12.21

A Novel

By: Dustin Thomason

Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Noel Rodriguez, Dustin Thomason

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

From the co-author of the two-million copy mega-best seller The Rule of Four, comes a riveting thriller with a brilliant premise based on the 2012 apocalypse phenomenon - perfect for readers of Steve Berry, Preston and Child, and Dan Brown.

For decades, December 21, 2012, has been a touchstone for doomsayers worldwide. It is the date, they claim, when the ancient Maya calendar predicts the world will end.

In Los Angeles, two weeks before, all is calm. Dr. Gabriel Stanton takes his usual morning bike ride, drops off the dog with his ex-wife, and heads to the lab where he studies incurable prion diseases for the CDC. His first phone call is from a hospital resident who has an urgent case she thinks he needs to see. Meanwhile, Chel Manu, a Guatemalan American researcher at the Getty Museum, is interrupted by a desperate, unwelcome visitor from the black market antiquities trade who thrusts a duffel bag into her hands.

By the end of the day, Stanton, the foremost expert on some of the rarest infections in the world, is grappling with a patient whose every symptom confounds and terrifies him. And Chel, the brightest young star in the field of Maya studies, has possession of an illegal artifact that has miraculously survived the centuries intact: a priceless codex from a lost city of her ancestors. This extraordinary record, written in secret by a royal scribe, seems to hold the answer to her life's work and to one of history's great riddles: why the Maya kingdoms vanished overnight. Suddenly it seems that our own civilization might suffer this same fate.

With only days remaining until December 21, 2012, Stanton and Chel must join forces before time runs out.

©2012 Dustin Thomason (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Thomason displays an impressive depth of knowledge of both science and the ancient Mayan way of life. Along the way, he skillfully ramps up the action, one notch at a time. A winning book." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"The most exciting novel of its kind since the days of Michael Crichton, 12.21 takes us from the frontiers of modern neuroscience to the riddles of ancient Maya texts, with nothing less than the future of our civilization at stake." (Vince Flynn)

S-L-O-W start, but it did pick up!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The beginning was very very slow. All the science stuff makes for a dull start!

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Not surprised, since we all know the basic premise.

Was 12.21 worth the listening time?

Yea

Are you ready?

Good take on the Mayan calendar end of the world story. What I liked best was the Mayan history I learned. The stroy combines all the folklore with an epidemic. Fun, easy listening on a long road trip.

disappointing

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

no, save your money, starts out well goes downhill and ends as if the writer ran out of steam.

What could Dustin Thomason have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

re write the last third of the book.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

They give it some life.

Do you think 12.21 needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

no, nothing to follow up on.

Fun to Listen to

Would you listen to 12.21 again? Why?

Great read, read the book but also listened to going to and from work

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Enjoyed the plot

Any additional comments?

Love it

Difficult to follow and mostly boring

Would you try another book from Dustin Thomason and/or the narrators?

I am a big Vince Flynn fan and he recommended this book. It just did a bad job of building out the story and until it got 3/4 quarters of the way in before it started to get interesting and then the book premise was solved in about 2 minutes at the end. I wouldn't recommend this book at all.

Way Overrated!

Any additional comments?

I should have learned by now to take endorsements from otherwise credible sources with a grain of salt. The best I can say about this overrated/overhyped book is that the story line was interesting and character development good, however it quickly became disjointed and, frankly, boring. The primary narrator was pretty good---in fact he should have done the entire recording, because the second narrator, assuming the role of the scribe, was just awful----to the extent that I couldn't stand to listen to it. Thankfully, it was a short book but I was still unable to stick with it to the end.

Not close to Crichton or even Brown at their Best

I enjoyed learning more about the Mayan culture, but the story was just ok. I agree with Kim about some of the medical aspects of the book and I do have a medical background. Most of the characters were not well developed--for example, the ex wife seemed to be introduced mainly to tell the main character (and the readers) about his attraction to the heroine--little chemistry there. The plot was way too grand for the story that was ultimately told. This novel seemed to be abridged which is a real shame.

Not Awful But...

The science and medicine is sort of interesting but the story is not well written. I love sci-fi and I am pretty good about suspending logic for the sake of a good story but there are parts of this books that are just dumb. A doctor hears about a car crash in Los Angeles and suspects it might have been caused by someone afflicted with a condition so rare fewer than 50 people in the world have been diagnosed with it? He runs to investigate and finds out he was right? Are inattentive driving accidents that rare in Los Angeles? Also, I am not in the health profession but it seems to me genetic testing is not something that gets done on demand, in a few hours in what is described as a rundown inner city public hospital. There were other similar incidents of illogic and just bad story telling.

Overall it is not awful but there are cringe-worthy moments. And there are three narrators and no one can do a British accent?

What a snooze!

Still amazed the author managed to combine so many great themes ~ Prions! Mayan prophecy! Plague! ~ into such dull matter. Unfortunately the narrators didn't or couldn't elevate clumsy writing. Snore.

Predictably Apocalyptic

The premise for this work, global apocalypse with paranormal overtones, is well tilled soil in the world of fiction; particularly so as we approach December 2012 and the end-of-the-Mayan-calendar crazies "spin like propellers", to borrow a phrase from Yitzhak Rabin. The plot of this work, then, was disappointingly predictable as the book lurched forward. Characters were unidimensional, dialogue was cliche-ish.

On the upside, the narration was good, but, overall, I would give this a pass.