One by Conrad Williams - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Jun 13, 2011

Book Chick City rated it

Shelves: fiction, books-i-own, book-list-2009, 2009-july, horror, post-apocalyptic, signed-finished-copy

One by Conrad Williams is about one mans journey to find his son following an apocalyptic event. The United Kingdom is a scorched and desolate place, covered with a glittering dust, rubble and corpses.

The book is broken into two parts and the opening first few chapters are just pure brilliance. The pace was fast and the characters vivid. It wet my appetite for what was going to be something special, or so I thought.

After the first few intense and profound chapters the pac...moreOne by Conrad Williams is about one mans journey to find his son following an apocalyptic event. The United Kingdom is a scorched and desolate place, covered with a glittering dust, rubble and corpses.

The book is broken into two parts and the opening first few chapters are just pure brilliance. The pace was fast and the characters vivid. It wet my appetite for what was going to be something special, or so I thought.

After the first few intense and profound chapters the pace slowed to a virtual stop. The main protagonist, Richard Jane, realising that an extinction level event had taken place, begins his journey to London on foot to find his son. The journey to London is at least two thirds of the book, and goes on for far too long. It is this section of the book that, for me, didn't really work. I found it difficult to connect with Jane and although this book is written in the third person narrative, we didn't get to hear the voices of any of the other characters. It would have worked better if the narrative was in the first person, then maybe I would have been able to identify with the main character more.

When Jane and his two companions finally get to London, the second part of the book begins. It jumps a decade into the future and in my eyes begins the best part of the novel (other than the beginning). However, as with pages preceding there are more questions than answers, and Williams leaves us hanging on to find out what happened to the world and to his son. It was frustrating rather than a page turner. I am all for keeping the reader in suspense and anticipation but this was too much. It was just plan frustrating and so became annoying.

The most tangible aspect of One was Jane's love for his son, Stanley, and his relentless search for him against the hard truth of reality. The visual imagery that Williams gives us of the post apocalyptic world is vivid and realistic, and this is something Williams does superbly throughout the book. Jane's memories and thoughts about his son are touching but unfortunately, although understandable, become monotonous and too sentimental - a quote from the book where Jane is thinking of his son, "I miss you so much. Do you know, there's a little Stan-shaped hole right in the middle of my heart? Maybe there's a Daddy shaped one in the middle of yours..." I'm sorry, but am I reading a horror novel??

There are many excellent scenes in the book and one of my favourites is where the women are giving birth. I wont give too much away but it is horrific, nauseating and just what a horror novel should be. The creatures, called the Skinners are pretty foul and probably as close to zombies as Williams wanted them to be.

As I read through the chapters there were remnants of The Rising, by Brian Keane and I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson, but unlike both of these horror novels, this novel didn't really keep my attention. I understand that Williams was trying to keep his story fresh and not rehash old ground, but it lacked the tension and the despair of I Am Legend and the gut wrenching terror I felt when reading The Rising, and it certainly didn't give me nightmares, which for me, is a requisite when reading horror.

However, what I really like about Williams is his writing. It is very edgy, very raw and very British, and after all the negative points I have made about this novel, it hasn't put me off from buying The Umblemished, which won the International Horror Guilds Best Novel award. Maybe I will like this one more. I will let you know!

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Apr 14, 2009

Stephen rated it

The superb movie-style cover of this book tells you all you need to know about the plot going in: a man walks to London through a devastated Britain. However, it does mislead in one way - despite the tagline ("This is you. This is now. And your number is up.") the book isn't written in the second person. That was a relief.

In the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Peter Nicholls noted in the entry "Holocaust and After" that: "Many of the authors cited have not b...moreThe superb movie-style cover of this book tells you all you need to know about the plot going in: a man walks to London through a devastated Britain. However, it does mislead in one way - despite the tagline ("This is you. This is now. And your number is up.") the book isn't written in the second person. That was a relief.

In the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Peter Nicholls noted in the entry "Holocaust and After" that: "Many of the authors cited have not been closely associated with Genre SF. The post-holocaust theme, particularly in the UK, has had a strong attraction for mainstream writers ..." And in that vein, although One bears a resemblance to the cosy catastrophes of science fiction writers, it's best read as a horror novel by a horror author, rather than as science fiction. This isn't a novel concerned with investigating the problems and solving them - answers are thin on the ground - it's about the feelings they engender, the relationships they rupture, the horrors they produce.

This book is written well, with expressive touches of flair throughout, but at times this feels rather like a literary author doing his level best to write the most commercial novel possible - a widescreen horror novel - but thwarted by his own sensibilities. And so the novel is packed with interesting character touches, thoughtful ruminations and striking images, but frustratingly skips past much of the action. We're never in any doubt as to exactly how Richard Jane feels, but we're often left rather foggy about what's actually going on.

