Justin Cronin - The Passage

I'd seen a few references to The Passage over the last few months, and intriguing ones at that, with the result that its publication in Australia felt like something of an event. I burned through its 766 pages in a few days; basically, it's The Stand with vampires (plus a Watership Down interlude), and as immersive as that description makes it sound. Cronin moves things along quickly, creating mood and atmosphere effectively while also throwing in plenty of action, so that the book is as frequently unnerving as it is exciting, and sometimes genuinely moving; also, for better or for worse, it ends with the suggestion of a sequel. There's not much to fault about it, for what it is - a real good bit of genre fiction.