Winged Review: James Herbert books
Vložit
- čas přidán 25. 02. 2012
- Just a quick review as it's been a while since my last one (though my actual last one got removed) taking a look at some of the books by James Herbert, a British horror writer.
There are 6 books I focus on in the order I read them:
Nobody True
Others
The Dark
Portent
Once...
Secrets of Crickley Hall - Zábava
![James Herbert - Ash [REVIEW/DISCUSSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dmJrhTJpWw4/mqdefault.jpg)
I think out of all the books The Rats Trilogy is my favourite. But in all his books I love the descriptive narrative in them that pulls the reader along for the ride. James Herbert is one of my favourite authors.
Very few of his books are bad (I can only really think of one, Once..) and it was such a shame when he died. Luckily his final book, Ash, was one of his best but The Rats will always be synonymous with James Herbet (there was a great bit in Ash where they're escaping from a burning building surrounded by rats and someone says "I could murder that guy who wrote that book about the rats"). Genius!
I have only just picked up ‘Nobody True’ and it’s actually same copy as yours in paperback, and the same cover too, and I thought it looks really good, with listening to audio samples of the book online. My copy of ‘Others’ I have it’s a slightly bigger book in height wise, and have a dark blue cover with those ghostly things flying around the cover. I haven’t got ‘The Dark’ and ‘Portent’ for myself, except my Dad has ‘Portent’ for himself, which I rather have my own copy of to be honest. I read ‘Once’ and my copy of it is the original hardback copy in all black and got dark patterns on it. And I have ‘Crickley Hall’ and it’s the same copy too, in paperback and I picked it up for my birthday this year, with ‘The Magic Cottage’ and ‘Fluke’ I had for Xmas and picked up ‘Shrine’ and also ‘Others’ too, and ‘The Jonah’ I picked up quite early on, and also ‘Haunted’ then later on like ‘The Rats’ and ‘Lair’ and I was given ‘Creed’ and I picked up ‘Moon’ a few weeks ago and ‘Nobody True’ as I said, I picked up just, and they all look really good, except a few I am not quite sure about
Yeah, that bit :/ I really can't wait. Another chapter that I really want to see on screen is the stuff in "ICE" because that was creepy
I've decided to read all of James Herbert's books in chronological order. I am now on to "The Survivor" after reading "the Rats" and "the Fog" He is a genius and one of the greatest writers of all time - not just in the horror genre. Can't wait to read the ones you have recomended here. Secrets of Crickley Hall is still my favourite :)
I have three of those six books that you have talked about there, but my Dad has Portent in a hard back edition and it is one of the first editions of the book when it first came out. Apparently he has enjoyed it, but I won't read it yet, because of the others that I have to read yet, even though I have read Once... already and I think it needs sorting out and cutting down a bit as well, and I thought it was too long to actually get going into the story and I didn't think the ending was that great. I am on Fluke at the moment, and I am really enjoying it, even though I know the story already before reading it, because of the man being reincarnated as a dog, and seen the film on TV a long while ago. The Rats I have planned to read after Fluke and the others too, and I have also chosen to read The Secret Of Crickley Hall as my Dad said it is his favourite out of the whole series of James Herbert's books, because of the WWII Storyline as well as the recent stuff, which I am really looking forward to read, and I think it is one of the best out of the recent Herbert stories before he died, as well as Ash as you said in one of the videos.
Fluke is a decent book. I did a review of the film a while ago (it should be around here somewhere) and it was a pretty decent adaptaion. It has its issues, sure, but it was still a good film. Let me know what you think of The Rats as well. Seeing as that was James Herbert's first novel it'll be interesting to see if you think it's good all these years later especially as what was shocking back in 1974 when it was released may not quite as shocking now. The Others is a very good book and was the second JH book I read (Nobody True being the first). Love Secret of Crickley Hall. Did you see the TV mini-series they made of it? Ash is amazing but it's rather large.
Liked most of Herbert's books, especially the Ash trilogy but The Jonah wasn't great, just started Crickley Hall but not yet read Once, Moon, Magic Cottage, The Spear or Portent 😎👍🏻
If I ever did a top 5 loved/hated James Herbert books list, Once, The Magic Cottage and Portent would be in worst list! Ash and Crickley Hall would in the loved list
James Herbert is probably my favourite author. The Secret of Crickley Hall is probably my favourite of his as well.
Im fan of James herbert books my favorite one the fog by James herbert and magic cottage by James herbert .
Great review of most of Jim's books. However, I am a bit puzzled as to why you never gave any of his Rats novels a mention. For me, they are THE James Herbert books, and were primarily responsible for my becoming a lifelong fan of his. Also, no mention of The Fog.
the Rats was a milestone of British horror. It was the 1st one i read at age 13, and 6 years later I'm still an avid fan :)
This is interesting. Thanks. I read JH's books in my mid teens (the mid 1980s) and like you I loved them so much I got into a run of them. Of course in those days his books were mainly the Rats Trilogy and very 'physical' sort of horror. I am personally not so into the more mystical/ghostly themes, so I haven't read many of his later books. But you have made me want to do that. Think I'll start with 'Others.'
