I went on vacation last week, and took The Ferryman, by Justin Cronin, to read on the plane. I wasn’t sure what to expect; I had only read The Passage trilogy by Cronin previously, and picked this up on a whim while at my local used bookstore. But I’m glad I did. I found it to be an excellent blend of sci-fi and mystery.
The Ferryman takes place on the hidden, secluded archipelago of Prospera. The archipelago consists of three very, very different islands. First is the tropical island paradise of Prospera, where the citizens live long lives, filled with wealth, luxurious homes and perfect weather. And when I say they live long lives, I mean loooong, like 120 years.
The Prosperans are propped up in their life of luxury by the residents of another island, the Annex. The Annex is the home of the Support Staff to the Prosperans. The cooks, the maids, the sewage plant workers; they don’t live in Prospera. Instead, they live on the crowded, dirty, tenement-filled Annex across the causeway.
As for the third island, it’s called The Nursery. And Prosperans only go there once the monitor in their arm indicates that their physical or psychological well-being has dipped below an acceptable threshold. When that happens, the Prosperans are taken by ferry to the Nursery to be recycled, renewed and reused. The Support Staff just live and die normal, oppressed lives.
As for the titular Ferryman, Proctor Bennett is a Director in the Department of Social Contracts. And while he doesn’t drive the ferry that takes worn out Prosperans to The Nursery, he does help facilitate the “retirement” process. At least he does until the day things start to go sideways. Not only with Proctor, but with the Prospera archipelago as a whole. What follows is fast-paced and exciting, with a completely unexpected plot and I highly recommend it.
Rating: 4.5 stars
CBR18 Bingo Circle: “Craft” because there are lots of watercraft (and other crafts!) in this book.
