The City of Mirrors (novel)

The City of Mirrors

Cover of the 2016 first edition hardback
Author	Justin Cronin
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, horror, science fiction, vampire fiction, fantasy, dystopian fiction
Publisher	Ballantine Books
Publication date	May 24, 2016
Media type	Hardcover
ISBN	978-0345505002
Preceded by	The Twelve

The City of Mirrors is a 2016 horror novel by Justin Cronin and is the final novel in The Passage trilogy, following the novel The Twelve. The City of Mirrors was released for publication on May 24, 2016 by Ballantine Books.^[1] The City of Mirrors has been optioned by director Ridley Scott along with the other two books in the trilogy for a planned series of film adaptations.^[2]

Plot

The City of Mirrors picks up where The Twelve left off, following the destruction of the Twelve and their viral followers, and explores the background of Subject Zero, the first human to be changed in the early 21st century. In doing so, it delves into lengthy flashbacks, and also jumps 900 years into the future to reveal humanity's fate.^[3]

The story begins with Alicia Donadio giving birth and then burying her stillborn child. Alicia was raped during the events of The Twelve and became pregnant. After soul searching for a period of about 2 years and mourning, she forces herself out of her stupor and fashions a sword to hunt down Zero.

Meanwhile, Michael Fisher leads a lonely life as he sails around the continent looking for the storied mines that were placed to keep the contamination at bay. In his travels, he comes across an ocean liner from Norway beached in the Gulf of Mexico and learns of the virus's spread to Europe and the rest of the world, and of a supposed safe zone in the middle of the ocean. The existence of the ship proves the mines did not exist, and after learning from Lucius Greer that the virals will return, Michael hatches a plan to fix the ship and sail to a safe zone to save some portion of humanity. Lucius has been keeping Amy and Carter alive in the cargo hold of their own ship by bringing them blood to feed periodically. Amy and Carter have lived on in their own constructed world of their dreams while the years pass, only waking to feed. Amy has no control over herself as a viral while Carter seems to be able to control his impulses.

Peter Jaxon has resigned his commission from the military and enjoys a quiet life of manual labour raising his nephew Caleb as his own son in Kerrvile, the capital of the Republic of Texas. In his dreams, he lives a very realistic life with Amy in a farm house, but every time he wakes, he is back in Texas. He realises he is in love with Amy, even though she is a viral and he has not seen her in years. He is propositioned by the newly elected president of the Republic of Texas to take a position in her staff since he is seen as a hero among the populace. After initially refusing, he eventually relents and takes a public position once more to oversee the initiative to open the gates since the virals have not been seen for many years.

Alicia eventually finds Zero in human form in New York city, but is unable to kill him since one of his virals is the one that bit her. He then befriends her and reveals his heart breaking back story of lost love.

Zero was originally Tim Fanning, who had a crush on a Jonas Lear's girlfriend Liz during college. Through the course of college, his love is reciprocated, but never acted upon, and neither did they reveal their mutual love for one another to anyone else. It was only later in life when Jonas' seemingly crazy science pulled him away from home in search of a cure for Liz's cancer that they were able to be together. Their tryst was brief, and Tim wanted her to leave with him to enjoy her final days in his company and care. When she stood him up for the international flight, Tim became despondent and later took his rage out on a woman who was once a student of his and ended up killing her in a rage fuelled accident. After covering up the crime, Tim tried to return to life as normal, but when he later found out that Liz died on her way to see him, Tim became more depressed. As the police started to investigate the murder and were closing in on him, Tim implored Jonas to find a place for him in his mission, which he did. The rest of his story is chronicled in the beginning of The Passage where Tim becomes the only one to survive infection, and thus becomes the first viral; Subject Zero. He reveals how after almost drowning he was able to revert to human form, but retain everything else bestowed on him by the virus.

Meanwhile, Michael has been working with Tifty's old crime ring to get the funds to rebuild the ship. It has been more than 10 years, and he is close to getting it completed. Peter has now become president and looking once again to return to a simple life by preparing a successor. However, the colonies have spread so far that central control seems irrelevant and his may be the last presidency of any power. When Michael tells him of his plan, he is unable to convince Peter to secretly send 600 of his people to use it as the salvation of humanity. Peter would rather die fighting.

Alicia meanwhile has lived with Zero for the last few years and learns of his plan to kill the remaining humans in his quest to destroy Amy; the one created by Jonas to be the solution to everything. Alicia leaves to go warn her friends, even though she cannot take up arms against Zero. Zero, meanwhile, has pushed some of his Many (infected virals) towards Texas in a plan to pull Amy out of hiding.

All things come to a head as virals begin to show up, killing/converting the outer colonies and converging on Kerrville. Amy is restored to human form by Peter with the help of Alicia's knowledge of water. They take defensive positions in Kerrville and Carter, still in his ship in Houston, transfers his Many over to Amy to assist in the battle. Zero's army, however, proves too strong and is able to dig under the city to attack from within. After the battle, only about 700 people remain with Peter and company able to hold up inside a burning building until the morning sun drove the virals off.

Peter finally agrees to use Michaels' ship, and now that there are so few people, he can save everyone. They make their way to the ship and arrive just as dusk and the virals attack. Carter finally leaves his hiding place, enters the battle and helps hold off the virals while the human survivors escape, sacrificing his life to help Amy and the rest achieve the safety of the ship.

Knowing that she cannot be with the humans, Alicia and Amy who carry the virus decide they must return to the mainland. Peter and Michael go with them in an attempt to kill Zero and end the plague once and for all. In a final battle, Michael bursts massive doors in the subway that block ocean water from the tunnels. As the subway is filled with water and subsequently much of the city is destroyed, Alicia is swept away, presumed dead since infected cannot swim. Peter is bitten by Zero and becomes a viral, but his love for Amy prevents him from killing her at Zero's command, and instead he is able to attack Zero. Zero is eventually hurt by rays of the sun reflected from the steel roof of the Chrysler Building and killed by Amy shortly after. Amy saves Peter with her own blood before he is destroyed along with the rest of Zero's Many. It is revealed that Alicia survived and the water removed all traces of the virus from her, but she decides that she has seen and done enough and that she needs to free herself. She jumps from the top of a building to her death while Michael believes her to have already been dead. Michael seems to sail back to the ship, but instead sets sail for England, never satisfied with leaving a mystery unsolved. Amy coaxes Peter back to some semblance of humanity over the next several years. Peter eventually dies of old age after a couple hundred years, leaving Amy all alone on the continent.

The people on the boat eventually arrive at the island and make a living for themselves. They become the cradle for humanity, and 1000 years in the future, they revere the heroes of the past such as Peter and Amy. Humans return to North America after waiting for a 1000 year quarantine to end, and it is there that a descendant of Peter Jaxon's nephew Caleb finds an ancient Amy who begins to tell him her story.

References

Characters

External links

• Official book site