Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23544 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-23
• Binding: Paperback
• 439 pages

Synopsis
It came like a malignant shadow with seductive promises of power. And somewhere in the night...a small girl smiled as her mother burned...Asylum inmates slaughtered their attendants...in slimy tunnels once-human creatures gathered. Madness raged as the lights began to fade and humanity was attacked by an ancient, unstoppable evil.

Customer Reviews

Herbert's Darkest novel...
No pun intended. The Dark is a genuinely chilling novel with a menacing, foreboding atmosphere to it, containing some genuine scares, an intriguing plot and intersting characters. Okay, the plot is similar to The Fog (just substitute fog for Darkness) but is more interesting, well written and atmospheric. One of my favourite Herbert books.

Frustratingly stupid
One of the more disappointing efforts by James Herbert. Maybe it's because I hate anything to do psychics or mediums. Most of them, if not all of them, are bogus, and I can't stand it when they get any kind of credibility, even in fiction!
Even small things annoyed me about this story, like the fact that the medium was called Edith, oh how original! Aren't all mediums called Edith!!? There were also too many accounts given of the unfortunate things that were happening to fringe characters, and at times you are left wondering what is happening to the main characters. A few examples would have sufficed Mr Herbert, we get the picture! The same story could have been told in half the time.

A Dark Chiller That Becomes a Bit Dull
Is evil a force within all of us? Is it a source of energy that can be harnessed by powerful men? After a mass suicide in a normal house in a normal suburb of London things start to go wrong. Family members attack one another and strangers kill each other on the street. The feeling of evil spreads during the night over London and there is even a mass brawl at a football game leaving 100s dead. With Marshall Law installed can the government discover what is behind the dark? Is it a physical problem or one of the soul?

This book is by no means Herbert's best, but still has some good elements. The idea that everyone has evil within them and it can be harnessed is very interesting, but the book fails to really explore the concept fully. I found the characters to be a bit too generic and that the majority of the book fell into a straight chase. The parts that do succeed are the elements of horror as Herbert describes the various grisly events that the dark induces. I would recommend this book to Herbert completists only as it may put off a new reader. Herbert's 'Rats' trilogy or 'The Shrine' are far better starting points.