Lengthy, but not lacking.
340870
In this finale that wraps up 14 years of writing and character development that stretched over seven books and two series, Robin Hobb delivers an amazing end to the saga of the Rain Wilds. While I do not want to discuss spoilers for those who have yet to read the full series, I do want to discuss a few topics related to this book and the entire series.

I first want to tackle the issue that most folks seem to have problem with: the length of book vs the amount of action / story development. While I fully agree that Hobb is a bit of a lengthy writer, that is her overall style with all of her books, not just this book or this series, so I feel that mentioning it as something you do not enjoy about her books is a bit redundant.

Another issue that I've seen discussed is the lack of surprising developments. The plot is underdeveloped in some areas, making the subjects (either people or places, or even entire mini plot lines) rather boring. The flip side to this, I feel, is that she did a really great job with the main story and characters that we are familiar with from the preceding novels.

As far as the quality of the overall story (the entire series taken as one work), I feel that her earlier series are better, but this is purely opinion. The characters from earlier works feel more realistic, like folks you would know if you were in the story, while the characters from the later series have lost that personal touch she once conveyed.

Overall, the book is wonderful as is the series and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it (and look forward to reading it again), but I can identify areas that I feel were weak in comparison with her normal writing style. A solid 4/5 and recommendations to anyone familiar with the author or any interest in fantasy works.
1083268
It's little lengthy for me, otherwise I'm OK
1478247
Took a long time to read.  Writing was sometimes tedious, but I would expect this author to be that way since the book was written so long ago.
4395793
This felt like a really, really long book. The story was very well written, and a great read; intriguing, engaging, interesting.... it just felt too long. Thinking back over it, it's difficult to say where it could be abbreviated, but it did drag for me in the end. I also felt like the conclusion was a bit of a leap; some new ideas introduced that were convenient to an ending but not incorporated in the long build up.
I haven't read any other of the books in this series, and judging by other reviews this is a beloved character, so perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had I had an existing affection for the protagonist.
2891335
As the one line summary above says, the book can be a little long and tedious at points, but still an overall 4 star read.
I must admit that the desire for the story to end really started to hit me at about the last  300 pages. So at this point I started to skim the last part of the book.  Fortunatily by this point all of the major plot points where well in place  so by skimming the last 300 pages I was able to conclude the book and still  get satisfaction out of the reading experience.
4246722
What a weighty book, in more ways than one.  I was encouraged to read it from an old review I read somewhere, but by the time I got around to it, I'd forgotten the story. So I was disappointed to realize that it was another book about a virus ending the world as we know it. It took forever for the story to get started, which might by why the book was well over 700 pages long. The story was okay, nothing outstanding, more like something I might expect from a better-than-average TV show. Cronin certainly took time to develop his characters, but was puzzlingly silent on their physical descriptions.  And for heaven's sake, how long can you expect your reader to wade through endless dream sequences? Man, those people slept more than anyone I've ever known.

Although I often complain that a book could have stood a good editing, it was especially true for The Passage. There were many sections that did not contribute to the story or move it forward in any way. (Might have ended up around 350 pages and been better.) My final complaint is the device Cronin used to create tension. I understand that only partially telling the story, using flashbacks, or convoluting descriptions in an effort to make things interesting is often effective and partially worked here, but it was over used to the point of frustration. The book held my interest just long enough to make me keep reading, but made me long for an hour-long episode of The Walking Dead instead.

