The epic doomsday scenario trilogy comes to a triumphant conclusion after ten years or so with this final and much-expected volume, following the visceral impact of The Passage and The Twelve. Set many years after the heartwrenching battle which concluded the previous instalment, we follow the journeys of the survivors and their descendants through a bleak and devastated world and Cronin brings all the unanswered threads together with dread and compassion as the menace of the virals which had been thought extinct reappears on an even more lethal scale, and Amy's true role is unveiled. Flashing back in time to the origins of the catastrophe and the significance of Fanning, the Zero, this also becomes a meditation on the nature of evil as much of the action is set in a transformed New York where past and present collide with both touching and gripping effect. Alongside, the saga of the boat which might hold the future of mankind unfolds and evokes hope after all the horrors the many unforgettable characters have endured. Lyrical, towering, a worthy conclusion to what will quickly become a classic of fantasy and horror literature. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
Maxim Jakubowski's June 2016 Book of the Month.
Simon Spanton's view...
This is the completion of Justin Cronin’s apocalyptic tale of a world brought to ruin by the outbreak of a deadly virus and the emergence of the Virals; people turned into vampire like creatures. If you’ve read the first two books, The Passage and The Twelve you will need no further prompting to pick this book up. If you haven’t Cronin is adept at filling in some of what has gone before but this is very much a trilogy. But The City of Mirrors confirms that Cronin is very much up to the task of marshalling his massive story and keeping you engaged with the characters. If you’ve been wondering whether it was worth diving in to this massive sequence be reassured – it never runs out of steam. Far from it.
Cronin has resisted the supernatural origin of vampires – his monsters are the product of nature and he provides a pretty convincing scientific rationale both for his Virals and for the cause and the horrifying progress of the virus that ends one future and heralds another. But as with all horror novels it is the characters that keep you in the story – it is their fates that scare you, their struggles to survive that provide the thrills. All three books use narratives that jump around across many years, both forward and back so we need strong personal stories to thread these years together and Cronin handles these stories brilliantly. And with City he takes things right back to the beginning and we discover that his trilogy is as much a story about love as it is the end of the world. If you like Crichton and King, Cronin is a likely winner for you but there is an almost biblical feel to these books combined with often poetic descriptive writing that is all his own. ~ Simon Spanton
| Primary Genre | Science Fiction |
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