Stephen King Fans discussion

Hey guys

I was wondering if anyone was planning on reading or has read (if it came out earlier in the US?) this book? It's about this apocalptic landscape with vampire-type creatures created by medical experiments, a missing child, oh and according to the following review, Stephen King loved it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/books...

I was thinking of buying it tomorrow when it comes out in England-going on a long road trip on Saturday so thought it might be fun. Any thoughts?

The Passage

Oh-there's the link too :D

I think it has gotten pretty good reviews. You can go onto B&N's website and read them.

I won an Advanced Reader copy of this book a couple of month ago and I am currently reading. The story is very good but the book is not a page turner, it moves very slowly. Don't misunderstand me, it is not boring, it is just slow for this kind of story. It is around 750 pages. I stopped in the middle of it to read something else and then came back because I was tired of it. I had never done that before, even with books over 1,000 pages.

I love the creatures, they are vampire-like, but not really vampire. I visualize them like a combination of vampire-zombie thing.

I think I'm ready to finally see some gory vampires (or vampire-like creatures). It also helps that Uncle Stephen approves :)

The local library has the book and the last time I checked, no one had borrowed it yet. I love how the hype just doesn't reach small town libraries in central Finland. Most times when I'm looking for a book that is hyped in GR, I can just walk into our town library and find it sitting on the shelf. It's sort of amazing.

I put myself on hold for it but the list is long. It'll be a while before I get my hands on this book but I'm planning to dive into it as soon as it arrives. I've heard from a number of friends and fellow librarians that they loved it.

My husband has "stolen" my copy and is reading it now as I breathe down his neck impatiently. He says it's good but it's not Stephen King-caliber good.

I'm planning on buying it tonight after work-will let you know what I think when I'm back :-)

I've read part 1 of the book now, I'm about 200 pages in. Really enjoying it so far although I feel like I just read the setting the scene stage and now I'm ready for the real storyline to start. Awesome book though.

I definitely recommend this. Read it a few months back (proof copy). It really is worth all the hype! And I am not one to get sucked into the hype. The vampires (or virals here) are truly spooky scary creatures. The book has a mix of everything so nicely woven around the central character, Amy. And if King recommends, is there a better recommendation for us CRs than that! :)I think I will be doing a second reading very soon!!

I definitely recommend this. Read it a few months back (proof copy). It really is worth all the hype! And I am not one to get sucked into the hype. The vampires (or virals here) are truly spooky scary creatures. The book has a mix of everything so nicely woven around the central character, Amy. And if King recommends, is there a better recommendation for us CRs than that! :)I think I will be doing a second reading very soon!!

I'm about halfway now-I kinda feel sorry for the virals, is that strange? Also, not sure what's happening with Amy, she's living in the community now though.

I have just finished this in the early hours of this morning, I had it as a download to my ipod and thought it was excellent.

I am only about 100 pages into it and so far It's got me hooked! :)

I just finished this the other day, and I thought that it was very good, but I was left wanting more. Although now I've learned that this is just part 1 of 3, so that explains a lot. :)

I didn't know that this wasn't a standalone, since I tried to avoid any and all mentions of this book before I read it myself. I knew it was post-apocalyptic and that was all that I really wanted or needed to know. :)

I really enjoyed it though. It wasn't as fast paced as Under The Dome, which was just non-stop from page 1, but I found it to be pretty quick moving, and when it did slow down, I didn't feel like that was a bad thing.

Overall, I really liked it a lot, and now I'm looking forward to part 2.

I hadn't realise it was part one of a series. Will definitely look out for the next one!

I downloaded it onto my Nook. Didn't realize it was part of a series either. Can't wait to get started reading it.

I wasn't very impressed but the book, but I'll read the sequel. I hope it is not as long as this book was!

Can't believe I am like 200 on the library list! :(

I didn't know it was the first in a series, either. That's good to know. I was avoiding reading everything about it to avoid the spoilers, that's probably how I missed that fact. Well onward. I'm enjoying it.

It was very good, and knowing that its part of a series makes me want to go back and rewrite my review... I won't, but I might add a little addendum about it. :)

I started reading it a little over a week ago, about 200 pages in and loving it so far. It's unfortunate that I have to wait another 2 years for the sequel..but where I'm trying to make my way through all of King's books, I'm sure I'll have a lot of material to do me over.

I liked this book but I think it had serious pacing problems. The last third read like a rushed first draft and while I liked the first two thirds, the last section left me with a bad final impression.

I'll probably read at least the next book, since I'm really curious about Peter's role in things. It's not a bad first outing for something that epic but I think a little more time and editing would have worked wonders.

I enjoyed it, I think there's a lot still to explain in the sequels. I'll definitely be looking out for the next ones.

I loved this book...it did have a hint of The Stand in it. I can't wait until the next one.

I'm still in the exposition part of "The Passage" - but I do love it - I can see why some people compare it to "The Stand" - but it's really just a surface comparison - civilization-ending virus escaping from secret government installation...and, although I'm far from finishing this book, I don't see where any comparisons to King's book stand up. Except that they're both very, very good reads - and that, today, means an awful lot!

