RA Crossroads: Justin Cronin's The Passage
By Neal Wyatt Jun 29, 2010As Lewis Carroll's Alice so aptly points out, "What is the use of a book...without pictures or conversations?" Welcome to RA Crossroads, where books, movies, music, and other media converge, and whole-collection reader's advisory service goes where it may. In this column, end-of-the-world nightmare visions courtesy of Justin Cronin's The Passage lead me down a winding path. Begin:
Cronin, Justin. The Passage. Random. 2010. 784p. ISBN 978-0-345-50496-8. $27. F
In a future America, one seemingly in the grip of martial law and big-brother monitoring, an apocalyptic event leads readers into a genre-blending feast that evokes Stephen King and Cormac McCarthy, Michael Crichton and Brian Keene. This is a dark tale of the struggle to stay human in the face of a military-manufactured new mutant, with a faint nod to zombie fallout. A vampiric post-human group of convicts, who at first seem to be indiscriminately consuming or changing every human they encounter, are only later revealed to be doing much worse. Standing in the way of the annihilation of all human life is a young girl-an experiment somehow gone perfectly right-and a ragged group of teenagers determined to keep what little is left of their world alive. The thrill of Cronin's storytelling is his attention to detail and mood as he creates a tale full of necessary deliberations: Who knows how to keep batteries charged; what do you tell young children born into a changed world; what happens when cultural memory is lost? Mixed with these questions of societal order and decay are lashings of a road trip/quest/adventure story, which aids the driving pace. Fans will get lost in this book, caught up in the swirling moods of determination and despair, intrigued by stalwart and smart characters, and fascinated by details of survival against vampire beings.
Read-Alikes:
King, Stephen. The Stand. Penguin. 1991. 1168p. ISBN 978-0-451-16953-2. pap. $9.99. F
It is hard not to think of King's magisterial conception of good vs. evil at the end of the world as you read The Passage. In King's novel, the military has created a virus that mutates and kills off nearly all of the world's population, and it leaves the remaining people to face the horrors of society's disintegration. As the few survivors travel across the country, King focuses on character and creates rich and varied players for his world. The rag-tag groups are called together through shared dreams of Mother Abagail, a force for good, or Randall Flagg, the embodiment of evil. Each group must try to rebuild the world, and the details of the dual construction should appeal to Cronin readers who liked the First Colony passages. Fans will also appreciate the echoing sense of what has been lost, the darkness of what we will become, and the loneliness of being the last. King's book (either the original or the expanded edition) ends on a darker note than Cronin elects to do, but those who take to either story will appreciate the sheer richness of storytelling in both.
Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. Tom Doherty. 2007. 320p. ISBN 978-0-7653-1874-9. pap. $14.95. F
Here is another book that focuses on the details of survival, and like The Passage, on a possible mutation. While the Will Smith film makes a good companion piece, evoking the same level of fear that those with vivid imaginations will experience from some of Cronin's more jolting moments, Matheson's book more closely matches the mood. A pandemic has killed most of the human race and turned the few survivors into vampire-beings-save one, Robert Neville, who is immune. Matheson details Neville's day-to-day life in an abandoned L.A., by day figuring out how to keep himself alive and safe, and by night barricaded in his home as the vampire horde tries to break in. Matheson's is a tale of loss, of dark hope broken, and of the realization that what takes form after humanity dies will have no space for survivors. Fans might also want to watch The Omega Man, an earlier film version of the novel. Read-Arounds:
Del Toro, Guillermo & Chuck Hogan. The Strain. HarperCollins. 2010. 624p. ISBN 978-0-06-155824-5. pap. $9.99. F
Because one of the things Cronin inspires readers to want is vampire action, consider this high-octane, full-out vampire thrill-fest with plenty of blood and horror by Hellboy director Del Toro. On a flight from Germany to New York, something goes terribly wrong. When the plane lands, all but four of the passengers are dead-drained of blood-and there is a dirt-filled coffin in the luggage hold. Soon Manhattan is a war zone, vampires are everywhere, and two unlikely humans join forces to stop the horde. (Part 2 of this trilogy, The Fall, is due in September.)
Wastelands. Night Shade. 2008. 352p. ed. by John Joseph Adams. ISBN 978-1-59780-105-8. pap. $15.95. F
If post-apocalyptic fiction now has your readers in its dark-fingered grasp, then consider this collection of 22 shining examples, including stories by Stephen King, Octavia E. Butler, Orson Scott Card, George R.R. Martin, James Van Pelt, Gene Wolfe, Nancy Kress, and Elizabeth Bear. The stories range from the hopeful to the grittily despairing, from world rebuilding to our very sad ends. Every selection embodies and defines in some way this wide-ranging genre, giving readers a chance to find a new favorite author.
Weisman, Alan. The World Without Us. Picador. 2008. 432p. ISBN 978-0-312-42790-0. pap. $15. F
If reading Cronin's speculations about what would happen if no one knew exactly how to maintain our grid fascinates your readers and they want to know more about Earth without human interference, then this nonfiction explanation is a perfect next read. Weisman's book is smart and full of detail, supplying a backstory to Cronin's imagination. Read how tunnels will flood and skyscrapers will tumble, yet plastic will last. Basing his reporting on areas of the world humans have already abandoned-Chernobyl, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea-Weisman paints a vivid picture of a world retaken by plant and animal life, where bronze remains, but electricity and man-made power quickly fail.
Listen-Alikes:
World War Z. Random House Audio. 2006. ISBN 978-0-7393-4013-4. $29.95. F
Cronin writes about vampire-esque creatures, but a zombie aesthetic is not too deeply buried in his work. The same retrospective documentary feel that seeps into much of The Passage is present in Brooks's wonderful oral history of the zombie war, which also examines what happens when the human race is challenged as the dominant power on Earth. After a decade of war, the zombie horde, 200 million strong, is finally pushed back and the remaining humans begin to rebuild-but not before the near-collapse of civilization and a radical change in the physical and political landscape. Told through various voices, the story is a grand experience in audio, where a full-cast reading lends dimension. Sadly, it is abridged, but narrators Alan Alda and Carl Reiner and other skilled readers add a level of verisimilitude that makes hearing this story even creepier.
Watch-Alikes:
28 Days Later. 20th Century Fox. 2003. $14.98.
A post-apocalyptic horror film might be just what Cronin fans want next. Considered a modern classic of the genre, this story also recounts what happens after a virus is unleashed on the population and turns humans into killing machines. The plot traces the desperate race of a small (and growing smaller) band of survivors trying to find refuge and rescue. The movie has the same kind of survive-while-on-the-road feel as The Passage, but ramps that feeling even more as viewers pant through the high-octane pace. The film has been adapted into a great graphic novel and was followed by a second film, 28 Weeks Later.
