REVIEW | The Twelve by Justin Cronin

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

Publication Year: 2012

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Horror
Series: The Passage #2

Awards: None
Format: Audio (from Library)

Narrator: Scott Brick

WHY?: I enjoyed the first book in the series, The Passage, and wanted to know what was happening with those crazy kids from California.

SYNOPSIS:  Is there really any way to summarize this book coherently? Ahem. It's set about 5 years post book one, mostly. The gang from the first book are all split up.  Alicia and Peter joined the military at the settlement in Texas, Amy is living at a convent,  Michael's working on an oil rig, etc... Besides Peter and Alicia no one seems to still be pursuing what they learned about the Twelve in The Passage.  However, events are conspiring to get the gang back together again and engaged, whether they like it or not. There are even some surprise visitors from book one!  A lot of the action goes down in my state of residence (Iowa), which was ....exciting? terrifying?  

NOTE: SPOILERS AHOY!! There will certainly be spoilers for The Passage below and undoubtedly some for The Twelve as well.   Proceed with caution if you are Spoiler Phobic!

THOUGHTS:

Justin Cronin has created such a crazy dystopian epic and in The Twelve he continued to surprise me with where he took the story.  This is most definitely a good thing and when he gets in a storytelling rhythm, it is impossible to put this book down.  By the end of this second installment I was hooked to move on to the finale, "The City of Mirrors". With all that said, The Twelve didn't entirely work for me and I was often pretty frustrated with it.  It had some of the same problems as The Passage but exacerbated, so I can't give it full marks.  

Part of the problem may be mine.  It took me a long while to get into this book and part of that was because I needed a study guide for The Passage.  He devotes a bunch of pages to expanding the backgrounds for minor characters from the first book which I didn't entirely remember and, with the gang from book one split up in this book, I lost some of my context clues for who is who and what happened with what.  I don't know how folks who were reading this series in real time managed but perhaps they don't have the memory equivalent of a gerbil like I have.  

However, while I am happy to own up to my memory deficiencies, part of the dragging effect of the first part of the book can be laid solely on how Cronin decided to move forward.  In many cases, he did not move forward, but introduces a whole slew of new characters and goes back to fill in more story from just after the outbreak of the virus.  It's not that it isn't mildly interesting and I appreciate getting some more details on how things got from the outbreak to the future explored in book one. However, part one of The Passage was my least favorite part and we get a WHOLE LOT more of that here.  It also stops the flow that had started by the end of The Passage.  The gang of characters I had gotten to know intimately were on the cusp of the next stage of their quest and all of that.... gets chucked to the side.  Seriously, some of the main characters from book one unceremoniously die in the 5 year period between books.  It is not until the original cast are semi-reunited and moving back toward the goal that was established in book one that this read started working for me.  That doesn't happen until the 60% mark or thereabouts.  

The book still gets 3.5 stars though because once you hit that spot and the narrative gets moving, it really is spectacular.  Every time I expected Cronin to zig, he zagged and he is great with developing his main cast. And honestly, the first part of the book is in no way bad.  He's a fabulous writer and incredibly good at setting a scene and developing a character, even if they are only meant to stick around for a chapter or two.  (It is dangerous to get too attached to any characters in these books!) I simply prefer when he stays focused on what I think of as the main cast and story line. It's like he can't decide whether he is writing a literary opus or a propulsive horror/thriller story.   Anyway, I'm nervous and hopeful  and curious about where things ended and will definitely be picking up the final book in the trilogy. 

Finally, AND THIS WILL GET SPOILERY, I had a bunch of questions.  So what's up with Wallgast still being around and why is he just now revealing himself to Amy?  I vaguely remember there may have been some ambiguity around his death scene so he could have been turned instead of dying of radiation I suppose?  And does Amy escort him to heaven or something?  Or is that just a dream?  And what's up with Amy. Cronin makes a big deal of aging her appropriately, hints strongly that her and Peter may be in love and then almost immediately turns her into a full on viral? And poor Peter.  Dude is a girl magnet but has only seemed to really return the feelings of two women...both of which turn into monsters who feel unworthy of him and therefore push him away.  Sheesh.  Or am I completely reading that wrong?  Why did he even bother aging Amy etc.. if he was just going to...Oh never mind, I'll read the next book.

