Revisiting The Passage

The year was 2012 and I was waiting in line to see The Avengers at midnight. Since I insisted on getting there ridiculously early (sorry guys), we had a lot of time to kill. One of my friends told me about the book he was reading. That book was The Passage by Justin Cronin and it shortly became one of my favorite books.

The pitch for the book alone got me hooked. It was the Twilight-obsessed world of 2012, and a well-written vampire novel that was getting compared to the likes of Cormac McCarthy was irresistible to me. I love a well-done monster book, and The Passage was a jackpot. Now, the third book in the trilogy comes out today, so I’ve been re-reading the series to get ready.

From the very first line, I love this book. Just look at it: “Before she became the Girl from Nowhere – the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years – she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy. Amy Harper Bellafonte.” Now, I don’t want to get all English major on you, but first lines are hard and that’s a really good one. The promise of the strange and epic and supernatural juxtaposed with the simple bare facts of a little girl named Amy. Sign me up to find out what happens next!

Amy is at the center of The Passage. We begin with her and the sad story of her mother (teenage pregnancy, poverty, desperation) trying her best to raise Amy. Then we begin to take a look at the rest of the world. There’s scientists on a journey through the jungle searching for something ancient (bad idea, disaster, death). There’s Special Agent Brad Wolgast visiting a death row inmate with an irresistible offer (leave death row, medical experiment, live forever). Soon it will all collide and conspire in very bad end-of-the-world kinds of ways. At the center of it all is Amy, the key to everything.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a book with that title, The Passage is all about the journey. Clocking in at 766 pages, this is not a short book. But the world building, the character development, the care and thoughtfulness with which the story gets told are why we’re here. That’s what separates this book from every other apocalyptic story on TV or in the movie theatres. Justin Cronin takes time to help you understand the depth and desires of the people involved, and the detailed horrifying consequences of their actions. Here the end of the world is not just caused by a supervillain rubbing his hands together and hatching his evil plot. Instead it’s created the way any situation in the world is created: a series of people doing the best they can in their situation, however impossible, however unwise. It’s ego, hubris, bureaucratic red tape, bad decisions, miscalculations, and lack of communication that end the world. Sounds about right.

Now all of this paints a somewhat bleak picture, but The Passage is ultimately a book about hope. The apocalypse only takes up about a third of the book, after all. Don’t get me wrong. This is a dark book with plenty of violence, gore, and a high body count. But despite it all, there’s a strong vein of hope, love, and faith running through the core of the story. There’s a huge variety of expressions of love from the familial to the dutiful to the romantic to the hopeless. The relationships are beautifully drawn and deeply felt.

Ok, let’s talk about the vampires. Lots of people are rightfully skeptical about vampires, but the monsters in this book are very well done. For the most part, the monsters are a force of nature more like traditional zombie stories than vampire books. Think of this like The Walking Dead but the undead want to eat your blood, not your brains. But at the same time, Cronin takes many of the traditional vampire tropes and puts new and interesting spins on them. He manages to be true to the spirit of vampire tradition while also creating something new, something that feels very real, and something pretty damn creepy.

I can’t even begin to list the characters in this book that have impacted me. Ok, yes I can. Alicia, Amy, Hollis, Alicia again. One of the things I appreciate about this book is fact that Cronin makes having a world of diverse voices look easy and natural. You know, because it is. He writes a great number of characters from all sorts of backgrounds who all have depth and complexity. There’s amazing female characters and characters from an array of ethnic and social backgrounds, all playing important roles in the story. It’s refreshing, it’s reassuring, and it gives me hope for the future. Much like The Passage itself.

Required Reading: Neverwhere

I was introduced to Neil Gaiman years ago when I read American Gods and Anansi Boys, but it’s taken me awhile to get around to reading his other iconic novel: Neverwhere.

Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew, your average London office drone with an awful fiancé and boring life until he makes the choice to stop and offer aid to a young woman he finds injured in the street. The young woman is the Lady Door, and she comes from the magical world of London Below. Soon Richard finds himself unwillingly sucked into her world of places and people time forgot. There he joins Door on a journey to find out who killed her family, always one step ahead of sinister mercenaries sent to finish her off.

I actually started Neverwhere by reading the graphic novel version back in December. While it wasn’t my favorite graphic novel (not an art style I love), it was enough to pique my interest and convince me to pick up the full book. It was an interesting experience to read the book not so much for plot as for depth. In true Gaiman style, there is plenty of depth. The world of London Below is imaginative, surprising, and a delight to explore. It’s a mix of the magical and the truly creepy that was fun to spend time in.

The very idea that a city is full of places and people that have been forgotten is engaging. And it’s fun to see imaginative twists on how those worlds keep going without us. It’s also clear that Gaiman knows and loves London, and that gives the book charming depth that may have gone over my head. As someone who’s only been to London once as a child, I’m sure there were many jokes and references I didn’t get. I never felt lost in London Below though, unlike our poor protagonist.

Richard Mayhew isn’t the most exciting narrator. I can’t tell if he’s supposed to be a blank slate or something special. To me he was just another white boy we’re told is special for plot reasons. Fine. I’ll go with it. I also never got a clear picture of Lady Door. Was she childish or strong? A leader or lost? I know you can be both, but her character seemed unclear.

