Customer Reviews

THE NATURE OF BALANCE

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

 

 

Now, Nature is about to strike back.

It happens in the form of horrible nightmares--hiddeous "falling" dreams, which kill off most of humanity in a single night. Those who survived where either asleep, managed to wake themselves up in time, or landed on a snowbank.

But the survivors now find themselves stranded in a new, dangerous world. Blane, a man always in tune with Nature, feels he holds a secret to what happened...Holly, a hard and rugged woman, is determined to survive...Paul, a Nature lover all his life, finds himself bewildered by the sudden change of plans...Peer, a young woman with an inner strength, knows that she too has a large role in this new future...Mary, once a victim, now rises up to power through violence...and Fay, a striking woman with a hideous secret, is the very imbodiment of evil itself...

Tim Lebbon has woven an incredible thriller. Eccentric and macabre, yes, but it is still a great horror/sci-fi thriller. "The Nature of Balance" is a fun, thrilling read about humanity's mistreatment of Nature, and what would happen if Nature tired of it...

A world dreams of falling and does not wake up. People everywhere lie broken and bloody in their beds, as if assaulted by some unseen, deadly force. A handful of survivors find themselves fighting against a wild world whose mutations have ceased to follow any kind of normal evolutionary path. At the center of it all is Blane, a man with no memory of his past, a man who has always felt most at home in the forest but now finds it has rejected him; and Fay, a mad force of nature bound in human form and bent on hideous revenge.

It may seem like just another end-of-the-world story (or is it a beginning?) at first but Lebbon looks at the situations on a deeply personal level and takes them in surprising directions. It is very much a character driven story. You will care about these people -- even the bad ones.

I enjoyed this book, my first experience with Tim Lebbon. It took a while to get into the story, but it was interesting enough for me to finish it. The big problems were the lack of character development and the overwritten style of his descriptions. He takes a full page to describe what should be only be a paragraph. By doing this, I constantly got pulled out of the story. What brought me back? The villian. I love a powerful antagonist that seems on track to conquer our hero, and this novel made up a few points in that area. Those two complaints aside, I had a fun time with it and I look forward to Mr. Lebbon's new book, "Face".

THE NATURE OF BALANCE starts out strong-- very strong. Lebbon's writing vividly conveys a world turned upside-down by deadly apocalyptic dreams and nature gone berserk. Unfortunately, the explanation for all these mysterious events is rather weak and mundane, and I was able to guess a good part of the ending 150 pages before it was explained. It was like seeing the movie 2001, with the original ending replaced by the ending to 2010. Still, I would recommend this novel for the vivid writing.

I have to admit that I've grown tired of post-apocalyptic novels. They all started feeling the same after a while. Too many authors have tried to imitate the classics, like King's The Stand, McCammon's Swan Song or the undervalued Earth Abides. But here comes Nature of Balance, an original, terrifying and brilliantly written novel that delivers everything a good horror novel should, and more.

When the greater part of the earth's population dies in one single night (dying through their dreams), the small group of survivors have to try and find a way to live in this changing new world. Not only has everyone died, but the nature and the animals themsevles are evolving into something more terrifying. And who exactly is that mysterious woman that keeps showing her face whenever trouble occurs?

You have a group of very distinct and very original characters, something that is quite rare in this genre. You have Blane, an elderly man who has always loved nature, the father figure of sorts. You have Peer, a young woman who might just have a greater part to play in all of this than she first thought possible. You have Holly and Paul, two strangers who will find something comfort in each other's presence. And you have Mary, a wild girl who has finally found her purpose in a world that has always turned its back on her.

When all these characters meet and mingle, bad things abound. The novel itself is a wild ride that never seems to stop. There is a slight part in the middle of the book that feels a little long, but besides this, the rest is a greatly written novel that never disappoints. And the finale is imaginative and completely unpredictable. Many things a revealed in the end and every piece of the puzzle falls in place.

The Nature of Balance is a novel by Tim Lebbon, who's writing is skilled and very confident. This is one author to watch for. There are great things awaiting him in the future!

Tim's first novel for the wonderful Leisure line of horror paperbacks - some of which have only previously been available in expensive, although admittedly attractive hardback editions - is an excellent addition to a range of top quality fiction. Although the basic premise of the novel is not wholly original, Tim's prose is excellent throughout the whole book. I was totally caught up with the characters struggle within the bleak world that is brought to ever increasing (mutant) life as the narrative progresses. Although the book has its gory moments, the horror of this tale is psychological; its protagonists are faced with a future filled with little hope. I can easily recommend that you buy this and other titles by Tim Lebbon. Big things are predicted for this writer's future.

As the world slumbers, millions are crushed to death in their sleep. When morning arrives, only those who were awake during the night are alive to emerge into a strange, frightening new world. Sounds great doesn't it? Problem is, that is the best part of the story.

This book had flashes of brilliance, but overall, it just didn't have the same kick that other Lebbon-authored novels have. The story follows Blane, Holly, Paul, Peer and Mary as they travel through England trying to find answers to the many questions the strange occurances have created. Nature has taken over and man is no longer at the top of the food chain. A bizzare woman named Fay is in search of Blane to give him a message. Mary has been sent by Fay to find Peer, who must be destroyed, as part of Fay's plan. They must all stay awake to prevent the certain horrifying death that has taken the lives of so many. While they are combing the country-side in search for the truth and staying awake, they also must dodge all manner of creatures who are out to destroy man.

