World Made By Hand.

Title/Author: World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler

Genre: Post Apocalyptic, Speculative Fiction.

Publisher: Grove Press.

Source: Purchased.

Synopsis:  For the townspeople of Union Grove, New York, the future is not what they thought it would be.  Transportation is slow and dangerous, so food is grown locally at great expense of time and energy. And the outside world is largely unknown. There may be a president and he may be in Minneapolis now, but people aren’t sure. As the heat of summer intensifies, the residents struggle with the new way of life in a world of abandoned highways and empty houses, horses working the fields and rivers replenished with fish. ~Goodreads.com

Midnyte Thoughts:  World Made by Hand sat on my bookshelf for several years.  Finally, I felt like a post-apocalyptic story and was immediately taken in by main character Robert Earle.  Robert is surviving in a small town in the Hudson Valley in upsate New York.  Union Grove is populated by other survivors and the feel of the town is one of a friendly community that helps their neighbors survive.  One person trades their eggs, another practices rudimentary dentistry, while another has a small general "store."   

In this world, major cities have been bombed and the government is non-existent (or at least not far reaching).  There is no more way to automatically generate electricity, no gas for cars or generators, no supermarkets where you can just go buy your food.  Now people have to go back to basics.  Grow their own food or trade it.  Heat up water over a fire to bathe. Read by candlelight in the evening.  I loved the little details of how people dealt with all this.  How they came by candles, how Robert rigged an outside shower, how people made food and clothes.  

The story gets going when a group of people going by the name of The New Faith Congregation moves into town and takes over the abandoned High School.  They are extremely industrious, hard working and efficient.  They soon have a workable water system going in town and want to start making more improvements.  Of course, they want the townspeople to join their Community as well.  They seem cult-like at first but soon prove that although they are religious and yes, they do want the townspeople to come live with them and find Jesus, they are more help than hindrance and soon form an alliance with the town.  

It's a world made by hand now, one stone at a time, one board at a time, one hope at a time, one sould at a time. 

Another reason I liked the book so much is that I'm semi familiar with the locales.  The Hudson River, upstate New York, Albany.  Even now some towns are not as affluent as they once were, but it doesn't take away the beauty of the landscape.  

I loved was the supernatural element toward the end of the book that made me wonder and think.  There was no clear cut explanation which made it more mysterious.  As a character in the book said (sorry can't remember who), without all the chatter of technology from before, life's mysteries are easier to see.

Although there is some violence and tense moments, this is a quiet book about men going about their lives and women surviving along with them.  I don't think that all women be like 50s housewives if the world came to this end, but this is what we see.   I'm interested to read the second book in this trilogy The Witch of Hebron to see what transpires.  Maybe the Witch will turn out to be a strong woman.   

Starstruck over: The way this gentle book kept me engaged in the story and caring about the characters.

The Passage.

Title/Author:  The Passage by Justin Cronin.

Genre:  Horror.  Post Apocalyptic.

Publisher: Ballantine Books.

Source:  Purchased.

Synopsis:  IT HAPPENED FAST.  THIRTY TWO MINUTES FOR ONE WORLD TO DIE.  ANOTHER TO BE BORN.

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment.  Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered.  All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear - of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primallandscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary.  FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty.  Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has trigged apocalypse.  Wolgast is determined to protect her from the horro set loose by her captros, but for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey - spanning miles and decades - toward the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.   ~Product Description.

Midnyte Musings:   (Please note:  Contains spoilers!)  The Passage is an ambitious novel.  It covers a long period of time, countless characters and many plot threads and twists and turns.

I thought the style was pretty cool.  The sections are partitioned by quotes and poems along with dates. It took me a while to understand what B.V. was and I thought this was a clever way to stress that the world had changed so much that a different timeline was created.  The the story also utilized e-mails, journal entries, notices and job logs.

Some of the writing is very beautiful and insightful.  How Carter felt he was protecting the woman he was convicted of murdering.  Sara's love for Peter and even all of Amy's secrets.   I was also very impressed by the research that must have gone into this.  The details about engines, batteries and  computers was mind boggling to me.  I thought the twists and turns were interesting and some were surprising.  What really touched me was how the characters talked about never seeing the stars in the night sky and how they missed them.  I would really miss seeing the stars as wel if I could no longer look upon them.

"It was good to die.  There was a lightness in it, a letting go, like love."

Although this is classified as a vampire novel, and the vampires were pretty scary there wasn't a whole lot of scares and gore.  I would have liked to have seen more of the horror aspect.  I think I would classify The Passage as more of a post apocalyptic book.

"And inside him, far down, a great, devouring hunger uncoiled itself.  To eat the very world."

Now for what didn't work for me.  This is certainly not the author's fault, but I had a wonky copy.  The first few chapters there were many sentences that were repeated in several places.  To top it off they were crossed out in pencil.  I was like huh?  Obviously an irregular copy that someone else had already gone over.  It was funny in a way, but it pulled me out of the story and I couldn't help but wonder if this was going to keep happening.  It did happen again a few more times, but then it stopped and I was able to get into the story as much as I could.  

I think another issue I had is that some of the writing was hard for me to follow.  I often couldn't ground myself into the setting and didn't know where exactly the characters were.  I also wasn't always sure who was thinking or doing what.   Another device I noticed is that the author led the reader to believe a character was dead and then wasn't.  I think this can be effective once or twice, but it happened often enough that I was not surprised anymore when the story alluded to someone's death.  

The ending was a cliffhanger and I suspect that in the next book The Twelve, it may start with action right where The Passage left off.

Constellation of Characters:  Unfortunately, I didn't really connect too many characters.  I enjoyed reading about them and found myself caring and wanting to know more, but I didn't feel the layers were peeled off enough.

Anthony Carter - a homeless man who was unfairly convicted of murder and then experimented on.

Peter - one of the main protaganosists, always thought his older brother Theo was favored and better than him.  Even on his mother's death bed he misinterpreted something she said and it stayed with him.  That is, until he realized he was the strong one.

Starstruck Over: I'm glad I read The Passage, but it didn't enchant me as much as I had hoped.  I am curious to find out what happens, so I may continue the series, but I'm not in a rush.

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