The Twelve

The Twelve is a fabulously written tale suspenseful, lots of action, touching scenes, and most of all, a wonderful style of writing with many passages that are difficult to forget because of their almost poetic style. Although this series is about vampires (which is not something I would typically read about), this book is a twist on the creation of this standard vampire plot. What I found most interesting in this read is how the characters come across with their feelings and their desires. Its a difficult story to put down.

Like the authors first book in this series, The Passage, I loved this book. But unlike The Passage, which I rated five stars, Im giving this a four star. I felt it just misses for a few reasons. Several times at the start of a new section of the book, I had trouble understanding where it was taking place and what was the timeframe. He moves back and forth from present to the past, which is fine, but it was disorienting to try and figure out where in the timeline I was reading. I had a little trouble understanding some of the characters and whether they had been in earlier scenes. A few times after reading several hundred pages, the plot would then reference a character who may have been in earlier scenes, but I was often unsure. I felt this created some confusion.

The few critical issues wont prevent me from reading the final book in the series. Im happily hooked on this series.

What a disappointment. I spent most of my Christmas vacation reading the first book (which though not perfect, I loved) and eagerly dove into this one with high expectations. The first half was fantastic. It flashes back to the outbreak and follows a different set of characters, some who were tertiary in book 1, as they navigate the chaos. Cronin does a great job getting you invested in all of them. The action and narrative pacing is all top notch. By the midway point I suspected this could exceed the first book.

The second half returns to the future where our heroes from last time are on offense. The action is taught and well described. New characters are introduced and several exciting subplots are developed. And somewhere along the way Cronin just loses it. From cartoonishly unbelievable villains, to chance encounters including nearly all new characters discovered to have some relationship to someone else, to a half-dozen truly thrilling plot threads that all magically climax on the same night. within 37 seconds of each other to be precise. Its all way too convenient.

In the Q&A at the end of book 1 Cronin explained hes writing the story so it can read either as an affirmation of the supernatural or as extraordinary events having another explanation. An inspired approach that mirrors real life and was appealing to me. Unfortunately, he leaves little room for anything but supernatural explanations in this one. Way, way too much conveniently timed coincidence. Vampirology that defies all known science. Weve left the realm of semi-plausible belief suspension and are now into pure fantasy. The only way this works for reality is if it all ends with Amy waking up from a dream.

Oh, and Babcock, First of Twelve, nigh indestructible master of darkness that required a tactical nuke to have any confidence of killing? Surely the combined force of the remaining Twelve would require similar effort? Prepare to be disappointed.

Ill read book 3 because Im invested in the characters and enjoy Cronins style and I still have hope he can salvage the story. Im just not sure where he goes with it now. This one feels half-baked. Like there was a rush to publish.

I’ve read the whole trilogy and am writing this a couple of months after so excuse me if I mess up a little or don’t remember 100% of what was in there.

So there are basically two ways of looking at this book – comparing it to the others in the series and the others in the genre. Compared to the genre it is way ahead, but to the rest of the series it is probably the least, however not by much.

If you’ve read The Passage you already know that this author knows how to write, and you can see how much he loves his character as he spends a lot of time on them and makes them very unique. Some people might not like that so much time is spent on characters that for instance simply end up long ago relatives to a main character, but I do enjoy the writing style and brevity immensely so that does not bother me at all. And in the end he really needs to tell of Gray, Guilder and Lila so it was nice to have the Last stand in Denver in there to have some change of scenery between chapters. But once again they are so well written that you can’t help but enjoy them. Altough some of the characters being so much fun can bum you out when their story concludes about a third of the book in.

The rest of the book ties really well with the first third and is beautifully written as well. And again reading about the characters before makes one feel omniscient later. What I mean by that is that when the future characters like Alicia, Sarah, and Peter do meet some of the characters (I am not telling which) you know exactly who they are meeting and exactly where they are coming from which is awesome. Plus everyone that actually made it into the future had a pretty logical and sensible path and there are no leaps of logic or anything like that.

Now on to the not so good – there are some big coincidences… now in a land without cellphones and mass transit etc. two character meeting a thousand miles away coming from different directions and different means is kind a crazy… but you got not two, rather like 10. Also some of the things that some characters and groups have done really don’t make sense if you spend more than a minute thinking about it, but I can’t say more since it will be a spoiler.

