I missed this when it came out in 2010 and I'm sure I know why. I generally don't download 785 page books peopled by night creature "virals" who thirst for blood. Something I perused about the sequel 'The Twelve' caught my eye, so I downloaded both and now probably have to finish the trilogy. Justin Cronin is on Rice University's faculty and is the author of two previous novels categorized as literary.
This complex story starts with an Army science project to create warriors invulnerable to pain, weariness, hunger with super-human fighting skills, by injecting them with a mysterious jungle vaccine. The early iterations of the vaccine do more harm than good. The first twelve subjects are nasty men removed from death row. They are caged in an underground facility near Telluride, Colorado. The perfected vaccine is then successfully used on a six year old girl, upon whom is bestowed great wisdom and extraordinary physical gifts. The world goes to hell in a hand basket when the virals break out and kill most Americans, destroying the country and creating a dystopian waste land.
A hundred years later, Amy, who has physically aged only about fifteen years, walks into a small colony of humans in a fortress in Southern California. She and a handful of the younger humans travel to Colorado to try and learn something about what has happened and perhaps, how to battle the virals. They meet up with members of the Texas Army and a portion of the group go to Texas, where a thriving human colony has survived. Also, they manage to kill one of the original twelve virals, and without him, his millions of blood successors cannot live. Amy and the rest of the group return to the colony in Southern California, only to find it destroyed. The power had run out and the virals broke in. They vow to fight on.
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