James Herbert - The Rats - Lair - Domain

I was given Domain late last year in a bag of post-apocalyptic novels from my boss and was told that I should read it first because it was probably one of his top five books. I have to say, I was not disappointed. I am going to review all three books in the order I read them.

Domain is actually the third book in the series of three. The story takes place in London and begins with five nuclear bombs dropping on the city. We follow the main protagonist, Culver, in his struggle to escape the nuclear fallout and find shelter. We soon learn that beneath the city streets the rats have been lurking. These are no ordinary rats; they are a mutated strain and are bigger, stronger and more intelligent than their typical cousins.

This story is not for the faint of heart.

From the get go the book is difficult to put down. It is a good fusion of post-apocalyptic and horror with believable, likable and well developed characters. Frank Herbert is a master of the proverbial "out of the frying pan and into the fire" situation. Just when you think things can't get any worse... they get much worse.

The Rats is the first book of the three. It's a gentler introduction to Herbert's writing style and twisted mind than Domain, but is no less gripping. The story follows Steve Harris, a London public school English teacher. Starting with one of his students being bitten by a rat, a series of incidents start happening in one of the poorer London districts and before too long, people start dying.

I really liked this book in that it focused more on the origin of the rats, which I lacked in Domain. It was a much quicker read, and kept me more than interested through all 200 pages.

Lair is the second book of the three and takes place 4 years after the initial London incident. Rat sightings are required by law to be reported immediately. These sightings are investigated, but with no black rat sightings in almost 4 years the rats are being forgotten. The story follows a Ratkill employee named Lucas Pender in his investigation of a woodland preserve just outside of London.

The first half of the story is a bit slower than the other two, but no less twisted. Each time the rats strike, it's always in some twisted manner that leaves me thinking: "Holy S#&@!"

In all three books, the character development of the secondary characters is very well done. Many may only live two or three pages, but by the time the rats strike you feel for them (one way or another).

I really enjoyed reading all three books and they were an excellent primer to two genres that I have not read much of before.

-Adam