Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by audreychamaine
12.21 by Dustin Thomason
3.0
With the countdown to 12/21/12 in full effect, it seems like perfect timing for 12.21. I think most people know that nothing is going to happen when we reach the (questionable) end of the Mayan long count calendar, but there's still an inkling in the backs of our minds of "what if!?", kind of like when Y2K happened. 12.21 takes that uneasiness about the impending date of doom and creates a potential pandemic scenario that involves both airborne madcow related prions and a mysterious Mayan codex that spells out the downfall of a kingdom. This book combines biblio- and medical-thrillers into one large end-times threat.
12.21 races along, moving the plot forward at a quick pace. While this can be good, I felt at times like the tempo of the story served to cover up holes in the plot. This was one of those books that I think could have stood to have taken its time a little more, to make more connections between ideas and plot points, and to meander a little longer with characters in order to flesh them out. There were a few times when I had to think about whether I'd somehow skipped some pages, because the flow of the story just didn't feel like it was entirely there. Along the same lines, the ending felt rushed and abrupt, and I'd have liked to have had more of an explanation for the resolution.
What I did enjoy about 12.21 was the medical description. I'm a sucker for a good disease that makes people go crazy, so a prion disease with no cure that makes people into psychotic insomniacs was a lot of fun to read about. My final verdict: there's enough fun medical and apocalyptic thriller in this novel to keep you entertained if you're into that stuff, so it's worth overlooking some of the flaws in writing and storytelling to read it.
12.21 races along, moving the plot forward at a quick pace. While this can be good, I felt at times like the tempo of the story served to cover up holes in the plot. This was one of those books that I think could have stood to have taken its time a little more, to make more connections between ideas and plot points, and to meander a little longer with characters in order to flesh them out. There were a few times when I had to think about whether I'd somehow skipped some pages, because the flow of the story just didn't feel like it was entirely there. Along the same lines, the ending felt rushed and abrupt, and I'd have liked to have had more of an explanation for the resolution.
What I did enjoy about 12.21 was the medical description. I'm a sucker for a good disease that makes people go crazy, so a prion disease with no cure that makes people into psychotic insomniacs was a lot of fun to read about. My final verdict: there's enough fun medical and apocalyptic thriller in this novel to keep you entertained if you're into that stuff, so it's worth overlooking some of the flaws in writing and storytelling to read it.