On the flip side, the novel is full of side characters that are crystal clear and likely to stick with you. The standout characters for me were Hunter, Mr. Croup, and Mr. Vandemar. Hunter is fascinating as the legendary fighter and bodyguard with an addiction to hunting. It can be hard to write stoic characters that don’t get boring or feel flat, but Hunter succeeds where others fail. The tireless and sadistic henchmen for hire Croup and Vandemar are deeply terrifying. Part of the magic of the story is that we never delve into their details, but these two appear eternal and love to cause pain. Their cold, formal, calculated brutality is chilling and fascinating. I expect they will stick with me long after hundreds of other characters have sunk like London Below into the bogs of memory.

I’m Sorry. I Didn’t Like Civil War.

This weekend was the much anticipated opening of Marvel’s latest blockbuster: Captain America: Civil War. It’s from a studio I have learned to trust. It had a superior trailer to and got way better reviews than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I was still disappointed.

I went into the movie nervous but hoping to enjoy myself. I enjoy Marvel and love the Captain America franchise. Winter Soldier might be my favorite superhero movie. But I like it when my superheroes are people I can look up to and I don’t like it when they fight.

I’ll start with some positives: if a mindless action movie is what you’re looking for, this is a good one. There’s some great set pieces from chase scenes to fights to explosions. It was fun to see some of my favorite characters out doing their thing. Black Widow kicks ass. Hawkeye acts more like the Matt Fraction Hawkeye than ever before and that’s basically all I want ever. Scarlet Witch remains lovely and her interactions with Vision hinted at interesting things to come. I was here for Black Panther and Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa was far and away the best part of the movie. But really I went to see the end of the Steve and Buck arc that Winter Soldier started. And that’s where the trouble begins.

I have a lot of feelings about Captain America. I love him for all his square jawed, scrappy, idealistic heroism. I love the idea that with the right amount of heart and super serum any scrappy little kid could be a hero. I love that he never gives up and never backs down when he sees injustice. Somehow this movie managed to pervert all of the things I love about Steve Rogers.

The Steve Rogers I love is on the side of law and order. I’ll maintain that Winter Solider is the fascinating film it is because Captain American finds himself operating outside the law, and that’s a sign that something is WRONG. Not just a little wrong, but cataclysmically wrong.  And it turns out everyone’s Nazis, so yeah. That’s a problem. Therefore, in this movie when Captain America again finds himself opposing law and order, everything seems wrong. Because this time there is no decades-old conspiracy. The law and order he’s opposing is the United Nations. And it’s his own friends and teammates.

Following unacceptable collateral damage on several missions, the Avengers are asked to submit to UN governance which will provide oversite to keep the world safe. Sure, there’s some serious flaws in that plan, but on its face that doesn’t sound like a bad idea. It might be good for the people with ultimate power to answer to the people they protect. And the idea is backed by Iron Man. Anything that’s important enough to make chaotic-good spoiled playboy Tony Stark read legal documents and sit in on governance meetings clearly deserves attention.

Except Steve dismisses it out of hand. Which sounds nothing like the Steve Rogers I want to believe in.  Now let’s talk about the ‘reason’ Steve throws it all away: Bucky. Again, I have a lot of feelings here. The concept of The Winter Soldier – a good man being forced to become a mindless weapon that goes counter to everything he believes in–hurts so good. It combines all kinds of interesting moral questions into one painful emotional package. It’s excellent storytelling. But it falls apart in this movie.

In the movie we see Bucky as Winter Soldier destroying stuff. We also see Bucky outside of his brainwashing. But he’s not an emotional wreak over the things he’s been forced to do. He’s still kind of killing random people and acting like a dick. He’s been framed for some terrorist acts, but he doesn’t help his case much. And Cap comes running in, against international law, to try and save Bucky from the people who want to bring him to justice for the things he didn’t do. And then they don’t talk their way out. They fight their way out with lethal force. It’s hard to root for someone who kills people trying to enforce the law.

Basically, my review boils down to there not being enough plot here to make me believe that my heroes would act so unheroic. Sure, there’s some powerful emotional forces at play here. Steve’s loyalty to his lifelong friend and Tony’s love for his family. But neither of them get leveraged quite enough for me to enjoy or even justify seeing two heroes I like smashing the shit out of each other. If I wanted to see powerful people not listen to each other, I could just watch politics dang it!

There were some fun moments. Watching Bucky and Falcon interact was delightful. Even despite my deep weariness of Spiderman reboots, the new Peter Parker is reasonably charming. But it’s so frustrating to see characters I care about never bother to stop and think for one damn second. The only character who does think also gets the only true heroic moment of the movie.  (Spoilers)

After committing himself to hunting down Bucky for his father’s murder, T’Challa learns that Bucky was framed. While Cap and Iron Man beat the shit out of each other, the Black Panther corners the real killer and brings him to justice. And I don’t mean he murders him. I mean brings him to actual justice by capturing him and turning him over to the proper authorities. That’s what I expect from my heroes. I expect them to rise above petty jealousy and their own grudges. I expect them to be able to put their emotions aside and act in the interest of the greater good. What a pity that with over a dozen superheroes in this movie, only one of them manages an act of heroism worth remembering.