The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
What's It About?
An island lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world, where lucky citizens enjoy long lives until the monitors that measure their well-being fall below 10 percent. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to another island, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh.Justin Cronin, the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage, returns with a haunting tale of capitalism, the ecological crisis, and preservation of our species in The Ferryman (Ballantine Books).
For years, Proctor Bennett has served as the Director for the Department of Social Contracts, where he is assigned to shepherd the citizens of Prospera to a new life. Prospera is a hidden Utopia, where life is magical and where, upon their retirement, its citizens are ferried to the Nursery — to be reborn with a fresh existence with no memories of the past.
Rebellions Grow as Knowledge is Suppressed
Proctor never gave his mildly satisfying job a second thought until he is assigned to ferry an important person to the Nursery — his estranged father, a famous lawyer and inventor. On Prospera, every citizen is sterile, and Proctor developed a close bond with his adoptive mother who committed suicide many years ago. The suicide haunts him, and his father’s indifference to his mother’s death has been the source of their estrangement. However, as Proctor chaperones his father to the ferry, things go askew. On the dock, his father panics, becomes hysterical, and babbles nonsensically about how Proctor “didn’t really know his mother.” And about Oranios, which sounds like gibberish to Proctor.
Proctor’s life spirals into a deep dive when the government investigates the incident. The government discovers that Proctor has been dreaming, which is forbidden in Prospera. His fashion designer wife leaves him. His best friend betrays him. He loses his job, and he is on the run from the murder of a guard who tried to Taser his father at the scene. The plot kicks into high gear as Proctor runs for his life and becomes witness to the other side of Propera — the Annex — where the unhappy laborers live and are planning to rebel against their wealthy suppressors.
These events cause Proctor to reconsider his life and choices, and propel him along an unexpected path. What was his father talking about? What is Oranios? And why does the hierarchy desire to suppress any knowledge of it? What do his dreams mean? A recalcitrant teen named Caeli appears to be the key to solving the mystery, but she, too, has disappeared. Can Proctor find her?
Determining the Future of a Dying Society
Justin Cronin is a master storyteller. His unique world-building immediately draws the reader into a complex sci-fi fantasy, where the people are beautiful, everyone is happy, and no one is ever ill. He’s created Prospera as an archipelago of contradictions. Superficially, Prospera appears perfect, but chaos is simmering beneath the surface. Across the causeway in the Annex, people are starving, underpaid, and live in squalor. Prospera is a world divided by wealth and opportunity; and whether you are born Prosperan or human.
In the third act of this complicated story, Cronin transforms it from a techno-thriller into a true science fiction nightmare for Proctor. Readers will stay up late to turn the page as he searches for Caeli, deals with his past, and helps determine the future of a dying society.
Sci-Fi Opera Defies Time and Space
In Shakespeare’s “Tempest,” Prospero, the Duke of Milan and the main character in the play, said, “We are the stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” Clearly, this evocative phrase served as Cronin’s inspiration for The Ferryman. His characters appear to be trapped in a “Ground Hogs Day” cycle as they relive life after being reborn in the Nursery. Proctor, the ferryman, Thea, the art dealer, Elise, Proctor’s wife, Caeli, the teenager, and Elise’s powerful mother, Callista — all live multi-dimensionally, defying time and space in this sci-fi opera.
In The Ferryman, Cronin takes his characters and the readers on an intriguing dreamlike journey through space and time. And he presents a chilling warning about our own future, if we do not preserve our planet and respect our fellow man.
