Thirteen Years Later [Paperback]

Jasper Kent (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 1, 2011

Aleksandr made a silent promise to the Lord. God would deliver him--would deliver Russia--and he would make Russia into the country that the Almighty wanted it to be. He would be delivered from the destruction that wasteth at noonday, and from the pestilence that walketh in darkness--the terror by night...

1825, Europe--and Russia--have been at peace for ten years. Bonaparte is long dead and the threat of invasion is no more. For Colonel Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, life is peaceful. Not only have the French been defeated but so have the twelve monstrous creatures he once fought alongside, and then against, ten or more years ago. His duty is still to serve and to protect his tsar, Aleksandr the First, but now the enemy is human.

However the Tsar knows that he can never be at peace. Of course, he is aware of the uprising fermenting within the Russian army--among his supposedly loyal officers. No, what troubles him is something that threatens to bring damnation down upon him, his family and his country. The Tsar has been reminded of a promise: a promise born of blood...a promise that was broken a hundred years before.

Now the one who was betrayed by the Romanovs has returned to exact revenge for what has been denied him. And for Aleksei, knowing this chills his very soul. For it seems the vile pestilence that once threatened all he believed in and all he held dear has returned, thirteen years later...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Second in a projected quintet, this impressive historical-horror novel continues the action of Kent's Twelve (2010), in which Russian secret agent Aleksei Danilov defeated a band of vampires who were concealing their bloody rampage in the social chaos during Napoleon's 1812 invasion. Now a colonel in the Russian army, Aleksei has infiltrated a club of would-be revolutionaries who threaten the life of czar Aleksandr. Though sometimes verbose and melodramatic, this tale is strong enough to earn its length and passion. In particular, the focus deftly shifts between viewpoints to increase tension: as Aleksei's crafty human nemesis manipulates events, Aleksandr idly wonders who owns the yacht anchored near his vacation palace, and the master vampire rests aboard in his coffin and dreams of possessing all of Russia. Notably widening the first novel's scope, this book is hugely ambitious and largely successful. (Feb.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Pyr has released the American edition of the second novel in Kent�s Danilov quintet. Thirteen Years Later is laid against the events leading up to the Dekabrist revolution in December 1825. For 13 years Russia has been at nominal peace. But a number of young officers who visited France during its Bonapartist years now dream of freeing Russia by forcing a constitution on the Autocrat. Czar Alexander, a reformer in his youth, now clings more tightly to his power and his vision of Holy Russia. But his greater fear is that a promise made and broken by Peter the Great himself will destroy him, his dynasty, and his country. Colonel Alexei Danilov, an irregular officer in Twelve (2009), is now an internal security officer�a spy�for the czar. As such, he is a member of one of the reformist societies. But as his son, Dimitry, is about to start his military service, Alexei discovers that Dimitry is involved�for real�with the reformers. Worse, he discovers that the broken promise of Peter the Great was made to the Oprichniki, the vampires Danilov ended up fighting 13 years earlier. Kent has magically blended history, folklore, and storytelling to produce a superb account of the Dekabrist revolt. Thirteen Years Later should please fans of all three. The third in the series (The Third Section) is set during the Crimean War, and expected to exercise the same fascination. --Frieda Murray

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 511 pages
• Publisher: Pyr (February 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9781616142537
• ISBN-13: 978-1616142537
• ASIN: 1616142537
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #823,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Worcestershire in 1968, Jasper Kent read Natural Sciences at Cambridge before embarking on a career as a software consultant. He also pursues alternative vocations as a composer and musician and now novelist.

The inspiration for Jasper's bestselling début, Twelve (and indeed the subsequent novels in The Danilov Quintet) came out of a love of nineteenth-century Russian literature and darkly fantastical, groundbreaking novels such as Frankenstein and Dracula. His researches have taken him across Europe and to Saint Petersburg, Moscow and the Crimea, including three days on a train from Cologne to the Russian capital, following in the footsteps of Napoleon himself.

