The cabin burned to the ground around 1990 but my friend, now an adult, has risen from the ashes and every summer I get to spend a few days in the new cabin reminiscing and enjoying the great outdoors--not to mention the granite wonders of Yosemite Valley. This was MY first novel by James Herbert. Having seen his books mentioned quite often, I thought to give it a go with Moon. First impression, Herbert is a brilliant writer. I genuinely couldn’t put this book down. Not because I was overly gripped by the story, per se. However, the plot and characters were interesting. But because I was ensnared with the way Herbert wrote and unfolded the tale as a perfectly paced thriller and for the most part, kept the overindulgence to a minimum. What did the girl see? The mistery is just begining. When Fenn takes the girl to the church, he learn from the local priest that the girl wouldn't be able to say anything since she is deaf and also unable to speak. Maybe it was just his imagination, afterall he is probably tired and he evidently smell of alcohol. But the girl talks again and so it begins what looks like a miracle. James Herbert is Britain's number one bestselling writer (a position he has held ever since publication of his first novel) and one of the With his next novel, Lair (1979), Herbert regaled readers with the return of the rats, and he completed the trilogy with Domain (1984), set in a future where rats are now dominant following a nuclear war that has devastated civilisation. Herbert's The City (1994), a graphic novel illustrated by Ian Miller, was set in the same post-apocalypse world in which only a handful of people have survived.

Part of my feelings towards this one are due to the protagonist, who’s a deliberately unlikeable character. He’s a member of the paparazzi, and a particularly sleazy one who’s hated even by other photographers. That means that when he gets himself into hot water, it’s kind of a joy to read. This isn’t a protagonist where you’re going to want him to have a happy ending. You’re going to want to see him get screwed over by the forces of hell. But before I get to the political, some literary observations regarding Sepuchcre: the novel was initially disappointing because it's part of Herbert's later attempts to add James Bondian and thriller elements to his formula--like a band you loved when they first came out who began, after a couple of LPs, to experiment in a direction you didn't like, I found this annoying. The horror appears clumsy here, with all of the IRA guns blazing around it. The supernatural looks silly, in my opinion, when It can't stand up to an Armalite rifle. He was the weirdest, the nastiest. The Fog and The Rats terrified me; Creed was spoken about in my school in almost mythological ways, being both horrifying and introducing us to sexual concepts we'd never contemplated before that point; and The Magic Cottage, when given to me aged 13 by an amazing English teacher, was one of the books that made me want to become a writer. James Herbert and Stephen King were the royalty of 70’s horror. I devoured their books, Carrie, Salem’s Lot and The Shining from King, The Rats, The Fog and The Survivor from Herbert. Both writers though evolved during the 80’s Herbert’s books for example became less blood and gore and more diverse with books such as The Jonah, Shrine and The Magic Cottage. The 1990’s would see him continue to move away from the blood & gore of his beginnings. Creed, his first book of the 90’s exemplified this. But it’s not. Once again, the psychic visions are occurring. Once again, he’s made a connection with the mind of a vicious murderer. When this happened before, Childes was able to convince a police detective that he was for real, and together they caI considered being pissed about the ending but upon further contemplating on the matter I decided it made sense in context. The reason I say this is that even though these characters go through some very intense events they're not technically the main players in the cosmic battle. They're observers and on occasion the recipients of some of the violence but this is a tale of corruption vs the sanctity of creation. Human beings have no dog in the fight because they don't stand a chance against an entity that doesn't play by physical rules. People don't have a prayer to win so there's that. Then, too many years later, I found this in the university library's "giving away for free" shelf. So of course I had to take it, because FREE BOOKS! And then it sat in my shelf for several years waiting for its moment.

From the age of 16, Herbert attended Hornsey College of Art, where he spent four years studying graphic design, print and photography. He worked as a paste-up artist and a typographer at one advertising agency, and then became art director and subsequently group head at Charles Barker Advertising. The only somewhat odd thing was the sudden switch to sex-scenes about halfway trough the book. For most of the story, any reference of intercourse was pretty tepid. The kind of sleazy stuff you expect from a guy like Creed. But all of a sudden there are like multiple chapters of detailed sex, with different people in various locations. Reading this is like playing xenophobic bingo! If a stereotype exists, it's used. The Polish man is a devious cannibal, the swarthy American man is dull-witted, the "Arabs" are gay terrorists who kill men after raping them, and kill women to look at their "secret places" (that's the actual phrasing from the book).There are obviously alot of religious themes and undertones here, which is fresh off the exorcist and the omen and all the other 70s and 80s religion horror stories. I enjoyed the character of Fenn and Father Hagan and Delcarde. Fenn isn't religious and is rationale and logical and the two religious characters , while devout catholics, know that things aren't right here and go against their brethren hierarchy in some ways. It adds some depth to their characters.