The Silence Captures the Quiet Terror of Societal Collapse
Tim Lebbon’s The Silence will keep you up at night. You won’t want to put it down until it’s done, and you won’t stop thinking about it for a long time thereafter. It haunts you.
A reality show takes viewers on a live expedition into a series of underground caves that have been sealed for millennia. Suddenly, things start going crazy and reports of leathery, bat-like monsters surface. Called vesps, these creatures attack every living thing they encounter. After living for so many years underground, they completely upon sound to hunt—even a gasp or sneeze can spell doom for their prey. They are the ultimate predators, quickly spreading cross the continent and approaching the U.K. They kill everything, and they reproduce like Tribbles on acid. No one knows how to stop them.
The Silence
Paperback $14.95
The Silence
By Tim Lebbon
Paperback $14.95
Ally is a tech-savvy teenager who lost her hearing in an accident. Now she lives in a silent world with her parents, brother, and grandmother, and the family dog-turned service dog Otis. The clan, already traumatized by Ally’s accident, is forced to go on the run by the encroaching threat of the vesps. Every decision must be made with care; every choice could mean the difference between life and death.
One of the novel’s most interesting characters isn’t a person at all: social media plays such a significant role, it’s practically a protagonist. As the vesps move across Central Europe, citizens are forced to rely upon Twitter and blogs to learn what is going on. Given the unbelievable nature of the emerging reports, naysayers and conspiracy theorists abound, even as the terror closes in. Ally’s iPad is her constant companion, and provides the family with crucial information—as long as they are in a Wi-Fi zone.
Lebbon creates a chilling horror narrative that also feels utterly realistic. It’s not difficult to imagine this is exactly what what would happen to our society in the advent of upheaval of this magnitude, and the novel recreates a world sliding into collapse with increasing rapidity, the impending doom and the resounding sense of hopelessness. The vesps are every bit as terrifying as zombies, yet their origins are much more horrifically plausible. This is your front row seat to the breakdown of society.
Fans of zombie literature from Max Brooks to Robert Kirkman will appreciate the family’s growing desperation and frustration as they flee the city and race headlong into the unknown, facing increasingly difficult odds. Ally’s deafness is both a challenge and a boon; a family that knows sign language can adapt more easily to a silent world. Her father must step up to protect his family, even when that means doing unthinkable things. In Lebbon’s world, survival is for the strong, as well as those who can adapt fastest. The book doubtless serves as a bitter appetizer to the imminent premiere of Fear The Walking Dead, the zombie juggernaut’s prequel set in Los Angeles as the outbreak begins. Sometimes the scariest thing about an horror apocalypse isn’t the monsters. It’s other people.
The Silence is available now.
Ally is a tech-savvy teenager who lost her hearing in an accident. Now she lives in a silent world with her parents, brother, and grandmother, and the family dog-turned service dog Otis. The clan, already traumatized by Ally’s accident, is forced to go on the run by the encroaching threat of the vesps. Every decision must be made with care; every choice could mean the difference between life and death.
One of the novel’s most interesting characters isn’t a person at all: social media plays such a significant role, it’s practically a protagonist. As the vesps move across Central Europe, citizens are forced to rely upon Twitter and blogs to learn what is going on. Given the unbelievable nature of the emerging reports, naysayers and conspiracy theorists abound, even as the terror closes in. Ally’s iPad is her constant companion, and provides the family with crucial information—as long as they are in a Wi-Fi zone.
Lebbon creates a chilling horror narrative that also feels utterly realistic. It’s not difficult to imagine this is exactly what what would happen to our society in the advent of upheaval of this magnitude, and the novel recreates a world sliding into collapse with increasing rapidity, the impending doom and the resounding sense of hopelessness. The vesps are every bit as terrifying as zombies, yet their origins are much more horrifically plausible. This is your front row seat to the breakdown of society.
Fans of zombie literature from Max Brooks to Robert Kirkman will appreciate the family’s growing desperation and frustration as they flee the city and race headlong into the unknown, facing increasingly difficult odds. Ally’s deafness is both a challenge and a boon; a family that knows sign language can adapt more easily to a silent world. Her father must step up to protect his family, even when that means doing unthinkable things. In Lebbon’s world, survival is for the strong, as well as those who can adapt fastest. The book doubtless serves as a bitter appetizer to the imminent premiere of Fear The Walking Dead, the zombie juggernaut’s prequel set in Los Angeles as the outbreak begins. Sometimes the scariest thing about an horror apocalypse isn’t the monsters. It’s other people.
The Silence is available now.