... Others being his most recent book, but he has written well over 20 books since the early 80s.
Well I am ashamed in leaving this book unread for so long. After starting it last week, I have now finished it, awe-struck. I wasnt all that sure when I started it. The first chapter was a little ... Read review
A book that starts in Hell has got to be expertly paced, and no-one has ever accused ... more
British King of Horror James Herbert of lacking any of those skills. Hardly has a damned soul agreed to an angelic offer he cannot refuse than Nicholas Dismas is li...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A book that starts in Hell has got to be expertly paced, and no-one has ever accused ... more
British King of Horror James Herbert of lacking any of those skills. Hardly has a damned soul agreed to an angelic offer he cannot refuse than Nicholas Dismas is li...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A book that starts in Hell has got to be expertly paced, and no-one ever accused James ... more
Herbert, the British King of Horror, of lacking any of those skills. Hardly has a damned soul agreed to an angelic offer he cannot refuse than Nicholas Dismas is l...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A book that starts in Hell has got to be expertly paced, and no-one has ever accused ... more
British King of Horror James Herbert of lacking any of those skills. Hardly has a damned soul agreed to an angelic offer he cannot refuse than Nicholas Dismas is li...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Will keep you turning the pages, very indepth, a true horror as its based on fact Disadvantages: Very in depth, keep you up all night, youll be sleeping with the lights on
...king of horror has written. Others being his most recent book, but he has written well over 20 books since the early 80s.
Well I am ashamed in leaving this book unread for so long. After starting it last week, I have now finished it, awe-struck. I wasnt all that sure when I started it. The first chapter was a little weird, starting in fact in what I would call Hell. This first chapter describes a man, a condemned man at that, ... ...the pain this man is in. His remorse, his pity, his repentance in what he did in his previous life. His man, his identity unknown was filled with dread. He didnt know how long he'd been there for, how long he was going to bed there for, but you can almost, almost hear him scream. His man was visited by two figures and after consideration, careful thought and probably spitefulness, gave his pitiful man his judgement.
I have had this book for about 6 mths believe it or not, sitting on my bookshelf, waiting, wanting to be read. I picked it up in a cheap book shop intending to start reading it as soon as I got it home. I'm not sure why but it got pushed to the back and in front came a few books in which I had read some good opinions, on Dooyoo ( Yes I am a user of both sites :-) ). Due out in the next few months, is the next book in the long line of books that the king of horror has written. Others being his most recent book, but he has written well over 20 books since the early 80s.
Well I am ashamed in leaving this book unread for so long. After starting it last week, I have now finished it, awe-struck. I wasnt all that sure when I started it. The first chapter was a little weird, starting in fact in what I would call Hell. This first chapter describes a man, a condemned man at that, within the reaches of Hell itself. You can almost feel the pain this man is in. His remorse, his pity, his repentance in what he did in his previous life. His man, his identity unknown was filled with dread. He didnt know how long he'd been there for, how long he was going to bed there for, but you can almost, almost hear him scream. His man was visited by two figures and after consideration, careful thought and probably spitefulness, gave his pitiful man his judgement.
In the second chapter and there after there is a great change in the book. You are thrown from Hell into the modern day world, into the life of Nick Dismas. Dis ( as his friends call him) worked as a Private Investigator. Learning the tricks of the trade from the dark side of the neighbourhood, Dis set up his own business with three others, Henry, Philo and Ida. These associates became very dear friends to Dis, even through his crippling disabilities. I shall not tell you what sort of disability Dis has, but believe you me James Herbert will tell you all.
Dis worked for many years as a private Investigator, the usual mundane stuff. Wives wanting to catch their unfaithful husbands, husbands who wanted to catch their wives being unfaithful. Repossesion work, whether it was houses, flats or cars. Missing persons ...Missing persons, it was this that was too change Mr Dismas's life ..forever. One morning a lady, Shelly Ripstone came into the office imploring him to take on a case of her missing son. Easy enough he thought. Shelly had just lost her husband, he died a few week previously. She wanted to find her missing son which was taken away from her after she gave birth. Shelly told Dis that she had a very strong feeling that her son wasn't dead, like the doctors had told her, but alive somewhere. Shelly also went on to tell him that she had even seen a spiritualist, Louise Broomfield. Louise had even confirmed that her son was calling out to Louise, pleading with her to find him. Was Louise leading Shelly astray? Or did she pick up on something? Dis was a little puzzled by all this. Why would a women who gave birth to a child who died after child birth, why is she looking for him?
