Customer Reviews

Twelve

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book was a total impulse buy for me. I was browsing the fantasy/scifi section of Barnes & Nobel, and I caught a glimpse of the cover and title. For some reason it just jumped out at me and said "Hey! Look at this!"
I am a fan of fictional history, because it helps trick me into learning about actual historical events by wrapping them in interesting stories. I'm not going to go into the details of the story or setting, that can all be found elsewhere. I will say, however, that both the concept and execution of this tale were fantastic. The narrative tends to drag at some points, and the author can get a bit carried away with descriptions of Russian custom and language, but it does help to build a great picture of what it was like in that time and place.
It starts off a bit slow, considering you already know the big revelation and you're just waiting for the main character to stumble upon it. I hate to say it, but some of the torture scenes had me glued to the page. They are disgusting, violent, twisted, and completely fascinating. The author does a great job at drawing parallels between human nature and 'inhumane' nature.
I enjoyed the conclusion, knowing that it would have the same effect on me as Aleksi. I do have one lingering question though. What the heck was Iuda???

I read the back cover of this book at a Borders store and was very intrigued, but didn't but it because of the price. I later purchased it here for a few bucks cheaper once I finished the book I was reading.
This book was not what I was originally expecting, but still very cool. It was a very skilled weaving of the historical and fantasy, spanning into a genre I had not really seen before - some kind of historical fiction-fantasy. A tale of a group of special agents in Russia during Napoleon's invasion who work with vampires to defeat their enemy.
The first story in a series, I believe, though it works well as a stand alone novel too. An educational and entertaining read for anyone interested in fantasy and history.

Something really different. It meanders a bit, as you would expect for a story about Russia and vampires. Still, highly recommended.

***some spoilers may follow***

I'm pretty sure this was the first historical fiction book that I've read. I remembered bits and pieces of the Napoleonic Era and how the winter defeated the French Emperor as he became more and more bold by invading Russia. I think that aspect was well portrayed in this novel.

The Russian setting felt "real" to me. I'll be honest, I struggled with the last names and town names (and sometime the use of nicknames for some of the people within the story) but I attribute that mostly to the fact that I've rarely been exposed to a "Russian-esque" novel.

Since my own book was published, this is the first book that I've reviewed. I've read a few others and in all cases, I've found myself not only reading the story but also trying to understand how/why the author did something at a certain point. Sentence structure, the way they start or end a chapter and how the author's peel back the layer of characterization.

I would recommend this book to others.

The good:

The setting felt alive. With the way Jasper Kent described the winter, I could imagine the miserable days and nights of the Russian Winter. The description towards the middle to end of the book where the French are retreating and there are scenes of dead horses that the infantry had eaten to keep from starving and then bodies of soldiers (where the author makes you wonder if they men at their dead friends) was so well done.

I liked most of the inner monologue of Dmitry. I think this was well done 1st person perspective.

The weaving of the Russian folklore into this tale was well done. The first part about the townsfolk with the rat problem was kind of creepy. To get rid of the rats, the town brought in experts with monkeys that were released to kill the rats. For 2 weeks the monkeys did their work. The problem was that the monkeys also killed all the birds too...

Let's not forget the vampires. They were not the "pretty" vampires that seem to be so popular today. These were dirty, nasty soulless creatures. I loved how they moved about at night and how brutal they actually were.

The not so good (I wouldn't call it "bad"):

I really disliked how Dmitry killed all of the vampires with minimal effort. I know it might have been overkill to dispose of each of the 12 with fight scenes of excruciating detail - but it's almost as if Dmitry waved his hands and the beast fell down dead. I just wish there were more substance to a least some of the fight scenes.

Also, the ending bothered me but I'll leave that up to y'all to read about.

I'd struggled with the rating. I would have given it 4 stars if it wasn't for the lack of fight scenes and the end reveal. I wish I could give it 3.5 but I've settled on 3 stars.

I will probably read the sequel when I get the chance. I really did like this book and the author's writing style.

The year is 1812 and Napoleon Bonaparte has marched eastward and entered the boundaries of Russia. The Tsar's army, no match for the French, continues to pull back leaving scorched earth in their wake. Despite the setbacks none believe Bonaparte will ever capture Moscow but his troops move forward relentlessly and eventually take the city.

