Others [Hardcover]

James Herbert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 1999

A chilling tale of a gruesome secret from the world-renowned author of Portent "My redemption began in Hell..." So begins James Herbert's controversial and stunning new chiller. Nicholas Dismas is a private investigator, but like no other that has gone before him. He carries a secret about himself to which not even he has the answer. He is hired to find a missing baby, one that was taken away at birth. His investigation takes him to a mysteriously located place called Perfect Rest. It is supposed to be a nursing home for the elderly, but there is a lot more to this place than meets the eye. Here Dismas will discover the dark secret of the Others. And in an astonishing and spectacular finale he will resolve the enigma of his own existence. As chilling, as memorable, and as timely as only James Herbert can be, Others will join the classics for which he is remembered with fear.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Author of such classic chilling tales as The Fog and The Rats, Britain's foremost horror master James Herbert now cleverly transcends the boundaries of detective fiction and the supernatural for Others, a book that begins in the bowels of Hell. In this fiery underworld we meet a former Hollywood movie star, thrust there for a lifetime of depravity. But now this damned soul is given one more shot at redemption, a chance to live again as a human. Begging for a new judgment, he is sent back to earth, without memory of his past life or death. However, his new existence will be a wretched one, living in the body of Nicholas Dismas, a brilliant and tender-hearted private investigator sadly afflicted with horrendous physical deformities. Shunned by strangers, Nicholas struggles not only with his malformed body, but also with a troubling sense of self. Staring in the mirror, other eyes stare back, "too blurred for recognition. That ill-defined but handsome countenance had hinted at something too evasive to remember properly, too vague to focus upon, yet still filled me with a strange, elusive regret." It isn't until Dismas takes on a seemingly run-of-the-mill missing person's investigation that he begins to understand the origins of his own hellish identity.

Others is a dark exploration into the psyche of the eternal outsider, a tormented freak in a cruel society. Gory, but brilliantly conceived, Herbert will leave you feeling haunted long after reading his final words. --Naomi Gesinger

From Publishers Weekly

Herbert's reputation as the king of British horror is founded on his early gore-oriented "nasties" (The Rats; The Fog; etc.). His newest novel (after '48) packs powerful shocks, but continues the recent trend in his writing toward narratives steered by the complex motivations of his characters. Narrator and private investigator Nicholas DismasA"Dis" to his friendsAis a self-described "monster," afflicted with grotesque birth defects that give him uncommon insight into human behavior. But the search for a child declared dead at birth 18 years before triggers a befuddling cascade of events that defy even his understanding: birth-record traces lead to dead ends, knowledgeable authorities can't be located and Dis finds himself haunted by visions of malformed souls that periodically materialize in his mirror. Collaborating reluctantly with Louise Broomfield, his client's psychic adviser, Dis tracks a suspicious former midwife to the Perfect Rest nursing home. There, he encounters both the repellent Leonard Wisbeech, one of the most diabolically perverse doctors in all medical horror fiction, and secret experiments that shed light on the case and on Dis's own obscure origins. Readers who stick with this tale past its lethargic startAin which Herbert labors to contrast Dis's normalcy and the "ugliness" of more physically appealing peopleAwill find a payoff in the over-the-top climax, in which the freak show Wisbeech secretly presides over runs amok. Though punctuated with long expository passages that explain the novel's central mystery, the finale crackles, finding an admirable balance between terrors of the supernatural and the darkness of the human heart.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (October 14, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312872933
• ISBN-13: 978-0312872939
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,583,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A chilling thriller, September 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Others (Hardcover)

The public revered him for his good looks and good deeds. However that public icon hid his ugly soul very well on Earth. Now he is just another lost sinner residing in hell until angels visit him with an offer of redemption. Failure to accept or succeed will condemn in hell for eternity. The former movie star jumps at the opportunity.

With no memory of his previous life, he returns to earth in a different body. Nicholas Dismas is a private investigator with a thriving practice in England. Still, he is an unhappy soul. In his own eyes and that of the world, Nicholas is monster and his misshapen body leaves people staring in stunned horror.

A client hires him to locate her missing son that she thought died during childbirth. Nicholas goes through the motions of an investigation, but does not believe there is any chance of success. The client introduces Nicholas to a clairvoyant who becomes his ally by warning him of imminent danger. He finds danger in Perfect Rest, a nursing home that allows its elderly patients to hide a horror that is capable of allowing to surface the dark nature in Nicholas, soul.

James Herbert is one of the recognized masters of the horror genre. Though OTHERS centers on efforts to regain Paradise Lost in the face of extreme adversary, the horror of this tale lies in the brutality humans inflict on less fortunate beings. It is the beauty of the physical form that matters. A handsome person freely walks the earth with admiring glances even if their inside rivals that of Lucifer. On the other hand, those with hearts like Mother Teresa but in deformed bodies will probably be treated as freaks. Could Mr. Herbert be Stoker bound?

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strong and well written. James Herbert delivers the goods., June 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Others (Hardcover)

'Others' is James Herbert's latest book. It follows '48' which was a superb story - easily his best. I was interested to see whether 'Others' would deliver the goods and for the most part I would have to say that it does. The story is intriguing, well-plotted and has a main character, Nic Dismas, who is unlike anything James Herbert has ever created before. Indeed, this was one of the joys of the book, to meet a main character who was far from perfect, who was terribly afflicted and who you really cared for. He drove the story forward and brought a freshness to it. It was nice to see a main character who was flawed. If I have any reservations, they concern the length of the story and its ending. At over five hundred pages, the book is too long and the story seems to drag at the very end. The action sequences seem repetitive. More interesting twists could have been made in the plot, but nonetheless it was a strong story, horrific at times, and well told.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Chilling, April 17, 2003

By 

Storm (Oxford, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Others (Mass Market Paperback)

Others is the book that lovers of horror fiction dream about, and James Herbert is the author that all Horror writers should strive to be. Without a doubt I have never read a horror novel of this calibur, nor have I read an author with this amount of talent.

Herbert himself has a tendancy to take us through some amazing twists and turns in his stories, tugging at our emotions and at our fear, digging up within the reader the thing that terrifies him or her most so that he brings us to the point where we are as terrified as we can become.

Others takes this terror one step further, with a story that is based on fact in a way that leaves the reader trembling with exhaustion and terror. Herbert takes us on a trip into some of the most depraved minds imaginable, and leads us through twists and turns that truly brings the reader right into the amazing plot of the outstanding novel.

Thrill seeking readers will enjoy this book for the pumping adrenhalin it provides. Lovers of horror fiction will be on the edges of their seats. And if this is the first James Herbert book you buy... Read it in the dark, and see how you sleep.