The second volume in the Danilov Quintet allows us to explore further (following TWELVE) Russia in the 1820s, after the death of Bonaparte. Colonel Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov is a soldier who has fought the Napoleonic wars and confronted monsters of the most inhuman kind, and peace is again about to be disturbed. A powerful historical background proves a perfect setting for horror of the most visceral kind and this series will certainly grow in popularity with every successive volume.

Sarah Broadhurst's view...

Interweaving brilliantly historical fiction, fantasy and alternative history this is the second novel from the author of Twelve. Although Thirteen Years Later features the same protagonist, Aleksei it's not essential to read Twelve first. Like the earlier one there is some excellent characterisation, good pace and the style of writing is very absorbing and quickly takes up your undivided attention as the psychological twists twist you into ever tighter knots before finally drawing the threads together into a satisying conclusion.

Comparison: Dan Simmons, Elizabeth Kostova, Naomi Novik.

Comparison: Elizabeth Kastova, Naomi Novik, Sergei Lukyanenko
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Synopsis

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...

About the Author

Jasper Kent was born in Worcestershire, England in 1968. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and went on to study Natural Sciences at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, specialising in physics. Jasper has spent almost twenty years working as a software engineer in the UK and in Europe, whilst also working on writing both fiction and music. In that time, he has produced the novels Twelve, Thirteen Years Later,  Yours Etc., Mr Sunday  and Sifr, as well as co-writing several musicals, including The Promised Land and Remember! Remember! He currently lives in Brighton, with eight rats called Manjula, Lurleen, Alecto, Nyssa, Isolde, Polly, Messalina and Maude, and a person called Helen. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation