This book had some lulls, but I couldn't put it down. I love post-apocalyptic fiction and I kept coming back to read more. It had the feel of an episodic TV series, Cronin has a way of really making you visualize each scene and the drama of the survivors trying to get by in a world ravaged by vampire/zombies called "virals". I hope it takes another year for the next book to be released, I need a break! The last 300 pages went by quickly, I just couldn't stop reading. ( )

virus, vampiri ( )

Too scary.
I gave it away. ( )

A great book. I think it sits very strongly against the inevitable comparison with Stephen King's :The Stand. I agree with other reviews here that the middle segment set in the first colony doesn't really work as well as the rest of the novel - I think it is because it introduces so many new characters so quickly and (as is bourne out as you read the novel) many of them do not really feature in the rest of the story. You can't help wondering why Cronin dwells on this storyline so long.

But they key players eventually get the story underway again and we all breathe sigh of relief and get treated to some excellent plot twists and great set pieces beautifully balanced with some acute and heartfelt observations on the human condition which what really lifts the novel to it's status above and beyond the standard vampire/zombie apocalypse.

Cannot wait for the sequel. ( )

Summary: End Of Days. Virus manipulated by US military creates vampires who create lots and lots of corpses (as well as quite a few more vampires, duh). Some humans survive. One survivor, also deliberately infected with said virus, did not become a homicidal blood-sucking monster. But is this person special because of how they responded to the virus, or were they already special? And what does humanity do to adapt to their new status as prey?

963 pages?! I'm not much of a genre fiction reader these days, although I do try to read broadly. But bloody hell, I'd forgotten how very EPIC some of these books could be. I will read the next instalment, though not for a while. I also gather (from the little teaser included at the end of this house-brick of a book) that Cronin is going to do that thing I HATE which is start Book Two with completely new characters and I predict it will be many dozens of pages at least before I get to read anything about the characters from Book One, in whom I'm now deeply emotionally invested. Damn you, author!

Justin Cronin made me care about his characters as though they were real people. To me, this is always a mark of a good storyteller. The broader brush strokes of the plot aren't especially original. It's the subtler elements of character development, (and a Game-Of-Thrones-esque capacity to kill off characters just when you really start to love them) that won me over. The journeys taken by our various heroes and anti-heroes had sufficiently high stakes for me to nervously bite my lips as I read, wondering if this was the night everyone was going to die horribly or if they'd miraculously survive to greet the dawn. And if they did, what would the next day bring?

I will also say that this story owes a massive debt to Stephen King. This is not a bad thing. The guy is a master storyteller. ( )