I've got "The Stand" ready to go next.. I've yet to read it and since they were both drawing comparisons, I thought I'd read 'em back to back.

I've finished this book now, -- and I've got to say, I was somewhat disappointed. During the entire book, I felt no emotional investment in ANY of the characters, whereas the characters in "The Stand" are like long-time friends (and enemies!)

Bondama wrote: "I've finished this book now, -- and I've got to say, I was somewhat disappointed. During the entire book, I felt no emotional investment in ANY of the characters, whereas the characters in "The St..."

I'm sorry you felt that way, Bondama. I completely felt connected to the characters and am dying to know how they are right now! :(

I can kind of understand where you're coming from Bondama... with the shift in the story where it is, it kind of feels like the people you meet post-shift are "temporary", so you don't really want to get to close to them, lest they just get shifted out of the story like the first group. You kind of hold them at arm's length.

I felt that a little bit, but by the end, I did come to care about the characters, and about the world that was left in general.

Ya know, I really liked the world as it had come to be. Ok, maybe not fighing the virals, but the simplicity of what the world became. It was nice and I envied that.

Oh my gosh... not me. I like simplicity, but it was a fearful/controlling/no-tolerance simplicity. I mean, I completely understand being afraid of the virals, but people were also afraid to dissent or to go against the status quo. I didn't care for that, and wouldn't want to live in a world like that. :(

No, no, no. lol. That's not what I meant. I meant just simple. No TV, cars, just simple. Ok, maybe not the entire world. lol

But they got rid of their history! Not cool.

I don't think they did it on purpose. There was sorta a war on. :\

I dunno... I don't really understand the way that they set up their society.

********Spoilers below********



Sheltering kids until they are 8 and then WHAM! shoving them out into the "real" world... What's the point? To preserve their innocent "childhood"? Doesn't make much sense to me. Lots of kids live in a horrible world... sheltering them simply means that they are less prepared and more disillusioned and resentful and scared than they would be if they grew up within the society instead of the "sanctuary".

And I know that there was a war, but even afterwards it seemed like nobody wanted to remember what was, they just made new and started over. That's sad to me. But I guess I can understand... *shrug*

**Spoiler**

If I'm not mistaken it seemed like they said that people purposefully took certain books out of the village library. I just got the impression that they ment to leave history behind. Everything was so utilitarian. If it didn't serve a direct purpose or help society directly then they didn't tolerate it at all. Kind of like a commentary on what is going on with fine arts education in our public school system.

The only characters that I 'bonded' with were Amy, Wolgast and Carter. Peter...kinda. I liked the story at the beginning the best. I wish there had been more story line involving the outbreak.

And I really hated that people kept coming back from the dead. *hurmph*

I did like this book quite a lot but I really look forward to the next ones and sincerely hope that Cronin fixes some of the 'weak sauce' things like not being able to kill off main characters. You want me to feel for characters? Let me cry with them when they lose the people they love.

I could go on and on....all the characters spoke to me. I loved the quiet little life that Theo and Maus found for themselves, even if it was for just a little while.

Sure, not all the books were taken out of the library, but it didn't seem like anything was forbidden to be read. They seemed to read whatever they could get their hands on. It's just hard to say. We didn't see the "world" so much from between the outbreak till the Colony w/ Peter, Alicia and Theo, etc. That's alot of time missing. How did things go from one to the other. I'm sure things happened and started out for a reason. They didn't aim to just throw out their history or anything.

That's true...

....I guess. ;)

lol. Sorry, I made no sense. lol

LOL No... I was reluctantly agreeing with you! You made sense!

lol. Oh, well.

It was a good book, not great..good.

I didn't really enjoy it from start to finish, the whole way. The first 1/3 was fantastic but it did get bogged down a little at parts; lots of back story. I guess that can be expected when you have a trilogy in mind.

I will say that the "action scenes" were done very well; very intense.

I will more than likely seek out the sequel when it comes out in 2 years.

I just picked this up at a library book sale...looking forward to reading it soon!

Anna it's a great book! Enjoy! :)

In case anyone's interested, the next book: The Twelve is out in the UK at the end of August, maybe sooner in America though?

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstone...

Oh my goodness! Exciting!! Thanks Jane!

I love this clip from when the Passage came out. Skip ahead to 3:00 for a Stephen King related surprise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHhJsa...

I read this book last Fall and at the time I didn't think I was going to get the second book when it came out.

As time passes though my opinion of The Passage has improved a lot and I'm fairly certain that I will be getting book two.

First, I really liked this book (my review is here and it's spoiler free http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... ), and I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel. Not sure when it's supposed to come out in the US, but I hope it is soon! I'm planning on rereading The Passage before The Twelve comes out, because that's just how I do things.

Second, the look on Justin Cronin's face in that interview when he heard King's voice...just excellent.