Jasper lives in Brighton, where he shares a flat with his girlfriend and several affectionate examples of the species rattus norvegicus.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Something of a mish-mash (but fun, all the same!) April 10, 2010

By Steve Benner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

Jasper Kent's début novel "Twelve" was a well-paced action horror novel, set during the Napoleonic War in Russia in 1812. Its sequel, "Thirteen Years Later", is set, not surprisingly, in 1825, in the months leading up to the sudden and mysterious death of Tsar Alexander I and the subsequent so-called Decembrist Uprising. The protagonist (and narrator) of the first book, Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, is a now a Colonel in the Imperial Life Guards; his son, Dmitry, is about to follow his father into a military career, while Aleksei himself continues to juggle his time between serving his country, a home life with this wife and son in Saint Petersburg, and a mistress (and illegitimate daughter) in Moscow. The horrors he had to deal with thirteen years earlier are very much a matter of the past. Or at least so they seem, until the day he receives an enigmatic message that could only have come from someone he knows to be dead; someone whose corpse he himself buried all those years ago.

Kent draws the early part of this story out with the same tantalising (or irritating, depending on how you view these things) slowness with which events unfolded in the earlier volume, although here he abandons the first person narrative in favour of a third person approach, allowing him to present the story from multiple angles, building the suspense and intrigue throughout the first half of the book. I couldn't help but feel, however, that the author loses his way a little in the second part of the book, vacillating between a desire to present historical fantasy and a need to present his readers with some action.... As a consequence, neither are handled particularly convincingly, while the third-person narrative keeps the reader at a distance from the protagonist, losing a dimension as a consequence and failing to provide any insight, for example, into why Aleksei takes some of the somewhat silly decisions which he later comes to rue. In the comparatively short third and final part, the book draws to its conclusion, giving every impression of rushing after the slow and measured pace of the earlier parts.

While this book is every bit as clichéd in its horror aspects as its fore-runner (and in many regards revels in this fact even more, at times taking itself far from seriously), those readers looking for a repeat of the first volume of this projected quintet of novels are likely to be disappointed, concentrating as it does much more on retelling (albeit with a fanciful slant) Russian historical events and dealing less with the fighting of monsters. It is also clearly setting up many opportunities for threads linking into the remaining three volumes and so, even though Aleksei's story is brought to completion here, the end of the book feels to be nothing more than a pause for breath in a longer, infinitely more complex, story arc. Personally, I rather liked the shift in emphasis, but I am sure it will disappoint many.

Despite its flaws, however, the book remains an immensely enjoyable read. I for one am intrigued to learn how subsequent generations of the Danilov clan will take up the Mother Land's fight against the designs of the sinister Zmyeevich in the volumes still to come; roll on "The Third Section"! Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthy sequel to TWELVE July 31, 2010

By Patrick St-Denis

Format:Kindle Edition

Since I felt that Jasper Kent's Twelve was the 2009 speculative debut of the year, I was quite excited to read the sequel, Thirteen Years Later. Regardless of their undeniable popularity, it's relatively easy to become jaded about the whole vampire fad. But the way Kent mixes up historical fiction and these bloodsuckers, well the results are something that keeps me coming back for more!

Here's the blurb:

In the summer of 1812, before the Oprichniki came to the help of Mother Russia in her fight against Napoleon, one of their number overheard a conversation between his master, Zmyeevich, and another. He learned of a feud, an unholy grievance between Zmyeevich and the rulers of Russia, the Romanovs, that began a century earlier at the time of Peter the Great. Indeed, while the Oprichniki's primary reason for journeying to Russia is to stop the French, one of them takes a different path. For he has a different agenda, he is to be the nightmare instrument of revenge on the Romanovs. But thanks to the valiant efforts of Captain Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, this maverick monster would not be able to begin to complete his task until thirteen years later. Now that time has come: it is 1825 and Russia once more stands on the brink of anarchy, and this time the threat comes from within...

It's been thirteen years since the French invasion, and Jasper Kent takes us back to a Russia at peace. But it is a peace that doesn't satisfy everyone in the country. Once again, the author's flair and his eye for historical details create an evocative narrative which takes us through the events that led to the Decembrist uprising in St. Petersburg.... As was the case with Twelve, Kent's depiction of 19th Century Russia feels genuine and his prose creates an imagery that makes you feel as though you were there.

