2012

The War for Souls

By: Whitley Strieber

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

December 21, 2012, may be one of the most watched dates in history. Every 26,000 years, earth lines up with the exact center of our galaxy. At 11:11 on December 21, 2012, this event happens again, and the ancient Maya calculated that it would mark the end, not only of this age, but of human consciousness as we know it.

But what will actually happen? The end of the world? A new age for mankind? Nothing? The last time this happened, Cro-Magnon man suddenly began creating great art in the caves of southern France, which to this day remains one of the most inexplicable changes in human history. Now Whitley Strieber explores 2012 in a towering work of fiction that will astound readers with its truly new insights and a riveting roller-coaster ride of a story.

A mysterious alien presence unexpectedly bursts out of sacred sites all over the world and begins to rip human souls from their bodies, plunging the world into a chaos it has never before known. Courage meets cowardice; loyalty meets betrayal as an entire world struggles to survive this incredible end-all war. Heroes emerge, villains reveal themselves, and in the end, something completely new and unexpected happens that at once lifts the fictional characters into a new life and sounds a haunting real-world warning for the future.

©2007 Whitley Strieber (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[B]lends equal parts science fiction thriller, supernatural horror, and provocative spiritual speculation....wildly entertaining." (Publishers Weekly)
"Immensely entertaining, and it's optioned for a big, splashy, FX-laden movie." (Booklist)

From A Strieber Noob...I really Liked this book

I have to say that despite the previous reviews that panned this book, I really enjoyed listening to it. I retract that, I actually didn't like listening to it, because of the narrator. he almost ruined it for me. but it was an interesting read. It did have a mess-load of concepts all mushed into one story: aliens, the multiverse, ancient ruins, portals, political conspiracy, reincarnation, spirit possession, slavery, the end of days, you name it. So much so, that I almost got lost in the soup myself, but I replayed some of the passages and it pulled all together for me by the end. Having recently accepted my agnosticism (?), I came away believing in nothing and everything. Aliens, yeah I can believe it, dragons, ghosts, bigfoot, fairies, yeah them too (via the stargate/multiverse theory, of course ). It would be cool, if it were all true.

not at his best

like others I am a big fan of this author and have read and followed his work for many years but this was a disappointment - I think there was a conceptual possiblity but he dropped the ball - throughout there were nuggets that were certainly interesting if one follows the various in's and out's of his thinking and the directions he's told us his fans that he has taken - this book is one possiblity but when he stays closer to the known "myth" he does better - here he strayed too far and with three worlds the reader/listener gets easily lost in keeping track of characters no matter their overlap - all this said it did offer some insight into the mind of the writer and that was worth it - so if a Streiber fan it's a must read but don't have your expectations too high

A slow start, but an excellent read!

At first I was not sure how well I was going to like the book. The slow was rather a slow start and I must admit that the first 2 chapters were quite boring. However as the book progressed I felt that perhaps the author did that on purpose to outline how the 2-moon world was a slower one in developing. In retrospect, this makes the most sense. I've always liked books about alternate worlds and realities, and this one is among my favorites now. I also like books dealing with other intelligent beings and this one fits the bill. In some ways it reminds me of V, the NBC mini-series in the early 80's. The major difference of course was that those reptiles were from space, rather than from our own planet. All in all, a good read and worth recommending to others.

Gross

I like alien invasion tales but I was put off by the gruesome depiction of torture, castration and death. I gave up halfway through. I just don't want those images in my conciousness.

NOT for Strieber Fans

I have been reading Whitley Strieber's books for 35 years when I first picked up a copy of "The Wolfen". I have followed him through fascinating books such as "The Hunger", my personal favorite "Billy", and the Lilith vampire series. I found his "Communion" novels fascinating and enjoyed his return to fiction with "The Grays". Thus I had high hopes for "2012". It is a mess.

"2012" is a tale of parallel universes with various characters moving from world to world, changing names and allegiance, all serving no real purpose. Following a cohesive story line is nearly impossible. It's as if the author took every cliche he could think of, tossed them in a hat, and picked a new theme for each chapter. Therefore we are presented with a tale of aliens, zombies, mutilations, psychics, right wing conspiracy, auto-writing, Mayan myth, religious ideology, ecology, ghosts, and cannibalism.

I really wanted to like this book, but poor editing and improper tenses make the non-sensical plot hard to find. One of the charecters in the book is writing a novel because he needs "a book that sells in order to put food on the table." That book is finished by his adolessent son. One wonders if this is too close to the truth for "2012 the War for Souls"

Alas, I was hoping for more.

I like buying audiobooks that have bad reviews just so I can disagree. And some of the bad reviews for this book are quite harsh. But in the end, I tried my best to see something that just wasn't there. The premise for the story could have been so much better if lizards weren't involved. The idea of parallel universes hasn't been done that well in the past, and still hasn't. This book goes back and fourth and even though you do know who is speaking, it is too disjointed and unclear. Perhaps it would work as a movie, I don't know.
But the whole idea of the book had very little to relate to the doomsday theory of 2012. This was just implemented as a recognition of people starting to take notice of the potential this theory has. The actual story of this book would read exactly the same if it were situated in any time period.
I thought this would be an interesting doomsday story, like "One Second After" or "the Road". but it wasn't. It had a much stronger focus on Science Fiction. So if you like that sort of thing, fine. But for me, as much as I tried, this book didn't work.
The only saving grace was the narrator, the veteran of the audiobook world, "Joe Barrett". He never disappoints with a vast array of tone, accents, characters and clarity of voice. Joe is the consummate professional, I've listened to his other work and it is clear he was born to be a story teller.

Meh...

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't finish this book. Rarely do I ever stop listening to a book, but this was a rough one. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that the author actually took the time to write it (hence the first star of my review). Also, the concept was quasi-interesting, but it was a little too disconnected for me (hence the second star).

Other than that, I had to pull the rip-cord about halfway into the story before I found myself throttling my iPod (three cheers for product placement...I'll take my check now Apple).

Try listening to Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson instead.

Rambling.

I'm so easy to please. And yet this book did not please me. It's like a fantasy/sci-fi/horror "theory of everything." And if that sounds kind of interesting to you (as it does to me), believe me, it's not. It's incoherent.

Disappointing Nonsense

First of all, I'd like to state that I'm a huge fan of Whitley Strieber and have enjoyed all of his past work. That being said, 2012 is the most ridiculous, un-entertaining piece of work that I've listened to in my many years as an audible subscriber. The concept is great, and near the middle of the book it's slightly entertaining but not only does it take some time to get there, the ending is, well, silly. Whitley writes better journal posts than this - what gives?

Don't waste your credit on thi

After listening to "The Grays" by Whitley Strieber, I was very excited to listen to another of his books but I was greatly disappointed by this novel. My biggest complaint is that this book has too many sci-fi elements that on their own or even put two of them together would have worked fine but with parallel dimensions, soul stealing, snake people, and Mayan calendars mixed together this story is a giant stew of crap.

Also, none of the character's with the exception of General North are not likable or relatable and didn't care if they lived or died.