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The Passage
- A Novel (Book One of The Passage Trilogy)
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Adenrele Ojo, Abby Craden
- Length: 36 hrs and 49 mins
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The Passage
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Publisher's Summary
New York Times best seller.
This thrilling novel kicks off what Stephen King calls “a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction".
Now a FOX TV series!
Named one of Paste’s best horror books of the decade.
Named one of the 10 best novels of the year by TIME 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, and Library Journal.
“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born".
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. Look for the entire Passage trilogy:
- The Passage
- The Twelve
- The City of Mirrors
What the critics say
“[A] blockbuster.” (The New York Times)
“Mythic storytelling.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
“Magnificent...Cronin has taken his literary gifts, and he has weaponized them...The Passage can stand proudly next to Stephen King’s apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand, but a closer match would be Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: A story about human beings trying to generate new hope in a world from which all hope has long since been burnt.” (Time)
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What listeners say about The Passage
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ryan R
- 2018-02-09
Amazing story!
Liked the different voices!
Great across the time spans! Voice acting amazing. Details of the world very vivid.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nicole
- 2019-06-24
Amazing
This is one of my favourite books of all time, and getting to listen to the audio version was wonderful. I just love the descriptive writing by Justin Cronin. Highly recommend.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- C. Browder
- 2019-02-27
ZZZZZ *snort... wait, what happened to Amy?
I really wanted to read this book. I looked forward to my credit to get this book. Part 1 was great... action packed! I liked the characters and the storyline. I even waited to watch the TV show to see how it compared to the book. I didn't have to go very far to realise it's NOTHING like the TV show. After getting to part 3, I understood why the show is arranged the way it is. It is mind-numbing, tedious, and confusing. It was like listening to the Bible... this one begat that one. That one begat that other one over by the well. The well was filled with cool water with a slight taste of burnt almond. Is the water safe to drink? Mouse Patel scurried past the barn filled with screaming littles... but I digress. And the narrator... after suffering through his monotoned weird manner of speaking, I looked forward to the others listed in the credits. Part 2! A new woman! It lasted about ten minutes and we're back to Boring McMonotone. What happened? We had magic girl, hooker mom, tortured FBI agent, creepy vampires... suddenly we had a list of log reports, unrequited (yet boring) love, cooking jack rabbits, and drawn out one hundred years later. I made it to Chapter 25... I can't even imagine getting to Chapter 87!!! Terrible... just terrible.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kelsey
- 2023-03-28
Narrator is key
Scott Brick is phenomenal. I find it difficult to find a good narrator to connect with, but he was perfect for this series. Thank you for telling it so well!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 2022-12-30
Incredible
Absolute masterpiece
Story and narration
Five stars!
Do yourself a favour and download this audiobook
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Aaron Buhl
- 2021-08-25
sofa Kung good
This is one of the best genre-fiction books I've ever read.
This is the kind of sprawling epic detailed story that made me love Stephen King's The Stand.
An amazing achievement.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Sam Doucette
- 2021-05-22
Epic Post-Apocalyptic
Oh boy that was a long read (36 hours on audiobook)! I honestly didn’t think I would get all the way to the end, I get bored easily. But it turned out the storyline was well constructed and kept me going at a good pace. It’s not perfect, it probably could have been condensed a little bit more, but it’s good enough that I’ll definitely check out book 2 when I’m ready for another long read.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Sharron padden
- 2021-04-07
The Passage
A very interesting story about a futuristic pandemic-like world. The characters are very well defined. A difficult read at times because of the deaths and sorrows I found the end to be confusing.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- james thorpe
- 2019-10-21
great epic tale
an epic post apocalyptic tale that doesn't include zombies. quite a journey can't wait for more.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Blair J Lindsay
- 2019-02-28
Excellent all around...
Compelling story with wonderfully drawn characters and powerful narration that really places you in the minds of those characters.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Nikki
- 2010-06-23
You love it or you hate it...
There doesn't seem to be much middle ground with this book. The same goes for the narration...I think you either generally love Scott Brick as narrator (he's one of my favorites), or you can't stand him.
I didn't read a lot of the hype before listening to the book, so I didn't know what to expect. I like to try out different books from time to time, and I saw that it was long and only one credit, so I got it for my long commute to work. Glad I did.