I should also comment on the audio version of the book.  Scott Brick is the narrator and he is a hugely popular reader but I don't love him.  He does okay but there is something about how he reads that rubs me the wrong way.  And there was one tiny thing that drove me crazy.  The character of Alicia is often called "Leesh" or at least that's how he said it in book one and how I imagined it.  In this book he calls her "Lish" which may be how it's written but it's different than the first book and sounds way odd to my ears.  Does anybody know an Alicia that goes by "Lish"?  Perhaps I am just sheltered. 

FINAL VERDICT:  When the book is focused on it's main cast and quest story line, it is really amazing but it gets bogged down by a lot or extraneous characters and story tangents. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Other Opinions Are Available: Tor.com | The Bibliosanctum | The Book Smugglers

Saturday in the Garden | Green?

OUTSIDE

It's the most terrifyingly awesome time of year, at least in Iowa.  It's awesome because Spring IS happening.  Some green is starting to peek out of the ground and smart critters who have either been asleep for the last 4 months or else frolicking in Southern climes start showing up in numbers.  My dentist has a persistent crabapple out in front of their office and it was crawling with robins and cedar waxwings this week.  

Garlic

Chives

Crocus

I planted a bunch of bulbs around where two of my Golden's ashes are buried (Darwin and Casey)

This time of year is terrifying because the weather is unpredictable. As you can tell from the pics, most things are mulched with leaves.  Do I go ahead and clear them since things are coming up?  But what about the fact that we went from being in the 50s and 60s to a couple of single digit days this week?  I looked back at my posts from last year around this time and I had already planted sugar snap peas and done some of my clean up by now...

Which brings me to the fact, that there are also things coming up indoors!  Unfortunately, looking at my seed starting picks from last year around now has emphasized how far behind I am.  None of my peppers are even sprouting yet and the tomatoes are just peeking out.

 ****CUTE BUNNY ALERT!****

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

Nothing! I've been reading and hanging with the rabbit instead of watching TV this week.

Reading 

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

• The Dark Days Pact (Lady Helen #2) by Alison Goodman: It was good though I didn't love it quite as much as book one.
• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins:  I rarely if ever read contemporary YA or romance and yet this is both.  It is, as advertised totally delightful even to my cynical, wizened old basically middle-aged heart.
• Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer:  Not one of her best but I always like spending time in her creations.
• Scandal in Spring (Wallflowers #4) by Lisa Kleypas: I was horrified to discover that I had not read the last book in the Wallflowers series. For Shame! It was good!

CURRENTLY READING

• The Prophecy Con (Rogues of the Republic #2) by Patrick Weekes:  Happy to be back with the gang!
• Eon: Dragoneye Reborn (Eon #1) by Alison Goodman:  I've so enjoyed her Dark Days Club books, I decided to try Alison Goodman's other series. Really enjoying it!
• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo:  I started it as soon as my credit from Audible became available, lol.

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• Brother's Ruin by Emma Newman:  Historical fantasy set in 1850s England.  A series-starting novella recommended by Fine Print.
• Borderline by Mishell Baker:  Recommended highly by Fine Print, The Bibliosanctum AND On Starships and Dragonwings.  This is an Urban Fantasy set in Hollywod with a protagonist that sounds hella interesting!
• The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths by Benerson Little:  This book was on one of the e-mails I get (from the devil) about books on sale.  I didn't buy it (I'm trying to have some self control) but I really wanted to - it sounds great! Non-fiction

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

WEDNESDAY: REVIEW | Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

The joys of some late afternoon son and a couple of bully sticks. Don't ask what bully sticks are.

