‘Domain’ – James Herbert (Pan Books)

 

Page Count: 482 Pages (I skimmed a lot of pages though, that should tell you something right away…)

Now here’s a book that I first read at high school and my latest copy has been sat on my bookshelf since August last year, waiting patiently to be read (in the way that only a book can). The last time I read it was back in 2014 and to be honest, I didn’t particularly enjoy it. It has been a few years though, and the other two books have featured here so… It felt like time to round things off and have the full trilogy feature on the blog. I know, sometimes that's all it takes for me to decide on my next read ;o)

Still not keen on it though, at least I can say I’ve (re)read all three books now.

The long dreaded nuclear conflict. The city torn apart, shattered, its people destroyed or mutilated beyond hope. For just a few, survival is possible only beneath the wrecked streets – if there is time to avoid the slow-descending poisonous ashes, But below, the rats, demonic offspring of their irradiated forebears, are waiting. They know that Man has weakened, become frail. Has become their prey…

You know how you can go back to some books, over years, and always seem to find something new to enjoy in them? Well, for me, ‘Domain’ is fast becoming the very opposite of that book. Every time I go back to this book, it seems to work a little less. Oh well :o)

This is an odd post to write, mostly because I’ve already linked to my 2014 review and a lot of those thoughts still apply this time round. Don’t worry though, I’m not going to repeat myself too much; here’s a ‘chunk of review’ that sums it up.

So that sex scene was actually a very intense rape scene which made for very uncomfortable reading, even if the rapist got his just desserts by having his eyeball chewed out by a huge black rat...this scene serves no purpose now other than gratuitous male on female violence that is topped off by rats attacking. The scene where survivors tunneling out meet rats tunneling in is done far better in my opinion.

The rest of the book swiftly proves to be, for me anyway, the weakest of the three ‘Rats’ books with very little horror or suspense to it. While I really got behind Herbert’s backdrop of a London wiped out by nuclear bombs, the way he structured his chapters removed a lot of the suspense and horror for me. The approach of having chapters for people who are clearly superfluous, and marked for death, just makes it clear that all the characters who matter are going to be ok. And they are, I skipped to the end of the book and they were just fine (sorry, spoilers and all that but it got to me).

The rats themselves seem strangely muted compared to the absolute gorefest that they indulged themselves in during the first two books. Of course, they do their thing but it seems to be glossed over with Herbert’s preference to write ‘Domain’ as more of a thriller than a horror piece. Herbert was a better horror writer than thriller writer in my opinion.

But you probably noticed, at the top, is that ‘Domain’ struggled to hold my attention this time round. Awesome opening scenes, and a decent finale, but the bit in the middle was very inconsistent. What really tripped me up, this time round, was Herbert’s seeming insistence on turning a short sentence into a paragraph, a paragraph into half a chapter and… you get the idea ;o)

Given the nature of the book, a lot of travelling underground is required and from where I was sat, Herbert dwells on this at the expense of moving things forward at a decent rate. And when one section of sewer network/or London Underground looks very much like another (and there aren’t nearly enough rats to fill it up)… Of course I’m going to skim pages. The ‘completist’ in me wanted to finish the trilogy but I wasn’t going to be stupid about it :o) I was there for the horror, not for a tour of the tunnels underneath London.

So yeah, not a successful re-read then, ‘Domain’ has its moments but not nearly enough to make for a consistently decent read. Hopefully my next read will be a better one :o)