Book number 525 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
I didn't believe it existed—the vampire book that failed to enthrall me. But here I sit, having finally finished this novel, knowing that I had to convince myself to knuckle down. I'd been saving this for a treat and instead it turned into a chore. Boo!
Part of my problem is that the vampires in question aren't at all what I'm used to. Instead of a “naturally occurring” species, they seem to be a result of an ill advised government project. So there's a beginning conspiracy kicking off the narrative. An apocalypse. A girl, Amy, who has some connection to the vampires but has apparently remained human. Post-apocalypse. Lots of survival stuff. A remote outpost of humanity. Amy shows up there. Things go batshit crazy. A long, dangerous trip through the desert to Las Vegas. Rescue by a cult. Escape from the cult. And so it goes.
There's just so much and I didn't care much about most of the people. There's enough time that passes and enough danger that the cast of characters keeps changing. When reading, I did okay, but when I set the book down, it became difficult to pick it back up. Now that I've made it to the end, I can tell you that Cronin does link up those long ago first chapters to the last couple of hundred pages. I can appreciate full circle moments and the planning that went into them.
Influences seem to include I Am Legend (humanity getting reduced to a tiny minority) and the trip through the desert reminded me strongly a similar trip in The Stand. Maybe even The Road though that's just the scavenging food and fuel along the way. Everyone has scattered, like the break-up of the Fellowship of the Ring. Will they meet up again? There are lots of unanswered questions, of course, which will lead some readers on to the next volume. Who knows, maybe someday I'll be one of them, but I won't hold my breath.
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