Our friends at IO9 published a fascinating article examining works of science fiction that are actually fantasy. I’m pleased to see several of my own personal favorites (Vance’s Dying Earth? H.P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu? Annalee Newitz, are you raiding my bookcase?) on the list, but none more than Justin Cronin’s The Passage, a monster work of genre-straddling horror/SF that came out of nowhere last year and flew to roost on the very top of the year’s must-read list on its big, black bat wings.
Last year at San Diego Comic Con author Justin Cronin’s vampire epic was on the tip of everyone’s tongue (and at the nape of their neck). Interviewing this Texas lit professor gone supernova-hot was one of the highlights of my trip, and seeing his success – giant bestselling novel, critical praise, movie deal already in the works – was nothing if not proof that our kind of books – you know, the weird stuff – had broken out of the basement and into the mainstream in a very big way.
If you didn’t catch this blockbuster novel the first time around, then I’ve got good news for you: It’s coming out in paperback next week! If you like vampires and post-apocalyptic fiction, then this is the book for you. With a sequel already in the pipes, there’s no better time to read The Passage and see what the fuss is all about.
got the hardcover at the library bookstore for $3