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
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.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.

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.

The story begins with Alicia Donadio birthing 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. Lucias 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.