tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post4635764651393334582..comments2024-03-15T02:42:58.854-04:00Comments on The Hat Rack: Justin Cronin - The PassageNathaniel Katzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12852939663324751332noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-58460679629523092132010-12-11T21:47:44.329-05:002010-12-11T21:47:44.329-05:00[virals]
I'm actually a freakin' AWFUL sh...[virals]<br /><br />I'm actually a freakin' AWFUL shot. I just like people to think I'm good. <br /><br />The moment that really ruined the virals as a threat, for me, was when one of them was killed by a sword. At that point, it's just really over as an uber killing machine demon monstrosity.<br /><br />[timeline]<br /><br />40-50 could do it, year wise, though I don't think it'd take all that long to settle down if most people were dead.Nathaniel Katzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12852939663324751332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-90123777120236115312010-12-11T21:26:20.811-05:002010-12-11T21:26:20.811-05:00from what we see of the action scenes, it's ce...<b>from what we see of the action scenes, it's certainly no harder than your average close range video game headshot. </b><br /><br />You must be a good shot, then. :D <br /><br />I can't remember if Cronin ever put an upper limit on the strength of the Virals. They seem to die whenever he needs them to.<br /><br />Thinking more about it, the amount of showing-and-telling he does for the Virals in the "containment" section before they break out is another flawed part of the book. He really should have told much less, letting them be revealed in bits and pieces by the third-person reports and characters' points-of-view. *<br /><br />* Incidentally, I think that's something that Stephen King would have done. <br /><br /><b>I think the whole book would have been far better after only five or six years.</b><br /><br />That's better than 100 years, but I think that would be too short for things to "settle down". I'm figuring something like 40-50 years - that way, some technology might still be working*, and you might have a few people who would realistically still be alive from the Pre-Viral Era.<br /><br />* Depending on the technology, of course. Any and all fuel would be worthless and degraded, along with their computers (even the spare parts would likely be worn down unless stored very, very carefully).Bretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05741738070067590221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-82485693392169605202010-12-11T07:52:04.136-05:002010-12-11T07:52:04.136-05:00[Filler] In retrospect, using Amy's mother as ...[Filler] In retrospect, using Amy's mother as my bloat example was a terrible choice, as she really has nothing to do with the later plot. A better example would be, say, the time spent with Mausami's relationship to her father. She's always a peripheral character, but it makes the book deeper to have that.<br /><br />[Motion] Can't really disagree with anything you said, really. The Sweet Spot's far too small for its routine hitting to be even remotely believable, but, from what we see of the action scenes, it's certainly no harder than your average close range video game headshot. <br /><br />[100 Years] I think the whole book would have been far better after only five or six years. Really, with the exception of Amy and the people inside the Colony, that's already what it feels like. The locations they go through simply do not look like they were abandoned for that long, and the amount of people around is ludicrous for a hundred years after the apocalypse. The Colony's systems failing would have worked just as well then, too.Nathaniel Katzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12852939663324751332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-23359273441836528642010-12-11T00:10:26.193-05:002010-12-11T00:10:26.193-05:00Yes, it could be argued that such a thing is fille...<i>Yes, it could be argued that such a thing is filler, wholly unneeded, but, on the contrary, I think those passages are the sole of the book.</i><br /><br />I disagree. The "Amy's Mother" section wasn't bad, but it was filler, felt like filler, and could have easily been chopped off without a serious impact on the rest of the story. <br /><br />If anything, I think it would have fitted the whole "Girl from Nowhere" bit if the book had just started with her being dumped at the nunnery by her mother, with minimal back-story. <br /><br /><i>Now, that’s not to say that Cronin is bad at plot motion. </i><br /><br />I think he is. He has issues with getting the plot moving on at least two occasions: 1)from the testing phase of the Virals, to their break-out, and 2)from the "Colony" section to the "journey" bit. I thought the Colony was fascinating, too (although unrealistic - what are the odds of hitting a three-inch square spot on a creature like the Virals described with a crossbow at 10 yards, never mind 100? Or of those lights and the computer system still working a century after they were built?), but he just spent too much time getting it going. <br /><br /><i>They’re action movie enemies, quick and strong but able to be put down by a shot to their sweet spot, each named character being able to take on, on average, ten or fifteen of them. </i><br /><br />Pretty much. He needed his Virals to over-run North America with the only way of them spreading being by bite, so he had to make them Arbitrarily Tough but with an Arbitrary Weak Spot so they could be killed. It's ridiculous, but most such things are in novels.Bretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05741738070067590221noreply@blogger.com