Rating: 
Summary: Spooky Depths
Review: This is an odd and spooky book with considerable depth. As in the author's Doomsday Book, a theme is the ubiquity of death behind the rich details of life. The treatment is very different in this book, where the approach is through "near death experiences" analyzed in a scientific experiment. There is a constant flirtation with fantasy, but the book stays
in touch with plausibility enough that I would count it as SF rather than fantasy. There is a shiver of fear through much of the book, but that's very appropriate to the subject matter! I liked this more thoughtful treatment much more than the Doomsday Book, which I found miserably relentless. Passage has a LOT of description of mundane details - more than I or many male readers usually like - but it's very appropriate to the theme here.
Rating: 
Summary: My life is now several days shorter...
Review: ...having read this bloated, tedious, and just plain awful book. About 500 pages too long, interminable hoo-hah about missed and rescheduled appointments, unnecessary descriptions of the mazelike hospital setting masquerading as a metaphor for something, a flimsy and uninteresting premise dealing with NDE's, etc. After a while the mind starts to wander, pages begin to flip by of their own accord, and when actual, attentive reading restarts -- lo and behold -- we've missed not a whole lot of action. A pedestrian and uninvolving writing style does not serve to move the story along with any kind of efficiency. Characters are either cliched stereotypes (Mandrake, Maisie's mother) or just so golly-gee eager and go-get-em (all of the protagonists) that they do not register as realistic at all. I wholeheartedly agree with the reviewer who said the book is in desperate need of an editor. For us, alas, it is too late. And the whole Titanic thing? It's been so overexposed and has oversaturated the popular culture of the times that it's not really remarkable any more (due respect to the victims, this is in regards to the book), and using it as a major plot device is a questionable move. The bittersweet ending, which I suppose is meant to come across as a mix of terror and optimism, is the best part of the book. Not because of the writing or the clever manner in which the various plot threads come together (none of these apply, I assure you), but because it's the end, and the reader is finally free, Free, FREE! I'd like to send Connie Willis an invoice for my time.
Rating: 
Summary: Could hardly put it down!
Review: Psychologist Dr. Joanna Lander has spent the last two years at Mercy Hospital studying those patients who have "died" and come back, those who have had a near death experience, or NDE. She isn't the only one, the hospital corridors are also haunted by a spiritualist, and Joanna suspects, fraud. He is convinced that the NDE's are totally spiritual, is it coincidence that he also writes books with such titles as The Light at the End of the Tunnel? Joanna thinks that NDE's might be caused by chemical reactions as the brain dies, or maybe it's some type of survivial mechanism, and when Dr. Richard Wright asks her to become part of his scientific study, where he can induce NDEs with chemicals, Joanna jumps at the chance. Volunteers and funding soon dry up, and Joanna becomes the guinea pig herself, feeling a sense of wonder that she will get to experience what she's been hearing second-hand. But although Joanna expereinces what most people have reported, the light, the tunnel, she discovers something else as well. A part of her knows why everything seems so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid... Every so often a book a book comes along and just sweeps you up and you forget everything else in your quest to finish it. Passage is such a book, it is a fairly long book, but it only took me two days to finish it, I needed to see the next part. Ms. Willis has the knack of leaving something hanging at the end of each chapter, and you have no option but to read on to discover what is going to happen next. You cared about the characters and needed to know what adventures they were going to get into next. A book you may not want to put down. Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Drowning Rapunzel and Silent Screams.
Rating: 
Summary: The most riveting book I've not really liked.
Review: I love Connie Willis books and I was prepared to love this one too. Like all Willis books, it is extremely well written. I literally couldn't put it down, right to the end. I was spell bound and intrigued with the whole NDE question and I loved the characterizations. But at the point in the book when the plot takes a dramatic turn (if you've read the book, you'll know what I mean), I started feeling disatisfied and disappointed. Things started getting way too wierd for my taste and the ending completely fizzled. That said, I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. 3 stars for writing style, suspense and characters; -2 for wierdness and dumb conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: A riveting read
Review: Connie Willis is one of those few writers who have the real knack of communicating intangible concepts via the written word. In a string of seemingly normal workday events, and almost in real time, she drops tantalising hints here and there, which may or may not impinge on the plot, giving one a sense of impending climax, like a gathering storm, with all the clues massing together to erupt in a welter of ... something, but you have no idea what it could possibly be, although there are plenty of possible scenarios hinted at. This is one of those books that drags you along, reading faster and faster, til you have to stop for lack of mental breath. Then straight back into it to try and decipher exactly what the climax will be... Using a similar scenario to 'Doomsday Book', Joanna is based in a hospital, researching Near Death Experience, the 'White Tunnel' syndrome. The obnoxious unscientific Dr. Mandrake, the von Daniken of NDE, generally reaches recovery patients first and runs roughshod over their memory of the event in order to promote his own dubious "There, that proves it!" theory, to the detriment of Joanna's research. Her researches are constantly stymied by him, plus half her subjects are loonies, and her lack of confrontation and control makes matters worse - you really want to shake her, telling her to get in command of the situation.The consequent lack of suitable subjects means she has to adopt an unconventional approach to record the experience better... I feel as though I should be doing a deeper review to do justice to the book, but that would mean giving away too much of the plot. Suffice to say that this is one of the better sci-fi / metaphysical novels that merits a much wider audience (it helps if you are a film or literature buff) - kept me on tenterhooks for days.*****
Rating:
Summary: Well written, thought provoking, and engaging
Review: Though I have read some of Connie Willis' short stories in the past, this is the first of her novels I have read. The idea of a science fiction novel on near death experiences (NDEs)was one I found quite intriguing, and, as a Christian, I was very interested in seeing what Willis thought about life after death. The book is pretty long, but the story is quite compelling and you really want to know what will happen to all the main characters. I didn't find it to drag much at all. Some parts of the story were nicely creepy, especially when certain people are recalling or experiencing their NDEs.
