Essentially, The Passage is a worthy literary attempt at a post-apocalyptic vampire zombie novel. The premise is solid–mysterious virus developed by the military is tested on random subjects, and then something goes wrong, and the the vampire zombies lay waste to anything with warm blood. Told over the span of a 100 years, Justin Cronin introduces a sprawling cast of characters, some superfluous and forgettable and others quirky and memorable, and heftily takes his literary license on a gleeful Mad Max joy ride through a barren Western United states. There are numerous subplots that divert the story without fulfilling ends or turn into tangents for Cronin to verbosely develop a character to advance a theme he’d like to fit in. Themes of love, hope, redemption, social class, consumerism, military industrial complex, faith vs. science and even a dark twist alluding to Jesus and the 12 disciples, blend together like a bloated science fiction western.  At times you’re left wondering what the point is, and others are engaging scenes of suspense.
This is the beginning of a trilogy and it’s hard to envision the other two books requiring wordy flair. Hopefully, Cronin gets an editor to continue his zombie vampire saga.