Gary Jennings' Apocalypse 2012: A Novel Book

I hate to condemn books, because I understand that many people put a lot of time and effort into getting one into print and onto the shelf. But I feel very sorry for them in this instance; Apocalypse 2012 was a 410-page waste.

Although it is attributed to Gary Jennings, this is a book written and published posthumously, a full decade after his death, with Robert Gleason and Junius Podrug as contributing authors/editors.

So, my complaints. Firstly, this book is full of plot holes, inconsistencies, and grammatical errors. I've read much better from first-time, self-published authors. Secondly, despite the bold use of "apocalypse" in the title, very little happens. Much of the book revolves around main character Coyotl wandering through cities and landscapes with no real focus. There are nebulous hints of an important intersection between secret manuscripts, mythology, and the infamous Mayan Calendar, but nothing ever materializes. (I suspect the "important intersection" is the basis for the sequel, The 2012 Codex, which looks equally unimpressive). When, at long last, an action scene or something interesting does come along, the author(s) have an uncanny ability to suck the excitement from it and bore the reader. For example, as a city burns and tides of civilization shift, the author(s) spend nearly two pages naming items looted; it reads like a shopping list, with as much thrill and suspense as that suggests.

After reading this book, I could also write a 50-page dissertation on period loincloths, which is a lot more than I needed to know about ancient underwear. And in the category of the unwanted and unnecessary, there are also two unfortunate sexual scenes, both flat but fairly lurid, one bordering on pornographic. The apparent attempt to spice things up succeeds only in degrading what little plot they involve.

The characterizations are poor, as well, with little to no development. One modern couple is described as a Chihuahuan Mexican woman of pure Aztec descent (a geneology that, arguably, doesn't even exist) and a West Virginia moonshiner. They form a marriage that stretches credulity (how, for instance, would such a couple meet? those details are handily avoided). Also of interest, those characters of questionable lineage have a daughter who is credited with killing a brown bear with a shotgun at age 12. I find this an especially interesting feat since - age and weaponry aside - the range of brown bears doesn't come within a thousand miles of West Virginia. Equally unfortunate is the fact that most of the other characters are not even sketched as well as that, just a trail of blank faces and almost non-existent personas.

I do not enjoy saying it, but this sad example of literature should be left alone if you happen to run across it. I recommend it to no one, and that is an absolute first for me.