James Herbert, Once

James Herbert, Once - Synopsis:

"Remember the faery stories you were told when you were a child? Tales of tiny magical winged beings and elves, wicked witches, goblins and demons. What if one day you found they were true? What if, when you became an adult, you discovered they were all based on fact? What if you met the fantasy and it was all so very real?

That's what happened to Thom Kindred. The wonders were revealed to him. But so were the horrors, for not far behind the good, there always lurks the bad. And the bad had designs on Thom. The bad would show him real evil. He would see the hellhagges and the demons. He would be touched by perverted passion and corruption. And he would encounter his own worst nightmare. The bad would seek to destroy him. And only the magic of the little beings would be able to help him. Once..., James Herbert's masterful new novel of erotic love and darkest horror, will take you to a realm where fantasy and reality collide, where faerytales really can come true".

First published in 2001, 'Once...' is Herbert's twentieth full length novel. It was brought out by the publishers Tor who have put together a beautifully packaged book. The dust cover is of a very high quality and the book includes a few full colour plates that illustrate the novel.

The story itself is a return to the fantasy genre which Herbert first tried with 'The Magic Cottage' back in 1986. The main characters are established very quickly within the novel as the magical storyline unfolds before you. Unfortunately, Herbert spends pages upon pages on Thom Kindred accepting the fact that this magical world really exists. This gets extremely tedious and annoying after a while. Herbert delves into some very adult erotic scenarios which are sprinkled throughout the novel. The plot is rather dull and un-original with sickeningly clich d developments and borderline annoying characters.

All in all, the book is a very fantasy-based magical tale that has by-passed Herbert's awesome talent for writing haunting and heart-stopping novels. I found the storyline shallow and repetitive, with little to no originality. This was a great shame as Herbert has produced some of my all time favourite novels in the past. Definitely not his best yet, as the sleeve notes proudly announce. But it was a nice to see the return of Herbert's Rumbo character from 'Fluke' and 'The Magic Cottage'.