9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great alternative history of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, September 15, 2009
This review is from: Twelve (Hardcover)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Mr. Kent really seems to capture the spirit of the time and place for me and turned what could have been a very pedestrian horror novel into something very enthralling. I like how he contrasted the horrors of war against the supernatural horrors of the Twelve. It was interesting to read how our war-weary protagonists, after having seen so much horror and depravity during war, were actually moved to take direct action against something that they saw as being even more profoundly appalling. Also, I really felt like Mr. Kent's characters are genuinely Russian people living in Napoleonic times, and not modern-day, Western heroes who happen to be appearing this particular setting. Anyway, it's a fine novel, where the horror is as much psychological as it is bloody.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good Concept, Crappy Main Character, December 7, 2010
The concept itself is interesting, though the writing is boring and pretty honest-to-God terrible. I suppose it's readable at least. The end revelation is bone-chilling, but it's swept-over carelessly. The plot drags at times, and the book is longer than necessary. There is horror abound, and good horror, though it is stifled at times by the irritating always-correct protagonist.
The secondary characters are interesting, but discarded in favor of the main character, who is essentially always right and has more inner monologues than I image Disney villains possessing. By the end I was extremely irritated by the author's dismissal of the immoral and 'cowardly' acts of good secondary characters. I LIKED them. Don't throw them away like that, Kent.
In general, the story was interesting and compelling, besides being slow at times. I genuinely wanted to know what was going to happen. That said, the main character about drove me crazy and I was rooting for the villain in the end simply because he was more interesting, but hey, what are you going to do? At least I finished it.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Voordalak!, February 24, 2010
Shelve this book next to Naomi Novik's "Temeraire" books -- a Napoleonic-era military adventure story with a fantasy twist.
In this case, it's the tale of a Russian squad in the middle of the Napoleonic wars, and their dealings with a band of suitably monstrous vampires. Jasper Kent's "Twelve" is a pleasant antidote to all the romantic-vampire garbage of the moment -- it's bloody, slow-moving but stately, and full of wonderfully creepy moments.
The year is 1812, and Russia is facing a French invasion. So to combat the French, an officer named Dmitry Fetyukovich enlists a special group to help them -- twelve Wallachians nicknamed the Oprichniki. But one of his comrades, Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, isn't so sure that the Oprichniki are such a good thing. They're strange, savage, they leave no corpses behind, and they only venture out to kill at night. Yeah, you get one guess what they are.
But after the French overrun Moscow, Aleksei sees one of the Oprichniki feasting on a French soldier -- and realizes that they are voordalaki (vampires). Aleksei manages to kill a number of them through fire and splintered wood, and ends up staying in a city of refugees and wounded, along with his prostitute mistress Domnikiia. But he soon finds that the Oprichniki were not the only vampires, and that their survivors are spreading their foul influence.
Currently the vampire trend is to make them sexy, whiny and as menacing as a blob of cold oatmeal, so it's kind of refreshing that Jasper Kent stuck to the original bloodsucker mold. "Twelve" reads like a balanced mixture of "Dracula" and "War and Peace" -- a wintry, bleak story filled with battlefields, war-ravaged cities, spies and the occasional love affair. And, of course, VAMPIRES.
Kent's prose is slow and stately ("They have no life and they have no love. They have hunger"), with lots of Russian history mixed into the plot. But he also knows how to inject some moments of pure horror (the houses piled full of corpses!) and splatters the book with plenty of blood, vampiric attacks and quietly ghastly moments (when a spy is killed by the Oprichniki). The only problem: the narrative gets kinda slow at times.
But, his vampires are BRILLIANT. No emo prettyboys here -- these are unholy monsters with foul breath. Though Kent gives them moments of humanity, they're undeniably bad guys. And there's a cameo by a legendary bloodsucker at the beginning... nice.
The characters are a little on the hit-and-miss side, though. Aleksei is a pretty contradictory character, spending many pages reflecting on loyalty and duty while cheating on his wife with a pretty prostitute -- although he improves as he realizes the evil that he's fighting against. Far more fascinating are Maks and Dmitry, whose beliefs and morals serve as the pivot for a lot of the plot.
Despite some rough patches, Jasper Kent's "Twelve" is a haunting, bloodsoaked story, and a nice antidote to all the Twilighty stuff out there.
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