The Passage is one of 2010’s biggest “buzz” books. Google to see what it’s about and how much the author got for an advance, etc. This isn’t a review since I haven’t read it. I plan to. Any book compared to The Stand with a positive endorsement by King himself gets my attention.
I’m fascinated to see the early reviews. There are those who are heaping praise on it, but there are also those who dislike it. STRONGLY. This happens for every book, especially the big ones. Look on Amazon.com at reviews for bestsellers like Twilight or Dan Brown’s latest.
So here are some blurbs off Amazon for The Passage:
“I just finished this book. It was absolutely horrible.”
Okay, so not just horrible, but absolutely horrible.
“It has been a while since I’ve encountered a horror novel of such magnitude and scope . . .”
Wow, wait a minute, that early reviewer was just a bitter aspiring novelist.
“This was the most tedious book I have read in a long time.”
Wait a minute. Now I’m having doubts. Tedious?
“The beginning of a GREAT MASTERFUL SERIES. This book does not disappoint, I highly recommend this book, it is definitly the HOTTEST Book of the season.”
Wait, I’m hooked again.
“One wonders if they’re laughing at us for buying their dreck.”
Dreck??
This always amazes and amuses me. It seems like there are two islands out there, hidden like the island on Lost. On one are reviewers who just heap praise on anything and everything, making me wonder if they’ve even read all these books. On another, there are those who seem to thrive on bashing books, especially bestsellers.
I’m going to buy The Passage. I hope it’s incredible so I can eagerly await the sequels. But even if I don’t become a huge fan, I feel I’ll be able to learn something as I read it. If I enjoy it, I will be sure to share it with others. And if I don’t–well, I’ll just keep my mouth shut and let the others do the talking.
I have heard about this book, too, but I strongly recommend using Kindle for PC free software and downloading the free first chapter of the book to see if it's all it's cracked up to be. I've not done it for this book, but I do it for every other book I read–as you know, the author puts the most time and effort into the first line, the first paragraph and the first chapter. If that's not to one's liking, the rest of the book will not be. If it is to one's liking, the rest of the book might be okay. The ability to read the first chapter really is one of the benefits of the new media, ebooks, and can help in particular with books that have mixed reviews like this one.
Don't know if you read last year's big hype book, The Shack, but it started out with promise, but when God became Aunt Jemima, I sort of gave up on it. So there's one where the first chapter was a fooler.
This made me laugh out loud–seriously: "but when God became Aunt Jemima . . ." I have that but haven't read it. Want to just to see what everybody is talking about.
🙂