The antagonists and the climax of the novel are pretty great, however be warned that the book turns into pretty dark places unlike the previous one. I’ve read interviews that the writer’s daughter helped out with plot ideas and whatnot when she was pretty young (inspiration for Amy) but here I guess she grew up because s**** gets serious with some rape, murder, slavery, savage beatings, and general oppression going on in the second half of the book. I love this kind of stuff, but be warned it gets pretty dark.

Overall if you love survival post apocalyptic stories this where you want to be, and although there were some things that irked me i enjoyed it immensely. And knowing what comes next having read the third one it is worth even more as there are things coming that you simply do not want to miss by skipping on the series.

I tried so hard with this book. I wanted to love it as much as I loved the first book. But it was so disjointed that it took me three attempts to get into it at all. So many different plot strands that never really made any logical sense. I was hoping for the loose ends in The Passage to be tied up – instead they became more unravelled. The unanswered questions remained unanswered for me and there are now more of them.

I’m sure I missed bits – maybe I need to read it again, but I can’t face it. There were events that didn’t make any sense and I’m not sure if they were real or imaginary. Amy grew up but never really came into her own the way I expected (and wanted) her to. The other characters fared slightly better, but their coming together seemed contrived and ultimately pointless. I loved The Passage and I wish I’d stopped there.

Disclaimer: If you want a well-written, critical review, stop now. Im about to gush words all over the page.

Im not sure where to start with this book its epic. Ill get that out of the way before I start nit-picking.

My issues, and they are minor, are similar to Book One(The Passage).

It jumps around a lot. I should have known better than to expect a simple continuation of where the story left off. Story arcs and characters were left hanging as they were between the two sections that make up The Passage. If you want your fiction served up in a straight line, this series is not for you.

There are a lot of characters. It was easier to keep track having read Book One, but even so, there were times when I struggled.

It dips a little in the middle as characters are being moved into place for the final push.
Would the chapters dealing with escalating viral problem be better in Book One? After all, The Passage skips the immediate issues of the virals/ dracs/ Twelve* and leaps almost 100 years into the future. Im split on this. I think I would have preferred that overall, but it is also nice seeing the origins of First Colony already knowing what happens to them. Alicias ancestory, in particular, is nicely tagged on. (Almost like the literary equivalent of a post-credit scenes you get in certain types of overly-muscled superhero movies.)

Michael seemed like a new character rather than a development of Book One Michael. I know people change, but this guy was so different to Circuit that it threw me.

Thats it.

Not many nits to pick, are there?

Now the good stuff.

The section that deals with the immediate problems of the virus hitting is superb. #istandwithlaststandindenver

The section that deals with the concentration camp is harrowing. Not so much for the red-eyes but the normal people who willingly go along with their evil.

The ratcheting up of the tension towards the end is compelling.

The prose is sublime: minimal descriptions that paint so much better a picture than books stuffed full of adverbs and adverbs; alternating sentence structures that have their own internal rhythm; and a use of language that is, simply, beautiful.

There is an attention to detail that doesnt swamp the plot. (i.e. it doesn’t read like a Wikipedia page)

Some of the most effective horror is hinted at: a growing, luminescent green light; a clicking noise; tree-tops rustling (‘They come from above.’); and, worst of all, the inevitable terror heralded by waning daylight.

Characters that are so flawed and so real because of it. Theres not even a mention of a kick-arse heroine who can speak multiple languages, holds multiple black belts in multiple mystic martial arts (Including the Approach of Aggressive Alliteration) but suffers from a deep dark secret that only one person knows. As for hard-bitten detectives with marital/ drinking/ authority* issues but are good at their job? Forget it.

And how the author manages to bring all the disparate characters and arcs to the climax as he does, I have no idea.
In short this book is phenomenal, a classic example of just one more chapter before I switch the lights out. It has played hell with my insomnia. Not only because I wanted to know what happened next, but because the shadows in my bedroom grew claws and teeth.

But despite that pace and prose, the masterful weaving of story lines and complicated/ real characters, despite all that brilliance, there was one line that grabbed me and wouldnt let go for days: a moment of tenderness in a world beyond hope.

Ive got you, he said, hugging Tim fiercely; and again, over and over, so that the boy would be hearing these words. Ive got you, Ive got you, Ive got you, Ive got you.”

(Last Stand in Denver)

Read The Twelve, youll see what I mean.

It is awesome.

*delete as appropriate

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