48 - James Herbert

Advantages: Very Gripping, good descriptions
Disadvantages: Hours of sleep lost!

JAMES HERBERT - '48 ------------------------------- James Herbert has been writing horror fiction for many years now, with such classics as "the Rats" and "Haunted" to name just a couple, these books have pushed him to the forefront of British horror and rightly so. Up until recently I didn't know much about Herbert as I was stuck in a bit of a rut, where I would want to read something, but not know of any good authors, seeing as I had already ...
...ones, I felt like something different, so I picked up my dads copy of Herbert's "Nobody True" and have since read about six of his books over the course of a couple of weeks. So after a few novels I had started to realise that I had found a writer that did horror better than most, so that brings us up to date. This book was first released into the world in 1996, and is also only Herbert's 17th Novel, which is quite surprising since he has been ... Read review

Advantages: Tense, action packed, thought provoking, imaginative, fascinating absobing read.
Disadvantages: Left me wanting more.

...I thoroughly enjoyed reading 48. It is well written and the pace fast enough for me not to want to put the book down. I read it in four late night sessions and only that many because I was too tired to stay awake. It isn’t a horror book in the same sense of some of his previous novels, The Lair, The Rats and The Fog but it is horrifically fascinating because you know that it isn’t so far fetched and that some time in the future it may ...
...prejudice. The ending is great, just as action packed as the rest of the book and left me wanting a follow up. If you like a thought provoking packed with action and tension read then I highly recommend 48. You can find it on Amazon for only £4.79. ... Read review

Advantages: Incrdibly easy to read, and less supernatural than his other books
Disadvantages: Disturbing scenarios... what he does best!

I hope to do this James Herbert review more justicve than I did his last! I encountered this book in the none-to-glamorous venue of my local Post Office. Seeing that it was only £2.95, I thought, why not? I had enjoyed the last Herbert book I had read, and I had heard elsewhere that he had received good reviews for some of his other books, which I am yet to read. '48 is based three years after the end of World War II, but it didn't end in the way ...
...a slightly premature end by Hitler, who through desperation to win the war at any costs unleashed a chemical weapon. This chemical weapon back fired though, as it killed everyone. Well.... not quite everyone. Would be a short book then, wouldn't it?! The chemical weapon attacks the blood, and depending on your blood type, you either die a quick, painful death as everything within you ceases working due to the blood thickening, or if you're unlucky, ... Read review

Advantages: action, adventure, description
Disadvantages: shallow, two dimensional characters, unoriginal, confusing at times

I was looking for something to read, anything really, it being the summer holidays there's not a lot to do, and so I stumbled across James Herbert's '48 at my local market book store; a snip at 95p. I picked it up and examined the cover. The first thing I noticed was that the author's name was marginally larger than the title of the book indicating that this author had written several well respected books before this one. Upon further research Herbert ...
...pushing him right up to number one. I read the blurb, phrases in bold which read 'THE CHASE IS ON', 'STOP AND YOU DIE' and 'IT'LL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY'. Promising. I brought it and got tucked in straight away. PLOT The first page pulls you straight in at the deep end, being written in the first person narrative (I, me), nothing of the central characters head is left unturned so you can really get to know the character inside out and relate to him, ... Read review

Advantages: Good read, greate departure of usual Herbert fiction.
Disadvantages: To some extent you keep expecting anti-German sentiments to come out.

...Herbert is renowned for. 48 is based in, yes you've got it, London in 1948, lets just say the Allies didnt entirely win the war because of Hitler unleashing the Blood Death, a typr of biological germfare. The main character Hoke survives along with a small minority who are unaffected because they have an immune blood type. Hoke meets up with several other survivors who all have one main aim. That is to escape the mad clutches of Sir Max Hubble, ...
...that his own life can be saved by the transfusion of immune blood into his own. Hoke and his companions , one of whom is a German are pursued by Hubble and his cohorts, betrayed at one point they escape with the help of a hapless German bomber who appear to think the war is still happening. Hoke, however has his own reasons for staying in London which you find out throughout the book. It finally culminates with a showdown at the tower of London and ... Read review