“The Passage” by Justin Cronin is a story set in the near future. The military discovers a virus in South America that confers upon people who get the virus some amazing powers but with awful side effects. So lets see if we can modify the virus to keep the amazing powers but eliminate the side effects. Hmm, we’ll use condemned prisoners to experiment on. As the experiment progresses, we need a child, lets go find a recently parentless child.

Well, they find the little girl, but something goes wrong, terribly wrong. An all out war ensues, civilization crumbles quickly, except for a few outposts where humans have lived for decades using antiquated technology to survive. They have tall fences and wind energy powered lights to keep the beasts at bay. Can they keep the lights on forever?

This is a great summer read. It is long and absorbing. It is about courage and survival. Give it a shot.

I bought my copy from Tulsa’s Central Library for a dollar. Somebody had broken the binding. Doesn’t bother me. If you live in the Tulsa area and want to read it, I’ll give it to you! Just let me know.

I rate this book four stars out of five.