Customer Reviews

Once

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As if a story that combines gothic mystery and fantasy elements like elves, witches, pixies, and fairies wasn't unusual enough, how about a story that combines gothic mystery, fantasy elements, and extremely graphic sex (involving the pixies, witches, and fairies, no less)? If you think you would like, or can at least tolerate, all three of those elements, you'll probably have a good enough time reading this engaging little story about a human man discovering the fantasy world all around him.

A few things in the book went on a bit too long, including an attack by a jarful of ever-multiplying spiders (it was a clever and scary sequence, but several pages longer than it needed to be) and some of the erotic scenes (though if a scene has to go on a bit too long, it might as well be a sex scene). Overall, however, the interesting mix of genres and the alternating moods of the narrative (the story is in turn mysterious, playful, scary, sexy, fantastic, and suspenseful) makes "Once..." a diverting reading experience.

Clive Barker does a great job of making creative fantasy for adults but James Herbert's predictable sludge paced tale will put many adults asleep.After a stroke Thom returns to the manor he grew up in as a child only to discover masturbating fairies in the woods and a hairy succubus who really really wants his sperm.Herbert manages to describe everything from the tiniest leaf to what everyone is wearing but pays no attention to plot or pacing.The most memorable aspect of this book is the handful of admitedly erotic graphic sex scenes where Herbert uses descriptions to good effect...if this were a movie you would be pressing the fast forward button.Besides that it's disappointing and flat.

I think James Herbert is a talented author. I have most of his books and I usually can't put his books down. I have to say though, I was dissapointed in "Once".

First of all, I didn't like the main character Thom. Basically the ENTIRE book he either whines how what he is seeing can't be true or he is amazed that he gets "aroused" (he recently had a stroke). The character is never really fleshed out and the reader really feels no interest in him. The other characters are even more bland. The "plot" of the book and the twist at the end were ridiculously easy to figure out and there was no feeling of suspense and I never found myself wondering or even caring what was going to happen next.

As far as the writing goes, Herbert does a good job describing things and making you almost able to visualize the Castle and it's forest but again since the plot was so bland, I really didn't care what the Castle looked like. The sex scenes are so so, not to frequent but really not contributing to the story. Most fantasy/sci-fi doesn't have many sex scenes and this might be a reason why as it does take away from the action and the story if not written well and the way Herbert writes the scenes in this novel they were more annoying than erotic.

All in all I don't recommend this book and think you might like The Magic Cottage or one of his other novels instead. It was a good premise, a fairy tale for adults and it's too bad he couldn't make it work.

One of the best books about horror fiction is Stephen King's Danse Macabre. Besides giving a good overview of the genre, King also provides introductions to various authors. One such author is James Herbert, who I started enjoying shortly after reading King's description of him. While not the big name that King, Koontz or Barker is (at least in the United States), Herbert is a consistently entertaining author.

Once (as in "Once upon a time", not the Spanish version of eleven) is Herbert's dark version of a fairy tale. Thom Kindred is a man in his twenties who, despite good health, is victimized by a stroke that has left half his body weakened. He goes back to his old home at the Bracken estate to recuperate. As a child, he lived there with his mother at a small home in the woods called Little Bracken. The main house continues to be owned by the father of his childhood friend, Hugo Bleeth.

One of his first discoveries when moving back into Little Bracken is that he has a housekeeper named Nell Quick. Nell is seductively beautiful and seems to be attracted to Thom, but she also seems to have some hidden agenda. A walk in the woods shows him strange sights, but he really begins to realize something is wrong when he is attacked by a monstrous succubus while sleeping; only the timely intervention of Little Bracken's guardian elf, Rigwit, saves Thom.

Thom finds that he has unwittingly become a key player in a battle between supernatural forces of good and evil, and that Nell is his adversary. She is something of a witch and for her to meet her objectives, Thom must be controlled. This will place Thom in increasingly fantastic situations, but he fortunately has allies among the fairy people, with whom he has a special link.

