The Ferryman - Justin Cronin

The Ferryman

By Justin Cronin

  • Release Date: 2023-05-02
  • Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers
4 Score: 4 (From 422 Ratings)

Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Next to impossible to put down . . . exciting, mysterious, and totally satisfying.”—STEPHEN KING
 
From the author of The Passage comes a riveting standalone novel about a group of survivors on a hidden island utopia—where the truth isn’t what it seems.

A POLYGON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR


The islands of Prospera lie in a vast ocean, in splendid isolation from the rest of humanity—or whatever remains of it.

Citizens of the main island enjoy privileged lives. They are attended to by support staff who live on a cramped neighboring island, where whispers of revolt are brewing—but for the Prosperans, life is perfection. And when the end of life approaches, they’re sent to a mysterious third island, where their bodies are refreshed, their memories are wiped away, and they return to start life anew.

Proctor Bennett is a ferryman, whose job it is to enforce the retirement process when necessary. He never questions his work, until the day he receives a cryptic message:

“The world is not the world.”

These simple words unlock something he has secretly suspected. They seep into strange dreams of the stars and the sea. They give him the unshakable feeling that someone is trying to tell him something important.

Something no one could possibly imagine, something that could change the fate of humanity itself.

Reviews

  • He creates a very imaginative world that sometimes lost me, but as I read further, I recovered.

    4
    By Opie older
    I liked it very much.
  • Don’t waste your time.

    1
    By jwjonesy
    Cronin was incredible with “The Passage” trilogy. He is clearly a gifted writer. However, this novel fails to deliver. The idea is interesting, but the writer never developed the characters - no one to love, hate, etc. - I just didn’t care. What motivated me most was just ending this awful experience.
  • WOW! Fabulous

    5
    By MarkWhiteLotus
    A very very good story. Well told and savored. Thank you.
  • Not a page turner but very good.

    4
    By Attn Patients!
    And an interesting story too…
  • Excellent read

    5
    By Hlrw
    Excellent book! Spent many nights staying awake with this book. Being tired for work was well worth it!
  • Mind blowing

    5
    By 74tt1
    Phenomenal from the genius mind of Justin Cronin
  • His best book!

    5
    By Laur🎉
    By far an outstanding read.
  • Great story, writing is a little off

    4
    By Choralriff
    I consider The Passage Trilogy to be in the top tier of sci-fi/horror/dystopian literature. So I came to The Ferryman with very high expectations. I wasn’t disappointed in the story at all. The book is absolutely worth reading for the story. Bu I found his writing to be a little choppy in places, almost as though the book didn’t quite make it through enough editing. Still, a great story.
  • Ferryman

    5
    By Reads Sci Fi
    What a read, what an amazing journey!
  • A Heartbreaking Disappointment

    1
    By HT0473
    I have to start this review by acknowledging that I was and continue to be a huge justin Cronin fan. His Passage trilogy was incredible; so incredible that had to read it again, three or four years after I had read it the first time. This, however… What a gigantic, heartbreaking disappointment. At times Logan‘s Run, at other times The Matrix, with a tiny bit of superficially developed space opera moments, and a dash of 1984 for (not so) good measure, The Ferryman - to me, at least - seems to occupy an undecided and often scattered position between paying homage to some storytelling classics and lazily imitating them. Yet its lack of originality is perhaps something I could have overlooked somewhat, had Cronin maintained his writing style. In The Ferryman, long gone are the lyrical, glorious, breathtaking, emotional parts of the Passage trilogy. The writing is prosaic, wooden, and unoriginal. At times, I wondered if Cronin had become a Dan Brown wannabe, a writer who had abandoned complexity and sophistication and frankly, the courage to write in a way that challenges the reader, all for the sake of making his writing more accessible and therefore sell more books. It is all heartbreakingly disappointing. And since there are no negative star ratings, I shall have to equate this (lack of) literary effort to a Marvel sequel: clichéd, repetitive, and idle.

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