To start with, look at that gorgeous cover. This book is a thing of beauty before you even open it. The attention to detail that goes into these Ritual Ltd special editions is exemplary. They all feature great artwork on the covers and are printed on really high quality paper. And, considering they're on a small print run, they're remarkably cheap.
When I heard that Adam was writing an alien invasion/apocalypse novel, I have to admit I was a little worried. He's always tended to folk horror or haunted places (with one exception) and I wasn't sure if his style would suit a more science fiction setting.
I needn't have worried. This is possibly the scariest thing he's written so far. It appears to follow on from one of the stories in Wyrd in which a town is totally deserted.
Karl wakes up after a bad case of flu left him bedbound to find that everyone has vanished. Waking up after illness into a post apocalypse world is not the most original of openings, but I've never seen it done in such an unsettling manner as this. The opening of the story and his exploration of the deserted towns is so eerie and off-putting, it left me genuinely nervous. This only got more intense as the horrors appeared.
Karl is an everyman, He has no special skills or aptitude for surviving in an apocalyptic landscape. He has no special knowledge of what the hell is going on and no way to fight the alien creatures that have descended to clear up the last pockets of humanity left behind after the mass slaughter on the Night of Bells. He finds himself in charge of a pair of orphaned children (who he's also not equipped to deal with) and together they must navigate the new world, trying their best to stay alive.
The set pieces in this book- and there are an awful lot of them- are amongst the most terrifying sequences Nevill has committed to paper. The nebulous horrors that hunt the survivors are unstoppable killing machines.
To say this book is bleak is an understatement. There is a sense of hopelessness that permeates every page, exacerbating the dread that comes with each new appearance of the horrors. I found myself unconsciously holding my breath for pages at a time. The writing is so tense I've almost left gouge marks on the cover from gripping it so tight.
There are shades of many previous works, War of the Worlds, Day of the Triffids, Nope, etc., but this is distinctly Adam Nevill's story and it's probably the best of it's type that I've read. I love that Karl doesn't have a clue what's going on or what he can do. I love that there are no magical explanations of what the aliens are or why they're doing this. Humanity is gone with a whimper not with a bang, and those left behind might have been better off if they'd been taken on that first night.
If I read anything else as scary this year I'll be very surprised (although Josh Malerman has a new one coming out in June which is the strongest contender I know of).
You can order a paperback copy through Amazon or through the Ritual Ltd website if you would prefer to not line Mr Bezo's pockets any more than necessary. The link to the shop is here All – Adam LG Nevill
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