Review: The City of Mirrors (Passage #3) by Justin Cronin

The City of Mirrors (Passage #3) by Justin Cronin

Genre: Science Fantasy / Post-Apocalyptic / Horror

Publisher: Orion, 2016

My Rating: 5/5

Synopsis: The plague that almost ended humanity is finally over. For a new generation, the once-feared virals have begun to seem almost like imaginary monsters, creatures from a fairy tale they no longer believe in.

For Alicia, however, the bad dreams can never be forgotten. And the voice in those dreams is leading her towards one of the great cities of The Time Before. The ruined city of New York.

Ruined but not empty. For this is the final refuge of Zero, the first and most terrible product of the viral experiment. And Alicia knows that the nightmare can never truly be over until he is destroyed.

But what she finds is not what she’s expecting.

An opponent at once deadlier and more human than she could ever have imagined, who takes her on a terrifying journey into the past to learn how it all began.

And to find out how it must end.

My Review

WARNING: This review will contain minor spoilers for the first two books in the series. No major plot points will be revealed, nor information on who lives and who dies. Read on at your own risk. However, this review is spoiler-free in terms of the plot of The City of Mirrors.

I’m so sad to have finished this series. I started reading it back in 2010 when The Passage was first released. I was hooked from the start. At the time I was only 15. Now I’m 21 and this trilogy has remained with me, as well as remaining one of my favourite series of all time.

So, after the events of The Twelve, peace seems to have finally returned to North America. Or so it seems.

Make no mistake, this final book isn’t just a long, drawn-out conclusion tying up a bunch of pointless loose ends. No way. It’s just as poignant, hopeful and exciting as the first two installments, with an abundance of drama and tension.

The Passage was a rip-roaring read, most probably my favourite book in the series. The Twelve was excellent, however I felt it dragged a little in some places. Not enough for me to lose interest, of course, but still slightly slower in comparison. Thankfully though, it was by no means that dreaded filler book that the second novel in a trilogy quite often is; like The Passage, it had its own clear arc and revelations. As such, I like to think of this series as a vampiric The Lord of the Rings. Like The Fellowship of the Ring, The Passage gets the action started. We learn who the main players are and the identity of the main antagonist (Zero here, Sauron in LOTR), but we’re nowhere near close to defeating him yet. Instead, the antagonist of this first book is a lesser player, Babcock in The Passage and the Balrog of Morgoth in Fellowship. Subsequently, the group splits and moves on to the next antagonist, the main villain’s second-in-command. In The Twelve, it’s, well, The Twelve (or rather, the Eleven); the main virals, Zero’s henchmen. In The Two Towers, it’s Saruman, Sauron’s right-hand man. Now that they’ve been defeated, we’re onto the big one, the main villain, the final adversary who has been pulling the strings behind the scenes all along. Zero here is our Sauron, and The City of Mirrors is our The Return of the King.

Now, that’s where the similarities end, of course. No orcs or hobbits, but the The Passage series is no less epic in its own way. Thankfully, the final installment didn’t disappoint. I finished this book with tears in my eyes, barely able to see the last page. It’s a bittersweet book, a culmination of blood, sweat and tears from the characters (and from the author, I suspect). For years, the characters have struggled against the wasteland they inhabit – where the virals roam and Zero watches on – desperate to finally live in peace. The characters’ arcs reached their conclusion in this book, all in a satisfying way. There is an air of destiny in this trilogy and all the characters fulfilled theirs, whether it be good or bad, but I couldn’t argue that it all felt right. Everything about this book seems deliberate. Nothing is rushed or a coincidence. Everything is clearly mapped from the start, all the fates intertwined, and that’s what makes it a joy to read.

However, this series is all about a girl who saves the world, Amy Harper Bellafonte. Does Amy save it? I won’t say, but Cronin has written a remarkable set of characters, with Amy at the centre. This is a series with a huge cast and here we continue with the lives of Peter, Alicia, Sara, Hollis, Michael and Carter, among many other new characters. And we also finally get to know who Zero, aka Dr Timothy Fanning, really is. Somehow, Cronin has managed to create a villain you feel sorry for. Fanning has done terrible things, but in this book you’ll learn why. I could see the logic behind his actions and I pitied him, yet it didn’t excuse what he’d done; it was time for Fanning to give up his hold on the land.

What I’ve always loved about this story is its mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Like I said, there’s a real sense of destiny in these books, a mysticism in its words, coupled with a raw humanity that I loved, and of course the origin of the vampiric, zombie-like virus isn’t wholly within the realm of science. This is a series of death and destruction, love and hate, joy and sorrow, with no punches pulled, but at its core is hope.

The plot of this book is faster-paced than The Twelve, I would say, and still as exciting as both its predecessors. All loose ends are tied up neatly, including the ending. I thought the ending was really well done. There’s nothing worse than getting attached to a series, only for the finale to be anti-climactic and just plain wrong. Thankfully, this trilogy doesn’t fall into that hole. As I said, I finished this with tears blurring my vision, and that was the case for much of the book.

I don’t really know what else to say. This series is brilliant. Complex, tense, exciting, heart-breaking and hopeful, it’s everything you could ask for. These characters are ones that will stay with me for a long time, as will the story itself. However, it’s not truly over. Before even The Passage was published, the film rights for the series were bought. Ridley Scott is the director so I am extremely excited; I don’t think anyone could do a better job at making these books into films than him. So that’s something to look forward to in the future. For now, I’m going to feel sad probably for a whole week, but also happy. It’s bittersweet to finish a series you loved, especially one as good as this, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Have you read this series? Or do you want to start it? Let me know in the comments below!

 

The Sunday Post #14

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer in which book bloggers recap their week and look at what’s to come.

