Definitely did not see the end coming. Kept me guessing and wanting answers the whole way through. I love books that make me think about things in new ways or that I never thought of before. It's not easy to come up with intriguing new ideas like this, but Justin Cornin is a master at it! I love everything that he writes! So glad to have gotten the chance to read this book early and share my thoughts.

In the idyllic archipelago of Prospera, citizens live long, fulfilling lives until their monitors indicate a decline in health and well-being, at which point they retire to an island where they're rejuvenated and their memories wiped clean. Ferryman Proctor Bennett enforces this process until his own father delivers a cryptic message before being retired. Meanwhile, rumors of a resistance group grow, and Proctor finds himself questioning everything he once believed, embarking on a dangerous mission to uncover the truth.

This being my first Cronin novel, I went into this completely blind and with little to no expectations. The beginning of the book was strong, and I had high hopes as the events unfolded for Proctor Bennett with an eery familiarity. With hints of Fahrenheit 451, The Truman Show, The Village, and even Vanilla Sky or The Matrix — all early on — I headed into the second half of the novel geared up for an entertaining reveal, never quite sure where Cronin would take the story.

And while where we ended up wasn't wholly mind-blowing or even thought-provoking, I was nevertheless entertained. My main problem with this book is something that has happened recently with several other reads. For a book that sports a heavily embedded lesson folded into the plot, Cronin doesn't really take the story anywhere fresh. I went into this book already on board with the undercurrents that would eke out along the way, and without needing to be convinced or persuaded, a monotony tends to fill those gaps.

In addition, along with that familiarity and whispers from other novels or movies' stories, there came a certain level of predictability. Often this level of recognition in the plots that have come before can add a depth and certain comfort, but with The Ferryman Cronin seems to have been influenced by too many pieces from other tales and this unfortunately lands without the necessary balance by adding in something I would be able to recognize as just his.

The first half of the novel is a knockout, and being the doorstopper that it is, that's saying a good bit. I appreciated Cronin's careful play with the tense, tightening up some scenes with present tense — but using it wisely and sparingly. Also, while there was a fairly large roster of characters, Cronin is clearly capable of handling the task, keeping each individual multi-dimensional and necessary to the story.

I think if you're a fan of Cronin already, this one will be right up your alley. For me, coming in fresh to his work, I'm not sure where I stand, but it does make me curious about his best-known series, beginning with The Passage.

Glad to see a new story by the author of The Passage trilogy, A fresh apocalyptic story that starts in an utopian setting where Proctor Bennett is a ferryman who delivers citizens to their demise where they can be renewed and born again. Soon we see how this world (Prospera) is not all it seems. There are disgruntled workers and an underground network and we can't forget "the dreams" especially by Proctor himself .
It isn't until the epilogue where we see where this story lands. It's almost a story within an story within another story. In its scope reminiscent of Cloud Cuckoo Land. Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine for the add

I have not read a book like this in a very very long time! I’ve seen so much about this book and couldn’t wait to read it. I was glued to it since page one.

Justin Cronin delivers a compelling and fantastic book with his new release, The Ferryman. He seamlessly blends psychology, action, character study, and dystopian elements. Plus, the twists kept coming during the entire second half. If that’s not enough, I can’t wait to reread The Ferryman.

This is a challenging story to explain without moving into the twists. Since I’m committed to blogging spoiler-free, you’ll have to trust me on the effectiveness of the last half of the book.

But, as the book begins, we meet Proctor Bennett. He lives on an island called Prospera, presumably after cataclysmic events on Earth. Using future technologies, island residents are “reiterated” multiple times. They reach “retirement” only to be shipped to a lab and recreated as a new person. And Bennett is part of a team responsible for delivering the retirees to a ferry where they travel to the lab. As you can see, the story relies on science fiction and futurism.

At the same time, we learn that Proctor experiences sleepwalking incidents and begins to feel unsettled with his life and job duties. As a counterbalance, Cronin also introduces Thea. She’s a woman who straddles the world of Prospera and the nearby Annex. At the Annex, no one gets “reiterated.” The population lives and dies in the typical human way. They also live to serve the residents of Prospera. When Thea and Proctor connect, events in these very different places start imploding.

My conclusions
As I said above, I couldn’t put The Ferryman down. I spent every spare moment for a week reading it and loving every moment.

