Feathered Serpent 2012

by Junius Podrug

December 21, 2012: The fabled Feathered Serpent begins his relentless ascent out of the bowels of the earth, escaping thousands of years of torturous confinement. Controversial astrobiologist and archaeologist Caden Montez—who believes Teotihuacan is the best site on earth to find alien life forms, such as the Serpent—is on his trail. While exploring this so-called "City of the Gods"—a place so eerie it terrified even the most ferocious Aztecs—she discovers that the Serpent has broken free.Ancient Mayan priests prophesied that when the God-King returned, he would open the gates to the End Time. Together with an ancient 1000-year-old Mayan warrior—who has crossed the Gulf of Time to save humanity from extinction—the outrageous and beautiful Caden must stop him. Scientists, political leaders, and journalists who have long ridiculed Caden's theories have no one else to turn to. The Mayans' Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse is on the move, and humanity's survival hangs in the balance.

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2009

Reviews

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is no James Rollins, but it was readable and ok, ending felt rushed and somehow disappointing. Would not recommend, so many Rollins and great Matt Reilly books out there, all of which beat this, but that said the ancient history and disaster apocalypse subject matter were interesting enough to keep me reading to the end.

[Tracy Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love history books and this one gave great description of the times. But way to close in telling of an apocalypse.

[Phil Mcdonald · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is an absolute waste of time. The convoluted "plot" involves an environmental catastrophe caused by microbes releasing methane into the environment and killing the water as well as causing some unexplored mutation disease in humans. Switch from that to the ancient world where we spend the next 100 pages following some ball player around as he makes his way through life under the yoke of Quetzalcoatl (the Feathered Serpent) who turns out to be an alien. I'm not providing any spoilers here as Podrug reveals this in the first few pages and then repeats it over and over throughout the book as if he believes his readers are idiots that can't remember facts for more than a few pages. He does this with many of his so called plot points and key character traits. Repeating them over and over so we dumb backwood folks don't forget when he delivers the dramatic moments in which these facts become important. Either that or he just does it to pad what should be a short story out into a 487 page torture session.

Just when you think he can't make it worse, he does. You think the story is all about a scientist named Caden, he suddenly shifts it to a guy named Tah in ancient Mesoamerica, switching from 3rd person to 1st person narration and finally he changes the whole story into a time travel yarn WTF?!?! Worse still is the fact that he doesn't explain the appearance of a time machine except to reference his previous novel so that you then have to go read that to make sense of things. I didn't (nice try Junius).

Finally, he reduces the climax to a few pages involving a game with a skull ball and sets up his next book by leaving this one as a cliffhanger. I won't be tuning in again to find out what happens.

Most laughably, despite the title, the year 2012 does not figure in the story except as a passing reference. Could it be that the title is nothing more than a sales gimmick to lure readers? Could he possibly use such low tactics as to exploit a currently trendy hot topic just for book sales? Well he did reference his previous novel as required reading to make this book make sense and he did end this book with a cliffhanger to set up his next one so...yeah. Can I rate less than 1 star?

[Coquille Fleur · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a total Post-Apocalypse junkie, this book attracted my attention immediately. I am also a total conspiracy theory nut, as well as a believer in aliens and the whole twelfth planet theory, so this book was right up my alley. Describing this book to my co-worker brought many laughs, as it's hard to describe how one book can contain a pre-historic alien causing a methane imbalance that creates a near apocalypse that is fought by a time traveling ancient ball player, but somehow it worked. There is Aztec history and plenty of Central American foklore, shape-shifting bloodsuckers, and a ball game resembling soccer, basketball, and almost quidditch, plus alien abductions, government agency infighting, and more. I'll admit that at times this book felt like a huge info-dump and the writing was a bit like a research paper at times, hence the four stars, but the story itself worked cohesively and the end felt right. I prefer a bit more violence and hard edged-survival in an apocalypse tale, which this book verges on delivering, but doesn't really go there in the end. There was suffering going on, but the MCs all had clean water, food, even television and air travel, so don't go into reading this for a gritty PA adventure. This book ties together the whole Zachary Sitchin theory of aliens heavily influencing the Mayans and Aztecs and also takes stabs at government conspiracies and the potential for the FEMA director to gain dictatorial powers in a long term marshall-law type situation. It's a lot to cram into one book, but Podrug did it with ease. I actually really enjoyed the story of the primitive ball player and his life the most. There are some typos in this book, and at one point it says that someone "had lied" when he hadn't been fibbing, but rather had lain down. The whole lay, lie thing is a pain, but still...I'm just being picky. Feathered Serpent 2012 was an enjoyable read, overall and if you are into Sitchin and apocalypse stories, it's worth a read for sure.