I read two books this week, one bad, one good. In fact, I gave my first 2 star review on this blog. I’ve been pretty lucky managing to read books no lower than a 3 star since I started blogging in March. However, that lucky streak had to end sometime.

In terms of my life, the only notable thing really is that I finished Stranger Things and I desperately need series 2. I think my parents are struggling with the wait even more than me!

The posts this week:

• Review: Soundless by Richelle Mead
• Entertainer Blogger Award
• Review: The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent
• The Willoughby Book Club Unboxing #2

I’m currently reading the final book in Justin Cronin’s The Passage trilogy, The City of Mirrors. I’m really enjoying it so far; I just love Cronin’s writing style and world-building. If you haven’t read this series yet, get on it now! It’s amazing and being made into films by Ridley Scott. This is probably one of the few times I’m not worried about a book-to-screen adaptation because, well, it’s Ridley Scott, the man can do no wrong when it comes to horror sci-fi.

I have a couple of other posts planned so look out for those, most notably one on why I think diversity is needed in books. I’ve seen arguments about it on Twitter, some good and some bad, and there was a lot of nasty fallout from that video. So, I’m going to try and give a convincing argument around why diversity is a good thing.

This week I pre-ordered Kings of Leon’s new album which I am sooooo excited for. I’ve been a big fan of KoL for years and seen them live a couple of times. My favourite album is Because of the Times. So, here’s their new song they released recently:

Book Recommendations: If You Liked That, You’ll Love This | Apocalyptic/Sci-Fi

I’ve been thinking for a while about recommending more books but I’d covered my favourite themes in my ‘A Novel Round-Ups’ such as horror, zombies, and lesser-known classics. So I got to thinking and realised whenever I’ve finished a really good book, I quite often crave to read another one with similarities. This led me to ‘If You Liked That, You’ll Love This’. One obvious example would be ‘if you liked Harry Potter, you’ll love Percy Jackson’. Male teenage protagonists, a type of magic, sidekicks in the form of a funny boy and an intelligent girl; the comparisons are obvious. So, without further ado, this week’s ‘If You Liked That, You’ll Love This’ is…

If you liked The Passage Trilogy or the Silo Saga, you’ll love The Southern Reach Trilogy

I read the whole of The Southern Reach Trilogy in a week last December. I couldn’t put it down. It was the bright pink cover of the first novel, Annihilation, that had caught my eye in Waterstones, and the blurb only heightened my need to dive into this series:

For thirty years, Area X, monitored by the secret agency known as the Southern Reach, has remained mysterious and remote behind its intangible border– an environmental disaster zone, though to all appearances an abundant wilderness. Eleven expeditions have been sent in to investigate; even for those that have made it out alive, there have been terrible consequences.

‘Annihilation’ is the story of the twelfth expedition and is told by its nameless biologist. Introverted but highly intelligent, the biologist brings her own secrets with her. She is accompanied by a psychologist, an anthropologist and a surveyor, their stated mission: to chart the land, take samples and expand the Southern Reach’s understanding of Area X.

But they soon find out that they are being manipulated by forces both strange and all too familiar. An unmapped tunnel is not as it first appears. An inexplicable moaning calls in the distance at dusk. And while each member of the expedition has surrendered to the authority of the Southern Reach, the power of Area X is far more difficult to resist.

You get the gist of the series. A section of wilderness characterised by strange happenings that the government has been unable to comprehend. Numerous expeditions that have ended in death and disaster. And an anonymous, headstrong, captivating narrator known only as ‘the biologist’.

This series is unsettling, weird (in a good way) and beautifully written. I don’t want to ruin the plot too much, but it has the creepiness and the horror of The Passage Trilogy, and the science and sense of isolationism that can be found in the Silo Saga. I loved every minute of this series and a part of me wishes I hadn’t read it so fast, but it’s a truly unique trilogy, despite the comparisons I’ve made! VanderMeer is an excellent writer and I loved his characters, especially the biologist and John Rodriguez, the latter appearing in the second novel. The twists and turns of Area X aren’t easily guessed and there’s a sense that Area X itself doesn’t want us to know just what it is. This isn’t a series for the fainthearted.

Have you read The Southern Reach Trilogy? Do you agree with my comparisons? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments below!

Waiting on Wednesday: ‘The City of Mirrors’

‘Waiting on Wednesday’ is a weekly meme that began at Breaking the Spine, where you blog about a book release you’re eagerly awaiting. There are A LOT of sequels I’m waiting for, as well as a few new releases.

But currently, The City of Mirrors, the third novel in the Passage series by Justin Cronin, is what I’m most excited about. It’s been years since I read the first novel and I absolutely loved its horror and its humanity. It was released back in 2011, in my last year of high school, and it feels quite odd to think that I’m now awaiting the third book whilst in my last year of university.

The Passage and The Twelve are big hefty hardbacks and at times you do have to force yourself to go on, but Cronin’s world is as immense as it is horrific. I love how Cronin’s vampire/zombie monsters are not just mindless beings. All virals stem from an original twelve who have a kind of sentience the average viral doesn’t possess. This is not your standard disease apocalypse story and I really love it for that, especially due to the fact you often find yourself feeling sympathy towards the virals and the humanity that is still dormant within them. But don’t let that statement lull you into a false sense of security; the virals really are terrifying when they need to be.

This is achieved mostly through the protagonist of Amy, ‘The Girl from Nowhere’. The mysticism and power surrounding her is captivating and I really envy Cronin for creating such a strong character.

As for the others, I’m looking forward to learning the fates of Alicia and Peter, as well as the viral Anthony Carter and the original Patient Zero, Dr Fanning. This is one of those series I wish I’d written myself and, if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend you do! Be ready to laugh, cry and get entirely freaked out.