If you are looking for a good Sci-Fi novel, Justin Cronin is your guy! I would also recommend his other books. The Ferryman does have a lot going on. I really liked the first part of the book then it did get a bit crazy at the end with new twists which I found to be a bit confusing.

I do not want to rehash the book description and the book is hard to describe. I enjoyed the story and the characters will stick with me for a while. When Procter has to take his father to the Nursery, it did bring a tear or two.

I will recommend reading this book when it is released in early May. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Ferryman. #NetGalley, #JustinCronin, #TheFerryman

The Ferryman is was not my cup of tea. I read about 32% of the book before I called it quits. I usually DNF much sooner. The plot is decent enough, the idea reminded me of The Giver but the writing felt flat and reading it required too much energy. I want a book that “reads” itself. I think cutting out 50% of the book would have made the read more compelling or maybe it was too sci-fi for my liking.

I went into this blind, forgetting the synopsis and why I requested an advanced reader copy, and never having read Justin Cronin’s The Passage series. I was intrigued by the sort of dystopian, class-war-ish world that the reader steps into: drones watching everything, the strange life cycle of the Prosperans, the difference between Prospera and The Annex.

Just as I got my footing in this new sci-fi world, things started shifting and not for the better. In fact, the entirety of the book’s setting jolts around too quickly, it was hard to gather a sense of place, and there was too little detail where detail was due. Conversations felt unnatural and stilted in parts.

The plot twist we get, so far into this 560 page monstrosity, felt like a cop out, and other elements were downright predictable. No one character is very likable. Certain descriptions felt overused, “sea of stars” and things being “atomized” and attempts at making the reader feel as confused or out of place as the characters by simply describing things as being “there but not there” or “loud but also quiet” which isn’t exactly saying anything. For all its faults, it was readable and I felt compelled to continue on to see how things would end. It’s hard to say much more without spoiling things.

My prevailing emotion upon finishing this was relief.

Well, Justin Cronin did it again. An epic novel that has twists and turns and has such a surprising ending. Beautifully written with characters you really form a connection with. It's definitely a change of scenery from The Passage series but no less enjoyable. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read and provide my honest review of The Ferryman but Justin Cronin.
This book follows our main character Proctor who works as a Ferryman taking mostly older people from a utopia style society to a boat that takes them to the afterlife. Of course that’s what everyone thinks is happening when the truth of the situation is much stranger.
While I admit there were several instances of head scratching and asking just what was happening in this book ultimately the ending was a bit too predictable and disappointing.
I liked Proctor as a character but didn’t care for any of the other characters so it was hard to care what would happen to any of them.
As a fan of The Passage series I will continue to read more works by this author but this one is only a 3 star book for me.

I’m not quite sure what I just read. In the beginning this book had me hooked and by the end I was totally confused.

Very dystopian, which I love but way more sci-fi than I like. Justin Cronin is a good story teller and that’s what made me stay the course. This is definitely more of a this book is not for me then a bad book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion. 3⭐️

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the story until halfway through when the big reveal left me disappointed. The world built was fascinating until it wasn’t. Not on par with Cronin’s Passage series.

I just don’t think that this book was for everyone or this writing style and in this case it just wasn’t for me. I don’t want to give it a low rating because I think that my experience is because of me as a reader, not the book.

Amazing thriller, I couldn't put it down!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

5 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.

I don’t even know where to begin to describe this amazing novel. SciFi, yes. Epic, yes. Post-apocalyptic, sort of. Unbelievable from start to finish.

Prospera is an island nation built for the future. Where humans age at a different rate than humans we know and understand. They are the wealthy, elite. Across the causeway are the ‘normal’ humans. The ones that breed and age and die like we do. They are the working class humans in the Annex.

Proctor is a high ranking official in the Prospera government. His duties include ‘ferrying’ the aged and sick back to the Nursery where they can be reborn into a new existence. He’s happily married to Elise, a designer for the elite of Prospera. They live a good life in a glass house overlooking the ocean.

Lately, Proctor has become restless. His usual life is not as satisfying as it once was. Elise can sense this. It’s not a good state for any Prosperan to be in. It is unsettling for those around him. And then comes the ferrying task that he never wanted to be a part of. It will be the final straw in Proctor’s wavering faith.

It’s a wild story of the haves and have nots. Built in a fragile world that will shock you with its surprises. It’s incredible. I loved it.