FWIW, 'Domain' is his masterpiece (but you should read the first 2 Rats books first)
Crickley Hall was just brilliant, I agree it is horrible but it needs to be in the series, I think I know what bit made you feel sick. I felt sick too to be honest. Should be an outstanding tv series though :)
I’ve only read “Shrine” by James Herbert so far...and to be honest I ended up putting it down. It started off really good and was really interesting and creepy but in my opinion it just dragged on and on and took way too long to get to the climax of the story and I finally just put it down and decided not to continue. I’ll definitely try reading some of his other books though, as a lot of them sound very good and interesting.
Shrine was OK but would probably be one of his "OK at best" books. As you said, some great bits at the start but it doesn't keep up the momentum. Certainly check out some of his other books, I'd highly recommend The Rats, Secret of Crickly Hall, The Dark, Nobody True, Others and, most of all, the Haunted trilogy (Haunted, Ghosts of Sleath and Ash)
Hey man, thanks for getting back! :) and yes I definitely will, all of the ones you described here sound very good and I’ll definitely give them all a read once I get the chance. I’ve got “The Fog” and “Secrets of Crickley Hollow” which I’ll probably read the latter one next. “Moon” also sounds interesting.
I agree the fog was very good and I absolutely loved '48 I've re read that almost as many times as rats it's just non stop breathless reading.
I'm herbert fan as well and really enjoyed Crickley Hall. Have you read Sepulchre, it's really good. I'm currently reading Haunted.
Though I only started yesterday, really good, very atmospheric.
read the Rats series and 48. His older stuff is the best. The newer stuff is too generic. Too much like all the others. Thankfully, my father started me off on the older ones when I was younger.
For me, it's The Rats trilogy, The Fog and The Survivor (which he probably didn't write). These are brilliant novels and the rest of them are pretty much unreadable in contrast.
There's something really appealing about Herbert to me. I really liked The Dark.
Would you tell me what Herbert book is the longest?
kevdawg55 Of the ones I've read Ash would probably be the longest. The Secret of Crickly Hall would be a close second.
Have you d the shrine?
what did you think of the Crikley Hall series?
Have you read the Fog. That was a really good one.
I've got it but not got round to reading it yet. From the blurb, it sounds very similar to The Dark
The Dark is an amazing book but I thought the ending was a bit weak.
your comments about Once were completely out of order too get into the mind set of tom kindred it had to go into his love of the wood he was working with and his love of producing a one off masterpiece this book was awesome yes it's a battle of good over evil but it's also a battle of land over money the wontan distruction of the fairy kingdom to build an amusement park this book was brilliant i thought you was going to say about some of his earleir books like fluke or the jonah they are a bit of kilter
Goffrey Mason I have read Fluke but did a review of the film adaptation (it's around here somewhere) as it was pretty good considering how adaptations usually come out. I have done other videos of JH books (The Rats trilogy, Haunted trilogy and another of random books) so see what you think of those. I have got The Jonah but I haven't read it. I I finished a book I was reading yesterday so will read The Jonah next. As far as Once goes, from what I remember of the book (it was probably about 4 or years ago that I read it) I just found it a bit dull and drawn out. I get what you mean about the plot and that side of things was OK but the book was far too descriptive of the environment. Books can portray someone's love for something without having to spend pages describing every little detail about it that we don't need to know. It's probably just my personal taste, I don't like it when books spend ages describing what someone's wearing when it doesn't really matter, but someone that likes that or isn't bothered by it would enjoy Once.
This guy clearly is out of his comfort zone reading Herbert and his works, dipping your toe into something different is fine, only if you're prepared. I only read horror and its ilk, So i would never venture beyond this as it wouldn't appeal to me and my views wouldn't be complimentary. Once is a superb book and to give up on a first attempt tells you its not your niche, leave it be rather than condemn it. And the flippant comments on Portent, which is i agree one of his lesser novels,, is quite rude and arrogant. If you dont care for it and have forgotten the plot and lost the book, then do not bash it for an upload.
James Herbert was one of our, if not the greatest genre writer of the time. A little respect please .
Out of my comfort zone? I mention 6 books in the video and yet you haven't said anything about the 4 I actually liked, just focused on the 2 that I didn't. James Herbert is one of my favourite authors and has been for a long time; I have nothing but respect for him and his work. This is an old video (nearly 10 years) but since then I've read every novel he wrote. Yes, there are some I don't like but if I came across as being rude and arrogant with my comments about Portent then that's my bad. I've done a few other videos on James Herbert books (like The Rats trilogy and Haunted trilogy) so maybe check those out and let me know what you think
Read "Rats" and the sequels now !! They are classic Herbert and are the books that everything else he has written should be judged.