The City of Mirrors -- Justin Cronin ---------------------- 4 Stars

About 3 years ago, I read an absolutely superb book, and one of a very small and select few that has earned 5 stars on this blog. It was titled The Passage, and I reviewed it and it's sequel, The Twelve, here and here, respectively. When I finished The Twelve, I read there was a final book in the trilogy coming out sometime in the Spring of 2016.  This was a few years ago and I pretty much forgot about it until about a month ago when I was looking for a book to read and checked the NY Times bestseller list. Wouldn't you know, Justin Cronin's, final book in the trilogy, The City of Mirrors was number 1? What a very, very welcome surprise. Well, did it live up to the first? Not quite but it sure beat the sequel.

Quickly, the basic synopsis of the series: a set of core story characters are living in a post-apocalyptic America after a virus nearly killed off everyone. The virus has led to a set of, basically vampires, that rule the land at night. The books jump around by timeline, in some cases by millennium, as the reader learns more about both the main characters and the viruses affect upon the world, past and present.

This book concludes The Passage trilogy. Coming in at over 2,000 pages between the three, the author does a pretty fantastic job weaving them all together while also going into sufficient, and welcome depth, to better understand all the core characters, including motives and what ends up happening to them. This book is about all you could ask for to conclude this series, as the scope of the story and depth in which the author had described many prior events/characters was going to be hard to fully wrap-up.

For the most part, the book is very entertaining (which is the main criteria for my rating system). I thoroughly enjoy Cronin's style whereby he will have great description of important plot developments and action and then take full chapters to go into depth to describe a scene or person in the novel. It's a great way to both feel like you really know and understand the characters but don't get bogged down on items unrelated to the story. At one point, Cronin really takes a detour and basically includes a 100 page novella early in the book about an older character that hadn't really been detailed yet.

My biggest complaint about this final installment is the slowness to get the action going. Like other epic tales of fictional apocalypses, this has a classic good guy (or girl)/bad guy scenario. You know that eventually, they are going to square off, and it was pretty clear that the book was setting up to do that; I just didn't think it would take so long to get to. It seemed like at least half the novel just setting things up. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed that half and Cronin does such a good job of rounding out the scenes that it's hard not to enjoy, but it just felt so obvious that the book was slowed down. However, once things to start going, it's a furious final quarter of the novel. I even liked the final chapter and how the entire trilogy was pulled together.

Overall, if you have not read The Passage, I would highly recommend you do so soon. Please know that even though the books have a vampire element and are apocalyptic, they are really phenomenal reads and really are just vehicles for fantastic storytelling . I would also suggest that if you read The Passage and got frustrated with The Twelve, you owe yourself the reading of the City of Mirrors partly to understand how the story ends and because Cronin is much more on his game in this final book.

The Twelve -- Justin Cronin ----------------- 3 Stars

You may remember a few months ago when I raved about Justin Cronin's The Passage.  It was one of the few books that I have reviewed to ever garner 5 stars.  Well, lo and behold, I found it is a trilogy (which really makes me feel better about the ending of the first book :)).  The second book in the trilogy is The Twelve.  As I had finished the previous book less than 4 months ago, I was very excited about reading the follow-up...as you can guess from my rating, it did not impress like the first.

One of the things that made me so excited about reading this book was to find out what happened to some of the characters of the other book.  Well, I did found out what happened to them, unfortunately, it took about 250 pages to get to that point.  To say this book started 'slow' is a massive understatement.  In fact, I'm not sure if I would have kept going if this was a book I just picked up for the first time and had no history with the author or story.  But, I kept going and the book slowly got better.

The good -- The book does keep you up about the favorite characters from the last story.
The book is still well written, and if you can keep with the story after the slow start, is quite good
The book had an ending, of sorts, while still making you excited about the final book in the trilogy
The book is still a great story about good vs. evil

The bad -- Like I said earlier, really slow start
The book is all over the place and jumps around far more often than the previous book
The book seems to not connect some events until much, much later
The books focus is on many of the smaller characters from the last book or on new characters.  While this is nice in some ways, it is a shame to get away from some of the characters that were so well established and love from the previous book.

Overall, it is a must read if you read The Passage and were a fan of it.  Although not a great book, it is still quite good if you liked the first book and is a book you have to read if you are going to continue the trilogy.  I am really excited about finishing the trilogy with Justin Cronin's next book that comes out next year. 

The Ferryman - Justin Cronin ------------------------ 4.5 Stars

I have been a huge Justin Cronin fan for many years, beginning with his captivating book - The Passage (eventually made into a pretty awful tv show with the amazing Mark Paul-Gosselaar (who, even at his best, had no chance of saving it)). One of the few 5 star review on this blog, it was joined later by The Twelve (a decent sequel) and City of Mirrors (review of all three can be found here). So, imagine my excitement when a new book was announced earlier this summer. 