But then this isn't really a book about the apocalypse - it's a book about a father's love for his son. And unfortunately that side of it gets a bit boring... The author shows how difficult Jane's obsession is for other people to cope with, but he may have underestimated how tiresome it would become for readers! By the end of the book the reader comes to fear the mention of Stanley more than any of the other horrors of this nightmarish world... If he'd been mentioned once at the beginning, we'd have filled in the rest ourselves.

But as usual I'm complaining about minor problems rather than focusing on what was good. This was on the whole a thrilling book, and one I found hard to put down: I read the last 250 pages in more or less a single go. I was at times desperate to find out what would happen next. The apocalyptic opening was nothing short of brilliant, and if the subsequent long walk went on a bit, things really picked up in the second half, in ways I wouldn't want to reveal in a review.

In another publishing era the two halves of the book - "Births, Deaths and Marriages" and "Lazarus Taxon" (is humanity the Lazarus taxon in question, or did the author just listen to Tortoise while writing?) - would have been two short novels in themselves. I would have rated the second of them much more highly than the first. Overall, a fine novel, but just a bit too ruminatory and elliptical to be the effective mainstream entertainment I was hoping for. In post-apocalyptic movie terms I'd place it just ahead of Neil Marshall's Doomsday, but just behind 28 Days Later.(less)

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Oct 28, 2010

Silver Thistle rated it

Shelves: 2010

I'm not sure what to make of this.

I'm no stranger to apocalyptic fiction, and this one was a new path to venture down. It's gritty, unforgiving and brutal. What a nightmare.

But it isn't complete, I don't think. I understand that our 'hero' doesn't know what happened to cause the apocalypse, therefore we the reader don't know either, but there's more to it than that. We find out who the biggest threats are, and we're told how they came into being and what they're about. We...more

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Jun 20, 2009

David Hebblethwaite rated it

Conrad Williams‘ The Unblemished was one of my favourite books of 2008; sadly, his new novel, One, doesn’t reach the heights of that earlier work — but it’s an interesting read with some very fine moments nevertheless.

The novel is divided into two distinct parts. In the first, ‘Births, Deaths and Marriages’, Richard Jane is a saturation diver working on an oil platform off the coast of Aberdeen, when the apocalypse occurs. Eventually making his way back to land, Jane’s only thought i...moreConrad Williams‘ The Unblemished was one of my favourite books of 2008; sadly, his new novel, One, doesn’t reach the heights of that earlier work — but it’s an interesting read with some very fine moments nevertheless.

The novel is divided into two distinct parts. In the first, ‘Births, Deaths and Marriages’, Richard Jane is a saturation diver working on an oil platform off the coast of Aberdeen, when the apocalypse occurs. Eventually making his way back to land, Jane’s only thought is to travel to London in the hopes of finding his young son, Stanley. He sets off, gaining along the way a number of fellow-survivors as companions, notably a hospital radiologist named Becky, and a five-year-old boy named Aidan. After the requisite trials and tribulations, the party reaches London, and the first part ends. The novel’s second part, ‘Lazarus Taxon’, takes place ten years later. Jane still hasn’t found Stanley, but he is now part of a group of survivors in the capital who call themselves the Shaded (because some form of shade, or depth, is what apparently saved them from the disaster). They have to contend with not only the pitfalls one might imagine would be found in a collapsed society, but also with something unimaginable — the Skinners. These are creatures grown from the spores that came with the apocalyptic ‘Event’, spores that invaded the bodies of the dead, distorted and animated them. Even a minor wound could turn you into one of them. There are rumours of a raft floating off the Kent coast, build by scientists and waiting to rescue people. Is it true? And what rescue could there be in this world anyway?

One is the kind of work which makes plain that genre distinctions (in this case, science fiction and horror) are ultimately limiting and artificial. There is a scientific underpinning to the ‘Event’, but it’s never explained in the story itself; Williams’ acknowledgements page refers to gamma ray bursts, so one assumes that’s what did for us here. But Williams is noted as an author of ‘dark fiction’, and his novel is tilted firmly towards that end of the spectrum; which, I think, is just as it should be — after all, if the average person got caught up in the aftermath of an apocalypse, they probably wouldn’t understand what had happened; and what wouldn’t matter nearly as much as what next? There are also scenes of great horror and carnage, that one is wary of visualising, in case they turn out to be even more horrifying in the mind’s eye than they are on the page. But this too is appropriate: One is horror because its subject is horrific, because there could be no response to what happens other than horror. Williams is not a writer of gore for gore’s sake; he understands the gravity of horror, and makes one feel its pull.

