THE FERRYMAN - Justin Cronin

If you were to combine a sci-fi read like Logan's Run with a concept like Russian nesting dolls, and you might get a book like Justin Cronin's The Ferryman.

Prospera is a remote paradise, created by a mystery person known only as The Designer. In Prospera, citizens live long, fulfilling lives, away from the horrors of a crumbling world. Citizens have an embedded chip that measures the quality of their lives - physical and mental - and when that chip registers that the quality of life falls below 10%, it is time for that person to 'retire' - meaning to take the  ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are prepared to start all over.

Proctor Bennett has had a good career as a Ferryman - someone who helps guide a retiring citizen through the retiring process (occasionally enforcing it) - until the day he has to shepherd his own father, who does not go quietly and who leaves Proctor with a cryptic message. At this same time, Proctor is noting that he's having strange dreams and, more alarming, his own life monitoring percentage is dropping fast. Much too quickly, Proctor is forced into retirement and the ferry ride to the Nursery. But there he encounters rumors of a resistance group known as "Arrivalists" who are stirring up a revolution ... one in which Proctor Bennett is key, even though he doesn't know it.

I'm not sure I would have been drawn to this book if it weren't for the success of Cronin's popular The Passage series. I am glad that I did read this, however, because this sort of intricate plotting and revealing of story is right up my alley.

Earlier I reckoned this with Russian nesting dolls, but I might also compare it to, as Shrek might say, an onion, with layer upon layer upon layer of story which Cronin deftly peels away to reveal the story underneath the story.

This story went to places that I did not anticipate (note that I do not read generally synopses before reading a book - or if I do, a significant enough time has passed that I forget why I was drawn to a particular book) but looking back on it, I think there were sufficient clues so that the reader savvier than I might not be quite as surprised. However, the sometimes disorienting experience while reading this is a large part of the appeal.

And of course, there's character.  I do love character-driven stories and I think this is very much a character-driven novel. Proctor Bennett is every bit as confused as the reader through the twists and turns and we really do get inside his head through this.

If there is a downside, which prevents me from giving this a full five stars, it's that all the other characters are less well defined. I recognize that some of this has to do with the unknown realities of the world(s) Proctor goes through, but in at least one case, there's a character who seemingly becomes vital to the story revelations, and I don't think that even here, that character ever really comes into sharp focus.

It is October when I write this, but the review won't appear online until December.  Even so, the book isn't released until May.  I suspect there will be a good media blitz but don't take that chance ... mark your calendars right now so that you don't miss this book.

Looking for a good book? The Ferryman is the newest book by Justin Cronin and it will engage and deceive you in all the right ways.  Go read it.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4-1/2 stars

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The Ferryman

author: Justin Cronin

publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 9780525619475

hardcover, 560 pages