This was a solid read until I saw the ending coming at about 70%. I still enjoyed it, but I felt there were a few parts that didn't quite hold up to the rest, and I wish the balance of the lead-up and the pay-off had been a little different. I also think that while what Cronin did with the POV was interesting, it could have been a totally different and fascinating story from a multiple POV perspective.

Finished ✔️ an ARC of The Ferryman by Justin Cronin and it was decent!
4 ⭐️’s
Publish Day: May 2nd, 2023
Kindle Unlimited: No
Stephen King enjoyed this book
Next to impossible to put down
Exciting
Mysterious
Totally satisfying
It was beautiful & brilliantly written.
I enjoyed all the characters as they were quite interesting in their own unique ways.
This novel was engrossing.
Yes, I’d recommend
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What is happening? That's the vibe of this book. It explores what it means to be human and how humans persist through time, climate disasters, space, and each other. It also looks at aging and how the brain functions if humans live longer. It wonders what brains do in extended lifetimes. What does it mean to be conscious and what happens to our conscience?

I’m a huge fan of The Passage so I was elated to see that Justin Cronin is back with a new book. The Ferryman starts our strong with a very intriguing premise that hooked me.

If you enjoy dystopian and/or speculative fiction then this could be the book for you. Cronin’s world building is solid, but does result in some tedious details that contribute to the length. As the novel progressed I honestly started to lose interest. This book will definitely find its audience among science fiction fans who enjoy longer sagas.

Thank you to Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Cronin has fashioned a wonderful tale, well written with a tight and fascinating plot and engaging characters. An island paradise where an elite enjoy a bountiful, peaceful and engaging life supported by a working underclass living on a nearby island exhibits troubling signs of growing uncertainty. The story unfolds in shifts of story line and abrupt but disturbing changes for the characters with hints of what the underlying reality is increasingly presented until the vale is lifted in an abrupt fashion. An exciting tale written with great compassion for all of the characters and presenting relevant ideas for our world and the essence of reality. Take great care to not read any spoilers for this book, savor it as it unfolds. Highly recommended.

This was a long book that I looked forward to, but the first half completely enraptured me into this story, but the last half had me bored, I just lost the connection in the last half of the book for some reason. To me personally it went back and forth the second half it would pick up for ten pages then go back to dullness.

The islands of Prospera are invisible to the rest of the world, which is falling apart due to environmental disasters and war. The residents of Prospera itself are virtually immortal. They live long and healthy lives, but eventually their bodies simply wear out and they “retire”. They are taken to the island known as the Nursery, where their minds are wiped of memories, and they are given revitalized bodies. Then (in the bodies of 16-year-olds) they become wards to some Prosperan couple wishing to have a child/ward.

There is also a second group of people who live on another island known as the Annex. They are the support staff who do the tasks that keep the citizens of Prospera from having to labor at anything they wish to avoid. (And, yes, there are difficulties in trying to maintain goodwill with this kind of social order.)

Proctor Bennet is a Prosperan who is a Ferryman ... He takes the people who are retiring to the ferry which transports them to the Nursery. Proctor is having problems. He is having dreams, which is not supposed to happen. He also must retire his father, and it does not go well at all. And then his implanted monitor shows that he himself is dying.

Suddenly, everything that seemed to be real is thrown into turmoil, and this becomes the heart of this novel.

Is it good? Absolutely, as long as you are a reader willing to accept the fact that not every story is neatly linear but rather “all creation [is] boxes within boxes within boxes, each the dream of a different god.”

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. I picked up this title after hearing about it on Bookstagram - the premise sounded intriguing, and I had never read this author before. The Ferryman is set on a remote island utopia where individuals live their lives until the monitor on their arm reads 10%, when they are "retired" via a ferry ride to the Nursery, where their bodies are rebooted to start their lives fresh. Proctor enjoys his career as a ferryman until he starts experiencing alarming things and also has to retire his father, when things begin to devolve.

I loved this book and thought it was propulsive, twisty, and surprising. I thought of so many books and movies to compare this to (but can't due to spoilers). Once I picked it up, I was immediately immersed and was constantly picking it back up to read just a little more. The characters were richly developed and the writing was stirring. I wished it could have been tightened up just a little bit, but I gave this 4.5 stars and can't wait to pick up The Passage by this author.

Five enthusiastic stars. It’s so ambitious and beautifully written. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of The Ferryman.

This was my first ever book by Justin Cronin. It was an insane world building experience. Multi-POV is one of my favorite writing styles, and the same goes here. What I will say is this is an undertaking of a book. It is long and an investment of time, but worth it. Prospera was such an interesting world to read about. I will look forward to more of Cronin's work in the future.