Justin Cronin's road to nowhere.

There’s a terrible secret that fans of “serious” literature can’t bring themselves to grasp — that  the  science fiction, fantasy and horror genres are all a legitimate part of the universe of literature. And some of the writers in the genre are actually good — not just “skilled craftsman” churning out formulaic juvenile adventure stories, but artists in their own right, using genre as a way of expressing something important about the human condition that can’t be conveyed in serious or realistic fiction. Others are master builders of alternate worlds with believable cultures, histories, topographies, etc. Either way, there’s real intelligence and talent working in speculative fiction.

Justin Cronin, author of the much hyped novel, The Passage, is a “serious” author. He normally writes and teaches realistic fiction, and to Cronin’s amused and delighted followers, his venture into post-apocalyptic vampire territory is divine brilliance. But here’s the rub: speculative fiction fans know better. Cronin is a carpetbagger, and the ideas and concepts he plays with are hardly new and original, but recycled from better novels, television series, video games and films. If anything, he is taking those ideas and exposing them to an audience unfamiliar with them, while taking credit for bringing innovation to a field that doesn’t need it.

The Passage begins in the near future, telling the story of the U.S. military’s attempt to bioengineer super soldiers from a virus found in Chilean bats. As these things usually go, the infected test subjects don’t turn out the way the military scientists expect and ultimately escape from captivity, leading to a vast vampire plague that destroys the United States and leaves only a  handful of survivors behind. The story then abruptly jumps 100 years into the future, where we’re introduced to a vampire-besieged colony on the edge of destruction. Wind-powered generators begin to fail, society again teeters on the edge of collapse, and a desperate band (or … uhm, fellowship) sets out on a quest to save their colony and perhaps the human race, itself.

What follows is a pastiche of post-apocalyptic genre tropes lifted from Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, George Romero, Mad Max, Fallout 3, Ronald Moore’s re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, the Bible, Lost and even L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth. Of course, the target audience isn’t familiar with any of those sources, so it probably all comes off as refreshingly new and original. The trouble is, it isn’t. It’s been done before and done better.

I’m always open to “real” writers playing in the science fiction sandbox — Cormac McCarthy did it with The Road, which was one of the best books published in recent years, period. But outside of the excellent opening chapters, which are set in near-future America, and Cronin leaves familiar territory to engage in a little world building, the novel collapses. The poorly-defined characters who go beyond archetypes and into the realm of stereotypes, the inconsistent and baffling explanations for supernatural events (uhm, god did it?), the obvious Biblical allegory and way in which Michael can fix just about everything is all a bit too much to accept. This is a stark contrast with McCarthy’s ash-strewn wasteland, which is frighteningly real. A shallow world, despite the level of craft used to describe it, remains unsatisfying and ultimately a hindrance to the story.

Ignore the media hype — The Passage is a beautifully-rendered bore of a novel. Cronin would be better served returning to realistic family relationship novels and leaving the vampire apocalypse to the professionals.