Heart says

'The Twelve' is the sequel to 'The Passage' but Justin Cronin, and the second in his 'Passage' trilogy.

The basic premise of the trilogy is that the American government discovered a strange virus in Bolivia in our not too distant future, and they government try and use this virus to create super soldiers out of 12 death row inmates, but instead create vampiric like creatures, Virals, who ultimately escape and take over the American continent. Near 100 years later a greatly reduced human population still exists, trying to survive against these creatures and save humanity, as seen by protagonist characters Peter, Alicia, Michael etc. But then there's Amy, who was a 6 year old girl when the outbreak first occurred, and was infected by the government with the virus shortly beforehand, but it changed her in a different way to the others, in the 100 year gap she has barely aged, but has all the abilities of the other Virals but without the blood thirst or other weaknesses. This is all covered in the first book.

'The Twelve' follows the same split narrative as 'The Passage'. The first third or so of the book goes back to shortly after the Virals escaped and started to spread, but focuses on a new set of characters in a new situation. There's Kittridge, aka Last Stand in Denver, who initially holed up in a high rise in Denver sniping Virals but then was forced to flee. Then there's Danny, a somewhat ... 'simple' man who drove a school bus and who rescues teenagers April and Timothy. They later met other survivors in Pastor Don, Dolores etc. Together they try and escape the Quarantined south. Also introduced here is government official called Guilder, who discovers that Grey (who had been a janitor at the facility where the original Virals were created) survived the massacre there and tries to find him. But the virals are spreading fast...

Following this, the story jumps forward to 97 A.V. to rejoin Peter and co., 5 years after their exploits in 'The Passage'. These 5 years has seen the characters spread out and separate, and they've all changed and grown a bit in these five years. Peter has joined the Expeditionary and along with Alicia is still trying to hunt the Twelve (the original Virals, and if they die each of the Virals of their 'bloodline' will die as well). Considering the last book with these characters focused on them exploring their environment and trying to find a better home, this time around they are all trying to move on from the events of the last book, with the hope that they can track and kill The Twelve.

Having said that the characters have grown in the last 5 years, they've mostly developed through grief at the Roswell Massacre, which was heartbreakingly revealed in the last lines of 'The Passage' without much detail, but the detail of which (along with who out of our main characters died) is finally revealed in this book. The characters have been grieving, and although they have changed, there is a sense that theyve been in a kind of limbo since then, finding a new path and sticking with it. And all of a sudden at the beginning of this book, for various reasons, the characters are forced to move on and progress, and slowly head towards dealing with a new threat.

I enjoyed the story, I thought it was intriguing and it was nice to see different sides to the story, both in the 'present' type setting and the future, and that the stories told in this book weren't exactly the same as in the Passage just slightly changed. They were very different stories presented this time around which was good to see. It was also nice to see more of the future America, to see more of what happened then rather than just the small snapshot from 'the Passage'.

On the whole though, I think I preferred the 'present' storylines. They were very different to before. In the first book in the present, we mostly dealt with the major characters related to the virus, but this time around we deal with a bunch of "average joes" so to speak, whose lives are suddenly changed and they have to flee. I found their stories incredibly interesting and gripping and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. The 'future' storylines, while still interesting slowly kind of lost my keen interest over time. It was interesting to see this new world, but I felt the story jumped around too much and it was kind of hard to get my bearings. Just as I started to get used to one character and their environment it would change to someone else and something would change there. It was a little confusing at times. Also, I felt that although you could kind of tell what the whole story was building to, I didn't really feel on the whole that it was something I really wanted to see happen and there didn't seem to be any real sense of urgency or danger like I felt in 'The Passage' or the first part of this book, and so it kinda felt like something was lacking for the most part. Having said that, it was still very enjoyable and interesting and I loved reading about it.

I also felt that some of the technical stuff to do with the Virals (and Amy and Alicia etc.) didn't really get explained, and sometimes things would happen or change with them and it just wasn't really clear why this happened other than for story purposes, and while the whole 'the characters wouldn't know or figure it out so I won't/can't explain it' is kinda nice and realistic, it did just feel like Cronin and had decided it was a nice story tool for this happen or for this character to have gained this ability etc. and there was just no explanation for it. for example, Amy undergoes a bit of a change, where she seems to have extreme period cramps for awhile, then suddenly turns into a woman rather than a being this immortal child/teenager (which I didnt like happening, as I liked the idea of Amy being this immortal child until the end of the trilogy at least) and then at the end of the book suddenly turns into a Viral through force of will (which I didn't like happening either). Lila's abilities to control the Virals are never really explained to my satisfaction. Neither is Carter's apparent ability to create an experience a sort of 'alternate world', for example when Amy visits him he looks normal and she sees places from his human past - how he does this is never really explained. These are examples of things where I just didnt really think things were fully explained and it just bothered me a bit.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and I am eager for the next book in the series to be released, which will probably deal with finding and killing Zero. I felt the storyline was interesting and exciting, but that some things just weren't explained enough for my satisfaction and sometimes the POV shifts were a little disconcerting. Overall, a great book but not quite as good as 'The Passage' I think. Bring on Book 3!