12•21

12·21 by Dustin Thomason

Back in 2004 Dustin Thomason co-wrote a book with Ian Caldwell called The Rule of Four. It was very popular and stayed at the top of the NYT Bestseller list for months. I read it, but wasn't that impressed. It was a decent book, but it wasn't the second coming of The Da Vinci Code some seemed to think it was. Now, nearly nine years later, Thomason has written his second book, this one by himself.

If you're one of those people who doesn't have anything on their calendar scheduled after December 21, 2012 or who is maxing out their credit cards because they don't believe they're ultimately going to have to pay it back thanks to the Mayans, than this book is right up your alley. Most people know by now that they Mayan calendar ends on 12/21/12. Something will cause the polarity of the earth two reverse and life as we know it will end. 

When 12·21 begins, two weeks prior to that date, two things enter the United States undetected: the first is an ancient Mayan codex that had been looted from a previously undiscovered Mayan temple in Guatemala and was smuggled into the States in order to be sold. The second is a disease--brought in unknowingly by the same Guatemalan man looking to strike it rich with the codex, who was infected by the disease while at the ancient temple site.

The disease is similar to mad cow disease in that it affects the neurological system and has no known cure, but instead of being spread through the consumption of tainted meat, this disease spreads like a common cold. The disease takes only days to incapacitate its host and is almost always fatal.

Dr. Gabe Stanton is a specialist with the CDC whose career has been spent trying to find a cure for mad cow and other diseases known as "prion diseases." When this knew variant of the disease starts to spread Gabe finds himself at the forefront of the efforts to track down where it originated from and hopefully be able to discover its cure.

I'm pretty lukewarm about 12·21. It was interesting and fun to read, but I was unsatisfied with the ending. My recommendation would be to wait till after the real 12·21 to read it. If our days are numbered, don't waste your time with it, but if they're not, and we're all still here the morning of the 22nd, then give it a try.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