This was a very remarkable novel.
It was the last part of the trilogy known as The Passage, which is also the name of the first novel. The second, The Twelve, was very entertaining, but I had my doubts about this one. Why, you ask..
I've had bad experience with any kind of -ilogy's ending badly.. and I don't mean that they end up all dead or something other I didn't see coming, but that the ending just sucks. The Dark Tower comes to mind when I think of bad endings.
The City of Mirrors didn't deliver, which means that it was superb in how well it all connected. Maybe the ending was kind of a stretch and it had that 'all's well, ends well' vibe to it, but I was just glad that most of the characters I've come to like did have a chance at a future beyond my knowledge.
But enough about the ending, it took me about 800 pages to get there in the first place and those pages were filled with all kinds of shenanigans. We start at Kerrville which is filled to the brim with people, no virals have been detected for over three years and debate about whether to settle outside the walls is heavier than ever. There just isn't enough room inside the walls for everyone.
We get a glimpse at how everyone is doing, before we jump 20 years later.
Most of the groundwork lain in the first chapters is well developed.
Peter Jaxon is President, but his jurisdiction is dwindling, since more and more people emigrate towards the various townships, as also his son is about to do at the beginning of this part. Caleb and his wife want to try their hands at farming.
Of course that's when things go awry.
It starts slow in the beginning..
Another part of this novel is the introduction of Zero. We get to know him better. His past is delved into, so we see the reasons for the hatred he harbors for humanity. This was a part of the novel I liked, but not to the extent that it made me feel sympathetic for this character. His history felt a bit like he hadn't lived it, but rather borrowed it from a movie or book. It was a bit one-dimensional. But I still liked it, simply because it was a nice break from the day to day activities of the survivors.
Cronin wrote a well-paced ending for this wonderful trilogy. Even if you're not into vampires or zombies or a cross-over of the two, it's a novel you could like. The virals may be vampire or zombielike but actually the main theme feels more like a disease that's gone out of control, much like in the novel 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson.
I'm anxious to see how the adaptation translates this material to the big screen.