A small group of Russian intelligence officers band together with the goal of working behind French lines causing enough havoc to at least slow down the enemy. One of them, Dmitri, has called in reinforcements - 12 steely-eyed mercenaries from Wallachia. He is certain they will help turn around the fortunes of Russia. Dmitri assures his friends that these cold, menacing dozen can be trusted. The narrator Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, has deep reservations. He and his comrades dub the menacing 12 the Oprichniki - a name given to the special army of16th century Tsar Ivan the Terrible - created specifically to destroy anyone Ivan considered a threat.

Alexei's reservations prove correct. The creatures turn out to be the dreaded voordalak, - thought to be mythical - they are instead merciless members of the real world. They are vampires, and not the romantic sort. They suck the blood and eat the meat of their prey. Their constant hunger and lack of conscience make them efficient killing machines.

This gripping saga is as much historical drama as horror story. Kent convincingly portrays the difficult life of the soldiers and the terror faced by civilians in occupied territory. Starvation for each was a constant companion. In Twelve there are mysterious deaths and disappearances which are shrugged off as some sort of plague. No one except Alexei, and eventually his comrades, suspect the true horror behind the loss of life. I would not categorize Twelve as a thriller because the pace is slower than novels like Blood Oath or The Passage. Still it will keep readers captured by terrific story-telling, well wrought characters, and gripping, supernatural horror.

Note: This novel is not for the squeamish. There are several scenes of torture and murder that leave little to the imagination.

Captain Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov is part of an elite group Russian spies, working to stem the tide of Napoleon's army as it pillages its way across the Russian landscape en route to Moscow. He soon finds himself fighting alongside a group of twelve highly-skilled Wallachians who call themselves the "Oprichniki," savage fighters who prefer close combat and only work at night -- and who claim they can halt the invasion of the French troops. Although Danilov questions how only twelve men can turn the tide of the war, he soon discovers just how efficient these mercenaries are, but begins to have doubts about the motives of this secretive group. But after discovering the horrible truth about the Oprichniki, Danilov decides that his new allies are actually a threat to all of mankind, and it's left up to him to rid the world of these legendary creatures of nightmares.

With the invasion of Napoleon's army into Russia as a backdrop, Jasper Kent weaves an interesting tale about a conflicted soldier who would do anything to protect his homeland from the French army. But the man soon realizes that his new allies, with their inflated expectations, are too good to be true. The tale infuses folklore about these "voordalak" mercenaries, a group of traditional vampires who are born to kill -- and who definitely do not sparkle in the sunlight. (Nor do they see humans as anything beyond being a food source.)

The story itself is a little slow moving up until Danilov discovers the truth about the Oprichniki, but then moves at a quicker pace as he hunts them down one by one. The main issue I have with this book is just how easily Danilov manages to kill these savage bloodsuckers; many times it seems like there's a little too much divine intervention going on. The man himself spends quite a bit of time reflecting on the events around him; it's hard to imagine that a soldier caught up in such carnage and horror could be so much of a philosopher. Ultimately I found the secondary character of Maks to be much more interesting. It is nice to see vampires that are more traditional and less cuddly, however one particular scene with the Oprichniki is straight out of a "torture-porn" film, and seems very out of place in a novel that otherwise keeps most of their exploits hidden in the shadows. I'm all for a big reveal of the horrors they commit, but I believe this scene goes a little too far.

For those who enjoy historical fiction, "Twelve" will be a worthwhile read, especially for those who are tired of vampires being so cute and cuddly. The story continues in the sequel "Thirteen Years Later."

I don't know what made me buy this book. I don't think I have ever read a fantasy book set in a historical setting. And I'm not really down with the vampire fad going on now. But for some reason I did buy this book, and I am very glad I did. I actually felt like I learned a lot since I knew next to nothing about the time and place the events of this book take place in. The writing was great. Fantastic characterization, moral dilemmas and all that. The main character is a flawed man, and he knows it. The vampires defiantly do not sparkle, and they are very evil, very bad guys. Before I was halfway done with this book I ordered the next one.