The Ferryman, a less dark, non post-apocalyptic story, was a nice change of pace from his prior novels. Moving into slightly lighter dystopian future, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and finished the 530 pages quickly in under two weeks. The basic premise revolves around the main character who works as a ferryman to take people who are close to dying to a placed called the Nursery to be "renewed". The setting is a beautiful, utopianish country that is hidden from the challenges of the modern world. Of course, not is all as it seems and he begins dreaming (something that was not believed possible), and other class conflicts begin to arise.

As noted, I really couldn't put this down. From the opening pages, I found the book engrossing and the characters, and perhaps more notably, the plot, very engaging. I also found Cronin has improved his delivery and become a writer with smoother prose, better dialogue, and greater hooks than in some of his previous works. 

Perhaps what most stuck out to me, especially as I neared the ending and finished the book are the twists and turns and how much that made me think about what I just read. I was even tempted to go back and start over to try and better understand certain plot pieces that didn't fully sink in (I didn't, thanks mostly to the excellent people on Reddit who helped me better understand pieces I missed or misundestod). As I finished the book, I realized it did have many connections to movies that I have enjoyed, and I think I most consider it a mix of Inception and Interstellar with a pinch of the Matrix mixed in. Perhaps after thinking about those movies, it makes a bit more sense why I was thinking of re-reading (not the most straight forward set of movies). But, of course, that's what made the book so exciting. Each new detail unraveled a new thread in my mind that I had not thought of or realized before, ultimately making the book much more fulfilling. 

With all this praise, I feel I should mention concerns for some potential readers. As I alluded, the book has a complicated plot and can be difficult to follow. It's also possible that the major twist at the ending, or ending by itself, may be off putting for some readers as it comes late and really changes the narrative. Most obviously, this book would fit most clearly into the the "sci-fi" realm that includes dystopian and/or the post-apoclapytic genre. If that's not for you, this may not be best.  That all being said, I think this book is a super fun and enjoyable read and do recommend strongly. 

The Passage -- Justin Cronin ----------------- 5 Stars

This is a very special blog.  Today, Justin Cronin's The Passage enters into some very elite company as it garners my highest rating: 5 stars.  It is a rare feat to enter into this club, but this book, with it's amazing mix of fantasy, great dialogue, wonderful action, and interesting question marks throughout make it an easy A and earn it admission into the 5 star club.

A  quick summary - some scientists work with the government to create people that have been given some special viruses to make them hopefully last forever and perhaps cure cancer.  This goes wildly wrong (shocking, I know) and they become really bad, sort of zombie like people which sort of leads to the end of the U.S.  Some people survive and this is their story about how it happened and the future of this new world. 

I wanted to start off with something bad to say about it, but doing so would just be picking nits.  Perhaps its too long at around 800 pages, or it jumps a bit too much from story or time in history (yeah, it's one of those), or it is a bit slow to get started and the reader truly hooked, but again, these are small issue.

In the end, the Passage is just phenomenal.  The Passage reminds me of a mix of Lonesome Dove (my review here) and The Stand (my review here).  While both of those books were very good, if you put them together, you get the masterpiece that is The Passage.  As I said briefly in the first paragraph, the book is a bit fantastic.  It's not really a story that could happen (at least we hope not) as it's a bit apocalyptic and about future societies but at the same time it's not so fantastic that you couldn't think it could happen.  For me, this is just the right amount of science fiction; still based in reality but not very likely.  What's perhaps most outstanding about this book is the writing.  This might seem obvious but Cronin has a great ability to switch styles and gears (which he did often to great effect) throughout the book.  There are pieces that written like poems and are quite lyrical, while the next chapter might describe an epic battle in great detail and with all the gore and action, while the next might include dialogue from key characters that you give great insights into who they are.  The beautiful writing really gives this book a huge boost. 

So, why did it get 5 stars?  Well, if you remember the well conceived rating system I originally created, I base my ratings on how captivating and interesting it is; basically, was it entertaining?  This book is a home run for that.  It is a truly great story, wonderful and well rounded characters, very good dialogue that keeps you on the edge of your seat (or bed), superb action that truly puts the reader in the middle of events and a great philosophical fight between good and evil.  I really wish I could add more to detail how fantastic this book really is but I am not sure what else to say.  But please, do trust me.  It's a long read, and you kind of have to be okay with the whole zombie thing (but again, nothing like Twilight... it's not really zombies just, sort of, other 'beings'), and the ending is kind of vague (hence the sequel called "The Twelve" (can't wait to read that)) but it beats anything I have read in a long time.  

As I said, this books joins elite company -- do yourself a favor and read it if you have not; you will not regret a single page.