The world we knew is gone. What world will rise in its place?

The Twelve have been destroyed and the terrifying hundred-year reign of darkness that descended upon the world has ended. The survivors are stepping outside their walls, determined to build society anew—and daring to dream of a hopeful future.

But far from them, in a dead metropolis, he waits: Zero. The First. Father of the Twelve. The anguish that shattered his human life haunts him, and the hatred spawned by his transformation burns bright. His fury will be quenched only when he destroys Amy—humanity’s only hope, the Girl from Nowhere who grew up to rise against him.

One last time light and dark will clash, and at last Amy and her friends will know their fate.

I’m of two minds when it comes to this book. There are parts that I enjoyed, mostly when it focused on the remaining humans. Not so much when it came to the long and sprawling story of of Zero, or Tim Fanning as he’s known in human form. Did I really care about his backstory? No, not really. Because, though Cronin tries hard to, what, humanize him, nothing can excuse what he does. Oh, boo hoo, you lost the woman you loved. Get in line.

So I skimmed huge segments of the book, only stopping when it appeared that something important was about to happen. Things do happen; it just seems to take an inordinate amount of time.

But worst is the ending Cronin writes for many of the characters. Not to give anything away, but some deserved better; one deserved far worse. I wish Cronin would have added a chapter or two to The Twelve, and given those characters the fates they deserved.




Mount TBR 2024 Book Links


Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. Bone Walker (Anasazi Mysteries #3) by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear
2. Holly by Stephen King
3. Inferno (Inferno#1) by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
4. Fallout (Lois Lane #1) by Gwenda Bond
5. The Secret People by John Wyndham
6. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
7. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
8. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
9. Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara
10. Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts by Shanna H. Swan, Stacey Colino
11. Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
12. Night Songs by Charles L. Grant
13. President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier by C.W. Goodyear
14. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin









MAR– Story, Hunt, Plot, City, You, Cry, Another, Paint

The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin

“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.

One of the best apocalyptic books that I've read. It's huge, but divided into two distinct stories. Both move along at a good clip, and never drag. There is the present, where we see how how it all began, how the end came. And there's the future, where we see what has become of the world and the few people still left.

The first part of the book is where we meet Amy. She's just a little girl, but it turns out that she's a very special little girl. So special that the government agency whose agenda does not bode well wants her. But the man they send to capture her turns out to have an agenda of his own. Their story is lovely, though ultimately tragic.

I personally liked the second part better, which takes about a hundred years later. Maybe because there are a lot more characters, all who have their own story and their own part to play. Their lives are compelling, and fraught with danger, as they are forced to leave the only home they've ever known. Their quest is to discover where the "virals," what they call the monsters who have overrun the planet, came from, and how to defeat them.

The is the first book in the trilogy; the story will continue in The Twelve.





Mount TBR 2023 Book Links

( Mount TBR 2023 Book Links 1-35 )

41. The Power by Naomi Alderman
42. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
43. Day Zero (Sea of Rust #0) by C. Robert Cargill
44. Dog Days by Ericka Waller
45. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
46. The Passage (The Passage #1) by Justin Cronin