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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
BE AFRAID...BE VERY AFRAID..., August 14, 2004
This is a superlative, well-crafted horror story with quite an original storyline. Taking place in foggy, old England, a dense, yellowish fog suddenly arises from the bowels of the earth, infiltrating the minds of all whom it envelops and removing all restraint. Suddenly, 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 murder, rape, mass suicide, and looting become a way of life. Even animals succumb to the fog, which turns treasured pets into killers that their owners cannot control. 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 is 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 written in a spare, no nonsense, matter of fact style, making it all the more believable and horrific, all while tinged by a trace of dark humor. The tension is crisply maintained throughout the entire book from start to finish, which 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!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Look Out For Man Eating Cows!!!., August 15, 2006
I have gotten very interested in James Herbert books lately (from reading his moderate 'Haunted'), but it was 'The Fog' that had grasped my interest for a very long time. Although I was still keen on reading his supposedly best book 'The Rats', I had decided to read 'The Fog' first just to get used to Herbert's writting style.
Set in England, 'The Fog' opens with a simple little village that is quickly ripped apart by a devastating earthquake. From the large cracks in the ground, a strange sort of yellow fog is released. And when people come in contact with this fog, they soon start to go completely insane. Chaos ensues along with murder, self mutilation and destruction. Soon the mysterious fog starts traveling the countryside, causing madness and devastation in its path until it reaches London causing a national panic of torture, violence and insane acts of butchery.
And London's only hope is Holman, a man who is immune to the effects of the dangerous fog by being the first person to inhale the fog's poison.
Fast paced, full of action, shocks, violence and utter destruction is what made me really like this book. It was a very enjoyable read with plenty of things going on. From axe murders, children killing their gym teacher, girls slaugtering their boyfriends and others just hurting themselves. The fog in this book does some very strange things to people, causing them to go crazy with rage destroying whatever they can see. The fog even effect the animals! As cows attack and kill their farmer, while pigeons peck out the eyes of their owner. The acts of violence in 'The Fog' can be disturbing in places, but not too disturbing that you bring up yesterday's dinner on your lap, as Herbert doesn't go into that much detail.
The only things that I didn't really like about this book is the unnessary mention of doomed characters. Herbert describes a character in great detail from his/her past to present before he/her is suddenly killed. I suppose this is because Herbert wanted the reader to have some kind of relationship with the character before they were violently killed off. This writting technique just didn't work with me because their are so many incidents of people dying in this book, that there was just no need for that victims full description.
Another thing that I did not like in this book, is the overflow of too many characters. There are so many characters and names in 'The Fog' that its hard to keep up with the author. Almost half of the characters mentioned in this book are killed off anyway.
Other than the complaints above, 'The Fog' is a very good read from start to finish. With killing after killing coming left and right, 'The Fog' certainly keeps you interested. Completely different from John Carpenter's film under the same name, James Herbert's 'The Fog' is also (in my opinion) better than Carpenter's horror and makes you think why Herbert's version wasn't made to film. It would have certainly been more interesting.
Overall, I gave this book 4 stars, as it is a little bit flawed in some areas and not entirely perfect. But a damn fine horror read. 'The Fog' is Highly recommended for James Herbert fans and other readers interested in horror novels.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bundles of atmosphere, May 6, 2006
Herbert combines rich evocative prose with a sense of on the edge of your seat pacing to create thrillers that are not just convincing, but thought-provoking as well.
Is the best book that I have read in years.
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