Once...
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Once is the latest in the welcome new phase of James Herbert's career after he distanced himself from the straightforward "horror" tag afforded to him by earlier novels such as the Rats trilogy and cannily reinvented himself as a writer with considerably more psychological insight and elegance of style.
Trading on a grotesque reinvention of fairy stories, Herbert has his protagonist Thorn Kindred encountering witches, goblins and demons, and being obliged to turn to some very strange sources to save his soul. The new ambitiousness of Herbert's writing may be found in the underpinning of the narrative here: this is a grim and persuasively realised spin on Nietzsche's epigram: "When fighting monsters, beware of becoming one yourself." But long-time readers needn't worry about a lack of grisly chills: Herbert is too fine a writer not to keep us permanently on the edge of our proverbial seats. And he's better than ever at orchestrating his fear-filled climaxes, so that there is a carefully worked out structure to the book that never has the stop-and-start jerkiness of the early novels. Rather in the nature of Sondheim's musical Into the Woods, fairy tale motifs are exploded and reconstituted in this dark and erotic fable. After reading Once, fairy tales will never seem the same again. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
A masterpiece of erotic love and darkest horror by one of Britain's greatest contemporary popular novelists.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
James Herbert is a great story-teller. An author who I always look forward to reading.
A friend of mine says his story are often very 'twee' and British, and it has to be said this follows the previous novels like The Magic Cottage, Haunted, etc etc very well. The old fashioned ghost stories are certainly a genre of the past when looking over the new horror releases and it is refreshing the James comes along every year or so to gives us another fix.
Not his best really but a solid interesting and spooky tale with the undertones of an adult fairy story. Sexual in nature, with portions taken from his other works... but he writes such a fine yarn that you are taken along at pace. The haunted woods , mansion , cottage are all here, and sewn together with a needle full of witchcraft.
If you've read his other stuff you know what your getting... if not try The Fog or the Rats trilogy first.
Recommended!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Being a huge James Herbert fan I naturally coudlnt wait to get my hands on his last book - Once. After reading the sypnosis I was under the impression it was going to be amasing and different, different it was. I can't say I didn't enjoy the book because it was extremely well written however it was not his normal style. This book involves alot of sex - which isn't bad - however I think the more sex scenes has meant the lack of story input. Huge build up to a weak climax. I recommend Haunted and Ghosts of Sleath as his best novel and novel sequel.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I would have given this book 2 out of 5 if it wasn't so well presented.
I thought the pictures included in the book were a bit naff, though. Surely a book is all about using your imagination.
I thought the pictures included in the book were a bit naff, though. Surely a book is all about using your imagination.
If you removed all of the sex from the book, there would not be much left, it seems to me that Mr Herbert has included so much of it in order to beef up the number of pages.
I hope this does not indicate the decline of one of Britain's greatest horror writers.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good , slight wear & tear of the book itself .
Received the book in a few days and was pretty much pleased with my purchase. Really good book, and like I said in the title only slight wear and tear but nothing too serious. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Christie85
Outstanding
This book is outstanding! I read the book a few years ago and enjoyed it so much that I decided to buy the audio to enjoy on my long journey to work. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Sunrisejenni
Once upon a time
What a great twist on fairy stories. The opening line hauls you straight into the story at once and each time I read it leaves me thinking what a genius. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Katie Nickols89
Toe curlingly bad
Fairies- not really a Herbert thing... but... think I, they might be important for the plot... but the tiresome and tedious descriptions allied to Herbert's craving to drag me in... Read more
Published 12 months ago by morganyossarian
From a Herbert virgin.
Ooer missus! I wasn't expecting that! Describing the sex scenes in this book as graphic would be the understatement of the century. Read more
Published 14 months ago by M. Cooper
Thom Kindred
5 stars based on only a few pages and 5 stars for the whole book.
Fantastic.
Enjoy
Fantastic.
Enjoy
Published 18 months ago by zeroned
Fairytales can come true...
Another great novel from the master. I read this book is less than a week and I loved the atmosphere and horror set pieces Herbert so effortlessly creates. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mr. Craig Henderson
Enjoyable read
I have read many James Herbert books, but this was one of my favourites. I loved this story. I have many books about Fairies and and enjoyed this read so much I have bought two... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Annie
Wont disappoint
James Herbert does it again. A brilliant book that i couldnt put down once I had started it. I had previously read Crickley Hall and enjoyed it so much that I bought this book, so... Read more
Published 23 months ago by G.......wizz
Loved it!!
I read this some years ago and I loved it. I remember picking it up in the supermarket. This is one of the best books I have ever read. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2010 by David Lowe
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