Cronin is the celebrated author of the vampire trilogy that started with "The Passage," reviewed by this reader.  I was not the fan that much of the rest of the readers were.  But I had been impressed with his writing so was more than willing to take on this new title.   

Proctor Bennet is a Ferryman; a thankless job to many but fulfilling to him.  In the secluded island world of Prospera, no one dies forever.  Outside of protected Prospera, the world is apparently dystopic. When their lives are full and over, they are escorted by a Ferryman to the Nursery to be born again; there is no procreation, no babies.  Loving families sort of 'adopt' a renewed soul who seems to be an adolescent.  Proctor hadn't questioned his role in the world; he was respected in a fulfilling job and had a wonderful loving wife.  But everything about his life came into question with two events:  his father finally 'retired' and while Proctor was escorting him to a ferry, his father uttered words that while incomprehensible still struck a chord in Proctor.  The second event was meeting a truant teenager, Caeli, who wrangled him into teaching her to swim.  As disparate as these events seemed to be, both brought change and confusion to Proctor's life.  The government, in the form of his mother-in-law who is the ruling person, starts hunting him and everyone who heard those words from his father.  And no one but him seems to know who the teenaged girl is, or care - until she disappears.

Proctor is then propelled on a journey of discovery with the aid and sometimes hindrance of friends and colleagues.  As he starts to intuit that there is more 'behind the curtain' of the life of Prosperans, he also starts to develop a respect and sympathy for the downtrodden workers of this island paradise, those who live in the Annex.  And, of course, in any world that has a privileged upper class and a slave-like lower class, a revolution is always brewing.

Within the story are several notable supporting actors.  In Prospera are Proctor's wife Elise, his best friend Warren, his MIL Callista and his aide, Jason.  In the Annex are a mysterious woman called Mother, a blind artist named Pappi who captures a person's inner essence, a street urchin Antone, and moving between both worlds is Thea. There are several conflicts at work in the story.  Proctor gets 'retired' and relocated to the Nursery to begin the process of rebirth but instead of going happily, he ends up rebelling and escaping, with Caeli in tow. His wife, Elise, is possibly involved with his best friend, much to her confusion.  Thea provides a provocative love interest in the absence of his wife.  And Mother and Pappi are riding the bow wave of revolution while trying to keep friends and family safe.

Typically, this sort of background leads to a revolution where the rulers are suitably chastised or killed, someone becomes the "chosen one" to lead the masses, and while some favorite characters might be killed, other get a happily-ever-after.  As I said…typically.  Cronin does not craft a typical plot.  In an interview, he said he was aiming for a mega-reveal that would blow the reader's mind.  He certainly achieved that.

The plot was pretty clear-cut in the beginning and as strange things happened, it started to include suitable mysteries and nefarious intentions; really good plotting.  The characters were well-defined and most of them were very interesting.  I was impressed that Cronin didn't leave all the supporting characters on the sidelines but brought them into the final reveal.  And the prose flowed so well; the book read easily and quickly despite the number of pages.

It might seem to the gentle reader, after the great reveal, that everything that preceded it was really a fantasy; not real and not important.  Absolutely not true. I'm not sure if he intended it, but this reader felt there was actually two great reveals.  The second one gave the reader all they needed to know to understand why everything happened the way it did and to whom it did.  And the explanation and ultimate resolution were pretty amazing.  The finale was not, in any way, typical.  Some might feel cheated of a happy-ever-after, others might think it was the ultimate happy-ever-after.  It's worth the read to have a chance to decide for yourself.  ~ Catherine Book

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