What I particularly like about One is that it’s intensely personal, despite the vastness of its backdrop; the novel is very much about relationships and character, and especially those of Richard Jane. There’s a pleasing complexity to his depiction; he’s not a straightforward heroic figure, but can decry selfishness in others whilst at the same time being willing to put his search for Stanley ahead of anything else (and if he’s doing this for his son, is it selfish or not?). Making Jane a diver was an interesting choice on the author’s part, as it automatically generates a certain amount of difference. It’s not just that the image of Jane wandering through the devastated landscape in his protective gear makes him seem like an astronaut exploring an alien world. It’s that being a diver (according to the novel) changes you, subjects you to pressures (figurative and literal) that others don’t experience, involves being away from home and in isolation for long periods, could lead to sights that others would never see (like the bends: ‘All the limbs withdrawn into an impossible core of pain. The welter of blood at every orifice, fizzing bright red. Bubbles opening in the jelly of the eyes’). The demands of his profession have driven a wedge between Richard and his (now ex-)wife Cherry; and Williams skilfully shows the thoughts and feelings of both parties, even as he writes only from Richard’s viewpoint — and Williams is just as adept at writing about the personal as he is at depicting epic disaster.

Of the novel’s two parts, I think the first is the better: what could have been just a repetitive trudge through lists of examples of destruction and scavenged foodstuffs (I did wonder how long it would really be possible to survive in such an environment without proper medical facilities, having to travel mostly on foot and live off whatever tinned food you could find — but the strength of his telling soon put such concerns to one side), instead gains genuine power, most especially from Williams’ ability to evoke the reality of the situation, the sense that, whether or not Jane succeeds in attaining his goal, there can be no lasting escape.

The second part of One is still good but, as it’s necessarily more fantastical, it doesn’t have quite the same resonance — it doesn’t allow one to feel that this is how the world could become, not in the way that the first part does. Still, Williams once again creates that profound sense of unease which is the true affect of horror — an affect born not from blood and guts, but from the utter and irrevocable destruction of what we know. And the ending (which I’ll admit I didn’t fully get) returns to the personal — which seems entirely appropriate for this very human view of world’s end.(less)

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Dec 22, 2009

Mike rated it

Recommends it for: Not Ceridwen, who'd probably just get angry

I won't go trolling for Goodreader rage by saying this book was better than The Road. I might, however, be tempted to say it was just as good.

Unfortunately, Williams also violates Ceridwen's quite reasonable dictum against post-apocalyptic stories where fathers seek out and/or protect their son(s). Way too much manly man mawkishness here. Without spoiling much, Williams does go to some lengths to frustrate the more conventional salvation of masculinity narrative so common in the...moreI won't go trolling for Goodreader rage by saying this book was better than The Road. I might, however, be tempted to say it was just as good.

Unfortunately, Williams also violates Ceridwen's quite reasonable dictum against post-apocalyptic stories where fathers seek out and/or protect their son(s). Way too much manly man mawkishness here. Without spoiling much, Williams does go to some lengths to frustrate the more conventional salvation of masculinity narrative so common in these stories. But I still think post-apocalyptic landscapes are like Lifetime channel for guys--countless tics about dealing with women (real men may be divorced, and still smarting from the failed relationship and the crises of feminism, but by god they don't rape or eat women), moral lessons about moral behavior, odes to fatherhood* (like the pastoral romance, always a nostalgic pining for what can no longer be), gnashing teeth, even some good old he-man weeping ('cause, good god man, it's the END of the world--give a guy a tear break).

I say all this with a squint at Williams, 'cause the novel doesn't avoid the tropes. But it is way bleaker and--in the best post-apocalyptic manner--full of strange, uncanny, GORGEOUS images of horror and degradation. E.g., the opening sequence has hero Richard Jane at work far below the surface, welding pipes in a North Sea oilrig. Something happens up top, communication is cut--and as the men down below in a panic head to the bell to return up, they see bodies falling slowly down, arms outstretched, like "skydivers." I've read Williams before, and I'll read him again; if all he achieved was this constant eye for the strange sublime beauty of horror, he'd be worth your attention.

Yet it is also--despite some manly-man teeth-gnashing--also angular in its storytelling, spinning strange weaves out of old material, finding strange side alleys in the well-worn maps of urban desolation and marauding cannibalistic Others. The book roars along, and its imagery often startles and disturbs... there's some great, great stuff here.

I think I'd almost lean higher but for the familiarity of the genre which Williams doesn't quite explode. Still, I recommend this--and the author more broadly.

