โ Scribed by Jasper Kent
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
**Aleksandr made a silent promise to the Lord. God would deliver him - would deliver Russia - and he would make Russia into the country that the Almighty wanted it to be. He would be delivered from the destruction that wasteth at noonday, and from the pestilence that walketh in darkness - the terror by night...
**
1825, and Russia has been at peace for a decade. Bonaparte is long dead and the threat of invasion is no more. For Colonel Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, life is calm. The French have been defeated, as have the twelve monstrous creatures he once fought alongside - and then against - all those years before. His duty is still to his tsar, Aleksandr the First, but today the enemy is merely human.
But Aleksandr knows he can never be at peace. He is well aware of the uprising fomenting within his own army, but his true fear is of something far more terrible - something that threatens to bring damnation down upon him, his family and his country. Aleksandr cannot forget a promise: a promise sealed in blood ... and broken a hundred years before.
Now the victim of the Romanovs' betrayal has returned to demand what is his. The knowledge chills Aleksandr's very soul. And for Aleksei, it seems the vile pestilence that once threatened all he held dear has returned, thirteen years later...
Second in a projected quintet, this impressive historical-horror novel continues the action of Kent's Twelve (2010), in which Russian secret agent Aleksei Danilov defeated a band of vampires who were concealing their bloody rampage in the social chaos during Napoleon's 1812 invasion. Now a colonel in the Russian army, Aleksei has infiltrated a club of would-be revolutionaries who threaten the life of czar Aleksandr. Though sometimes verbose and melodramatic, this tale is strong enough to earn its length and passion. In particular, the focus deftly shifts between viewpoints to increase tension: as Aleksei's crafty human nemesis manipulates events, Aleksandr idly wonders who owns the yacht anchored near his vacation palace, and the master vampire rests aboard in his coffin and dreams of possessing all of Russia. Notably widening the first novel's scope, this book is hugely ambitious and largely successful. (Feb.)
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Starred Review Pyr has released the American edition of the second novel in Kent's Danilov quintet. Thirteen Years Later is laid against the events leading up to the Dekabrist revolution in December 1825. For 13 years Russia has been at nominal peace. But a number of young officers who visited France during its Bonapartist years now dream of freeing Russia by forcing a constitution on the Autocrat. Czar Alexander, a reformer in his youth, now clings more tightly to his power and his vision of Holy Russia. But his greater fear is that a promise made and broken by Peter the Great himself will destroy him, his dynasty, and his country. Colonel Alexei Danilov, an irregular officer in Twelve (2009), is now an internal security officer'a spy'for the czar. As such, he is a member of one of the reformist societies. But as his son, Dimitry, is about to start his military service, Alexei discovers that Dimitry is involved'for real'with the reformers. Worse, he discovers that the broken promise of Peter the Great was made to the Oprichniki, the vampires Danilov ended up fighting 13 years earlier. Kent has magically blended history, folklore, and storytelling to produce a superb account of the Dekabrist revolt. Thirteen Years Later should please fans of all three. The third in the series (The Third Section) is set during the Crimean War, and expected to exercise the same fascination. --Frieda Murray
Library : Fantasy
Universes : The Danilov Quintet [02]
Formats : EPUB
ISBN : 9780553819595
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