Have a Great Week!

REVIEW | Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Publication Year: 2015

Genre: Fantasy, YA
Series: Six of Crows #1

Awards: A bunch of local YA awards
Format: Audio (from Audible)

Narrator: Jay Snyder, David LeDoux, Lauren Fortgang, Roger Clark, Elizabeth Evans, Tristan Morris and Brandon Rubin

WHY?:  Many, many reasons.  I enjoyed Bardugo's Grisha series. This book and its sequel has gotten a ton of positive buzz.  It's a heist novel.  

SYNOPSIS:  Kaz Brekker, a young ne'er do well who practically runs one of the mafia-like gangs of Ketterdam, is hired to do an impossible job.  It will make him very very rich which appeals to Kaz greatly but more importantly he has a score to settle and this one job will make that possible.  If anyone can pull this impossible job off it is Kaz and he puts together a team, each member with a part to play in the greatest heist in history.

THOUGHTS:

The first chapter of the book is basically a prologue.  It's a set-up for something that will play an important role in the coming book, and the series as a whole I'd wager, but it didn't grab me. It was full of stock characters, so uninteresting I didn't care what they did. I therefore dragged my feet like crazy and it took me like a week to get through this first chapter.  I'd listen to a couple minutes and then decide I'd rather listen to a podcast and not get back to it for a couple days.  This boredom is hard to remember because literally the very next chapter swept me away and I was completely and officially smitten with this book.  

In this second chapter, we meet Kaz Brekker, anything but a stock character.  He's devilishly clever, always two steps ahead of everyone, sardonic, enigmatic, secretive, unemotional and he walks with a limp and a cane.  He's also pretty darn scary.  I adored him pretty much immediately.  Unwrapping his story throughout the book and seeing how competent, yet broken he is, is just one of the delights this book had in store.  In this first scene with Kaz, as he verbally spars with the second-in-command of a rival gang, he is backed up by his shadow, Inej, climbing up sheer walls to keep an eye on proceedings from high ground, while trusty sharp-shooter Jesper watches his six on the ground.  These are Kaz's most loyal and trusted compatriots and when he is hired a couple of chapters later to help the merchant guild with an impossible heist, they are the first to be recruited to his gang.  

As is common with heist novels, roughly the first 1/3 of the book focuses on pulling the gang that will perform the heist together and then doing an initial smaller heist to show the players in action.  The other members of the team include: 

• Nina Zenik: a Grisha, a heart render that can manipulate the organs of the human body.  She is hanging out in Ketterdam and working freelance for Kaz hoping to find a way to free-
• Mathias Helvar: A Grisha hunter, raised to despise Grisha, so how he and Nina are connected is a mystery.  
• Wylan Van Eck: Perhaps the most puzzling addition to the team.  He has a knack with explosives but is new to "The Barrel" i.e. the rough part of town and is not someone any of them know.  Why has Kaz included him?

With the team together, they are off on a journey to the legendary Ice Court, where they must infiltrate, free and return to Ketterdam with a scientist being held hostage.  It's a suicide mission but the reward is enormous and everyone on the crew has a reason to desperately need/want that reward.    

The perspective of each chapter rotates between all the characters, which is a device I really love and despite the fact that there are so many different perspectives, it felt balanced just right and was never confusing.  Bardugo also includes flashbacks, on top of the current action, to slowly reveal more and more about her characters and their connections.  It could have been too much but she somehow managed to keep the action moving while pouring on the character development.  The result is a page-turner with SO many characters to love.  Some felt a bit more developed then others, it felt like there was more back story on Kaz, Nina and Mathias than the others, but I still felt connected to all of them.

The cast is also diverse with at least half of the team coming from outside of the Kingdom in which Ketterdam sits, and it tackles the issue of brain-washing and being afraid of the unknown, particularly in Mathias' story.  So it's got some good messages and thought provocation thrown in with the intricate plot.   