After a few false starts and quite a few dead ends, Dis managed to get more than he bargained for. One particular morning met Shelly Ripstone, Louise Broomfield at Shelly's home. This visit was purely to get more information from Shelly Ripstone. All he had was that eighteen years ago, her child was taken away from Dartford General Hospital. He had nothing else. So he was going to try and encourage her as painful as it was, to try and remember maybe a doctors name or anything he could go on.
Unfortunately while on his investigations he found that the hospital had burnt to the ground. Other hospitals didnt have any information either as they only kept upto ten years.
After probing into the this lady's past something very strange happens. Since he had took on this case the nightmares began, gently nudging, probing into his consciousness. With Louise as a spiritualist, she started to get the feeling that someone was drawing them on in this bizarre case.
While Dis was asking questions things started to move in the room, as if a small storm was brewing. So gently it started, no one noticed. Then as Shelly Ripstone recalled the midwife's image in her minds eye, both Dis and Louise started to hear voices, calls for help, moaning and the sound of wings. Dis was very apprehensive as nothing had ever happened like this to him before. He thought maybe it was all the stuff he took while he was a teenager until Louise verified that she could here them too. Suddenly Dis was up on his feet, screaming, telling the voices to get out of his head and in a rush he rushed to the mirror in the hall. Dis could see nothing but wings, not his own image but wings, he could hear them flapping, could feel the movement of air. Suddenly it all stopped. Shelly Ripstone called out that she remembered the midwife's name it was Vogel, Hildergarde Vogel.
This was the beginning for Dis, his research lead him to a old people home, mysteriously located, in the middle of no where. Perfect Rest supposed to be a nursing home ....but was it? Its here that Dis discovers the dark secret of "Others" and finally he will resolve his own sad, mutated existence.
"Others" definitely stands up to James Herbert's usual standard of horror. But unlike some of his books this one is slightly different. Herbert states in the back of the book that the story is based on a true incident that occurred in a childrens hospital in London some years ago. The things that were described at the end of the book, and I'm not going to divulge, were from actual medial case histories. I think and I'm sure that after you have read this book, its that fact that's truly horrific. "Others" is more of a psychological horror, working on the terrors of your imagination, then out right gory horror.
The description in this book is as usual very in depth. In some places Herbert tends to get lost in his profound describing. If you are a person that reads but doesn't take it all in, you might find you will get a little lost. "Others" isn't hard going at all, the plot is easy to follow, but if you dont like to see whats in the book, surroundings in great detail, people described from outside to inside, then this isn't for you. You have to concentrate and its one of those books that I couldn't watch TV and read it at the same time. Believe me I have done that more than once and still followed the book. You need 100% for this book, but its worth it. Just watch for the twists and turns and dont worry if the first chapter at the beginning makes no sense, it will at the end. If you want to be scared out of your wits, then read this, sleep with the lights on and dont forget to cover the mirrors.
Advantages: Original and interesting main character in a well-written and paced novel. Disadvantages: Overly reliant on shock revelations than scary moments especially the ending
...inward groan when I received Others for Christmas. It wasn’t that 48 was bad, it was an interesting story but, at the time, I thought too simple and almost naively written. Anyway enough waffle.
For those that don’t know James Herbert is not a horror writer but instead a chiller fiction writer, the difference I presume is that chiller fiction is more realistic than out and out horror. Indeed at the end of Others a note from Herbert claims ... ...Rest as well as the Others and of course our lead character, Dis. So is the book any good? Personally it’s not my cup of tea, the novel is well paced and Dis is an original and interesting lead character. Herbert’s first person style is well suited to developing the lead especially when expressing feelings and emotions. When I compare it to 48 I am surprised as Others is far superior in terms of style of writing and complexity of story.
...
Mercury 06.02.2001 (26.02.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Others - James Herbert
Advantages: Very well set out story, full of twists and turns Disadvantages: Cant think of any
Believe it or not I read this one from start to finish on a beach in Jamaica and I got so immersed in it that I practically lost 2 days of my holiday, I could just not put it down.
It does start off sort of weird but you soon forget about that as you end up practically getting inside the main characters head and experiencing the events from his perspective. I wont spoil it for you because to give you anything other than the vaguest outline of the ... ...tell you that the book was inspired by an elderly friend of James Herbert who used to work at a hospital in London. She apparently entered an unmarked ward and was confronted with numerous cots containing very badly deformed babies but nobody could give her any explanation as to who they were or what happened with them.
The book goes on to examine and flesh out one particular gruesome and sickening explanation which also has an unexpected sting ...
Mickm9 17.12.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Others - James Herbert
Advantages: A return to majesty, showing new levels of maturity. Disadvantages: Genuinely disturbing - not your 'fun' horror.