The characters are very well drawn for the most part, though some of the characters, like Mr. Mandrake and Joanna's fundamentalist religious sister, seem more like caricatures than they do real people. Nevertheless, they both serve their particular purpose within Willis' narative, particularly Mr. Mandrake. Willis has also done her research, and the scientific and technical aspects of the story are very credible without being so crucial to the main plotline that you have to understand all the science in order to follow the story.
From a philosophical perspective, I really liked the way that Willis played off Richard the diehard scientific materialist against Mandrake the too eager believer in the paranormal, while Joanna fell somewhere in between. At one point or another in the story, she becomes disgusted with both of them for their unwillingness to accept what won't fit into their preconceived ideas about reality. Though I thought conservative Christians were unfairly stereotyped in a cardboard cutout manner through the character of Joanna's sister, I was pleasantly surprised to see the last chapter of the story headed up with a quote from C. S. Lewis. The ending of the story itself was nicely ambiguous, featuring some fairly powerful redemptive, possibly even Christian symbolism, but leaving the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, rather than trying to offer any definite speculations about the ultimate nature of life after death.
Definitely a worth while read if you like unconventional science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: In the end, a compelling read . . .
Review: I debated whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars, and in the end I decided that a book with an ending that haunts me as much as this one does is worth the extra star. I totally disagree with the readers who claim that the people in this book were not well-drawn characters. They are drawn like people in mystery novels--- as a work place mystery, you discover things about them through their work and not through their home life. I found Joanna and Richard, the two protagonists, very compelling because I was drawn into their obsessions with NDEs, and I thought Willis did a brilliant job depicting how a smart little girl might intellectually come to grips with her failing heart. I must quibble with one of the "twists" --- I think there are a few inconsistencies about the NDE's and Willis can't quite decide if NDEs are mystical or not. I can't say more without giving the plot away, but I'll just say that you should watch out for the ways in which the clues seem to drift between the idea that people in NDEs share the same experience or not. She ultimately comes down on one side of the debate, but there are some problems with her logic along the way. That said, it is an amazing page turner that I moved through quite quickly. I agree that it could have been condensed, but she must have done something right. I was quietly devastated by the ending.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves 7 out of 5 stars
Review: I'm a big fan of Connie Willis' other books, so I was looking forward to this one. It's an absolutely amazing book--one of the best I've ever read. If you know the author, you know she doesn't pull any punches, and that's true for Passage too. Yes, it's long, but it's definitely worth it...and if you make it to the big plot twist, you'll be hooked.
Rating:
Summary: A Near Death Experience Just Reading This Book
Review: Other reviewers have written of its tedious attributes which I strongly echo. After 200 pages I wish I had started counting the number of times she avoided the; answering machine, pager, person, hallway, closed cafeteria, etc. Where was the editor during the manuscript review?
Connie Willis has written a number of excellent books, as are noted in these reviews. This one is a real dud. I stopped reading at 300 pages.
Rating:
Summary: RESTRICTED: Weekend Reading Only!
Review: DO NOT start this book on a Monday, because you will not be able to get any sleep until you've finished it. The author is especially adept at leading you on (through the night and right up 'til your alarm clock rings), while spinning out a tight, thoroughly researched and flawlessly developed plot. This is my third Connie Willis book, and she's proven to be a writer who continues to get better with each novel. "Passage" is by far the most suspenseful and effectively written book I've read in years. From the first paragraph I was hooked, and a few chapters in the addiction grew, accompanied by an impending sense of doom and a very subtle, unidentifiable horror. One of the amazing things about C. Willis is her ability to create believable characters who are not only intelligent, but highly rational as well (a rare find even in reality). There are no stupid turns in this book; no moments where it is painfully obvious what will happen next, or where a character behaves out of character to further the plotline. Ultimately, it's the common-sense characters that make "Passage" so convincing. When I initially read the book's jacket, I was hesitant to buy it, having had it up to here with the hokey and conveniently edited "afterlife" TV psychics and anything remotely related (although good for the occasional laugh, or practice rolling my eyes). Fortunately, I gave it a try despite the stigma attached to near-death and afterlife material, and was relieved to encounter characters who were as sceptical and no-nonsense as you can get. The resulting contrast between rational character and hopeless bunk adds an element of realism (and some priceless dry wit) which makes the creepy scenes even more creepy. If you're still sceptical about reading this book, without giving anything away, I can say that C. Willis has yet again avoided THE worst crime a writer can commit: letting readers down in the last three pages of the book by invalidating the first 300. "Passage" would have been the perfect opportunity to pull such a prank, and dash her readers' trust against a contrived and mismatched end. It doesn't happen. "Passage" won't waste your time or try your patience. However, there is one unexpected side-effect to reading this book. Having finished it days ago, the feeling of dread and sense of death hovering nearby have not diminished. I've been a regular in the horror section for decades (I know- "Passage" isn't even horror!), and can't recall any other books inspiring such anxiety in my desensitized and leathery-hard little heart. Go ahead, try your luck, see if it happens to you. After reading "Passage," it's hard not to feel as if time is short, death near, and every panicked, cringing moment infinitely valuable.
|
