THE FERRYMAN, A No-Spoiler Review of the Novel

Published in 2023 and still in hardback only, THE FERRYMAN, a novel by Justin Cronin, was a surprise find. My friend tipped me off. She is a serial reader, but normally reads lit fiction. She knows I read science fiction and speculative stuff. This book is science fiction and I’m not spoiling here. The first hint of a future/science fiction reality comes in the prologue. For the beginning half of the of the novel I was captured by the beauty of the writing. However, it’s always difficult to write a great ending, and THE FERRYMAN’s story/plot is complicated, very complicated and I’m not sure Cronin pulled it off.

First the Short Review: I Recommend THE FERRYMAN with Reservations

1. Overall, lovely writing
2. Suberb mystery and tension
3. Interesting world-building

My Reservations:

1. This is a long book, many words. Did it need to be this long?
2. The last 1/3 of the book is a lot of explaining…the mysteries are not easily unwound and I’m still not sure I really get the ending

But still…it was a fun read. Here is one example of lovely writing in an early chapter:

“It came as a pleasant shock to me, how the man I’d known as a rather dry intellectual transformed himself so completely into a craftsman–a man who actually made things that the world could put to practical use Which only goes to show that people are more complicated than they let on and that even tragedy (sometimes only tragedy) can open the door to who we really are.”

This idea that tragedy opens up doors to identity is a theme that runs through the novel.

The Longer Review: 

THE FERRYMAN’s setting is the fodder for much of the good writing. Prospera, a temperate island utopia, is home to a class of people known as Prosperans. Think Brave New World. Its inhabitants not only live and eat like royalty, they never die. In this world a technology exists that transfers the consciousness of an elder individual into a new body. Much of this process is surrounded in mystery because when the transfer takes place, memories are also wiped.

The new consciousness in a new body is in theory “the same person” being reborn, but without the baggage of memory. So is it really the same person? The reader wonders. For example, the main character, Proctor Bennet, dreams, and his dreams indicate a previous life, perhaps? Mysterious, though Prosperans are not supposed to dream. Something is amiss with Proctor Bennet. 

Moreover, all is not well in Prospera. This becomes clear early in the story and drives much of the tension. There are other oddities in this world. Children with the re-inserted consciousness come from across the water on ferries at an older age, not as babies. All Prosperans have monitors inserted into their arms that measure their health and well-being. More importantly, an underclass of people perform the menial work on the island. These people have children naturally, live in a slum called the Annex, and do not seem to have access to the life-preserving technologies of the Prosperans. However, they make great art…an interesting discovery along the way, that those living in the Annex (as opposed to the Prosperans) live deeper lives, even though they are the underclass in society.

Proctor Bennet is a ferryman. He assists elders in the society who are ready to “end” their current lives. All this is done calmly, with signed contracts and quiet ceremony. When his own father is ready to board the ferry, Proctor is called and escorts his father to the ferry until his father unravels. A “scene” at the ferry is exactly what the Properans hate. Proctor’s experience around his father’s ugly departure across the sea thrusts him on a fact-finding mission. Clues emerge all around him. It’s around this section of the novel that I got the feeling there was glitch in the Matrix. 

Except, the Matrix did the explaining soooo well. Maybe, this was because the Matrix was a film and not a novel. The backstory that unfolds in THE FERRYMAN is convoluted and complicated. The layers upon layers eventually are revealed, but the revelation felt forced to me, and so much less interesting than the setup. There was also a degree of cliche that felt disappointing to me. Same old, same old villains. Same old, same old catastrophe that set the thing in motion. All this is revealed by lots of explaining and lots of people having conversations with one another. Certainly, there needed to be some of this, but I felt there was too much. The style reminded me of Asimov, who loves to put two “smart” people (usually dominant white males) in a room together talking about and therefore telling the audience what’s going on. I’m not a fan of the style. So…those are my hangups. I think many will love this book. I know folks who adore Asimov for his ideas (if not his writing), but if I were you, I would maybe wait for the paperback, or pick up the audiobook…THE FERRYMAN could be fun to enjoy on a very very long road trip.