The Passage

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.

80 of 87 people found this review helpful

BORING!!!!!

Would you try another book from Justin Cronin and/or the narrators?

Maybe

Has The Passage turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of the narrators?

No one could save this book.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

This book never gets going. I was very disappointed. I stopped this book and listened to I am Legend again.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

Wast of my time

Pretty weak story that too way too long to poorly tell. Considering the subject matter, there's very little suspense. Save your time!

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

Horrible!!!!!!!!!

Couldn't finish. let's get to know a character in depth. learn all about their life then only use them for chapter, and continue that process over and over again. no constant to this just a random assortment. I'm about 10 hours in and once again it's a whole new set of people I just don't care about.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

OMG! So boring!

I really wanted to like this book but I can't. The first part was intriguing, then it jumped 100 years into the future and completely lost me. I've listened to 20 hours and just can't bring myself to go any further without someone sticking bamboo shoots under my nails! The narrator is monotone and soft, like he's reading a child's fairy tale . . . even during the few exciting parts. Was he trying to put me to sleep?! The story drags on and on and on without making much progress in the plot. Character development just isn't there. The characters are as flat as the narrator. I just don't see that the high ratings were justified.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

awful

Scot brick the narrator is annoying to listen to. book may have been better with another narrator

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

Waste of a good credit

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The writer has verbal diarrhea. Needlessly overwrites every description, every minuscule, unimportant detail - so much so that the plot gets totally lost. The story takes forever to get moving, and you could say it never gets moving much... But then it jumps ahead 100 years. Not an enjoyable book and one of the only books I've never finished. Waste of a credit or $.

What could Justin Cronin have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Good Lord, man, learn the axiom less is more. For example, 15+ minutes to describe a man having to relieve his bladder on a long road trip? C'mon. Did you think you were being paid by the word?

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Narrator is awesome. Up to great performance like the others I've heard him read.

Any additional comments?

Terribly written book.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

Is it depressing or just awful?

What disappointed you about The Passage?

It was waaaay too long and there was almost no action. It was touted by some reviews as a very good novel. I found it tedious and boring and not at all believeable. The characters were wooden and talked in scripted lines. There was no life in this story at all.
I wanted to quit listening many times and if not for a touch of OCD in my DNA I would have.

Would you ever listen to anything by Justin Cronin again?

No, absolutely not. There is no story here.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of the narrators?

I used to like Scott but on a long read such as this he gets a little smarmy. He sounds like an old Calvinist preacher on Thai stick.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

hopeless boredom, dissappointment and sadness over losing the credits and listening time...

Any additional comments?

I am a Mikey Likes It kind of guy. I usually like every movie, book, meal, party, game, whatever. Rarely do I not like something. I hated this book.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

Was he paid by the word?

The hype surrounding this book was extraordinarily positive. Unfortunately, I have been very disappointed.
I felt that the premise for the book was very creative, and had great potential. However, I don't believe I have come across an author who stretched out a narrative with such exhausting emptiness. For all its length, this is not really an epic tale. This is a plot story, without interesting characters, observational insight or psychological nuance. The vampire-virus conceit is not particularly scary, disturbing, campy or sexy. The writer draws out inconsequential details of activities, while breaking up the time line into a patchwork somewhat disconnected stories; the result renders the characters to placeholders or passersby, and the entire exposition lost its ability to make me care about anyone or what happens next. This is a story that could be seriously abridged; there was so little going forward in the story that I could multitask for long periods of time without missing a thing. I don't think I will be lining up for the next two volumes of the trilogy.
I don't even think that if the story could be repackaged as an HBO series or an Avatar like animation. The story is too disjointed.
Scott Brick comes across pretty flat in this reading, but I don't know if that is his fault. His strong point is earnestness, but this is a tale that is too boring to hold conviction over its length. The sentence structure of Mr. Cronin's writing lacks finesse of verb, adjective, metaphor and his dialog fails to evoke tension or reveal character. There is not much for Mr. Brick to work with.
This book has now been reviewed by thousands of readers with an average rating of over 3.7 indicating that many have loved it. Perhaps it is just not my cup of tea.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

What a waste of 40 hours

This book is bad. A melodrama -- read by a melodramatic reader -- that is a blatant screenplay desperately seeking to be picked up for a movie production. It's full of action phrases ("coiled", "sprang into action", square jaw", "exploded", "burst into" this that or the other, ad infinitum), whilst character development is moronic when its decent, awful most of the time. The only good parts are the recollections from the diaries, which unfortunately happen in very very very few places. And the ending is worthless, perhaps looking for the sequel book (and movie).

18 of 19 people found this review helpful