It also must be mentioned that the book is set in the same universe as the Grisha trilogy and takes place slightly after the events in that series.  The original series is referenced briefly, but beyond having a little more background on what the Grisha are, it is not necessary to have read that series (though you should! it's great!).  As with those books, Bardugo does an excellent job presenting a beautifully detailed world and society.  While the Grisha series obviously borrowed from Russian and Eastern European culture, this book broadens the world a little further and brings in some other cultures.  It's an interesting world if you're new to it and should really appeal to fans as an expansion of the Grisha series!

Have I mentioned yet, how much I really loved this book?  I did.  As soon as I got past that first chapter it became an addictive listen that I didn't want to stop.  I am counting the hours until my next Audible credit pops up and I can download Crooked Kingdom.  I can't wait to get back into this world and spend more time with Kaz and the team.  Not to mention that this book ends with things very much up in the air.  

Finally, the audio was fantastic.  It has multiple narrators, all of them good, each of which help to bring their assigned character alive.  Lauren Fortgang, who I'm pretty sure does Nina's chapters, is particularly great and will be familiar if you listened to the Grisha series.  

FINAL VERDICT:  More fun than a barrel full of lemurs.  An un-put-downable YA heist novel with a well-developed and lovable cast of characters.  The sequel, Crooked Kingdom, will be going in my ears, toot sweet!  4.5 out of 5 stars.

SATURDAY in the GARDEN | Tornadoes and Bunny!

Well I took  little unplanned hiatus from the interwebs this week.  No particular reason, just tired. *shrugs* I'm ridiculous sometimes.  Aren't we all.  Anyway, the next few weeks may be a little sparse posting and visiting wise because I have a bunch of weekend work commitments and weekends are when I do most of my internetting.

OUTSIDE

So I don't know if this really counts as "outside" because, well, this is not a wild animal but behold my new parsley munching friend!

And the inevitable Parsley hangover.  Isn't she cute as a damn button?  Her name is Ella and she's an 11 week old French Lop. She'll probably weigh between 12-15 lbs when she's full grown so big, for a rabbit.  I have wanted a rabbit for ages and finally bit the bullet.  I am totally in love with her.  She gives me these great frankly appraising looks that are hilarious when juxtaposed with her general adorableness.

In garden news I've got some of my seeds started and the onions have sprouted.  It's going to be a very weird gardening year with how crazy this winter has been.

Today I was giving a program on Bald Eagles and we ended it with a field trip to an Eagle nest.  While watching the eagles futz around with their nest and generally put on a show, a pair of Sandhill Cranes called from the other side of the road where we were parked watching. They eventually flew up from the creek bed they were hanging out in and proceeded to walk around with stately grace giving everyone good if distant views. VERY cool!  Also saw/heard my first Killdeers of the year. So, good day!

Finally, in other weird weather news, we had a small tornado (or something very close to a tornado) go right by my work place.  It took down a bunch of trees and cut our power for about 15 hours - exciting!  That's the closest brush I've ever had with a tornado and it was in early March for goodness sake.  

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

I completed another anime, Yona of the Dawn. It was all set to be my favorite anime yet but then it just...ended.  It totally seems like it should have a 3rd season but it is marked as complete and last aired March 2015.  It doesn't end on a complete cliffhanger but there were many, many things left unresolved and just... confused. So blergh.

