James Herbert Resident Scholar Profiles TOP SCHOLAR: Salil SCHOLARS:
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Review Summaries
"After a stroke Thom Kindred goes back to his childhood home in the grounds of a mansion, where he lived in bliss with his late mother. On arrival he finds his rich benefactor on his deathbed, his son (Thom's childhood friend) somehow involved with the 'siren' who is nursing the ailing man. "
Sue Jeffrey, Resident James Herbert Scholar
"...
Tor, Apr 2002, 26.95, 384 pp.
ISBN: 0765302853
Only twenty-seven, Thom Kindred needs time to recover from the debilitating stroke he recently suffered. He chooses to go back to his favorite place, Castle Bracken where he once lived in a nearby cottage as a little boy. Back in his wonderful salad days, his mother regaled Thom with tales of mythical creatures until she suddenly died. Upon her death, his father sent Thom away to school where his innocence and belief in these fairy tale beings were quickly stripped away.
However, Thom's current return home rouses a malevolent being out of his slumber. As strange happenings occur, Thom wonders if the stroke destroyed his mind more than the crippling of his body. As friend and foe arrive for the final battle, the two sides try to woo Thom to join them for deep in the recesses of his brain resides the knowledge that could save or destroy the secret world of the fairies and elves.
ONCE... is an exciting adult fairy tale that is at its best as Thom discovers his blood relationship to fairies even as he questions his sanity. Fans will either adulate or abhor the tale when James Herbert goes into incredible depth to describe the mythological society and includes several erotic excesses because the action goes dormant. Thom is a fine hero internally struggling between good and evil and his own sanity. Readers of adult fantasy with an emphasis on the thoughts of the cast will want to read James Herbert's tale, but the author's fans need to understand the action is more deliberate than in his previous novels.
Harriet Klausner
"
Harriet Klausner, Resident James Herbert Scholar
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Overall Review
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Plot
Composition of Book Descript. of chases or violence - 10% planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 10% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 60% Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%
Tone of book
- sensitive (sigh....)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- fantasy story on current Earth
Inner Struggle
Yes
Plotlet:
- search for identity/new understanding
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- champion of justice
- blue collar worker
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- physically sick
Main Adversary
Identity:
- magical being
- Female
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- mage/magician
Has magical powers?
Yes
Magical/mental powers of main antagonist:
- can change shapes
- mind reading
- can cast all sorts of spells
- Invisibility
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Setting
Terrain
- Forests
Earth setting:
- during "Tolkien" (fairytime) times
- current (early 21st century)
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- descript of kissing
- descript of touching personal anatomy
- licking
- actual description of sex
- lesbians!
- description of breasts
- descript. of private male anat.
- rape/molest (yeech!)
How much dialogue?
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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