[Eric Suter · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the everyone-reads-krep-sometimes department, Feathered Dragon 2012 is not the worst book I have ever read (that honor still goes to Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes) but I can't recommend it to anyone. I picked this up at a grocery store just to see how a novelist might capitalize on the 2012 nonsense but was disappointed even in that low expectation inasmuch as the actual 2012 psuedo-prophecies have precisely nothing to do with this novel. I should have realized that, perhaps, it was the publisher that was seeking to capitalize—the relative point size of the title's font should have been a dead giveaway. Indeed, I'd almost be willing to wager that the "2012" portion of the title was not the author's but was added—and emphasized—at the publisher's insistence (I can almost hear the conversation). The Mayan stuff seems grafted (and weakly at that) atop a story that is essentially Aztec in nature and could stand on its own with no reference to 2012 whatsoever. The only thing that saves the book from a one-star disaster is the Gary-Jennings-lite treatment of place and custom, especially the ball game. There were some items of interest well-told in sections. I must say, though, to the extent one has any interest in a fiction-based treatment of Aztec culture, do not stumble over this book on your way to Gary Jennings's Aztec. Despite being on of those who has written under Mr. Jennings's name for the Jennings estate, the estate's efforts have never captured the essence of the man himself.

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I enjoyed the first-person historical fiction narrative, written from the perspective of a meso-american ball player. This is only about a third of the book though. Unfortunately, the rest of the book revolves around a contrived plot involving conspiracy theories, stretched so thin as to pass far beyond 'suspension of disbelief.' And that's before we even consider the ridiculously errant science (that's so errant it can't even be called science fiction). Awful. But at least it's coherent, and I had no difficulty following along the narrative, such as it was.

Still, I didn't assume I was buying 'quality literature' when I picked it up on a whim at the used book store, and I did finish reading it.

[Christel Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised when my boyfriend brought this hoe from the library for me. I thought it would be some total quack book, all about conspiracies, since that's what he likes. Turns out, there was a lot of interesting historical information, as well as a plot that truly sucks you in. I read this in two days. O fourse, I had to, as someone had it on hold at the library, and I had to return it. The only aspect I didn't enjoy was the ending. It seemed to just be over all of a sudden, and I was hoping for a bit more closure. The author definitely left room for a sequel though! I will have to read it, if it exists?! All in all though, I was impressed with the book.

[Alice Paqman]

It never fails to surprise me that there are such wonderful imaginations out there. I love it when I can pick up a book and be surprised at what will come next. It shows that everybody has a unique way of seeing things and letting the mind grasp views that are entertaining and thrilling. ;)!

[Slingshot · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty much a waste of time. First and third person mixed. Contrived plot to fight an alien, or god, or something. The most interesting part, the world going to hell in a handbasket, was completely skipped.

And the ending says there's a sequel! That I will not be reading.

[Bobi · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise sounded interesting, but I didn't like how it was going. I only read about 50 pages and decided to stop. So, even though I put that the book was read, I really didn't read it.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great read. Interesting spin on a post-apocalyptic world. Had fun reading this one.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read especially now that the date is near.