The book was entirely too long. At 395 pages, the story rambled on and on without much action to entice the reader to continue to turn the pages, but yet, was interesting enough to keep the reader from giving up on the book. The meat of the story was original and the action tense but sparse. If you are looking for an action packed horror story, then don't waste your time on this one. Instead try The Rising by Brian Keene.

THE NATURE OF BALANCE is a very ambitious novel given its apocalyptic nature. I found myself wondering how Lebbon was ever going to satisfy the central conflict and wrap the thing up neatly-- he does both in grand style. Highly recommended.

What if there actually a balance that kept the world whole; what if that balance was disturbed? What would nature do to save itself? Would the mass destruction of humankind be in order, maybe so? In the speculative horror novel, The Nature of Balance by Tim Lebbon, something has caused disturbed the balance between man and nature. In a single evening, those who lay down to sleep suffered from brutal dreams from which most did not awaken.

There are those who were lucky enough to survive, the ones who had not gone to bed yet, the insomniacs, the nightshift workers, and those who awaken from their bad dream to screams of their loved ones around them dying brutally. On the other hand, were they truly lucky? While humanity laid shuddering, screaming and dying in their sleep the world shifts and changes. Nature mutates taking on an alien form turning on humanity, ejecting them, leaving a world where only the strongest can survive.

In this newly evolved world, we follow the paths of Blane and Peer. Blane is a naturalist who enjoys spending his time naked in the woods and cannot remember his past. Peer is a shy introvert who does not have many friends and feels as if she has no place she truly belongs. Guided by a mysterious antagonist the duo are destined to meet in order to unravel what went wrong with the balance and the shocking secrets of Blane's past.

With the touch of an artist, Lebbon coaxes you into the horrifying reality he has created through a magnificent manipulation of words. His words twist around your senses, teasing you, dragging you deeper into the nightmare step-by-shocking-step making it difficult to put down the book. His main characters are a likable sort of people and his antagonists mysterious and tragic. Though they were lacking depth, it was as if you glimmer of the person but not the whole picture. But somehow you still care what happens to them, including the antagonist.

The storyline was intriguing constantly teasing you with questions; the answers just out of reach, making you turn each page in hopes of another glimmer that will help you tie the story together. Lebbon does an excellent job of keeping you guessing just when you think you figured out the storyline he tosses in something new.

Through the entire story, it was like riding on a fast moving train rushing from stop to stop. Never stopping long enough to give you time to take in the history of each stop, to appreciate how it became what it was, before rushing off to the next amazing sight. More time could have been spent on fleshing out the background story of the characters or events, tying them in tighter to the how and why of the story. Supporting characters are loosely weaved throughout the story but you develop no bond to them. If they die, they die...no loss.

Overall, as a speculative horror novel I give Tim Lebbon a high five on doing a smashing grand job. His story was an amazing read that kept me devouring the pages to the end. I still will highly recommend this as an excellent read to my friends, even though I felt it would have been better if it were a longer story to give the full effect of the background of events and characters. The story line was refreshing and I did enjoy being dragged through all the thrilling gory events to the end. I look forward to reading more of his work.

Tim Lebbon, The Nature of Balance (Leisure Books, 2001)

It's interesting that horror has made a comeback in the American bookselling business these days, the same way it did in the eighties. (And the same way it will again twenty years from now.) Often, cycles of something being popular and unpopular are blamed on a fickle public. Those of us in the business of media manipulation through the creation of art know better. Without going into the details, let's just say that the more popular something guess, the more the quality is likely to decline. The business itself brings about the downfall of the genre, whatever that genre may be. (Look at the long, painful death of industrial music in the mid-nineties.)

It's pretty easy to see that the new horror revival will soon be headed that way, as well. The stalwarts who weather the last death of horror as popular art form are still around, of course. King, Koontz, Ed Lee, etc. will never go anywhere while they live. And, as always, the newer crop of horror writers contains some brilliant writers who are destined to topple and replace the stalwarts (Kiernan, Brite, etc.), some who have been around for years and just never got the recognition they deserved (Koja, Laymon, et al.), and, well, the rest.

To call Tim Lebbon one of the rest is not to imply that Lebbon's work lacks quality. It doesn't. The Nature of Balance is a good, solidly-written novel that keeps the pages turning and is likely to appeal to any horror fan (it may be a bit laid back for fans of extreme horror novelists like Laymon and Lee). But it's not more than that. When you pick up something by Cait Kiernan or Kathe Koja (when Koja's writing horror, anyway), you're not only getting horror, you're getting your socks knocked off. They transcend simple horror novels and become something else. The Nature of Balance never achieves that transcendence.

Anyone remember Rick Hautala? Ken Eulo? John R. Holt? William Valtos? Doug Hawk? Leslie Whitten? I could keep going for a very long time here, and at a guess, you'll get maybe ten percent of the names unless you were an obsessive horror fan like was an obsessive horror fan back during its last popular heyday. If it hit the Atlantic Books shelves in the horror section, I was there waiting with $3.99. (Depressing, isn't it?) And all of the above authors were writers of good, solid horror novels (okay, we'll make an exception for Whitten). I can (and have) go back and pick up John Holt's When We Dead Awaken or Edward Levy's The Beast Within and come up with a fantastic read. It's not a new Kathe Koja novel, but it's a great way to kill a few hours on a rainy day. And, ultimately, that's what The Nature of Balance is; good for what it is, but at a guess, not destined for immortality. ***