Lair

Written by James Herbert

Narrated by Steven Pacey

REMEMBER WITH FEAR . . . The mutant white rat had grown and mated, creating offspring in its own image. They dominated the others, the dark-furred ones, who foraged for food and brought it back to The Lair. Now the dark rats were restless, tormented by a craving they could not satisfy. But the white sluglike thing that ruled them knew. Its two heads weaved to and fro and a stickiness drooled from its mouth as it remembered the taste of human flesh . . .

'Not for the nervous' - Daily Mirror

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Apr 6, 2007
• ISBN: 9780230700765

James Herbert

James Herbert was not only Britain’s number one bestselling writer of chiller fiction, a position he held ever since publication of his first novel, but was also one of our greatest popular novelists. Widely imitated and hugely influential, his twenty-three novels have sold more than fifty-four million copies worldwide, and have been translated into over thirty languages, including Russian and Chinese. In 2010, he was made the Grand Master of Horror by the World Horror Convention and was also awarded an OBE by the Queen for services to literature. His final novel was Ash. James Herbert died in March 2013.

Reviews for Lair

[bluiee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

nope, it is a trilogy... SLOPPY, scribd. The series is fun 4all liking creepy critters :)

[S. S. Yolken · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

They killed all the rats susceptible to poison and pesticide and can you guess what's left? Right. The immune ones. Very smart idea.

But realistic, as we've done that a lot in history. We're foolish that way. We should probably be better about how often we do it. At least it's not bacteria becoming immune to medicine this time. Rats are scary, but our bodies attacking themselves or rotting is far scarier. Sorry, James, your book trilogy is just becoming a pretty cover and me rooting for the rats, not being afraid of them.

The amount of times they were described as "tenacious beasts" or "tenacious" was a bit on the tedious side. I get it, the rats are two foot long terrors.
They're so scary only the word tenacious can be used like Lovecraft saying "queer" for odd can be abused. Both James and Howard need to not repeat themselves like this. (R.I.P both of them)

They're also evolving into slugs basically. Two headed rats with pink skin crawling about feels less scary. Just gross. I'm here for horror, not nasty gross rat slugs. Why couldn't it be a terrifying rat king not a sluggish obese pink slug? Disappointing.

There's a few sex in the woods in a horror movie and then getting killed scenes. Instead of cringing at the sex, I felt like it was karma, especially when they knew the risks. All sex scenes are cringy to me even though I'm very sexually active. There's just something about them describing their breasts and talking about how good they're humping and all that that has always made me kind of disillusioned and unamused, there's very few exceptions to books that I do not like the sexual scenes of. It's nothing against this book because it could happen in any book even Stephen King's best books and I still would hate it. Especially when they're talking about their dongs and vaginas and abusing slang words or calling them things like the one-eyed snake and such.
So the rats were here basically to quell my annoyance at a sex scene breaking out in a horror book, that old trope.

Thank you, rats.

It's definitely a downgrade from the first book, but I also trilogy I never really expect the second book to be very good. It's a rule of my life to read the second book and find it less good than the first and to read the third book and it's either either the best book or the worst book. I have one more book to read of this series and I will be leaving in my review if it was the best of the worst.

I didn't really care for the characters in the first book because I expected them all to die, but I definitely felt like their deaths were more impactful in the first book. Here it's a bunch of characters that I don't care about, and I especially don't care about after listening to the first book because now I expect everyone from the first book to be dead. And with expectations like that, I don't really care about these characters because they probably won't make it to the third book.

3.8 stars. Rounded up to four stars.

[RichardKevinWilson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just got finished with this; the 2nd book in the 'Rats' trilogy right after finishing the first one, which is a horror CLASSIC! Now, this is just my opinion...but I still think this was as good as if not possibly better than the first one! The horror comes at you so graphically fast, however there isn't the horrendous animal slaughter that there was in the first, which was perfect for me! Loved this one too! Get ready to meet the '2 Headed white rat Terror' in "Lair"!

5 gory, gory Stars

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Theeereeyyy’rrrrre back!!! “Frenzied mutant super-rats bloodlusting for human flesh...”It’s been four years since the Outbreak, and the black rats are hungry! VERY hungry! This is an extremely graphic, bloody read! Rats vs. humans - to the death! There's really not much else to say. If you like 'em bloody, violent, and horror-filled, this book is for you!

[elliepotten · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First ... we brought you RATS IN THE CITY... now... there are RATS IN THE FOREST!* The second book in the Rats trilogy, this novel is set four years after the mass cull of the mutant black rats that caused such terror and carnage in London. Now, a few miles away in Epping Forest, it seems that the survivors of the cull - and their hideous new leader - have bred and multiplied to such an extent that their fear of humans has become secondary to their overwhelming strength in numbers... and their renewed taste for human flesh. Now it's up to Ratkill investigator Lucas Pender to contain the problem, working with the local farmers, conservation workers and the military to find the rats' new lair before they can take over again. A cracking sequel that I sped through as quickly as the first - I particularly liked the addition of short Jaws 2-esque** insights into the existence of the rats. The only thing that really annoyed me is how spoilerific the cover art is - it gave away the location of the rats' hideout by the time I got a quarter of the way through the book! Anyway, one more ratty horrorfest to go - and I think the final one, Domain, is RATS IN A DYSTOPIAN FUTURE LONDON, which should be interesting! * To be read in a 'movie trailer voiceover guy' voice. OBVIOUSLY. ** Seriously, Jaws 2 by Hank Searls is a great book. Vastly superior to the movie, from what I gather! He uses the same technique - short sections in italics - to let us into the 'mind' of his female great white shark.