Rats [Paperback]

James Herbert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2010

It was only when the bones of the first devoured victims were discovered that the true nature and power of these swarming black creatures with their razor sharp teeth and the taste for human blood began to be realised by a panic-stricken city. For millions of years man and rats had been natural enemies. But now for the first time suddenly, shockingly, horribly the balance of power had shifted 'The effectiveness of the gruesome set pieces and brilliant finale are all its own.' Sunday Times.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James Herbert is not just Britain's number one bestselling writer of chiller fiction, a position he has held ever since publication of his first novel, but is also one of our greatest popular novelists. Widely imitated and hugely influential, his twenty-three novels have sold more than fifty-four million copies worldwide, and have been translated into over thirty languages including Russian and Chinese. In 2010, he was made the Grand Master of Horror by the World Horror Convention and was also awarded an OBE by the Queen for services to literature. He is married with three daughters and lives in London and Sussex.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan (March 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330515209
• ISBN-13: 978-0330515207
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,897,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This was so scary!, June 26, 2011

By 

Rocketman - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rats (Kindle Edition)

This is first of the Rats trilogy and wow what a book. It was a scary as hell! Dark and very grusome in places. The book kept me gripped throughout - infact i had difficulty putting it down once I started. The ending was satisfying but left it open for the sequal which I will be reading next.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Must of Rocked...In the 70s, September 27, 2011

By 

Danny Norbury (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Rats (Kindle Edition)

The Rats is one of those horror stories that exposed the fears and concerns of a particular generation. During the 70s rats were a very vocal social concern in metro areas to the point where rat infestations were making word wide press when they occurred in areas such as NYC or (as in the case with this book) London. Read "Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants" by Robert Sullivan to understand just how this problem grew and, in turn, represented the social/economic boundaries and impressions of the time.

Here, Herbert stays far from the historical route and instead, tells a straight up horror story. These are not your standard variety Norwegian rats either, these are giant, super intelligent, mutant rats bread from some atomic testing site and inadvertently released into our populace. And yes, that is far fetched, and yes that does show the fact that this was written in the 70s, and yes, that feeling is further justified by the out of place social rants that the main character thinks...in other words, there are many ways that this book shows its age.

But at its core, there are some genuine skin crawling scenes, scenes of real horror that shine through and make this a worthwhile read. Just remember, that you need to place yourself firmly in an early 1970's mindset, you need to accept the whole mutant rat concept, and suspend further disbelief of a government's reliance on a high school art teacher to be part of a team of scientists that not only have to solve the rat crisis but contain the 100% lethal-24-hour-killing-black-plague-like virus that is spread by their bites. If you can do that, then this book will impress you. Otherwise, it will be an average read with a few above average scares to get you buy.