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jinni's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
navardareads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
angemc21's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Alright in the middle but you have to plough through the end!
mike_brough's review against another edition
3.0
Hokum. Mostly well-enough written but:
a. The portrayal of the British Royal family was clumsily handled.
b. The romance was straight from a Mills & Boon paperback.
c. The protaganist is an annoying b@st@rd.
But, most importantly of all in a horror novel, especially one involving ghosts and evil entities, I was never actually scared.
a. The portrayal of the British Royal family was clumsily handled.
b. The romance was straight from a Mills & Boon paperback.
c. The protaganist is an annoying b@st@rd.
But, most importantly of all in a horror novel, especially one involving ghosts and evil entities, I was never actually scared.
fragwai's review against another edition
5.0
He always keeps me hooked from the very beginning. He really is a fantastic horror writer.
rosekk's review against another edition
1.0
I've really liked some of James Herbert's books. The first one I read really appealed to me, so I went through a phase where I'd pick up every book I found of his in charity shops. Some of those purchases have been well worth it. Some have not. This is definitely one of the latter.
It feels as though he's forgotten how to write, or gotten lazy. I'm sure some of his earlier work had better prose. Everything in this was over described, with pointless tangents that added no flavour to the story. The dialogue clunky, with jumps that bore no resemblance to the flow of real speech, and odd affectations that failed to bring across the characters' natures. The characters themselves were flat and unlikable. David Ash didn't appeal much to me in the first book, and though he's a bit more humble in this one, his nature hasn't improved enough to make me really like him. He still feels a bit too much like he was designed to seem cool to teen boys in the 90s. The main female (the love interest), is perfectly OK in context, but annoying when considered as a character; she's brainy (as showcased by her job, but nothing she ever does or says), and is somehow supposed to be sexy and demure all at once: virginal, in spite of being given a colourful sexual history. Again, she seems designed to appeal to an immature, male (straight) audience, with no effort to make her realistic. Perhaps the most annoying thing (which I assume is what made it 'contraversial' at time of publication), is the story's use of real-life people and events (mainly political leaders of the most vicious stripe, violent but unexplained events, and a very negative/accusatory version of the British Royal Family). I would have been OK with that, but the real-life events were used purely for shock value, and not handled with any kind of sensitivity or respect. Likewise, the people were name-dropped for similar reasons, with no real attempt to either make them feel like real people or turn them into larger-than-life versions which would have been interesting. The global conspiracy they were meant to be part of never made much sense. The supernatural/horror element also didn't link particularly well with the real-world political stuff (other than that it meant gory things happened to bad people), so none of the real-world stuff actually heightened the tension; in fact, the ill-fitting mash of thriller and eerie horror worsened both. I managed to read a 600+ page book in a day, because I read the first 200 pages properly, and gave up and skim-read the rest. I slowed whenever the book seemed like it was picking up or getting to an interesting bit, and read properly until I lost my patience with it again.
The book was not all bad, though. This book referenced one of Herbert's earlier (far better) series, and I appreciated the Easter Egg. I was also somewhat invested in the horror element of the story. Although it was fairly standard haunted-castle fair, and I could predict the broader sweeps of the plot, I was interested enough in seeing how the detail played out. I just wasn't interested enough to tolerate the stuff I didn't like.
Overall, there were elements of a good story buried among dodgy writing, frustrating characters and a mis-matched plot.
It feels as though he's forgotten how to write, or gotten lazy. I'm sure some of his earlier work had better prose. Everything in this was over described, with pointless tangents that added no flavour to the story. The dialogue clunky, with jumps that bore no resemblance to the flow of real speech, and odd affectations that failed to bring across the characters' natures. The characters themselves were flat and unlikable. David Ash didn't appeal much to me in the first book, and though he's a bit more humble in this one, his nature hasn't improved enough to make me really like him. He still feels a bit too much like he was designed to seem cool to teen boys in the 90s. The main female (the love interest), is perfectly OK in context, but annoying when considered as a character; she's brainy (as showcased by her job, but nothing she ever does or says), and is somehow supposed to be sexy and demure all at once: virginal, in spite of being given a colourful sexual history. Again, she seems designed to appeal to an immature, male (straight) audience, with no effort to make her realistic. Perhaps the most annoying thing (which I assume is what made it 'contraversial' at time of publication), is the story's use of real-life people and events (mainly political leaders of the most vicious stripe, violent but unexplained events, and a very negative/accusatory version of the British Royal Family). I would have been OK with that, but the real-life events were used purely for shock value, and not handled with any kind of sensitivity or respect. Likewise, the people were name-dropped for similar reasons, with no real attempt to either make them feel like real people or turn them into larger-than-life versions which would have been interesting. The global conspiracy they were meant to be part of never made much sense. The supernatural/horror element also didn't link particularly well with the real-world political stuff (other than that it meant gory things happened to bad people), so none of the real-world stuff actually heightened the tension; in fact, the ill-fitting mash of thriller and eerie horror worsened both. I managed to read a 600+ page book in a day, because I read the first 200 pages properly, and gave up and skim-read the rest. I slowed whenever the book seemed like it was picking up or getting to an interesting bit, and read properly until I lost my patience with it again.
The book was not all bad, though. This book referenced one of Herbert's earlier (far better) series, and I appreciated the Easter Egg. I was also somewhat invested in the horror element of the story. Although it was fairly standard haunted-castle fair, and I could predict the broader sweeps of the plot, I was interested enough in seeing how the detail played out. I just wasn't interested enough to tolerate the stuff I didn't like.
Overall, there were elements of a good story buried among dodgy writing, frustrating characters and a mis-matched plot.
tarrant's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent horror that probably touches on every phobia and conspiracy theory.
skusaroo's review against another edition
1.0
This is certainly not my first horror novel rodeo, not even the first Herbert novel I have read. Despite putting it down after two hundred pages for around six or seven months, I picked it up again and power-read the last five hundred pages.
It strikes me as abhorrently lazy work, yet not for lack of trying. It's lacking in imagination, half of its content being some torrid fantasy of a newspaper editor in which every big celebrity story of the last hundred years is under a single roof, the other half a cliched continuation of the David Ash story. The previous novels were far better, this one having no sympathy and only a mild awareness of Ash's history - repeated to us constantly in similar tones throughout - "I've lost everyone I love, I can't lose Delphine" being repeated as though a mnemonic device almost every twenty pages, together with his simple history with Kate.
To everyone who read this but not the other books: the instant love-at-first-sight bs is in the other books, but was really lazily explained in this one, the others employed a gradual approach to love whilst Delphine was as easy as anything.
A shame this was Herbert's last attempt, he'd clearly written it having only read newspapers. I would suggest any other book of his.
It strikes me as abhorrently lazy work, yet not for lack of trying. It's lacking in imagination, half of its content being some torrid fantasy of a newspaper editor in which every big celebrity story of the last hundred years is under a single roof, the other half a cliched continuation of the David Ash story. The previous novels were far better, this one having no sympathy and only a mild awareness of Ash's history - repeated to us constantly in similar tones throughout - "I've lost everyone I love, I can't lose Delphine" being repeated as though a mnemonic device almost every twenty pages, together with his simple history with Kate.
To everyone who read this but not the other books: the instant love-at-first-sight bs is in the other books, but was really lazily explained in this one, the others employed a gradual approach to love whilst Delphine was as easy as anything.
A shame this was Herbert's last attempt, he'd clearly written it having only read newspapers. I would suggest any other book of his.
linzm's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75