Passage, Connie Willis

Things you should know about this book: 1) Connie Willis wrote one of my FAVORITE books EVER; To Say Nothing Of The Dog 2) This is one of Becky's favorite books ever 3) It's really quite good

However, (And isn't there always a however? It would be boring to write "It was good;" I'm so much better at finding nitpicky flaws.) I have a couple of quibbles. Passage is about two scientists, Richard and Joanna, who are trying to figure out what causes the visions people have when their hearts stop and then they get revived. It's incredibly gripping, and despite my 5 AM wakeup time, I stayed up late to read it a couple of nights. It's unfortunate, therefore, that I felt the ending was a bit of a letdown, and the characters were flawed.

It's hard to explain why I didn't love the end without giving away the "twist" in the third act, so here's the deal with the characters; having read several books by Willis, I find she deals more in caricatures than characters. There's a religious fanatic or two in this book, and they are both utterly one-dimensional non-people who are just there to further the plot or show why Science Is Right. (And I agree, but I don't need any straw men to help me see that.) Even our two main characters are pretty flat; Joanna is desperate to find out the causes of the visions, but we never find out why she feels the need to know RIGHT NOW. (And it's a plot point.) I was all caught up in feeling anxious about her quest, and then suddenly realized there was no reason she couldn't sit down and just figure it out tomorrow. The only characters who feel three-dimensional are peripheral characters. (This worked really well in To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is written in the style of a Jeeves-and-Wooster farce. It works less well in a science fiction novel.) 

Secondly, and I can't explain without giving away the "twist," I thought that the ending was weak. Willis sucker punches the audience two-thirds of the way through the book, and then, although she doesn't quite get to "It was all a dreeeeeeam," she does soften it for us unexpectedly, and then, in the very last chapter, softens it again. I want authors to stick to their guns. If you've done something mean to a character, it stays that way, or else you did it for no reason.

It's an interesting and enjoyable book, and it certainly kept me thinking and a little freaked out for several days. But if you're looking for a super awesome amazing book, go pick up To Say Nothing of the Dog. 

Grade: C

originally posted 2006 -- I am still mildly freaked out by this book