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Post by vaughan on Sept 4, 2009 9:32:14 GMT
175 – 244 – 421.
1974 – 1979 – 1984.
These are the not so secret codes into the world of James Herbert’s Trilogy.
Starting in 1974 James Herbert wrote his anti-establishment pulp master class The Rats. It’s 175 pages of quick fire gore and adventure. No-one is safe, the government is powerless, and it takes underlings to bring some semblance of order back to the world.
In 1979 Herbert came back to The Rats with a sequel, The Lair. As indicated by the increased page count the canvas is a little broader, the story has a bit more depth. However, it essentially tells the same tale, taking us from an urban environment to the countryside of Epping Forest.
In 1984 Herbert returned, but this time he didn’t so much want to continue the story, as he seemed to want to rewrite it in a more appropriate and obvious setting –the end of the world.
One of the themes of The Rats is the negligence of science and the government, and how the man (and woman) in the street has to pay the price for the evils they do in our name – or for the common good. This theme is exploited in The Lair too. While the story itself doesn’t move along very much, the very fact that man is once against surprised by the rising up of this vengeful species tells us that nothing was truly learned previously, other than a means of destruction. And perhaps more importantly, that no-one, nowhere, was safe. Live in the city? Live in the countryside? It doesn’t matter when it comes to infertile governments, mad scientists, impotent military, and vengeful hungry hordes.
In truth we didn’t need another rats story. With The Lair Herbert had sucked all the pulp out of the pulp elements. Subtexts – sure, but what makes these titles fun for some of us is the craziness, the war itself. They’re quick-fire novels, books that can be read in one exciting sitting. Herbert has a message, but he never lets it get in the way of the story. These are primarily Rats books.
And then we have Domain. While we shouldn’t concentrate too much on page counts, looking at such things can be informative. At 421 pages the Domain novel has a larger page count than the previous two books combined. That ought to be enough for you to sit up and think, just what is Herbert up to here? If we love The Rats for being irreverent, fast, down-and-dirty, and at times mean – then how can that translate into 421 pages?
Well, in truth, it stays pretty close to the heart of what makes the previous Rats books a lot of fun. However, the scope of the arena in which we’re going to play is far far greater. We’re talking about the annihilation of society here rather than the communities largely affected previously.
Taking the familiar themes of governmental control, the everyman getting hammered, and the phrase “for the good of all” being exposed as meaning “for the good of the few”, Domain elevates the rats themselves. He does this by cleverly changing the rules. In the previous books we have everyday life as we know it, with the Rats as interlopers. They are very much in our world, and that can work both for and against us. In Domain there is no normalcy. In fact, the world is the world of The Rats. Death, bodies rotting on the streets, no cars, no electricity, devastation everywhere, and the few (man) is being dominated by the many (the rats).
As such, the canvas gets larger. We can’t rely on everyday experience to examine the rats and their context. The context has changed radically. In Domain man isn’t fighting the rats, rats are fighting man. Man itself is pre-occupied with simply trying to survive – hiding in holes in the ground, cowering in basements, frightened of the dark. Contrast this with previous rats novels where it’s the rats are doing these things. We have role reversal here.
So what are all those extra pages about?
It’s an indication of the quality Herbert’s writing that while the scale of this novel is greater, it still feels rather personal. That’s not lost on the larger canvas. However, Herbert spends a considerable amount of time telling us about the destroyed world. There is more time for the man in the street – personified by Culver, our lead character – and how he reacts to what remains of the government and its folly. Culver see’s the end of government first hand, takes part in it, walking a fine line while others jump on one side of the wall or the other. The anti-establishment theme is more prominent here, and that takes up a lot of time.
In fact sometimes you even forget about the rats themselves. Although they are always under the surface, ready to point there heads through a grating and nip off your allegory, they must sometimes take a back seat while we feast upon the idiocy of the military, the Civil Service, and the scientists. Worry not, they rats are always poised, waiting for the worst possible moment to resurface.
Essentially Domain is about mans inhumanity to man, of how democracy is stifled by bureaucracy, along with questioning whom the dominant species on the planet truly is. Humans thrive in the environments they’ve created, but much energy has gone into threatening the environments of others. With nuclear war we’ve written the final check – for man.
Still, that’s not to say there isn’t plenty of rat action in the novel. By the time we reach the end of the book they’re in abundance and the merry dance of the previous novels return. The only difference being that there are times in Domain where you might find yourself cheering them on. Some people, you know, deserve to die.
Perhaps most fascinating is the climax to the book, where Herbert offers us a tantalizing glimpse into the future (explored further in the Rats graphic Novel, The City). What if rats and man were to converge, to evolve as a single species? Just how different are we anyway? How are the actions of the rats, bent on survival and to an extent greed, different from military based democracies we live in today? Domain is a sobering lesson to us all!
If you’ve read through all you might be asking yourself a simple question: “That’s all well and good, but did you like it?” Or even more urgently: “Is it as good as the other novels?”
To answer the first of those I’d say yes, I liked it. If you’re into the previous two Rats books then it’s an essential read really.
To answer the second I’d say, well – maybe.
You see The Rats, and to a lesser extent The Lair (though it maintains its credentials) are crafted bits of pulp fiction. Short, sweet, to the point. At 421 pages I don’t think Domain qualifies as pulp. Herbert spends a lot of time with themes other than the great battle between man and beast, and at times that battle takes second place to other concerns. For instance, there is a lot of time spent in a bunker, and over what happens in that bunker. It’s different, and can go on for chapter after chapter with nary a hint of a good old mutant rat. As an exercise in blithe pulp, this doesn’t work too well.
However, as a good post-apocalyptic read, it works very well. There’s a lot more action in Domain that isn’t rat-centric – man on man, the frailty of the human spirit, love lost, needless violence etc. There are pure action sequences, chases, fights, floods, building collapses, rabid animal attacks and so on. With the larger canvas Herbert can do this without leaving out the good old rat action we yearn for.
A fitting end to the story of The Rats? Hm, yes and no. As a theme, as a premise built around man’s stupidity and egotistical ways – yes. As a rough and ready exercise in reading about man doing pitched battle with the rats, then not really. This book is quite unlike The Rats in many ways (I wish I had the time to go into more detail about this matter, alas whatever I wrote would probably be the size of The Lair ;D.)
The bottom line for me is this. I’m glad I’ve read all three books. I liked them all for various reasons. None of them are dull or boring. Each of them has something to recommend it, and I’d be glad to tell others to read them all and enjoy.
Having said that, if I personally want to go back and revisit Herbert’s classic trilogy, I think I’ll be reaching for the first book initially. Or perhaps The Lair. Domain would come last for me. It’s not a qualitative judgment – because Domain is extremely well written and imagined – just a personal love of mine for pulp, and all it stands for. Perhaps I’m being disingenuous, but Domain feels more crafted, and craft isn’t always what I want from my horror novels, sometimes less is so much better (a misnomer I know, writing pulp takes craft too, but a slightly different kind).
Still, if you’ve started the journey through Herbert’s world and have read both The Rats and The Lair then, basically, you’ve probably found yourself in the same place I did. You’re obligated really.
So you might as well scratch and tear yourself through that door.
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