0 "The Passage"

I just finished The Passage, a post-apocalyptic novel by Justin Cronin. I am not exactly sure how I got turned onto it but I had just finished Cloud Atlas and I was looking for a new fiction book to read. The book is a lengthy read, clocking in at a little under 900 pages, but it went by pretty fast and I finished it in a little over a week. The plot focuses around a virus that the U.S. Army is developing and modifying to create a new super-soldier. Predictably, things go horribly wrong and the test subjects (death row inmates with nothing to lose) are turned into vampire like creatures with enhanced physical and mental powers who infect other humans, creating more vampires and destroying the country as we know it. Much of the early part of the book is focused on the two FBI agents responsible for collecting the death row inmates and their interactions with a young girl who they are responsible for collecting and bringing to the Army compound.

The book is full of biblical imagery and references. There are 12 test subjects and one, called Zero/Fanning that came before them. One of the main characters of the early part of the book is a nun in a convent. Much of the writing and the language that characters use has biblical overtones. The young girl, whose name is Amy is called an Ark by a nun. The vampires are created by a bite and a transmission of blood. The book is titled the passage, referencing (at least to me) the Israelite's passage out of Egypt, wandering in the desert and all of the trials and tribulations that happened before ending up in Israel. Presumably, the 12 test subjects are a reference to the 12 disciples. One of the protagonists is named Peter,  a character in the Bible who is called the rock that Jesus was to found his church on.  

The Passage is part of a trilogy, but much of the book provides a background on just a few of the main characters. Wolgast, Amy, and a few of the members in the 1st Colony are given much attention. I was hesitant reading the book at first, as things moved somewhat slowly, but it rapidly pulled me in and I was reading it whenever I had a free moment. An interesting picture is painted of the dystopian world that the characters live in AV (after the virus/virals), and much of the bulk of the book is a description of the lives of the people in the 1st colony. The eponymous Passage also describes the travels of 8 members of the colony who leave in search for answers, knowing that because of the failure of the lights that keep the virals away, their lives are about to change.

I liked this book a lot and it was hard for me to put down. I found myself staying up late and reading the book in  bed, curious to see what would happen to the characters. I wouldn't say I became invested, but I wanted to find out more of the back story and hear more about the world that the characters lived in; I was curious to see what relics still survived from the time before the virus (for example, calling pants "gaps", presumably after the store) and what had changed or adapted. The world that Cronin constructed became fleshed out, with gaps still in place left to tantalize the reader. I would recommend this book, but its a significant time suck.