“Why, when our waking lives are so satisfying, should we feel the need for such torturous flights of storytelling?”
————
As in real life, Earth is dying. Prospera is humanity’s only hope. Citizens live in peace and structured prosperity when they come to the end of their very long lives they are retired. They take a trip with the Ferryman to start anew. But there is some unrest brewing in the community. Our main character, Proctor finds himself at the center of it all and must figure out what is really going on before the whole community collapses.
Justin Cronin does it again! He’s a master storyteller, able to blend multiple genres together to create an immersive and emotional story that will take you away. A little Blake Crouch, a dash of Andy Weir with a helping of Steven Baxter… there are so many elements that I enjoyed about this story. If sci-fi is not your thing, I wouldn’t worry about it. There’s so much excellent storytelling in the first 2/3 of the book by the time the science really kicks in at the end you’ll be so immersed in these characters.
I’m landing at 4.5 stars for two reasons. One, there are a lot of characters to get to know, and there is not a clear delineation between chapters as to where you are in time in space until you’re a little way into the chapter. That could have been tightened up a bit. And two, another epilogue I could have done without. Otherwise this is a beautiful masterpiece.
Thanks to Ballantine Books for gifted access via NetGalley. All opinions above are my own.
Do you prefer to travel by land, air or sea?
openmypages 