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The Twelve Children Of Paris (2012)

by Tim Willocks(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0224097458 (ISBN13: 9780224097451)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Jonathan Cape

series

Tannhauser Trilogy

review 1: I've waited years for this,the return of Matthias Tannhauser. If I'd lived in the middle ages the last thing I'd want to do is upset this one man army but some people never learn. What I love about Tim Willocks books is not just the violence,and believe me there's loads of it,it's the way he conjurs up the sights and smells of the world he describes. This isn't your usual wham,bam historical romp. It's so much more than that. I loved it so much,if I hadn't had a queue of people waiting to read it I'd have gone back to the beginning and started again. Only have five years to wait for the third part now.
review 2: I'm really conflicted about this one. I loved The Religion, and this sequel has many of its good qualities -- a macabre sense of humor, memorable, surp... morerising characters, and a keen sense of period values and morals. The premise -- that Mattias becomes increasingly encumbered by brave, precocious, endangered children in his quest to navigate the labyrinth of Paris and rescue his very pregnant wife -- is compelling, sometimes hilarious, and touching without being overly sentimental. The story is complex and fascinating, but by the halfway point of the novel, the presentation of Mattias as an unstoppable killing machine -- and the obsession with anatomically detailing each killing thrust and blow he delivers -- begins to feel like a first-person-shooter video game more than a novel. Willocks also quickly abandons his initial discussion of the political complexities of the religious power struggle in France, and the intersection of politics and religion was one of the things that made The Religion such a intelligent read. The fact that he has no real moral confrontation with his actual enemies and must chiefly overcome a series of confrontations with nameless armed companies (and the very occasional moment of self-loathing), also adds to the video-game feel of the novel's second half. The secondary characters are much more interesting, although they, too, behave in what feels like pretty programmed ways once they've committed themselves to Mattias's cause. I finished the novel more from a sense of duty -- and a curiosity about which characters would survive and which would not -- than from real enjoyment. less

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