The Twelve by William Gladstone *Review*

How many of you have read this novel by William Gladstone?

The Twelve is an extraordinary and unforgettable novel about a most unusual and unsuspecting hero. As a child, Max lives in a world of colors and numbers, not speaking until the age of six. As an adult Max ventures on a journey of destiny to discover the secret behind the ancient Mayan prophecy about the "end of time," foretold to occur December 21, 2012. At fifteen years old, Max has a near-death experience during which he has a vision that reveals the names of twelve unique individuals. Max's voyage of discovery begins, as he strives to uncover the identities and roles of the twelve individuals he will meet during his journey toward truth. All of The Twelve seem connected, and all of them are important to what will happen at the exact moment the world as we know it will end.

If you have read this book, please let me know what you thought of it. I have never read a book like this before and I was wondering if this is the authors writing style on all of his books. I found it to read almost like a non fiction book with the narrative style, but I also found it to be so random it was almost like reading Mad Libs, you know, those games where you input a noun or adjective and they put your words into a story that turns out to be quite humorous?

In this novel Max has a near death experience that reveals to him 12 names, except he can't remember them. He goes through life and many years later is introduced to someone whom he recognizes as the first of the names. Sometimes he meets two of the names in quick succession and other times he goes 8 years or more before encountering one of them. They seem to have nothing in common. He can't figure out a link between them he just knows they are important to him in some way.

Through the years Max has many jobs/careers. Some of these names offer him a job or a postion on the board even though he has little or no experience. He travels the world and coincidentally meets the rest of the names he had been revealed to in the past. I won't tell you what their link is. For that you will have to read the book to find out. I hate giving away to much of the book whether I liked it or not.

And I didn't, by the way.