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I set The Terror aside for a while and, cruising Overdrive for what was available, ended up with The Passage by Justin Cronin, which I finished tonight. My final impression is strongly ambivalent. Cronin hedges his bets, but it is in many respects a Left Behind / 28 Days Later crossover novel: noble cops and soldiers doing The Lord's will to save women and children from a world overrun with super-rapists and super-pedophiles (also The Lord's will). On the one hand, I kind of applaud going that direction with a zombie or vampire story, as "It's a virus!" is no more plausible or less superstitious, just superstitious about different things. On the other hand, the whole world and all the characters reflect a kind of evening-news paranoia, preoccupied with sex crimes and child abuse and justifiable violence. What held my attention a lot of the time, especially in the extended "present day" prologue, was more a car-wreck fascination with the mindset behind the story than the actual characters or events.
So of course, I'm starting the sequel.
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