BR: Nobody True (James Herbert)

Amazon Link: Nobody True

Written in first person, the narrator, James True, is dead. During life he was capable of undertaking out of body experiences, all beyond his control. It first happened when he was seriously injured in an accident, then it happened when he slept, then it was if he day-dreamed. At age thirty-two, he left his body one night after a particularly stressful work-day and when he returned he had no body to go back to. It had been mutilated beyond recognition. So why wasn’t he dead?

Turns out poor James not only has to deal with his untimely demise, but the apprehension of a serial killer and the protection of his family (wife and daughter) from similar fate. It's a good premise, but it falls short.

I was introduced to James Herbert (JH) through ’48, a fast-paced novel that I particularly enjoyed because it didn’t claim to take itself seriously. I suspended belief and was hooked into the imagery and the fast pace. The story was predictable, but I didn’t manage to lose interest between figuring it out and having it spelt out. I can’t say the same about this book. But, when trapped on a plane on a flight across the Pacific Ocean, it’s funny just how interesting a book can be… even a book such as this.

I do enjoy JH’s writing style, though it's less polished than I remembered it being. At times he resorts to blatant word recycling which made me cringe. I chose to believe that it was deliberate and that later in the book the repetition would have significance, but that wasn’t the case.

Repetition also arose in the form of the (now dead and in spirit form) protagonist’s experiences of moving through time and space. He lost time, had black-outs, experienced a kind of particle dematerialisation when he passed through solid objects, and gained an unsettling empathy when he passed through living beings. Throughout the novel the reader is repeatedly reminded of this. Very little distinction is given to each experience, and the protagonist doesn’t learn anything new each time, he just re-hashes what he (and we) already know. By 2/3rd’s of the way through the novel, I was skimming.

The conclusion was predictable, the action readable but not exciting. I found it difficult to form empathy for James, a spirit who could experience emotional pain but otherwise could not be harmed. And his family, who I should have cared about, were not particularly likeable.

In all, this was a passive read, but it wiled away time.

I have JH book on my bookshelf, Once, but I shall let some time pass before giving it a try.

Rating: ** (out of *****) stars.

BR: '48 (James Herbert)

Amazon Link: '48

This book opens with a bang, an exhilarating near-capture of the protagonist, Hoke, an American pilot living in war-ruined London amongst hundreds of thousands of time-charred corpses. In this novel, in 1945 Hitler unleashed a virus that decimated all blood groups except for AB type. Hoke has AB type blood, and he’s been on the run for three years from a slow-dying group of crazies known as Blackshirts… they want his blood for their leader (a blood transfusion which they believe will save his life and their own. It's false science, but logic and reason don’t mean much to these people. They will do anything to get that blood – to get Hoke.

The novel is fast paced and exhilarating. The scenes of death and suffering are shocking, but the descriptions never become stale. Herbert has a gift of making every scene vibrant, and the horrific, crumbling corpses that pervade almost every moment of these character’s lives, are newly disturbing every time I was faced with one (or dozens, as the case may be).

Hoke is a hardened man, he keeps his grief (and feelings) at a distance, but he is not inhuman, and as the novel progresses and the hunt becomes increasingly dire and complicated, Hoke is run ragged – physically and emotionally. It is late in the novel that we learn the truth of what he has endured, and it’s not pretty.

If I ever live to write action sequences even half as good as these, I’ll be a happy woman. But, until then, I’m going to search out more of James Herbert’s novels. His is a writing style that I could quickly learn to love.

On the negative, the novel is short, it is what I consider to be a thrill-and-spill, that is, it gets the blood pumping but doesn't leave a lasting impression. There is no deeper message here, at least I didn't gain one, and there's little emphasis on characterisation. This purely is action-adventure, and it works. It really does work. If I read too many of these kinds of novels though, I think I'd have a coronary. Maybe SK's slow pace isn't so bad afterall... sometimes.