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The Passage cover art

The Passage

Written by: Justin Cronin
Narrated by: Scott Brick, Adenrele Ojo, Abby Craden
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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
©2010 Justin Cronin (P)2010 Random House

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)

What listeners say about The Passage

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Amazing story!

Liked the different voices!
Great across the time spans! Voice acting amazing. Details of the world very vivid.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

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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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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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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    5 out of 5 stars
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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.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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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.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Good narrator. Predictable writing

Same narrator who did The Stand. Very similar to The Stand in theme, tone, imagery etc, to the point I had to look up Justin Cronin to make sure he wasn’t a pen name for Stephen King. Decent narration but I won’t be listening to the subsequent books.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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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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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible

Absolute masterpiece
Story and narration
Five stars!
Do yourself a favour and download this audiobook

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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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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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

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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