First of all, this is not a cheerful book. It is at times uplifting, and at others very depressing. It is about vampires, but not the "traditional" vampires we're usually hearing about. And no one "sparkles" in this story, trust me. I thought the character development was good. Sometimes things moved slowly, but I never found myself wanting to skip sections. There was always enough going on to keep my interest. It's also like two stories in one. There is a bit about the world before, and then the story about what happens after. Not immediately after, as in the Stand, but a few generations later. I found that to be very interesting.
It is VERY long. That in itself doesn't work for some people. I myself enjoy long, rich stories, and that's what I feel I got with this one. There's a lot of description, which I enjoy but others may find dull. I was a bit annoyed with the ending, but I understand that this is to be part of a larger work (trilogy, I think) so it's more understandable.
Overall, if you can handle a long, depressing but sometimes uplifting story that is rich in detail but sometimes a bit on the slow side, give this a try. You might love it...or you might hate it.
326 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Vicki
- 2010-06-13
I want my credit back !!!!!!!!!!!!
Before starting this massive tome-- Go to your doctor and get a prescription for many different varieties of anti-depressants. I think all of the hype about this book is like the critics in black at a small art gallery that stand around and study a canvas, composed of a black smear of paint on a white canvas and talk about strength and passion. In short-- Bovine Manure !! I made myself finish it to the bitter end, hoping that something of value might come of it. No such luck. The author kept giving me very small glimpses of light that made me hope that he might come through in the end, but instead, he delivers a crushing disappointment that makes me want to cry that I wasted three days of my life listening to this. Unless you want to drown in the kind of teenage tragic angst that a lot of kids go through around 15,-- steer well clear of this one.
132 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Randall
- 2018-06-29
A new type of vampire
The Passage is a well written novel about vampires, with a new and creative twist. I thought the first several hours laid out a good foundation to the rest of the story. Justin Cronin did a wonderful job in the introduction of all the main characters. They were well thought out and interesting. Overall the book was pretty good. I look forward to book number two.
130 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Derek B.
- 2010-06-30
I hate to complain about any book, but!
This book had me telling people about this wonderful book with interesting people in it that were caught up in some engrossing stories. But then it happend! The book shot ahead 100 years and a new book started! No kidding, it seemed to me it was written by a different author as well. It went from great to something that did little to interest me. It went from interesting to drawn out. It pains me to say anything bad about a book because just because I don't like something doesn't mean you wont unless we have the same taste but I feel the need to point out what I see as a problem in this book!
111 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Robert
- 2010-06-14
Great title in every respect
Had I known this was a book about vampires, I probably would not have purchased it. That would have been unfortunate. Had I predicated my decision to spend a credit upon my listen to the sample narration, that too would have been a mistake. The narration is brilliant.
The characters come alive with this incredibly captivating story, a unique and engaging story that I could not put down. Recommendation: Get this book while it's still only one credit. Oh, it's two credits now? It's still a bargain. This book is destined to be a classic.
107 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Lesley
- 2010-06-29
Wow! Worth the time and more
I like Stephen King and other horror writers, so I thought I'd give this a shot, even though the size was a little daunting, and I'd never heard of this Justin Cronin person.
Halfway through listening to the first downloaded section, I caught myself thinking about the book and the characters when I wasn't listening. I found myself sneaking five minutes here, ten minutes there. I enjoy the other horror novels I read or listen to, but not enough to sneak them.
Why this book and not the others? This one's just well-written. There's no other way to say it: The Passage doesn't just go for the gore. The questions are big; the characters are breathing. The world is our world, and also not our world. The gore's in there too, but it's evocative and interesting--not just splatter.
As usual, Scott Brick does a fantastic job with narration. I know he's not for everybody, but he's definitely one of my favorites. And as I mentioned, the author is just plain talented. The quality of his prose stands up to any "literary" novel on the market.
And finally, as for the "vampire" aspect, Twilight fans be warned: these vampires are not sparkly, or polite, or restrained in any way. They're good old-fashioned predators. Prepare to be terrified! I can't wait for the sequels.
106 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Steven
- 2010-06-14
Back to basics
Make no mistake, this is a vampire story. It harkens back to classic vampire tales, in which the vampire was a metaphor for our fear of contagion. In this version, the contagion isn't metaphorical, it is literal.