Reading 

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

• The Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic #2) by V.E. Schwab: I got this in Audio despite the fact that I hated the audio of the first book (liked the book but not the reader) but they switched narrators so...  This book is one I'm going to have a hard time reviewing.  In some ways I liked it better than book 1 but then there's Lila... she's the WORST.  Ihad started liking her at the end of book 1 but I really hated her in this book.  She's a anti-social sociopath - why then does EVERYONE love her?
• Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1)by Leigh Bardugo: I LOVED this book!  Need Crooked Kingdom right now!
• A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell #1) by Deanna Raybourn:  I also really loved this historical, thriller/mystery.  The two protags are Victorian natural historians! I flew through it.  Veronica's one of the best characters I've encountered in a long while
• Monstress, Vol. 1 by Marjorie Liu: This was okay.  Creative, unique, loved the art.  Was not as blown away as I expected though....  Oh expectations, you are a fickle friend.
  

CURRENTLY READING

• The Dark Days Pact (Lady Helen #2) by Alison Goodman: I'm pretty excited about this sequel to The Dark Days Club that is sort of a supernatural Buffy in Regency England.
• The Prophecy Con (Rogues of the Republic #2) by Patrick Weekes:  Happy to be back with the gang!
• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: I am very close to done with this.  I rarely if ever read contemporary YA or romance and yet this is both.  It is, as advertised totally delightful even to my cynical, wizened old basically middle-aged heart.
• Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer:  It's a good question, Georgette and I look forward to you answering it!

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

I was about to write NADA but apparently I did add a whole slew of books before dropping off the internets...

• The Backstagers (Vol. 1) by James Tynion, IV and Rian Sygh:  A middle grade graphic novel about theater geeks, recommended by Danya at Fine Print. 
• Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell:  Also recommended at Fine Print, this is a middle grade novel about a Princess who decides to be a dragon slayer.  
• The Grey Bastards (#1) by Jonathan French:  Recommended by Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum as being like a "shot of good tequila".  I can totally get behind this kind of intense and raucous fantasy! This book is part of the series on the blog featuring self-published works!
• Devil in Spring (The Ravenals #3) by Lisa Kleypas:  Lark at The Bookwyrm's Hoard made me aware that a) there is a companion series to Kleypas' Wallflower series of Regency romances (which I adore) and b) this book features the son of the couple from A Devil in Winter which is my FAVORITE. Aw, yeah, I'm gonna read the heck out of this!
• Kings of the Wyld (The Band #1) by Nicholas Eames:  This sounds like a humorous, grim dark, getting the band back together fantasy.  Nathan from Fantasy Review Barn recommended it very highly and I've heard good things all around!
• Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly:  Nathan also raved, positively raved, about this book which sounds like an utterly unique fantasy novel about an oppressive government and set in a cabaret club.
• Grave Witch (Alex Craft #1) by Kalayna Price: An intriguing sounding UF series that I'd never heard of and recommended by Anya at On Starships and Dragonwings.
• Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini:  A generally well-loved book in the pirate genre (yes it is its own genre, so say I) that I'd never heard of and which sounds awesome.  It was featured on the Reading the End podcast.  They did a segment on books about the sea and I was totally gonna steal the idea and do my own post because I love the sea but then I discovered that I'd already done a post of this, lol.  Good thing I looked:). 

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

I didn't post a darn thing this week so the below are from last week ...

SUNDAY: TV REVIEW | Adventures Watching Anime

TUESDAY: (FAKE) TOP TEN TUESDAY | Critters on Covers The last 10 books I've read that had an animal on the cover.  Suprisingly interesting. To me.  Possibly no one else:).

THURSDAY: REVIEW | Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

REVIEW | The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

Publication Year: 2016

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Alt History
Series: Lady Helen #1

Awards: Nothing 
Format: Audio (from Audible)

Narrator: Fiona Hardingham

WHY?: Many good reviews by bloggers I trust.  Plus - demon hunting in Regency England. No way I'm not reading that!  Tagline on one of the editions is, "Duchess or Demon Slayer - does Lady Helen have a choice?"

SYNOPSIS: Lady Helen Wrexhall is 18 and entering her first London season.  It's an exciting time but amongst all the hubbub of social engagements, Helen has started to notice a lot of odd and mysterious things going on around her. Then a distant relation of her Aunt's, the disgraced Lord Carlston appears and informs Helen that she is destined for bigger and scarier things than marrying a Duke. Will Helen turn her back on this exciting but terrifying future or will she play it safe?  

