The Passage was one of the huge dark fiction success stories of 2010. Written by Rice University professor and author Justin Cronin, the manuscript ignited a bidding war before even being completed, resulting in a $3.5 million advance and a further $1.5 million for the film rights. In the publisher speak, that means they’re planning for it to be kind of a big deal. Thankfully it lived up to their expectations, climbing the New York Times best seller list and earning praise from such horror luminaries as Stephen King.

Now two years later, the sequel is upon us. The Twelve continues the story of a world in rapid and rather bloody decline, and for the most part it’s a worthy successor to The Passage. It moves at the same rapid fire pace, is written in the same elegant prose, and evokes the same sense of creeping dread. Unfortunately however, the niggling problems from the first story also return, including the frequent point of view switches and the sometimes ethereal plot devices, meaning if the first book wasn’t your thing then this one is unlikely to change your mind.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it is basically a post apocalyptic tale told on an epic scale. Think The Stand, but with genetically engineered vampires. Twelve death row inmates are infected with a potent new virus in a government super soldier program, and as so often seems to happen when bio-weapons are involved, things get a little out of control.

Rather than following directly on from the events of the first novel, The Twelve starts by taking us back to the beginning of the outbreak and introducing us to a group of new characters who will play key roles later in the story. It then proceeds to jump back and forward both in time and perspective, between these new players and those left at the end of the first book. Initially I found this rather jarring. There are a lot of narratives to keep track of and it can be confusing ordering everything correctly given the constant changes in time period. But as you make it further in, the story begins to take shape and all those disjointed threads gradually pull together.

Because new introductions are required, the book doesn’t burst out of the gates at the very beginning like many other sequels, but by the middle it starts picking up steam and then it never really stops, culminating in one of the more intricate and epic climaxes I’ve read recently. The writing also aids the sense of pace, striking a good balance between tight, punchy prose and delicate description.

With so many perspective shifts, no character really gets more page time than any other, so picking a single protagonist is difficult, but the person who ties everything together is a girl named Amy — the central character of the first story. Infected with a modified version of the vampire virus, she is seemingly immortal and it is really her quest that the other characters get pulled into. In The Passage, she was chasing Babcock, the first of the infected. Now she is on the hunt for the rest of the titular Twelve.

The plot has too many strands to really elaborate on here, but suffice to say there is plenty of tension, action and a surprising number of poignant moments. The vampires (or Virals as they are called) are also noteworthy. In the age of undead creatures who glitter in the sun, it’s nice to occasionally be reminded that vampires used to be rather terrifying. The Virals in The Twelve are more animal than man; leaping, powerful, blood hungry creatures that are virtually unstoppable for regular humans. They prefer decapitation and dismemberment to brooding conversation, which should have horror fans jumping for joy.

My one big criticism — and this was a problem I had with The Passage too — is that the book occasionally ventures into mystical territory. Conversations take place involving characters who are long dead, and there are a handful of events that happen for rather intangible reasons. This is loosely explained in the context of the story, but I can’t help feeling that it would have been a stronger book without these elements.

While this took away from my enjoyment a little, ultimately The Twelve was still an entertaining read. It treads that thin line between blockbuster genre fiction and quality writing and does so with aplomb. If you dug The Passage or just like a bit of post apocalyptic mayhem every now and again, you’ll definitely enjoy this book.

- Review by Andrew Kliem.
.

The Daylight Gate
by Jeanette Winterson
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Hammer
ISBN: 978-0099561859

When I saw The Daylight Gate on the shelf in the bookshop I was immediately intrigued. I know that Winterson is a writer whose name carries much weight but must confess, have never read her work before. So when I saw this morsel of a book with its elegant and darkly suggestive cover I eagerly picked it up.

Novella length, the story is a classic tale of horror and witchcraft and also a thoroughly researched piece of historical fiction. It is set during the Trial of The Lancashire Witches in 1612, the most famous of the English witch trials and the first to be documented in a supposed eye witness account ‘The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancashire’ by the lawyer, Thomas Potts. The introduction is very helpful in contextualising the story; she says that ‘the places are real places… The characters are real people, though I have taken liberties with their motives and their means.’

This gap between an understanding of historical fact and satisfying, emotionally meaningful narrative is where Winterson weaves her craft. The main crux of the story seems to be a question she poses in the introduction, why was Alice Nutter, an independent and successful industrialist of very comfortable means, tried alongside more typical victims of the witch trials, those on the very lowest rungs of the social ladder?

The horror in the story exists on all sides, enacted by both the ‘witches’ and those privileged with the power to cast judgement over them. There are some truly horrifying moments that will make most people’s toes curl and hit home at a very gut level, not just physical violence but other grotesque forms of abuse. This was a truly brutal time and, in the cross section of society, rich and poor, that this tale portrays, loyalty and goodness is often trumped by fear, indifference and an ugly struggle for power.

Knowing a little of Winterson’s background I wondered whether there would be an overtly feminist tone to this work given that it deals with an atrocity where mainly women were persecuted. It is indeed told very much from a woman’s perspective but I was pleased that there were villains and saints on both sides of the gender divide. Her voice is strong and clear and her message seems to be about the enduring nature of love. Winterson’s love is not a soft romantic ideal, it is its own beast that may at times tear at your flesh, but is not to be resisted. It seems that her protagonist, Alice, accepts this, it is her fate and her guiding principal.

I very much admire the style of prose, it is both economical and highly descriptive. There is nothing flowery, it is very much to the point, yet she still paints a rich picture. Place plays an important role in the telling of this story. On the first page she sets the scene at Pendle Hill in Lancashire:

“The North is the dark place. It is not safe to be buried on the north side of the church and the North Door is the way of the Dead…. The hill itself is low and massy, flat-topped, brooding, disappeared in mists, treacherous with fast-flowing streams plunging into waterfalls crashing down into unknown pools. Underfoot is the black rock that is the spine of this place.”

This sense of economy extends to the length of the work – I was curious to see how she would pull off a story of such scope in the novella format but it seems to sit perfectly within that length. It lends the work the feeling of a lovely little artefact, this is a book that I think asks to be owned in a physical, preferably hard cover format.

My one gripe is that I felt a little let down with the ending. Now obviously I have to be very careful about giving anything away here but let’s just say that it felt just a little bit of an easy way out for an author and echoed the endings of other stories. I still overall enjoyed the story very much and am thinking about giving it a re-read which is something I don’t really do but as this is such a condensed and intense tale I feel it might be even more enjoyable the second time around.

Another point of interest for lovers of horror is the fact that this work is published by Hammer. That’s right, as in Hammer House of Horror:

“Hammer’s literary agency is now being revived through its new partnership with Arrow Books. This series will feature original novellas which will span the literary and the mass market, the esoteric and the commercial, by some of today’s most celebrated authors, as well as classic stories from more than five decades of production.”

So there you go! Hopefully more intriguing, quality fiction to come yet.

Review by Halinka Orszulok
Halinka is an artist from the south coast of NSW, Australia. You can see examples of her work at her website: www.halinka.com.au

.