Cronin is a storytelling master. He built characters I cared about, even if I didn’t always like them. And while the plot draws from other futuristic stories, Cronin offers an original approach to post-apocalyptic events and decisions.

You can’t read dystopian fiction without suspending disbelief. Reiteration? Sure, it seems far off in the future. But that’s the point here. And how Cronin develops the final chapters wasn’t unexpected. He subtly projects the big twist, which added to my enjoyment. Once the big twist hits, the book’s lens opens wider, and then Cronin adds more complexity and layers. It’s positively excellent work!

Pair with some Octavia Butler. For example, Parable of the Sower, Dawn, or Wild Seed. I noticed elements from all three in Cronin’s work with The Ferryman.

Acknowledgments
Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Ballantine Books, and the author for a digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for this honest review. The expected publication date for this book is May 2, 2023.

The country of Prospera consists of three islands: the main island of Prospera where citizens live, work and play; the Annex where support staff live, commuting back and forth to their jobs on Prospera; and the Nursery, where Prosperans are recyled to new existences. Not everyone is happy with this arrangement and revolt is brewing. Or is it?
The first 2/3 of the book is fabulous - I read it in a single day and could not put it down. But the last third - not so much. We find out that it's all just a dream. Been there, done that (am I the only reader old enough to remember LOST or St. Elsewhere? or the old TV series Dallas, where mercifully only one season was a dream? Maybe the author figures no one over 20 is going to read his books?). The it-was-all-just-a-dream trope is such a copout when an author doesn't know how to finish a story in a satisfying manner. Also, there is more than one ending. Really disappointing. Five stars for the first 2/3, one star for the last third, averaging out to three stars.

The rest of the world is falling apart, but Prospera is a safe and seemingly wondrous place. When the monitors implanted in your arm monitoring your mental and physical health drop below a certain percent, you simply “retire” and are born anew, into a new body, with none of the memories of your previous life.



Proctor’s job is to help people through the retirement process, though sometimes he has to use force when someone doesn’t want to go. But Proctor’s monitor is dropping quickly, and his life isn’t seeming as routine as it once did. Prospera isn’t seeming the same either.



This is very far from the type of book I typically read, but I’m glad I did. I’m still not sure I completely understood everything I read, but let’s put it this way-I had no clue I was reading a 560 page book because I was so invested in the characters and what was happening that the read didn’t feel long. Cronin has a great writing style. If you’re looking to read something different than what I typically review here, check out this book.

Humans have finally pushed Earth to the edge of destruction with no going back. The lucky and wealthy few survive on an island of perfection known as Prospera; however, all is not bliss for everyone. Big Brother takes on a whole new meaning where each citizen must wear a monitor so that when their health ratio goes below ten percent, they are sent to another island known as the Nursery to be essentially recycled, their memories wiped clean with a new beginning that starts at age sixteen. The man in charge of “helping” citizens along their way out is Proctor Bennett, Director of the Department of Social Contracts. Proctor may be a gentler version of the Grim Reaper, he is called the Ferryman; however, citizens are “retired” by arbitrary decisions they do not always welcome.

Proctor has recently started unraveling himself by having disturbing dreams, which is not supposed to happen, challenging his concept of reality. He and his wife, Elise, are part of the elite in the carefully constructed world of Prospera. Proctor is beginning to question his own sanity, and the mores of their world where only some people live the privileged life while those known as Support Staff are required to live under harsh conditions in the area known as the Annex. When Proctor must forcibly send his own father to be erased and resurrected anew, a father who makes some disturbing last-minute claims, he becomes more convinced that something is rotten in paradise.

The working-class people, who are made to live and often work in squalor, in the Annex are starting to dissent, calling themselves Arrivalists. They have operatives on the other side who are helping to aggravate the rebellion. Some of the important people in Proctor’s life are also connected to not only the coming crisis, but major changes in Prospera’s government. For Proctor, telling friend from foe has become fraught with a lot of challenges. Something very disturbing has awakened in him that indicates all is not as it seems.

Fans of this type of dystopian, post-apocalyptic Science Fiction will enjoy the convoluted, tangled up, and complicated versions of reality going on in this story. At 560 pages, readers will be taken on quite an intense ride showing the best and the worst of human nature. Parsing out what is real and what is an allusion is quite the challenge in this book. The author keeps readers guessing, fascinated and afraid in equal measures, to see how it all turns out.