THOUGHTS:
Without a doubt, I adored this book.  It's a Regency era novel with deadly demons thrown into the mix and I found it to be executed very well.  It is a book that is perfect for a very particular kind of reader.  If you like paranormal reads, you are likely to like it okay, though I've seen a number of reviews by SFF fans who found it slow-going.  Regency novel fans?  Hmmm.... I think will like this better than most SFF books as it does take pains to get the societal conventions and setting right but it may not be quite right for them.  If you are someone who loves both Jane Austen and Buffy the Vampire Slayer?  I predict you will flip your lid for this book!  At least, I certainly did.  I like feisty kick ass ladies as well as painstakingly described details about muslin and dance cards so this book had me covered on all points. 

Lady Helen lives with her Aunt and Uncle because both her parents are dead and while she gets along with her Aunt, her uncle is a strict, close-minded, misogynist who brooks no appearance of impropriety.  Therefore, Helen is mostly looking forward to the season and is not opposed to finding the right gentleman to marry and therefore get out from under her Uncle's thumb. I really liked that Helen isn't really a huge rebel to begin with.  She's smart, independent, has opinions and therefore chafes under her Uncles rule but she is not really longing for a singular life.  She really just wants what most young women in the Regency era wanted, to find a good match and have the freedom of running her own household.  Sure she might prefer that household be her older brother's but marriage is not off the table.

There is a lot of time spent on the details of a life in Regency era England - the expectations, the manners, the rhythm of life, the details of the balls -  and I loved this and thought it was balanced quite well with the more action-and-demon-packed part of the story.  It bored some reviewers but that never happened to me.  I think the time spent on Helen's normal life emphasizes what she would be giving up to join the Dark Days Club. It is impossible to be both a well bred lady and a demon hunter in Regency Era England.  Especially when one's mentor is a tall drink of well-mannered-but-may-have-killed-his-wife scandal.  Lord Carlston and Helen cannot spend time together because a) he is a man and b) he is disreputable.  This throws up many of the challenges faced by the heroine and I felt really anxious for her juggling all the balls of her life.  

It couldn't be a Regency Era novel without there also being a romance of course and while I wasn't really into it, I liked the pairing and that it is the slowest of slow burns.  Again, the Regency era setting helps keep things relatively restrained and that appeals to me.  I am also partial, for some reason, to the passionate hero that keeps it all locked down tight so you have no idea what he's feeling except under certain extreme circumstances.  This type of person would probably drive me nutballs in real life but I like it in a romantic protagonist. There are a few intense moments but mostly it is restrained glances and touches.  

The demon hunter world that Goodman overlays Regency England with is also very interesting and well developed.  The idea that the demons, or deceivers as they are called, inhabit regular people, like a possession, sets up some nice moral quandaries as well as the fact that only certain people can see and then fight them when they get out of hand.  Voila!  A Dark Days Club of extra strong, extra sensing folk who operate in secret.  Secret demon hunting societies will always tickle me to pieces!  I also like that each demon hunter, or Reclaimer, must have a companion who is bonded with them and that Helen's choice is her stalwart maid and friend Darby.  I really liked their relationship and that this female duo has most of the men of the Dark Days Club unhappy.

I loved and devoured this book!  I listened to the audio version and Fiona Hardingham was a perfect narrator for this.  She is one of my favorite narrators generally and she does a great job giving voice to Lady Helen and bringing her to life.

FINAL VERDICT:  For all you Jane Austen AND Buffy the Vampire Slayer lovers - this is your book.  A good solid Regency novel with a paranormal element mixed into the blend for a good balance of the two!  4 out of 5 Stars.

Other Opinions Are Available: Book Smugglers | Fine Print | Fantasy Book Critic