Unlike Twelve, however, Thirteen Years Later is not limited solely by Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov's first person narrative. Although it worked well in the first volume, I doubt it would have been as successful in this sequel. Hence, in addition to Danilov's narrative, we see events unfold through the eyes of a number of other players, great and small, and I felt that their POVs added another dimension to this quality tale. Danilov remains a fascinating character, complex and flawed though he may be, and it was great to see how he had grown in the last decade or so, and how he remained true to himself. New point of view characters include Tsar Aleksandr, Danilov's son Dmitry, Domnikiia, and the child Tamara. All in all, Kent maintained a good balance between the various POVs, which made for an enjoyable reading experience.

The novel's only problem was the sluggish pace that plagues the first portion of the story. The entire storyline surrounding Aleksei Danilov's first few meetings with the mysterious Kyesha moves at a snail's pace which prevents the reader to fully get into the novel. Once Kyesha's identity and his reason for seeking out Aleksei are finally revealed, then the plotlines kick into high gear and the rhythm is no longer an issue. God knows there are enough revelations through the later portion of Thirteen Years Later to satisfy anyone. But I get the feeling that some people might find the beginning offputting and give up on the novel. No matter how slow the opening chapters are, keep going and you'll be rewarded with another engrossing read.

It's now obvious that Twelve offered us but a glimpse of the multilayered tale that the Danilov Quintet will turn out to be. In Thirteen Years Later, Jasper Kent lives up to the promise generated by his debut and demonstrates that he is for real. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A tale of Russian history... with vampires June 30, 2011

By Brad Middleton

Format:Paperback

Thirteen years ago, in 1812, Captain Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov fought alongside a group of twelve highly-skilled Wallachians who called themselves the 'Oprichniki,' savage mercenaries who helped halt the advancement of French troops into Russia. But Danilov soon discovered that the group were actually 'voordalak' (vampires) and, believing them to be a greater threat to Russia and mankind itself, he systematically hunted and destroyed each and everyone one of them. To his surprise, the leader of the group -- Iuda -- actually turned out to be human, although he was equally as vicious as his undead companions. Thirteen years later, in 1825, the war is over and Danilov continues working as a spy, trying to protect his beloved tsar Alexandr I from an uprising he's facing from within his own army, as well as a secretive group of influential Russians who want to see their leader dead. But it's not long before Danilov learns of a curse upon the royal family; a promise broken one hundred years earlier has lead to the return of an ancient voordalak, who intends on claiming Russia for his own by turning the tsar into one of the undead.

This novel, a sequel to "Twelve" and the second in a planned series of five, works within a much bigger canvas and therefore is much grander in scale. With many of the original characters killed off in the first book, Kent has come up with several new ones to beef up the story, some of whom take on the narrative as it switches voices between the major players. Although this is a different writing style from its predecessor, it works for the most part, and the only issue I had with it was with Danilov's daughter, who's voice seemed a little too old for her age.... Unfortunately with the change in cast and the extended period of time between the stories, much of the first half of this book is spent developing new characters, helping the reader play catch-up from events in "Twelve," and putting elements in motion to serve the latter half of the tale. This leads to a slow read in parts, and I found myself putting the novel down for several days in between reads -- it never really felt like a page-turner for me. Added to this is the fact that this novel has much less of a vampire element than the first; it's an historical tale of this period in Russian history, and the bloodsuckers -- although they are the driving force behind the premise of the story -- aren't as prominent within it.

Some of the storytelling issues I had with the first book are found in the sequel as well. The main character, Aleksei Danilov, spends much of his inner narrative over-thinking events and continually questioning actions of those around him. Considering he is a spy, perhaps this is just a character trait that the writer is showcasing, but I found it far too distracting, and for me, it impacted the pacing of the story. Most importantly, I found Danilov and his interaction with his main foe, Cain -- and often his lack of action against the man -- impacted the believability of the story. It should also be noted that at one point, the writer attempts to explain why vampires cannot be seen in mirrors. The answer is both convoluted and unintentionally laughable, so one wonders why this section of the book was even included.

There's no disputing that this is a well-researched book, and certainly gives the reader an extensive lesson in Russian history. For those who enjoy historical novels, "Thirteen Years Later" will certainly entertain, but for those who are looking for a vampire tale, this one doesn't have much bite. Read more ›