In a land called Prospera people are healthy and wealthy while living long lives and everyone spends their time pursuing their passions. Yet when their time is up, they board a ferry to retire to the Nursery, an island where they are “reiterated,” with their minds erased before being reintroduced back into society as teenagers. As the head “Ferryman,” Proctor is in charge of each journey, until he is called to the home of his estranged father to facilitate a rare, forced retirement. At the ferry dock, Proctor’s father wildly challenges his journey and things in this sinister dystopia begin to unravel. Like in all dystopian novels, there is a hidden resistance movement. Cronin is the author of The Passage, his hugely popular novel of 2010 where society is destroyed by a deadly virus. This time around Cronin sends hints about social inequality and the condensing of wealth along with the question of what to do with an aging population. I for one am now keeping a wary eye out for any boat that comes along. This long book, 445 pages, is deceiving. What you think is happening is really not.

I'm not a big sci-fi fan but this was very interesting. A wild ride with many twists. I'm still processing what I read.

The rest of the world may have fallen into darkness, but Prospera remains a civilized idyll. That is mostly due to its neighboring islands: the Annex, where the people who do the actual work live, and the Nursery, where senescent Prosperans are sent for reincarnation. Proctor Bennett is a Prosperan whose orderly life disintegrates after his dying father's ravings turn out to contain shocking truths. Anything more would be a spoiler. Cronin has crafted an immersive scifi novel that runs the gamut from poignant exploration of grief to political thriller.

I just reviewed The Ferryman by Justin Cronin. #TheFerryman #NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published May 2, 2023.

This is my first book by this author. Sci-Fi is not my usual genre, but I was intrigued by the book’s description. As any good book should do, it took me to a different world: one with 3 islands and where people have monitors implanted in their arms. As your number goes down, you “retire” and go to another island to start over.

It started off strong but got a little boring in the middle (it’s a long book with 560 pages!) then picked up in the end. I’m the first to admit I got a little confused towards the end. Not sure I totally understood everything that was happening other than the Earth was exploding and everyone had to be moved to a new planet and be put to sleep for hundreds of years.

Themes include family, children, government, environmental responsibility and dreams.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley.com. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a fascinating dystopian story. Prospera has two citizens the have's and the have nots. The have "retire" at some point when their happiness levels drop and are then reborn as teenagers to live again and again. The Have nots are the worker bees of Prospera, they keep the community running, they are for lack of a better term, the help.

Proctor Bennett is a Ferryman, his job is to take people to the ferry to "retire" most of the time this goes smoothly but sometimes it doesn't. His life hasn't been going well and Proctor is dissatisfied with his marriage, his job and life in general. He has been dreaming and his wellness meter keeps dropping. After an alarming and unfortunate incident at the Ferry Pier he starts wondering if there is something more happening around him. Things just don't seem right. His dreams are becoming more vivid and he has made the acquaintance of a young girl who he feels connected to.

Things quickly speed up after this and I can't do much more than say hang on for the ride. This book was not what I was expecting and what ultimately is going on is so much bigger than I expected. Fascinating story and great world building.

Another excellent novel from Justin Cronin, one that is beautifully written with interesting and well-developed characters and a plot that is deep and complex. The storyline focuses on Proctor, a man who takes people to a special island when they have just about reached the end of their lives — a very pleasant dystopian sort of island where a person’s mind is wiped clean and he/she is reborn to be adopted by someone who lives on the island from whence he/she came. It has so very many twists and turns that it will keep you flipping pages, and you will go through all 500+ of them in no time! I really enjoyed Cronin’s The Passage trilogy, and this is another great work from him.

Cronin transports us to the mysterious island of Prospera, a secluded utopia, where super talented and creative adults live steeped in idyllic lives – productive careers, evenings out infused with cultural events and fine dining, and marriage contracts that only run for 15 years to keep things fresh.

All Prosperians arrive to the island from The Nursery, a separate nearby and foreboding island, as teens. They have no memories but are competent. They get assigned guardians to act as parents, and immediately get enrolled in university to tease out their unique attributes. Each citizen lives out long, fulfilling lives until they deteriorate to the point that they opt to return to the Nursery to be recycled into a new life, memory-free.

Never mind all the profoundly dissatisfied workers who live in The Annex, and cross over by shuttle each day for thankless and poorly paid work keeping Prospera running- from housekeepers to groundskeepers to sewage control. While they get to have children and live relatively more normalized human lives, discontent flares sparking everything from religious fervor to deep, rising rebellion against the ruling class.