And the ending was so abrupt!! (like this review) Only one character survived to carry on in the inevitable sequel.
1502711
The characters are well defined, plotlines thoroughly carried through.  Names and alien vocabulary was a bit annoying. (Typically this does not bother me, so it could be due to my reading environment at the time.) Book length was nice, giving room to develop the many twists involved.  I doubt that it will have great longevity strictly due to the nature of the genre.
1111825
Well crafted writing.  A bit lengthy, but generally keeps you involved and interested.
3244109
4.5 stars from me. The length of this novel was longer than it needed to be but the detail in that length at least did not disappoint. I still don't know how to describe what i felt for this book, but that's good because I've not felt it with any other novel. I do know that i was glued to it till the very end; it's hard to walk away from. If you have the time and patience for a lengthy but fascinating novel, do pick this one up.
4439647
Heavy and dark, but not boring is how I would best describe 'Unconquerable Dark' by Black Tongue. Although at times the must is plodding, there is enough happening here to keep one from nodding off to churning monotony.
286085
Be patient.  It takes a while to get into this book, and a bit longer to understand what is going on. But, it is well worth the effort.  A masterful novel.
1874817
The content is really needed.  The book is really heavy on the details and facts which is good so that it doesn't come across as fluff, but makes it harder to read.  I think it was just too long.
175048
I am reviewing this for a book club and will recommend it. Perhaps it was a bit longer than it needed to be to tell the story.
3643392
There's a lot I liked about this book, and a lot I found tedious.  There's plenty of action and twists & turns that kept my interest.  Some of the plot is plausible (such as intense rivalry between company presidents) but many plot details are not (there are so many "incidents" it's a wonder the characters could function at all!).  The book is long, and although there were exciting parts, the book could have wrapped up sooner.  On the Kindle forum, there was some "controversy" about a particular sex scene and whether the book should have been tagged pornography.  I didn't find this scene to be either erotic or repulsive; in fact, one of the characters called it "laughable" and I found that to be an accurate description.  There were also some editing errors and I can usually overlook them.  I do, however, get irritated when a wrong character's name is used, and I did find that one time in this book.

But, for all its shortcomings, I still give this book a four star rating because the pace was exciting, it kept my interest, and I simply enjoyed it.
1353175
When you write a 3000 year history of an enormous geographical area on a consequential topic in one volume, you're going to run into some problems.  For instance, if you've got an interesting topic, some other book will cover it better.  That's certainly true of early Christianity, the Reformation, etc.  You just don't have the space.  However, this book does cover Eastern Christianity and what might have been very well.  That's an unmined topic, and I think, what was closest to the author's heart.  But for a massive outbreak plague in the Middle East, that is never discussed in European history, the center of Christianity would be Damascus rather than Rome.  That's worthwhile.

The real strength of the broad approach, however, the ability to create and support a world changing thesis, remains untapped here.  Apart from the aforementioned Damascus thesis (worthy of 2-400 page book), there isn't much to thread the rest of the book together.  Surely, after 1000 pages, there's a concluding recap chapter.  Nope.  There's an apologetic paragraph at the end suggesting why there isn't one.  If that paragraph had been page 1, I'm not sure I would have started this.

That would be a shame as well, because there's another strength to this approach, and it's the ability to display recurring themes over time.  The number of times the coming of the apocalypse has had significant influence on the Christian world (or at least large sections of it) convinces me that there's a thesis there to be drawn.  The struggle with the concept of the Trinity, and it's tendency to drag the theological debate into fundamentally irrelevant minutiae (empire shattering debates, very often) played out over tens of centuries certainly casts a new view on the religion.  To use a broad brush, most religions focus more on worldly and moral implications, and this is a Christian failing that isn't inherent in the religion, as it's source was a teacher with primarily moral concerns.

The author has an eye for an anecdote and seeks the personalities of major and minor figures in the history. Though long, it's not a tough read, but it doesn't have the thread that will pull you through.  Especially in sections where I had little previous interest, I found myself just pushing to get through.  Those sections are not too many fortunately.  The writing is frequently brilliant, and most sections are well structured (which is very difficult in a task this big - Boorstin, Davies, Barzun, and other masters fall apart just as often in their sweeping surveys).  I'm a little disappointed given the great subtitle, but there is no sweeping thesis regarding Greek influence, and that theme fizzles after the first 30 pages with little new light being shed on the topic.

All that being said, I'm still interested in DM's book on the Reformation.  This writing and synthesis is at a higher level than Karen Armstrong, and it comes with less of an ax to grind.  The number of sources ingested to produce this work is humbling, and while you get that feeling with Armstrong as well, the approach here seems to have a more scholarly foundation.  The stated task of the book is to provide a survey of the current state of scholarship on the history of Christianity.  This is certainly that, and to ask more, well, maybe I'm being greedy.
315018
If you are interested in this subject, this book is worth the effort it will take to wade through it.
213416
There were a few times when the narrative seemed too long or not necessary, but as I got into the story, I saw the importance of it. I read the book in 2 days because it was hard to put down. I thought the ending would be obvious, but it wasn't, and that was good.