact the book is very good, but it does make me question the opinion and relevance of the scores of critics who ranked this at the top of their lists.
* One of the things that is very good about this novel is that it has some very strong characters of many different races, and both genders. Moreover, while the races of the characters are not hidden, at all, they're not harped upon. I call that a #racewin.
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