Proctor Bennett lives in Prospera with his brilliantly successful fashion designer wife Elisa, in a house abutting the ocean. They have the house in no small part thanks to her parents, especially her Mom who has the post of running all of Prospera. Proctor works for the Department of Social Contracts, helping those who want to end their lives to sign the social contract necessary to do so and then shepherding them as a Ferryman, aka counselor, to the Ferry leading back to the Nursery. Proctor finds his work fulfilling but draining when enforcement becomes necessary, overall bringing compassion to all his duties. But his wellness scores on an embedded monitor that all Prosperans have start to plummet, deeply concerning his wife and in laws.

Also Proctor has been haunted by dreams since his arrival to Prospera- dreams that serve as the tipping point of echoes of memories and that indicate not is all as it seems in Eden. Proctor continues to receive stronger and stronger distorting perceptions, from cryptic words shared from his guardian father who tries at the last minute to escape his Ferry back to the nursery, to his guardian Mom who had drowned herself off a boat, to a mysterious girl who asks him to teach her to swim by the ocean, to Thea who’s a gallery-owner deeply emmeshed in the art and people of the Annex.

Mysteries abound as Proctor embarks on a quest to find out what’s really going on.

A brilliant novel!!

Thanks to Random House, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Imagination runs wild with this book.

Proctor Bennett is the Ferryman escorting those that are ready to retire to a place called, the “Nursery.” That’s where their memories are erased and they can be reborn again to the paradise island of “Prospera” and live the good life.

The last person he took to the pier was his dad who was 126 years old. I felt so sorry for him. He let his house go towards the end. He said, “One day you just stop caring about things like that.”

The rule was that when he died, his son could have one item up to $200,000 and the rest would go to the Central Bank. His dad was a successful lawyer and as a hobby he built custom wooden boats. He gave Proctor a vessel named Cynthia that took him two years to build.

His dad said to him, “It will be so strange not to remember any of this.” He was cold and frightened and told his son: “The world is not the world. You’re not you.” There was one word he left him with: Oranios. What did that mean? Proctor’s superficially normal life then took a turn.

There is so much going on in this book. So many levels of thought. For those that love science fiction, it’s the best. I enjoyed the learning about this exclusive place with a handful of distinct characters. But the last part was really out there. He was often dreaming which made my mind drift as well and once that happened, it wasn’t as easy to get to the end.

My thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced book with an expected release date of May 2, 2023.

Prospera is an island paradise where citizens enjoy fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their arm, which monitors physical and psychological health, falls below 10 percent.  Then they retire themselves and their bodies are renewed.  Proctor Bennett is the Ferryman.  It's his job to take the retirees to be reset. When Proctor is asked to retire his guardian (his father),he is given a message that makes no sense. That's when Proctor begins to question everything in Prospera. 

I really can't say much about this one without spoiling the entire story.  I will say that Cronin is the mastermind at creating a complex and detailed story. There is so much going on in this story but it's woven together nicely.  I really enjoyed everything about this novel.  This is definitely a book for science fiction lovers.  If you are a fan of Blake Crouch then you will want to pick this one up.

This is a story I would have no doubt M. Night Shyamalan, would love to make a movie about. I'm still processing what I just read. This book has so many different things happening all at once. It's like if The Truman Show had a baby with Project Hail Mary and that child had a baby with The Stand. That child would be this book. LOL You just have to read it to see what I mean. LOL

I really enjoyed this! There were a limited number of possibilities for the big, central mystery of the book's setting and circumstances, but even without the mystery to drive it, this was a really excellent plot- and character-driven, thoroughly readable yarn for fans of novels like Gnomon or films somewhere between The Truman Show, Gattaca, and Inception. I wasn't sure what to expect from Justin Cronin outside of his previous trilogy and I was very pleasantly surprised.

Justin Cronin has simply written an amazing book, more sci-fi than the horror he has written in the past, it is still a master of world building. Characters who are deep and rich, and a larger society that forces them to make choice and identify what it means to be human. A page turner, a thriller, one of those books you beg for a movie, but then you realize - "a movie can never capture all this" - but you hope they will try. Faith in the afterlife, is it unfounded and created to keep us in line? class stratification, fighting for justice, power struggles in both the larger society and within marriages. You're gonna like the way this reads - I guarantee it.