Once

by James Herbert

Overview

Remember the faery stories you were told as a child? Tales of tiny, magical, winged beings and elves, wicked witches and goblins. Demons . . . What if one day you found out 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 novel of erotic love and darkest horror, will take you to a realm where fantasy and reality collide, where faerytales really can come true.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780330469043
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan
Publication date:	05/11/2011
Series:	Aziza's Secret Fairy Door , #103
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	300
Sales rank:	589,638
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James Herbert is one of the world's most popular novelists, with books sold in thirty-three foreign languages. He is an international bestselling author hitting number one on the Times of London list, and his novel Others found wide critical acclaim in the United States. He lives in London, England.

Read an Excerpt

Once

Editorial Reviews

Pastoral fantasy and graphic grue congeal immiscibly in this peculiar fairy tale from British horror laureate Herbert (Others). Set on the grounds of Castle Bracken, a verdant woodland estate with a shady history, it follows the trials of Thom Kindred, who returns there to recover from a stroke. Thom's mother worked for Sir Russell Bleeth, the estate's owner, and the grounds hold fond memories of years spent with his mum before she inexplicably abandoned him. No sooner is Thom comfy in the natural surroundings than he is subjected to seemingly unnatural experiences: displays of multicolored lights in the foliage, an encounter with an ethereal young maiden in the woods and increasingly persistent advances by a Wiccan nursemaid. In time, Thom discovers that the estate is a refuge for the faerie folk, whose blood he shares, and that he'll play a pivotal role in saving them from an occult menace that's already infiltrated Castle Bracken. Herbert does nothing original with this familiar fantasy theme of the individual who discovers his faerie heritage. Rather, he dwells at tedious length on the society of the faeriefolkis, indulging in twee descriptions of their world and endowing some with proper names that are titles of his previous books spelled backwards. Prolonged erotic interludes, spliced in to alert readers that this is a fairy tale for adults, do little to relieve the monotony. Only in the final moments, when Thom battles a series of viscerally horrific assaults, does the book show a glimmer of the vitality and drive characteristic of Herbert's best fiction. (Apr. 23) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

EBOOK COMMENTARY

Pastoral fantasy and graphic grue congeal immiscibly in this peculiar fairy tale from British horror laureate Herbert (Others). Set on the grounds of Castle Bracken, a verdant woodland estate with a shady history, it follows the trials of Thom Kindred, who returns there to recover from a stroke. Thom's mother worked for Sir Russell Bleeth, the estate's owner, and the grounds hold fond memories of years spent with his mum before she inexplicably abandoned him. No sooner is Thom comfy in the natural surroundings than he is subjected to seemingly unnatural experiences: displays of multicolored lights in the foliage, an encounter with an ethereal young maiden in the woods and increasingly persistent advances by a Wiccan nursemaid. In time, Thom discovers that the estate is a refuge for the faerie folk, whose blood he shares, and that he'll play a pivotal role in saving them from an occult menace that's already infiltrated Castle Bracken. Herbert does nothing original with this familiar fantasy theme of the individual who discovers his faerie heritage. Rather, he dwells at tedious length on the society of the faeriefolkis, indulging in twee descriptions of their world and endowing some with proper names that are titles of his previous books spelled backwards. Prolonged erotic interludes, spliced in to alert readers that this is a fairy tale for adults, do little to relieve the monotony. Only in the final moments, when Thom battles a series of viscerally horrific assaults, does the book show a glimmer of the vitality and drive characteristic of Herbert's best fiction. (Apr. 23) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

After ringing changes on Victor Hugo in Others, Herbert now takes us to a fairyland decidedly not out of James M. Barrie. Yes, the author does provide some sweetness-and-light and pitter-pattering fairy laughter, but only as they contrast with dark forces of wiccans married to the boiling and shapeless father of darkness. His object is to create a total environment in which the reader can at least half-believe in fairies, elves, undines, and so on, not to mention witches. So he sets before us the Bracken estate with its castle, acres of lawn, deep woods, and rough lanes: an absolutely idyllic landscape for fairies. Thom Kindred, 27, is recovering from a crippling auto accident that resulted from a stroke while driving. His mother worked for Sir Russell Bleeth at Castle Bracken until Thom was seven years old; then she . . . hmm, died? . . . without ever telling Thom who his real father was. Sir Russell, twice a widower and father to big, shapeless, greedy Hugo, lies dying as Thom returns to the estate and takes up life in his mother's abandoned old cottage. He finds himself attended mornings by Nell Quick, a pretty wiccan, it turns out, whose attentions cause dishes to fly off shelves while some kind of elf or goblin scoots about the floor just out of sight. Soon Thom hears strange musical sounds and sees eerie golden lights floating about, and later he finds himself sucked into the world of little spirits and an affair with beautiful Jennet, an undine. But as his mother would have warned him, affairs between mortals and undines can't end happily. Leaf-clogged suspense until a slashing succubus appears to add stress to Thom's recovery.

Kirkus Reviews