Once

Written by James Herbert

Narrated by Robert Powell

Remember the fairy 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: May 4, 2007
• ISBN: 9780230531666

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 Once

[mephestophelesx · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Tried to finish this, but I couldn't get through. Needlessly explicit sex scenes killed the action for me and whilst I understand they may have been necessary, the excess detail however was not. The book felt more like soft core porn and I wasn't really looking for that type of story.

[ct4bergeron · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was disappointed by this book, I wish it would have contained a bit more (can't say what exactly but something)The storyline was ok, their wasn't any suspense or drama. LOts of random sex (that didn't do anything to the story) overall A kids fairytale with added part to make it for adult.

[barpurple · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fantastic blend of fairy tales and reality. Thanks to Herbert's great writing this is a brilliant novel.

[bookwormteri · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I had read about 200 pages of this book and was torn. I really wasn't all that interested, but had alrady invested 200 pages worth of time and didn't want to give up. I should have just given up. It is okay as far as story goes, but I just could not get into it. I will admit to probably scanning the second half of the book and actually reading whenever there was dialogue (which there isn't too much of) or felt lost when I stopped scanning. Wasn't crazy about any of the characters, didn't find the story compelling...I really wanted to like it, but just couldn't.

[dissidence_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I do enjoy James Herbert's books but this one does fall a bit flat in retrospect. James Herbert creates likeable characters and intriguing suspense with relaistic and believable fantasy. I do, however, think that he plugs in the gaps with non-stop sex scenes - Nell and Thom twiceish, Nell and the other guy, Nell and Katie, Thom and Jennet twice. Sex does play a large part of the plot especially in regards to Nell and Thom, as she is trying to seduce him for other means. The ending is where James Herbert falls down. The entire book builds up this suspense for this almighty battle, hypes it up as the battle between good and evil and where everything will change etc. And then we have the climax with an enemy we can't even look at or "he'll own your soul" who doesn't even bother with Thom, and the main character who is supposed to be the hero, spends the entire time hiding underneath his newly found Undine girlfriend. Not exactly the Apocalypse we'd been sold all those damn pages ago! And the motives for the whole conflict...are we supposed to believe that people turn to dark magick and supposed "Wicca", conjure up terrible creatures to steal your enemy's semen so you can curse him to death...all over the allotment of estate in an old man's Will?A good book, worth a read, but the absence of a proper plot, real motives for the conflict and a satisfying conclusion is apparent despite Herbert's attempt to distract the reader with erotic scenes - "Look over there! A lesbian sex scene!" - and isn't really worth much after the first read.

[dbirrell-180836 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed it but it's not his best.

