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Author: Visit Amazon's Justin Cronin Page
ISBN : 0739366521
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You can download Epub The Twelve (Book Two of The Passage Trilogy): A Novel Audiobook CD – Audiobook, Unabridged from with Mediafire Link Download Link
Amazon.com Review
An Exclusive Essay by Author Justin Cronin
Readers often ask where I get my ideas. The better question would be: Where don’t I?
Many people know that The Passage was born from a challenge laid down by my eight-year-old daughter to write the story of “a girl who saves the world.” This wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear—it seemed a trifle ambitious—but a dare is a dare. For the next three months she joined me on my daily jog, following along on her bicycle, while the two of us hashed out the plot. As the weeks passed, I realized we were onto something much better than the book I was supposed to be writing. I put that book aside, wrote the first chapter of The Passage, and never looked back.
So don’t ever think you shouldn’t listen to your kids.
But my daughter’s challenge wasn’t the only inspiration. When I write a novel, my goal is to put absolutely everything I have into its pages, right down to the interesting thing that happened yesterday. I know I’m done when my mind feels as empty as a leaky bucket. So many influences, real and imagined, went into The Passage that I couldn’t list them if I tried. But one memory that stands out is the night my family and I tried to flee Houston in advance of hurricane Rita. Apparently, about a million other people had the same idea. After five hours on the road, we’d made it all of sixty miles. The highways were clogged with cars that had long since run out of gas; every minimart and gas station had been picked clean. I jumped the median and made it home in a little under an hour, my gas gauge floating just above ‘E’.
Rita missed Houston, slamming into a less-inhabited section of Texas and Louisiana coastline. But the experience of being in a large urban evacuation, with its feeling of barely-bottled panic, was one I’ll never forget, and is everywhere in the pages of The Passage.
So where did The Twelve come from?
Again, many places. But if I had to pick one source, it would be the strong women in my life. No bones about it: Gentlemen, if you doubt for a second that women are tougher than we are, go watch one have a baby. So here you have Alicia, the woman warrior with her blades and crossbow; here you have Amy, the spiritual leader and visionary; here you have one of my favorite new characters, Lore DeVeer, whose mechanical savvy is matched only by her unbridled sensuality; here you have a fourth woman (sorry, can’t tell you who) whose maternal strength is as powerful as any great spectacle of nature. As I wrote The Twelve, I came to understand that these powerful characters were the backbone of the tale. Even more, they are a tribute to all the amazing women I am privileged to know, befriend, and in one very lucky instance, marry.
Hope you enjoy The Twelve. All eyes.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
“[A] literary superthriller.”—
The New York Times Book Review “An undeniable and compelling epic . . . a complex narrative of flight and forgiveness, of great suffering and staggering loss, of terrible betrayals and incredible hope.”—Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel “
The Twelve is even better than
The Passage.”—
The Plain Dealer “A compulsive read.”
—San Francisco Chronicle “Gripping . . . Cronin [introduces] eerie new elements to his masterful mythology. . . . Enthralling, emotional and entertaining.”
—The San Diego Union-Tribune “Fine storytelling.”—Associated Press
“Cronin is one of those rare authors who works on two different levels, blending elegantly crafted literary fiction with cliff-hanging thrills.”—
Fort Worth Star-TelegramFrom the Hardcover edition. See all Editorial Reviews
Books with free ebook downloads available Epub The Twelve (Book Two of The Passage Trilogy): A Novel Audiobook CD – Audiobook, Unabridged
- Series: Passage
- Audio CD
- Publisher: Random House Audio; Unabridged edition (October 16, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0739366521
- ISBN-13: 978-0739366523
- Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.1 x 2.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Epub The Twelve : A Novel Audiobook CD – Audiobook, Unabridged
THE TWELVE, which is the second book of Cronin's towering trilogy, can be read as a complete book, whereas the first book stopped abruptly, like a gasp. However, I urge you to read THE PASSAGE first, because the epic as a whole is a finely calibrated accretion of history, plot and character. The Twelve refers to the twelve "parent" or original virals, the death-row-inmate subjects-turned-virals from "Project Noah," who must be liquidated in order to save the world. The thrust of this book is the hunt of the twelve by Amy, Alicia, Peter, and company.
"All eyes." Two words commonly spoken by the First Colony Watchers, starting in Book one--survivors of the end of the world as we know it. I shiver when I read it now, this sober siren call of fellowship to signal strength and vision, to defeat the virals. It carries an additional, deep and tacit message now--that I honor you, comrade (lover, brother, father, mother, friend, sister, soldier, daughter)--go bravely and stay safe. And keep your eyes forward, against the last remaining light of the day.
Cronin's weighty trilogy, a hybrid of mainstream and literary fiction, isn't just a story about these photophobic vampiric virals, identified variously as dracs, smokes, flyers, jumps, and glowsticks. Rather, it is a portrait of humanity in extremis. Virals, caused by a military experiment gone awry, are a malignant, violent force of annihilation. But what reserves of strength keep us fighting? How do people live in a post-apocalyptic world? Is another end coming? Or a beginning? Is the world even worth saving? THE TWELVE, like THE PASSAGE, has as much anthropology, eschatology, psychology, and philosophy, as it does gore, battle and horror.
Justin Cronin's "The Twelve" is the middle offering of his planned trilogy examining a post-apocalyptic view of America, its devastated future and how the spirit of mankind perseveres through horrifying unknown challenges. I strongly urge those who have not read "The Passage" to read it first, yet, if you did read it, it is not necessary to reread it to follow the events in "The Twelve".
"The Passage" was a very long novel depicting both pre-apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories covering a period of about 100 years. Military scientists experimented with viruses on 12 condemned criminals in an effort to create uber soldiers as weapons of war. Inevitably, a screwup occured and the 12 subjects become soulless vampirelike super creatures called "virals" who quickly multiplied and threatened the existence of the world. "The Passage" then fast forwarded almost 100 years and became a post-apocalyptic epic fantasy that focused on one "Colony" of survivors who struggled to survive each day while remembering as much of the "old world" as possible.
"The Twelve" continues this epic tale following the cliffhangar at the end of "The Passage". Cronin again mixes and matches as he skips back and forth through time filling in gaps and fleshing out the backstory first presented in "The Passage". New characters are introduced, good and bad, and old character arcs are resolved and/or expanded in a variety of ways as mankind's survivors split into somewhat predictable groups--those who work hand in hand for their personal survival with the Virals in new communities like "The Homeland", those who try to reestablish governmental order and societal restructuring in Kerrville etc.
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