The Ferryman
A Novel
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4.0 • 584 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Next to impossible to put down . . . exciting, mysterious, and totally satisfying.”—STEPHEN KING
From the author of The Passage comes a riveting standalone novel about a group of survivors on a hidden island utopia—where the truth isn’t what it seems.
A POLYGON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
The islands of Prospera lie in a vast ocean, in splendid isolation from the rest of humanity—or whatever remains of it.
Citizens of the main island enjoy privileged lives. They are attended to by support staff who live on a cramped neighboring island, where whispers of revolt are brewing—but for the Prosperans, life is perfection. And when the end of life approaches, they’re sent to a mysterious third island, where their bodies are refreshed, their memories are wiped away, and they return to start life anew.
Proctor Bennett is a ferryman, whose job it is to enforce the retirement process when necessary. He never questions his work, until the day he receives a cryptic message:
“The world is not the world.”
These simple words unlock something he has secretly suspected. They seep into strange dreams of the stars and the sea. They give him the unshakable feeling that someone is trying to tell him something important.
Something no one could possibly imagine, something that could change the fate of humanity itself.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Life ain’t what it used to be in this thought-provoking vision of a postapocalyptic society from bestselling author Justin Cronin. Living in a small colony of climate-change survivors on a remote archipelago, Proctor Bennett enjoys his job ferrying the pampered, aging elite of his community to the place where they get to be miraculously reborn again as teenagers. That is, until something his father says one day suddenly makes him question everything about this supposedly utopian reality. With the mind-bending skill of a science fiction master like Philip K. Dick, Cronin’s richly detailed, action-packed thriller had us glued to every word, desperate to discover if Proctor would get his people to where they needed to be. With clever nods to classics like Logan’s Run and The Matrix, The Ferryman will have you questioning how far humanity might have to go in order to save itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Cronin's first novel since his Passage trilogy is a fantastic extravaganza all its own, with a plot that hinges on unpredictable twists that run far ahead of reader expectations. Proctor Bennett, an elite resident of the socially regimented archipelago world of Prospera, works as a "ferryman," assisting aging fellow Prosperans to transition peacefully to their next "iteration," the reconstitution of their personalities in younger bodies. Proctor discharges his duties with great professionalism—until the ferrying of his own father goes dramatically awry, exposing cracks in Prospera's edenic veneer. Now a dangerous fugitive on the run from his own forced iteration, Proctor enters an unlikely alliance with rebellious subversives inhabiting the Annex, the island that is home to Prospera's disgruntled working class. Having established the foundations for what appears to be a classic dystopian tale, Cronin then pulls the rug out from under his story, audaciously expanding its scope far beyond the hermetic parameters that have shaped Proctor's account up to that point and pushing it into the realm of provocative conceptual science fiction. Cronin's firm command of the plot's sinuous dynamics, and his creation of believable characters shaped by well-wrought strengths and flaws, make this bold gesture work. The result is a sensational speculative tale that is sure to get people talking.
Customer Reviews
Good book, poor ending
This was an interesting book and read. Like a lot of Cronins other books it was a very good plot and scenario, but there was really little character development and you felt by the end of the book that it should just be starting, not ending.
Fine but boring
There’s a real solid like 20% of story in this book that had me itching to keep reading and turning the pages, but it just was so boring the other 80%. Constant POI jumping interrupts good bits of story telling, and to be honest felt the book went on for too long after the big reveal is unveiled.
Premise is really cool, just wished it had better execution
He creates a very imaginative world that sometimes lost me, but as I read further, I recovered.
I liked it very much.