Good horror must touch on our greatest fears, and plague/contagion is one humans have faced for centuries. Perhaps because we have been less fearful of plagues in recent decades, modern vampire stories focus on the superhero qualities of vampires, and their sex appeal. That doesn't work for me. A vampire must be dreadful, not charming, and needs teeth and claws, not a samurai sword. And they are never good. I just cannot understand the appeal of the ubiquitous angst-ridden-teen modern vampire stories. Cudos to the author for getting back to basics.
I almost didn't buy this book, however, because Scott Brick is the narrator. I would echo the other comments about his style. This is a long book, and that means a whole lot of Scott Brick. Still, it was well worth the read. It seems like it was written with sequels in mind. Maybe a different narrator next time.
87 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Lars
- 2010-06-18
a Review
Ok, I don't like the vampire genre. This is not that.
I was frustrated after getting this book that it seemed like a vampire novel.
But,.. I could not put it down. The story and the characters are all worth the time invested.
I love the emotions and loyalty that surfaces out of the darkness of the story. I love the odd twists that the story takes. Yes, I am looking forward to the sequel.
I would hate to spend 2 credits on any book, but this is one credit well spent. The hours involved are well worth it.
This book is a journey. and one that should continue.
Even if you don't like Stephen King,.. I do, but then if you do like Robert Jordan, or Brandon Sanderson,.. you will like this. It is good!
73 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Crab McNasty
- 2013-01-27
Thank god it's over!
This book is laughably bad! I can't believe Stephen King had anything positive to say about this book since it seemed like a such a weak emulation of his well established skills. I bought this one because of the positive reviews but I should have paid more attention to the negative reviews since in hindsight, I've realized I agree with almost everything they say. I have to assume the positive reviews were paid for by the author because they don't seem to be written for the same book I read.
Anyone thinking of buying this book should be aware of a few things.
First, the narration is terrible. If you've ever heard a high brow intellectual reading incomprehensible poetry in a dramatic and pained voice than you will recognize those same qualities in Brick's narration. If you are like me this affectation will annoy you through the whole book. The two ladies who read briefly do an excellant job and I wish they had been given more chapters.
Cronin's dreadful overuse of simile should have been laid to waste by any semi-intelligent editor, like an overzealous forest service employee on a rampage with his powerful chainsaw (that's the way the author might state such an assertion). If the exraneous similes and adjectives were edited from this book it could easily be 20% shorter.
Perhaps what annoyed me most about this book is the absurd social structure adopted by the small band of survivors that the author describes. Specifically, the fact that they sequester all children until the age of 8 to prevent them from learning about the nature of the world they live in. This might be the dumbest thing I've ever read in a work of fiction.
Also demonstrating a stunning level of stupidity is the author's description of the scavanging activities carried out by humanity's remnants. Almost a hundred years after complete social collapse they are going to malls to find sneakers, using batteries, getting old vehicles running, eating canned foods, using computers, driving on roads... I could go on and on. Rubber would be simply unusable after a fraction of that time in the dry American southwest and all the hoses, seals, and wire coverings would be dust. There would not be a usable battery anywhere. Roads would have long reverted to their natural state (not to mention train tracks. ugh!). If, like me, you are unable to suspend disbelief for such a goofy scenario then you will not enjoy this book.
I could write pages and pages about how bad this book is. If I didn't spend so many hours with my ipod every day I would have given up after part one. I guess I have strong feelings about this book because the first part wasn't too bad and then the rest of it was so awful, and required such a commitment of time. If you're just looking for a long book to buy with one of your credits and you don't care about quality, this might be a decent purchase for you. Otherwise, my recommendation is that you keep looking!
69 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- C. P. O. Carroll
- 2010-06-21
gaseous windbagism
Is this a conspiracy to foist this gaseous bloated novel on an unsuspecting reading public? The thesis of the book is preposterous, the writing overwrought and needlessly lengthy. He finds numerous ways to say the same thing. One of the few books I have ever abandoned.
61 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lily
- 2019-03-11
A masterpiece
I started my audible membership with this book and it made me want to hear more.
The narrator is just great and the story thrilling. It’s a real roller coaster !
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- ChiCan
- 2016-12-13
A road trip like no other
Captivating while not completely original, a book that is difficult to put down. Not for those unwilling to stay the course.