In James Herbert’s Others, private investigator Nicholas Dismas is hired to track down a missing baby stolen away at birth, he finds himself immersed in a grim underworld of lies and deceit. His investigations ultimately lead him to a mysteriously located place with the seemingly innocent name of Perfect Rest, a nursing home where the elderly can live out their days in peace.
But appearances can be deceptive and Dismas discovers the shadowy presence of the Others lurking in the hidden rooms and passages of Perfect Rest. His own dark heart is called into question in the events that follow and, in an astonishing and spectacular finale, Dismas finally resolves the enigma of his existence and answers the disturbing questions. who and what are the Others?
It’s no secret that I, as I near the end of Herbert’s bibliography, have not been impressed by much of his output since…well honestly, not much has impressed me since his second novel, The Fog from back in the mid-70s.
Having said that, with his last novel, ’48, and now with this one, he seems to have been stepping out of his comfort zone and trying something a little different. And while the results are uneven, I have been enjoying the books a little more.
With that though, I will say I started the audiobook for this and was, quite frankly, immediately turned off by the opening scene. I actually flipped over and started listening to a completely different novel, which I hated and will not review or mention. Thinking that Herbert’s couldn’t be worse than the other one, I abandoned it and moved back to Herbert. Taking a deep breath, I carried on and was happy to see the book shift focus with the main story (though that opening scene was a serious spoiler that told me exactly how this book would end), my joy was short-lived when the story just kind of…sat there…for the longest time.
To be honest, the plotting and pacing of this novel was just kind of bizarre. As though Herbert knew how to end it, but didn’t have much story to throw before that ending that took up a solid final quarter—if not a full third—of the end of the book.
Overall, though, it was a reasonably good return to horror for Herbert, and I likely would have enjoyed it more if the story hadn’t relied as heavily on two tropes I typically don’t enjoy.
The first is pretty much an enjoyment killer for me, and that’s a heavy reliance on dreams. Dreams, to me, are just big pauses in the story, where crap happens that has little effect on the story proper, and are usually inserted to cause doubt and unease in the readers’ minds. The only time I’ve enjoyed dream inserts are when they have a real and lasting impact on the characters. Think Nightmare on Elm Street. So, that was, aside from the opening, turn off number one for me.
The second is a heavy reliance on a psychic character who always shows up just in time to move the plot forward. And man, does Herbert rely on one in this story. Like, literally, there’d basically be no story without someone who has no right knowing what they know showing up to push Diz in the right direction, over and over again.
So, aside from the opening, the dream sequences, the psychic, and questionable pacing, I will say there’s some really good set pieces, and some decently horrific stuff that Herbert leads you through, at times almost skirting Clive Barker territory.
Herbert takes some chances here. Some work, some don’t. But at least he took some chances again, because it felt like he’d been playing it safe for far too long.
