Customer Reviews

Domain

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't pay attention to the clown who wrote the nasty one-star review. This book was so much fun I didn't want it to end. Survival horror that's truly scary, sure it has some flaws (but what King/Koontz horror novel doesn't!)It's a little dated at times and vague at filling in the blanks as to why it happened,(I'm glad it didn't it places the reader firmly in the characters shoes) this is not a book solely about nuclear war it's a book about fear of the unknown: Trying to survive nature out of control, terrifying gory rat attacks, dissention among each other, along with radioactive fallout, and the contaminated survivors, diseases, injury without a doctor ect. Intense unrelenting action, graphic violence, split decisions with catastrophic consequences, sense of doom and dismay that permeates every page makes for a thrilling read...(The Rats are the real stars of this story) this is not a boring book and it would make a great movie.

Even though this book is from the 80's, and some of the cultural references are dated, it is an excellent, suspenseful book, with moments of dread scattered throughout the book. I really enjoyed it so much, that I am going to try to pick up copies of his other books.

"Domain" by James Herbert is a non-stop action packed, post-nuclear bomb, end-of-the-world story that brings back the over sized, overly vicious mutant rats from Herbert's "The Rats" and "Lair". Fortunately, granite jawed Steve Culver is on hand to keep the rats down and lead a dwindling group of survivors to safer ground. Culver comes from the same mold as Nick Carter, Remo Williams, and Dirk Pitt. A less proficient, flawed hero wouldn't have survived more than two minutes, so it's a good thing Culver has his stuff together. Things start out grim and never let up, but what would you expect from the end of the world? We also get politically motivated internal conflict within the group as well as a violent run-in with another group of survivors. "Domain" is rock solid gloomy entertainment from beginning to end. Not for the timid. 3 1/2 stars.

I'll lay it out quickly. We are in London and somehow a nuclear war starts. The geopolitics is a little - how do I say this kindly - totally absent. One minute we're sipping our tea and indulging in a scone, next minute there's a mushroom cloud.

Oh well, our hero goes underground with a band of survivors but - I almost forgot - emerges to walk around the city for a while on a kind of guided tour. Maybe he invented a way so as not to absorb the nuclear radiation - who knows? Anyway, he states that nothing can survive up here (so why is he there?) so they scurry back down but there's trouble in town.

It's rats - mean rats, hungry rats, diseased rats, radiated rats - in other words kickass creatures. Trapped between radiation above and teeth below they persevere to the dreary end when someone announces with all the sincerity of a carnival barker, "It isn't quite as bad as you think. The lunacy was stopped before everythig was destroyed..the separate powers realized their mistake."

I forgot the political talk: "Who started it - Russia or the US?" "China" (Yeah, right - she fooled both countries into bombing each other.) Then almost as an afterthought, "There isn't much of anything left." Please get me out of this dopey tale with some of the worst dialogue ever penned.