Should I persevere with The Passage

[ButWhyIsTheGinGone]

by Justin Cronin?
I'm so disappointed! I adore the Stand by Stephen King, and have been searching for a good post-apolcalyptic book for AGES now. After advice on here and a from a friend I ploughed into The Passage. I just can't enjoy it though. I think I hate the supernatural element to the "virals," and while I like how it dives into life in the future society I don;t think it deals enough with the "human nature" side of things. Like, everyone has just accepted this new society. I like King's way of portraying the dark side of humans.
I dunno, I just don't know whether to continue. I'm probs four fifths through so it seems silly not to. Anybody got any other suggestions for post-apocalyptic novels??

The Stand is possibly my favourite novel of all time! I enjoyed the Passage too, but I understand what you mean about the human nature element. Try Stephen King's The Dome, if you haven't already.

I enjoyed it , and I'm looking forward to the next instalment next year. Like Pursang says though - The Stand is one of my all time favourite novels, and I did like Under The Dome quite a lot, too. I don't know whether this helps much . Different horses and all that!

I think if I'd got four fifths through, I'd sod it and read the last fifth, though!

I found it very disappointing after a promising start.

Oooh - haven;t even heard of this Dome! Am quite ashamed of that! I will definitely seek this one out.
And yes - 4/5 of the way through.. it would be silly not to.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed 'The Passage' and if you've got so far, I'd say deffo continue.

'The Stand' is one of my favourite books ever, so I thought it would be a poor copy of that. 'Under The Dome' is okay but nowhere near as good as 'The Stand' imho. The body count gets a bit daft - like Hamlet!

King's 'Cell' is another inferior 'Stand' but I reckon anything by Stephen King is better than most other writer's attempts!

Cell was NOT a favourite of mine - very poor I thought. Still the gritty bits of human nature that make you uncomfortable, but a crap and illogical plot line. I want to try Dome though, even if it's similar to Cell. Did anyone read a book called Plague 99 when they were younger by Jean Ure? Not Adult Fiction I know, but it;s just come back to me for some reason. I seem to remember it was very good. Might get it off Amazon for my class.

Oh and did anyone ever see the TV adaptation of The Stand? I remember my parents letting me watch that as a kid (GOD know why) and it really freaked me out - but in a good way.

I re-read Plague 99 recently and didn't like it anywhere near as much as I did when a teenager. What about On The Beach?

It is dire. I got stuck after the first section.

I still like Plague 99. It is a trilogy so perhaps worth reading all three books to get the full feel of the post-apocalypic treatment.

I'm reading this and I think it's shit. I'm enjoying playing spot-the-cliche though so will persevere for now. I'm not that far into it but already there's been all the zoo animals going berzerk when the little girl is there and they've crawled miles through ventilation shafts.

I found bits of The Passage very heavy going but persevered to the end. The end was shit. I was really really disappointed, because mostly it was a good story. Is there definitely a part 2? Is that why it ended like that?

(The Stand is also my favourite book of all time)

Give up, I did!
Dh read it first and after I decided to pack it in, told me the ending is crap.

I finished The Passage and was "meh" about it. It was OK. If you enjoy The Stand, you might like Swan Song by Rovert McCammon. If he and King had been given the same plot outline and told to write it up as an epic, they are the book that each of them came up with.
I read a lot of postapocalyptic fiction, always have I have read all three of the Plague 99 ones, and enjoyed them, but wouldn't read them again.

Robert even!

Read it to the bitter end and wish I hadn't. I will not be reading the sequel.

Thanks a lot everyone! Glad there are others who feel the same as me. At the moment I'm head off to bed on a night, rewad a few pages of it, then drop off ever so quikcly. It's a blessing in disguise to an insomniac.....! Sadly, I've forgotten who everyone is, so big plotline revelations aren't having their desired affect!! I've never heard of this SwanSong but would definitely give that a go.
PubeGarden I totally agreeabout spot the cliche! Mystical black women.....messages through dreams...... Read on!! God I want to finish it!
I've been reading A Series of Unfortunate Events to my class - they LOVE it. We're currently up to book three, and I told them I wouldnt read on without them. But.....I accidentally did over the weekend. I read books 3 and 4..........desperate for the next ones now. There are 13 in total - woohoo!!!!!!

I read the whole thing in one sitting! Because I read it so quickly though, I can remember v little about it.

I really enjoyed The Passage - read it for my Book Group in the summer. It is hard going at times but I thought it was well worth persevering.

Butwhy (the OP) when you say people just accept this new society, remember as you're reading this is a couple of generations on and the oldest citizen is around 100 years old and went in as a girl. They've been born there and therefore always ONLY known this society except from stories from the originals.

I didn't like it. The first part (1st 300 pages or so) was good but then it just seemed to stall and nothing much happened for the rest of the very long novel.

I was very disappointed. It got such good reviews.

See, I'm sort of getting into it more now I'm past 300 pages and all the silliness has calmed down a bit. For me, it will all depend on how well the characters are developed I think.

Try Guiillermo Del Toro's books next- 'The Fall' and 'The Strain'