...'The Fog', 'The Dark', and others from his early career, and our expectations of him are subsequently enormous. When he fails to deliver something with the same power, that failing can cause n almost vitriolic backlash in the reader. The price of fame, alas.
It is with some relief then, that I found 'Others' to be among the best novels he has written, a yarn that demonstrates levels of maturity and storytelling prowess unlike anything to have come ... ...with perfect rest, and the Others hidden away there, with all the social implications that they wield. Finally, intriguingly, there is the ongoing theme of redemption and past lives. Many might think that the notion of being born crippled in order to atone for sins in a past life is deeply offensive. Yet Dismas is so superbly detailed, so vibrantly human, that all such notions vanish within a handful of pages. Herbert isn't out to offend, he's trying ...
RichardW 30.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Others - James Herbert
Advantages: Easy to follow gripping story lines Disadvantages: Can't put the book down
I have never been a good reader and find it hard to set aside time to pick up a book. On occasions I find I need something to relax me which is usually when my brain is over loaded with work and life in the real world.
I bought a second hand James Herbert book and set to reading it. I quickly covered the Rats and moved on the the Fog, followed closely by Domain. I found that I could not put the books down. I really enjoyed The Magic Cottage and ... ...read I was impressed with how he managed to captivate me. I found the text easy to follow and the storylines were not predicatable. I am not a creamish person at all but my sister, who can't watch horror films read the Rats and had to sleep with the light on for a week. I can't compare him to other writers because he is all I have read but I will be more than happy when I take my next time out to pick up another one of his wonderful books ...
little.devil 09.12.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Others - James Herbert
Advantages: excellent storyline with definable start, middle and end Disadvantages: nothing, perfect
This is my favourite James Herbert book and probably my favourite horror story ever. Unlike many books, it has a clear beginning, middle and end and each character is described in so much detail that you can almost see them as you read the book.
It tells the story of a private detective (Nick Dismas) who is sent to investigate the "missing" son of a widow. Fine, except that all records of the son say he died at birth.
As the story developes, there ... ...boy is still out there. It all culminates in a rather gruesome, and often gratuatous, climax at an old people's home.
It's shocking in parts and occasionally very gory but it's just impossible to put down. I find that once you get about 3/4 of the way through Herbert's later work, you have to just carry on reading until you reach the end no matter where you are or what you're doing.
The ending though, is just the most perfect conclusion I have ...
goth_tart 01.09.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Others - James Herbert
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Advantages: Short Gripping Read Disadvantages: A Bit outdated and cliche'd
and a part of him he thought never enev existed.
If You like this and otherJamesHerbert novels, I would suggest you look for By Horror Haunted - edited by Stephen Jones and JamesHerbert's Dark Places as they are great insightful books.
I'll be totally frank about this though. I really need to re-read the book. I remember bits of it, but not all of it. I think the girl he falls in love with was sent to investigate on him, and he maybe still working within the police, but undercover, or he is on sabatical and simply trying to olve a certain part of the case on his own. I definately remember the ending being very strange!! ...
I have just finished reading JamesHerberts - Creed and I found it utterly enthralling. The story tells the tale of a man names Creed, a famous and very good (by all accounts) member of the paparazzi, known for getting the photoes that everyone wants to see (usually the celebrities snogging someone they DON't want to be seen with)...except, one day he photo's something that he shouldn't have and he is thrown in to a whole different world, where horrors haunt him and he loses track of reality. This is a gripping book, one of Herberts best, and I suggest that after this you read 'others' also by JamesHerbert that follows the same sort of story but it much more developed with charatcers and plot. ...
Advantages: James Herbert Disadvantages: Not as scary as normal
I’ve got to be honest about this one and say its not one of my favourite JamesHerbert novels, this doesn’t mean it wont appeal to otherJamesHerbert fans. That all depends on which elements of his work you prefer, myself I enjoy the more macabre elements or a really strong story line. Although this does have these to a certain degree it didn’t “scare” me or entertain me in the same way as some of his other pieces, again though this is only my opinion so don’t let it put you off.
Although the story itself is not too bad (more later) the “scary” bits in it didn’t really work for me and I found the ending a little bit of an anti climax
I am probably being a little hard on the book if truth be known because as far as horror stories go it is better than most other authors work ...
Product Information for "Others - James Herbert" »
Product details
Type
Fiction
Genre
Horror
Title
Others
Author
James Herbert
ISBN
0312872933; 0330376128; 0333761170; 0333780647
Manufacturer's product description
Nicholas Dismas is a private investigator, but like no other that has gone before him. He is hired to find a missing baby and his investigation leads him to discover the dark secret of the "Others", and to resolve the enigma of his own existence.
Compare Others - James Herbert to other similar Horror Books »
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