So Tuesday night I met none other than Justin Cronin, author of the highly anticipated post-apocalyptic vampire novel The Passage. Nice guy, although I felt sorry for him having to sign about a million store copies of his book. I grabbed the opportunity for a photo after he’d done a few boxes worth, which may explain his slightly serious expression!

Turnout should have been higher too, but I’d have to say maybe the timing of his UK tour was a bit odd. The Passage came out in the UK on the 24th June, and less than two weeks later here he was signing books at various Waterstones branches. Given the immense size of The Passage, not that many people will have been able to finish it yet. However, he’s in high demand, naturally, so if this was the only time for a UK signing tour, then so be it. I’m expecting bigger crowds when he pulls in next year for the second book. By then, I think, he’ll be a very big name indeed in the UK. At the moment, most of the buzz about The Passage seems to be US-based, and while SF fans on this side of the pond have been looking forward to the book for a while, his profile doesn’t seem that high here.

But he was was a seriously nice guy, and the small crowd that showed all looked extremely happy to be there. I played the ultimate book geek and brought my US hardcover, UK hardcover and UK ARC for him to sign, and he was pretty impressed at my collection. He also complained about how full of errors the ARC was!

It’s not often you get to meet a literary superstar, especially one at such a relatively early stage in their career. Thanks to Waterstones and Orion for the opportunity!

Update: Amazon.com has just issued their picks for the best books of 2010 so far, with The Passage top of the list!