104:9 The Passage by Justin Cronin

This one was recommended by several friends and since it was post-apocalyptic, although with more of a vampire thing than a zombie thing, I grabbed it for Chris and figured I'd read it after he was done. It is exactly as it's billed. An army virus gone wrong making "unbeatable soldiers" more vampiric in nature with mental abilities to boot. The counties only hope? A 6yr old girl who was infected with a slightly different strain who not only manages to escape when the virals get out but thanks to the virus in her, is super human.

That gets us through the first third of the book. You know what's going to happen but the way it was done was nicely executed and kept me hooked in.

The 2nd third was introducing the new world approximately 100yrs after the virals escaped and a colony of survivors and the group that will be the main characters for the rest of the book. Standard characterizations are all well filled in. I felt this part dragged a bit. You know where it's going and there really wasn't any surprises in any of it.

The final third saw things picking up again as a small group ventures out from the colony to try and find the location of the signal that is calling for anyone who has found "her" (her being the girl from the beginning who has managed to end up at the colony) to bring her back to CO. Hoping to learn something and save what is left of the human race, they head out. Some interesting twists and turns on the virals comes out (don't want to spoil it here) and the result is that they think they may be able to stop the virals now and so they venture off on that quest. Supposedly that will get dealt with in the next book.

In all, I enjoyed it. I felt the characters in the main were a bit too stereotypical and that the middle section dragged a bit but his takes on the "virals" was interesting. Hoping the next book picks up the pace just a bit tho.

Page count: 766p/2,620p ytd