Customer Reviews

The Fog

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a superlative, well crafted horror story with a quite original storyline. Taking place in foggy, old England, a dense, yellowish fog suddenly arises from the depths of the earth, infiltrating the minds of all whom it envelopes and taking away all restraint. Suddenly, all formerly sane individuals find themselves acting as if they were beings out of Dante's Inferno. It is a disaster from which there is seemingly no end.

As the fog moves from place to place, it leaves in its wake a swath of grisly devastation, as murders, rapes, mass suicides, and looting become a way of life. Even animals succumb to the fog, as treasured pets turn on their owners. Only one man has managed to emerge with his sanity still intact, and a group of scientists in an underground laboratory are laboring to find out the reason for his seeming immunity. For in him lies the secret to the fog's destruction and the liberation of mankind from the effects of the fog. Time, however, is of the essence and running out.

This is really a terrific novel, well paced, tautly written, and totally absorbing. It is an absolute page turner, with scenes of horror matter factly written, making it all the more believable and horrific, while tinged by a trace of dark humor. The tension is crisply maintained throughout the entire book, from start to finish, and makes for a riveting read that is hard to put down. This is a must read for all those who love a good horror story. Bravo!

Following a sudden earthquake in a peaceful English village, a yellow fog arises. Nobody thinks anything of it until sudden outbreaks of insanity occur following the path of the Fog.Insanity that drives both man and animal to act out of ordinary, commit mass suicide and even kill. There is only one man immune to the Fog's touch, so he has to find out what the Fog is before it comes to the heavily populated city of London.

A great Horror/Thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting for more and more of the gruesome effects of the Fog. Written in 1975, the gruesome factor would have been 'over the top', not so much these days but it still packs a punch.

Characterisation is excellent, especially his secondary characters which he will build up then kill off with a blood-gurgling finish. The writing is also very visual with no confusion about what is going on. The setting in cold, foggy England really helps with the forboding chilling feeling you get with this book as well. James Herbert is up there as being one of the top Horror writers along with Stephen King and Richard Laymon. Very enjoyable. RECOMMENDED TO ALL!

Or is there? When a routine excursion for a contracted civil servant leads to his barely escaping the jaws of death in Southern England, one event after the other points to a Defense Ministry experiment gone horribly wrong.
A rather original thriller set in the fields of Salisbury, Fog keeps pace with the sordid consequences, zombified victims and scrambling authorities who try to contain the genie.
Fog is of special interest personally because, having visited Salisbury, the setting is indeed home to a British military base. The novel incorporates a romantic sub-plot and begins to fall apart towards the end. Still, horror fans will derive a couple of days' of gory amusement from the... Fog.

A strange earthquake in a quiet English village unleashes a mysterious fog that roams the countryside and heads towards London. What makes this fog different is that everyone who enters it becomes a murderous lunatic with suicidal tendencies. Even animals are affected. But what is the fog? Is it a supernatural force? An unknown gas from beneath the earth? Something from the nearby army base? The only man who can stop it is the first man who was affected by it. He was cured in time and has developed an immunity. Unfortunately, everyone else around him, including his girlfriend, are still susceptible and could turn on him if caught in the fog.
"The Fog" is a rollicking good horror thriller which ups the ante with every chapter. The breezy style of Herbert's writing is very visual and he takes the time to fully develop his secondary characters before polishing them off in a gory and bloody manner.
Originally published in 1975, "The Fog" was then, according to my 1987 edition, reprinted 27 times. I think that speaks volumes for the popularity and quality of the book.

"I was sitting in a meeting when I wondered what would happen if the main speaker just got up and jumped out the window?" - James Herbert on the key visual idea that led to his writing The Fog.

When an earthquake shatters an otherwise peaceful day, no one notices the yellow mist that drifts from the yawning chasm that has opened up beneath the main street. But the violent, babbling madman that is dragged from the trench afterwards gives everyone a hint as to the horrors that are to come. It seems that a bacterial weapon has gotten loose and, as it interacts with the air, the mist thickens into a roaming, yellowish fog that drives any and all exposed to it mad. As entire communities fall victim to its horrible effects, the authorities wonder how it can be stopped. James Herbert's second novel is just as much a zesty sex laced blood bath as his first and it makes a great double bill with Richard Layman's One Rainy Night.

James Herbert seems to prove time and time again that he is light years away from all other horror writers of his time. "The Fog" is just another installment of brilliant writing by this man. I read the most recent version of this story, which the writer admitted to needing touched up. Although the raw story was powerful enough when initially published to create a storm of controversy over its excessive use of violence, it is no worse now than the evening news. The true horror lies not in the gore that permeates the book from cover to cover, but in the idea that the story is not entirely unrealistic. James Herbert could teach a few of his contemporaries across the Atlantic just how to build tension within a few hundred pages. This book bites from the word go, and doesn't let go. I would advise anybody with some spare time to read this book, just make sure that you don't have anything else to do for the next few hours.

Herbert takes all of three pages to begin his assault on the reader. This is one of the most horrific things I have ever read. The idea of a fog (actually a biological weapon gon awry) that causes madness is perhaps not terribly original, but the results, described by Herbert with an almost gleeful tone, are as horrible as anything ever dreamed of in the genre. Grisly, gory, and gross, yet you can't put it down! If you like to be scared out of your wits, this one will do the job.

This is my favourite James Herbert novel and the first i read. Like all James Herbert novels it contains sterotypes instead of characters, amusingly gory sequences often underlaced with black humour and the obligatory sex by numbers scene. Despite all that this book is great fun and used to be quite controversial. More for teens that adult horror fans (honest! i read it when i was fourteen).

An interest grabbing page flipping relatively easy flowing plot; poor characterisations though. Zero character development: a very much in-your-face paper thin characters-driven-by-plot figures; almost hitchcock like small excitements for the occasional diversion. Good read on the train! JH must have written it on one too!

This one really seeps into your subconcience, unforgetable images and a story so real that sometimes you wonder if its personal memory not a book. I Rank this as one of his superlative works