At the front of Once is this description: "A Scary Tale of Faerfolkis & Evildoers, of Lovers & Erotic Passion, of Horror & Belief. Written Only for Adults by James Herbert." This is an apt enough description as there is more than a little sex mixed in with all the creepy situations. It was decades ago that Stephen King praised him, but even now, Herbert continues to entertain. Once is a great read.

This is a great idea for a book, but the execution is boring. The ending though is awesome, so scary and evil...absolutely amazing.

I used to be a fan of James Herbert but must say that my taste for his books took a decided downturn after reading the first few chapters of this book. But given the hardcover price, I felt the need to read at least half and skim the rest. I was appalled by the stereotypical characters and their lackluster development, the explicit sex scenes (which not only interrupted the flow - what little there was - of the story but were also terribly cheesy!!) and predictable end. What a waste of money...

This book makes me wonder. His recent works, like "48" and "Others" have all been pretty moribund dredges when compared to his older material, like "Fog," "Rats," "Ghosts of Sleath," "The Haunting," or "Moon."

This book has the dashed-off, unpolished, pulpy feel of a John Saul novel, or dare I say... R. L. Stine? Horror authors have gotten seemingly lazy lately, thinking that by adding straight out old-school supernatural horror with pyschological complexities, you automatically have yourself a winner of a novel. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Anyway, Kindred returns to his old brooding house (Gods, is this an overused plotline). Once there he finds his heritage is not what it seems (another old gimmick, this was a favorite's of H.P. Lovecraft). There's some saucy dialogue and spicy scenes between him and a faerie... but eh, what's the use? This book is rote, run-of-the-mill, and you could see every "twist" (I use the word lightly) from a mile away.

It is competently written, however. But with all the great books out there to read, I simply can't recommend this one, even to Herbert enthusiasts.

I am a big fan of james Herbert and snapped this book up fairly quickly. It starts with a great deal of promise - a wounded hero, an old house on a big wooded property, and something quite mysterious in his past. Even the promise of fairies and all things good and bad seemed enticing.

And so it is - to an extent. The story starts out promisingly enough, but I feel that what could have been an immensely powerful story loses its way with both the horror (which is the standard yucky stuff) and the unexpectedly explicit nature of the erotica. If you are not aware of this be warned - it is quite graphic, including references to masturbation and lesbianism, and may not appeal to everyone. I also feel that Mr Herbert missed the opportunity to include more of the fairy folk in his woods - to explore their relationship with the land and their supernaural interaction with the characters and the setting.

Overall it is an interesting read, well written of course, and the story trips along at a fair pace. I felt that the ending was somewhat hurried, as is often the case with novels such as this, almost as if the author was caught out and felt that he or she couldn't quite find a satisfactory ending. It was an enjoyable read, certainly not James Herbert's best, but it is different enough to be interesting.

I have been a fan of this author ever since his first book "The Rats". However, it has to be said this latest offering is really terrible. The OVER descriptive writing of the book makes you just want to run for the hills. This book does not take you long to read by the time you have skipped over the pages and pages of this stuff and the really quite terrible sex scenes, which seem to never end. The story, what there is of it, never gets going and you begin to wish that Mr. Herbert had never written this book. My personal opinion is that James needs to get back to his horror writing and leave this fantasy stuff to those who can write it. I was very disappointed and hope his next book is better.

In truth, I did read the reviews for this book, but decided to take a chance and buy it anyway. By the time I got to page 40, I felt like I was back in a school--it became 'required' reading instead of pleasure reading. I considered it 'required' because I had paid my money for this book so I was 'required' to read the whole thing.

Soft porn aside, the whole fairy journey was long, boring and unoriginal. The characters were stereotypical: the bad witch Nell vs. the good fairie Jennett. The good 'son' versus the 'bad' one, yada yada yada...

Mr. Herbert has some really nice passages but they got bogged down with too many other passages. And the thing where he put explanations in parenthesis looked like footnotes to himself he didn't bother to work into the story. Disappointing.