What an unusual topic for a story! This is my first James Herbert book and it certainly won't be my last. What a great book to start off the James Herbert readership with. The story is about James True who has out of body experiences (abbreviated to OBE for simplificity) which he learns to control until he has them almost down to a fine art. However on his last OBE, he returns to his body to find it mutilated and rather dead! He is therefore in limbo land and unable to return back to his body and instead has to adapt to this new state of 'death' by haunting his family and trying to stop his beloved from imminent danger. I really wasn't expecting a Herbert book to have this much imaginative flair but imagined it would be filled with lots of haunted castles complete with bloodshed and gore aplenty. However I was pleasantly surprised and even found myself lamenting on the story long after I had finished, and feeling pangs of sadness as the story replayed itself in my mind.The main plot involved James tailing the grisly and disfigured Moker as he went about his way murdering beautiful victims as a way of fighting his mental demons. Moker was also a suspect in James' murder and as the story progresses the truth is revealed as well as certain twists along the route which were a surprise to all and sundry.The story writing is very vivid and the characters and stories bounce off the page and into your mind. This is a sign of an accomplished writer. The characters were well developed and each one had their own little secret culminating in a big finale which created an emotional and thought provoking end. As horror books go, this is not the writing of Stephen King who is synonymous with blood and gore, but there is certainly suspense, disturbing moments and the concept of OBE produced almost a magical but paranormal element. The book's only downside was how the narrator happened to always give a hint of what was to come. Personally I would have liked to have experienced the journey on my own, allowing me to make up my own mind and seek surprises and red herrings as they happened. Knowing something was an incorrect assumption and revealing discrepancies to the plot before they happened spoiled my enjoyment. Also the way in which it was revealed was quite simplistic in relation to the rest of the book. As I read towards the end of the book it was obvious that there would be emotional moments which would bring tears to anyone's eyes. Herbert did not disappoint and the book ended in a bitter sweet way. I have come across plenty of authors recently which I would not hesitate to follow and read, Herbert is one of them. Unfortunately due to his demise, new books will not be available but I am sure there are plenty in the archives to keep me entertained. This is an excellent and thought provoking book which takes a look at humanity and also delves into political correctness. I would recommend it to anyone who would like to start on the James Herbert trail.
Written in first person, the narrator, James True, is dead. During life he was capable of undertaking out of body experiences, all beyond his control. It first happened when he was seriously injured in an accident, then it happened when he slept, then it was if he day-dreamed. At age thirty-two, he left his body one night after a particularly stressful work-day and when he returned he had no body to go back to. It had been mutilated beyond recognition. So why wasn’t he dead?Turns out poor James not only has to deal with his untimely demise, but the apprehension of a serial killer and the protection of his family (wife and daughter) from similar fate. It's a good premise, but it falls short.I was introduced to James Herbert (JH) through ’48, a fast-paced novel that I particularly enjoyed because it didn’t claim to take itself seriously. I suspended belief and was hooked into the imagery and the fast pace. The story was predictable, but I didn’t manage to lose interest between figuring it out and having it spelt out. I can’t say the same about this book. But, when trapped on a plane on a flight across the Pacific Ocean, it’s funny just how interesting a book can be… even a book such as this.I do enjoy JH’s writing style, though it's less polished than I remembered it being. At times he resorts to blatant word recycling which made me cringe. I chose to believe that it was deliberate and that later in the book the repetition would have significance, but that wasn’t the case.Repetition also arose in the form of the (now dead and in spirit form) protagonist’s experiences of moving through time and space. He lost time, had black-outs, experienced a kind of particle dematerialisation when he passed through solid objects, and gained an unsettling empathy when he passed through living beings. Throughout the novel the reader is reminded of this. Very little distinction is given to each experience, and the protagonist doesn’t learn anything new each time, he just re-hashes what he (and we) already know. By 2/3rd’s of the way through the novel, I was skimming.The conclusion was predictable, the action readable but not exciting. I found it difficult to form empathy for James, a spirit who could experience emotional pain but otherwise could not be harmed. And his family, who I should have cared about, were not particularly likeable.In all, this was a passive read, but it wiled away time.
What do You think about Nobody True (2006)?
On a quest to read Herbert, came across this one at the library. This is a good book of his to borrow from the library instead of buying, since it's not really his best. It's an interesting premise (a person away on an Out Of Body Experience OBE comes back to find his body brutally murdered and has to find out what happened), sympathetic narrator, plenty of twists that make the book's name so appropriate and even a moral. Just something about it didn't sing for me the way some of his other books do. Not quite sure what, gonna have to think about it, it did read like a manual a tad in parts, which works in general for the narrative structure, but slowed down the pace some. Less horrific and graphic than some of Herbert's, more to do with horrors of human making. Interesting hope inspiring meditation on meaning of life in the end. Pretty decent read.
—Bandit
It's not quite a horror novel, but I think you have to lik the horror genre to like Nobody True.Short synopsis: Our protagonist can astral project (out of body experiences), and one night when he's out 'travelling', he's murdered. Was it a serial killer, or someone far more sinister?I really enjoyed The Fog, which was why I picked this up at the Edinburgh BookCrossing meetup this month. I finished it in about two days, reading at bedtime. I thought it was told really well, giving me a good idea of how the protagonist discovered his strange ability and what he learned from it.I did think the twists, as one would expect in the horror/thriller such as this, weren't as twisty as they could be. I'd managed to predict them quite early on. I still enjoyed it, nonetheless.
—Andrea
I don't read anywhere near enough books and when I have finished one I nearly always take time out for my other interests. It's wrong I know and I'm missing out on so many good books - I'll put that right soon.Well Nobody True by James Herbert, it hits all the right chords with me.Maybe I see the books that I've read as being better that how others rate the book because I don't read often enough - but personally I think that the authors I read tend to write from an often twisted perspective...... so they probably really are good.The book - Nobody True I thought was an outstanding read another book that kept my attentions while I was not reading it. The book is interesting from the start and it doesn't take long to pick up the pace and maintains it's interest throughout.The above description on the book is as the story goes about a guy who can have out of body experiences whenever he chooses. One night while in his hotel room during a business trip he lays on the bed and decides to have one of those experiences, gliding effortlessly through various walls, buildings and rooms where other people are. It just makes you wish that you could do that until of course he re-enters his hotel room to find out that his body is now dead and mutilated and he can no longer return to it.From this point he now sets out on an amazing journey to find his his own killer and in quite bizarre circumstances.Such an easy to read and hard to put down book - truly outstanding.
—Michael Stretton
