Twelve
Zmyeevich had remained standing and now began to speak in very precise, but very formal and strangely accented French. His voice had a darkness to it that seemed to emit not from his throat but from deep in his torso. Somewhere inside him it was as if giant millstones were turning against one another, or as though the lid were being slowly dragged aside to open a stone sarcophagus...
On 12th June 1812, Napoleon's massive grande armee forded the River Niemen and so crossed the Rubicon – its invasion of Russia had begun. In the face of superior numbers and tactics, the imperial Russian army began its retreat. But a handful of Russian officers – veterans of Borodino – are charged with trying to slow the enemy's inexorable march on Moscow. Indeed, one of their number has already set the wheels of resistance in motion, having summoned the help of a band of mercenaries from the outermost fringes of Christian Europe.
Comparing them to the once-feared Russian secret police – the Oprichniki – the name sticks. As rumours of plague travelling west from the Black Sea reach the Russians, the Oprichniki – but twelve in number – arrive.
Preferring to work alone, and at night, the twelve prove brutally, shockingly effective against the French. But one amongst the Russians, Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, is unnerved by the Oprichniki's ruthlessness... as he comes to understand the true, horrific nature of these strangers, he wonders at the nightmare they've unleashed in their midst...
Full of authentic historical detail and heart-stopping supernatural moments, and boasting a page-turning narrative, Twelve is storytelling at its most original and exciting.
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Jasper Kent
Jasper Kent was born in Worcestershire, England in 1968. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and went on to study Natural Sciences at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, specialising in physics.
Jasper has spent almost twenty years working as a software engineer in the UK and in Europe, whilst also working on writing both fiction and music. In that time, he has produced the novels Twelve, Yours Etc., Mr Sunday and Sifr, as well as co-writing several musicals, including The Promised Land and Remember! Remember!
He currently lives in Brighton, with six rats called Rose, Manjula, Lurleen, Bertie, Dodo and Alecto, and a person called Helen.
The Danilov Quintet
It is a story that begins in 1812, in what seems Russia's
darkest hour. Yet in the midst of Napoleon's invasion, a new and
terrifying danger emerges, one which will haunt the Danilov family
across generations - just as it already has a far more prestigious
Russian family. It will end a hundred and five years later - as the dynasty of the
Tsars itself comes to an end - when the last of the Danilovs finally
confronts the horror that his ancestor invited into the country, so many years before.
The Danilov Quintet consists of five books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Reviews and Comments
Jasper Kent's Twelve was an interesting historical fantasy/horror book. It was also a fascinating history lesson about life in the old Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. I liked Twelve very much, because it was a different kind of vampire book. There are many urban fantasy books about vampires, so this kind of historical vampire books are quite rare nowadays. That's why this book was a breath of fresh air to the horror genre. It was great that the author used enough time to describe the main character and his life - it added depth to the book. The story was fascinating and Kent's writing style was fluent. I gave Twelve four stars, because it was a good and enjoyable book. I can recommend this book to all readers, who like historical fiction and vampire books.