[victorianrose869 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've loved James Herbert (a Brit, naturally!) ever since I read The Magic Cottage many years ago. He has a wonderful way of blending the everyday world with the supernatural in a way that's seamless and utterly believable, and I appreciate his ability to explore very different subjects and rarely repeat himself - no doubt a difficult task for a fairly prolific writer. In this story, he delves into the world of the Faerie, which, ironically, has never been one of my more pressing interests. He brings it out so naturally, though, that I found myself just going with it! Thom Kindred has returned to his childhood home of Castle Bracken to heal from a devastating, early-age stroke. Bracken really is a true castle, a relic of the distant past, and Thom grew up in a small cottage on the property - the cottage having been occupied by his mother, who served as a tutor to the children of Bracken's owners. When the story begins, Thom's mother is long dead - of suicide, or so Thom was led to believe those many years ago - but the glimpses we get of her through his memories are intriguing. She seems mystical, lovely and ethereal, and I don't know about others who read this book, but I would have loved to know more about her and to have another 200 pages or so reserved just for an exploration into Thom's childhood and growing up with this mysterious woman of the woods. Then, of course, there are the woods themselves, which we soon learn are unlike any other. It doesn't take long before we find Thom plunged into a mystery both beautiful and terrifying, and the woods come alive with all the creatures we hear about in fairy tales as children - the original fairy tales that were both dark and light, alternately fascinating and frightening. He falls in love with Jennet, a faerie creature who slowly re-awakens his long-suppressed memories of life as a child in this otherworld, and also reveals to him the truth about his mother. When he learns that the fate of the magical world he inhabited as a child and has re-discovered as an adult is in terrible, immediate jeopardy, he realizes that, ready or not, he's about to be caught in the middle of a torturous battle between the past and the present, and what is seen and unseen. I have only two complaints, and they're relatively minor. The first is in reference to one of the villains of the story, a witch whom he specifically identifies as Wiccan. It's not an accurate depiction of the religion of Wicca or its practitioners, nor is there any adequate explanation, even briefly, of the word itself and the numerous ways it's used. It's a somewhat broad and hotly debated topic anyway and probably why he left all that out, but I still think it's confusing and more than a little misleading to anyone who is not familiar with Wicca either as a religion or as a word. My other complaint may sound a little weird, but it has to do with his depiction of Jennet, the faerie with whom Thom falls in love. It's a very sexual relationship, which is fine and I have no issue with that. It's the description of her as (and I apologize in advance if this is a little TMI or inappropriate!) 'hairless' and small-breasted, and essentially very child-like. I realize I'm not articulating this very well, since obviously "small-breasted" in no way translates as "child-like". It's just the depiction of Jennet in general as more of a 13-year old...at least, that's the image I get in my head. I'm uncomfortable with a grown man expressing such lust for a girl who comes across almost pre-pubescent. I should make clear, of course, that Jennet's character is NOT a child. It just gives me an itsty bitsy bit of the creeps. At any rate, it's a small thing because the other sexual attraction he feels, towards the witch of the tale, is very much the opposite. I don't know if there's any significance to the fact that the "woman" of the story is the evil witch, while the child-like female is ultimately the heroine and an object of true love, but I'm sure that in any case Herbert wouldn't appreciate my Freudian analysis of his sexual predilections. LOL All in all it was a good, satisfying story. A nice addition to anyone's collection of supernatural, dark fantasy and other similar tales in the genre.

[readingrat_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An unusual combination of horror story, faerie tale, and erotica - definitely not recommended for arachnophobes.

[cheriepie69_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Hmmm... how did I feel about this book? Well, I think it could've been a lot better in some regards, but I really liked the underlying story. For starters, I didn't like the author's frequent use of parenthesis and dashes, in the middle of a thought, where he'd go off on a tangent in another direction, just to return to the original thought of the sentence. For instance, dashes should be used for short thoughts inserted into the stream of thought, but when that inserted stream of thought goes on for 5 or 6 lines, before returning to finish the sentence... well, I found myself having to go back and reread the sentence without the inserted text to understand what the author was trying to say. He sometimes used parenthesis in the same way. So all that got annoying after awhile.Secondly, speaking as a practicing Witch and Pagan, I disliked the use of the word Wiccan to refer to what Nell was. A Wiccan is a very specific denomination of Witchcraft, and what Nell practiced was definitely not Wicca. Nell was a Witch, but she was not a Wiccan. A Wiccan is a Witch, but a Witch is not necessarily a Wiccan. I think the author should spend a bit more time researching the subject of Wiccans and Witchcraft before throwing around terminology he obviously knows nothing about. Now that all that nasty stuff is out of the way, I found the underlying story interesting and hard to put down. I particularly liked the sex scenes; they were pretty hot for a non-erotica book! :-P I also liked author's portrayal of the Faerie world, and the characters of Jennet and Rigwit. But found Hugo, Thom's longtime friend, to be particularly annoying and spineless.Overall, a fairly decent read, though it lost points because of the points I mentioned above. I'll certainly look for and read more by this author though, particularly since others have stated this wasn't even one of his better books.

[yourbob · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

kinda creepy, but not a great read