Book: The Twelve

I have to admit I'm a big fan of Justin Cronin's apocalyptic vampire trilogy, and though this second volume took me a lot longer to get into than the first (The Passage), it still kept me hooked. Cronin is not afraid of harming, even killing, major characters, and as the division between good and bad becomes less black and white in this novel, it is clear that anything could happen to anyone. That uncertainty creates a feeling of dread in the reader that parallels the dread the characters in the book, and it's certainly effective.

However, reading this series as it is released makes me wonder if trilogies should only be published when all three are finished. I know that's silly, because what publisher would invest the money? And I know literature has a long history of stories by installment. But Cronin's world is complex enough--featuring characters from at least two different time periods, and several different locations--that it's easy to forget who is who and what is what in the years between the books' release dates. I found a website to help me bone up on the plot of The Passage before starting The Twelve, and it's a good thing I did. Cronin has a cool little device where he retells the events of the first book in the language of the King James Bible, but there are lots of connections I would have missed or characters I would have forgotten about had I not done a more careful prep work before starting this novel.  It's the same trouble I run into with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. So long between books and you forget, and I'm not a big book rereader...

At any rate, those complaints have little to do with the quality of the book, which I found high. It is a little bit more airport thriller this time around--I think Cronin's literary ambitions may have faded somewhat--but it is still an exciting and compelling read. I think he's doing some interesting things with concepts of faith and religion (as the title might suggest).  If you like apocalyptic vampire books (and there are seemingly more and more of them out there these days) this is a pretty good direction to go. 

Who am I kidding? I'd give my arm to be as effective a world builder as Cronin? Thumbs up.

Grade: A-