*a brief personal digression: when we had a kid, all of my friends said, tongues almost audibly clucking, "Now you won't be so cavalier in your appreciation of certain kinds of horror or thriller. Kids change you." I thumb my nose at these doubters--did they think I'd lose my nerve? My misanthropic glee? I can't stand it when in a horror narrative, kids get a pass--I wanna see 'em eaten, mangled, spit out. (That is, when they're not Evil. Then I want them to live, and kill their parents.) Now, I do admittedly find--post-parenthood--it even more aggravating when thrillers or dramas or horror exploit that kid-anxiety, putting children in peril (and then saving them) with an exploitative yet self-righteous fervor. I applaud the unself-righteous exploitation of child-imperilment.

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Apr 19, 2010

Felicia rated it

Shelves: teotwawki, zombies, apocalypse-of-some-sort

Other reviewers on Amazon covered the plotline very well, so there is no need for me to rehash. This book, as one of the other reviewers said, WAS depressing, but that was the point. It was different in that there was a twist to the why/how of the "zombies". I won't spoil it for you.

The story was good, dark, lonely and distant. Jane's love for his son, who could not have possibly survived, is what keeps him going for TEN YEARS. It, as someone else said, really IS kin...more

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Jan 14, 2011

Paul rated it

This is you. This is now. And your number is up.

For reasons that are too complicated to touch upon here I have long been a fan of apocalyptic and post apocalyptic fiction. Novels about the end of the world have always sparked my imagination and over the years I have read a fair number. Some, like Swan Song by Robert McCammon, and Blood Crazy Simon Clark, I keep going back to again and again. I always look forward to reading a new example of the genre and so was happy when I finally man...moreThis is you. This is now. And your number is up.

For reasons that are too complicated to touch upon here I have long been a fan of apocalyptic and post apocalyptic fiction. Novels about the end of the world have always sparked my imagination and over the years I have read a fair number. Some, like Swan Song by Robert McCammon, and Blood Crazy Simon Clark, I keep going back to again and again. I always look forward to reading a new example of the genre and so was happy when I finally managed to pick up a copy of One by Conrad Williams.

The novel follows deep sea diver Richard Jane, in the immediate aftermath of an extinction level event as he tries to travel from the north of Scotland to London in order to find his son, Stanley. The country's infrastructure has been swept away in an instant, and rather than hours, it takes him weeks to get back home. Every step of the way Jane is presented with some fresh horror. Throughout the journey, Jane comes to realise the true scope of the tragedy that has occurred. Towns and cities are ruined, survivors are few and far between, and some of those he meets have a tenuous grasp on their sanity at best.

The book is split into two parts, and in the second part the narrative has jumped ahead ten years. Jane is in London and still hopelessly looking for Stanley. In the intervening time Stanâs memory has become Jane's emotional and psychological lynchpin. Meanwhile dust created during the apocalypse covers the outdoors and has caused the creation of creatures nicknamed Skinners. They have risen from bloated corpses of the dead and prey on the existing survivors.

Toward the book's climactic end Jane is forced to confront the truth about his journey and the new world he finds himself in. Be warned the final chapters of the novel feature some particularly unpleasant scenes but they are necessary as they provide the emotional punch needed to conclude the tale.

The novel ends on a pitch perfect, bittersweet note but it offers the hope that humanity will endure. Having never read any of his other work I was impressed with Conrad Williamsâ writing. Each chapter builds upon Jane's initial sense of dread, and there is a real sense that the protagonist's story is leading somewhere and will have a definitive conclusion.

In many ways the character of Jane is a blank canvas. As a reader I found it easy to project how I would feel in the situations he finds himself in. The other characters in the novel are relegated to secondary roles but this didnât seem like a bad thing. I don't think they required much fleshing out as the story is so strongly focused on one man. The questions that Jane asks himself certainly provoked a degree of introspection on my part.

At its heart, One is a story about parents, children and family. What lengths would you go to in order to save your family? How far would you travel? Richard Jane is every parent while Stanley is every child. In my opinion some of the best horror comes from placing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. One has this in spades. Jane is forced to do anything he can in order to survive. If it came down to it would you be able to do the same?

Insightful, exciting and tinged with sadness the only thing I regret about the novel is that I wish I had read it sooner.

Conrad Williams next novel, Loss of Separation, is due for release in March.(less)

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Feb 19, 2010

Andrew rated it

This is a great apocalyptic novel with an attention to detail and power which doesn't abate from the brilliant opening chapters right through to the last page. Other reviewers have detailed the plot, so I won't go into it here, other than to state that the "ten years later" shift midway through the book didn't feel like two seperate books as some reviewers have suggested, only a natural progression and a logical expansion of the tale which seemed entirely appropriate.

The ma...more

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Sep 23, 2009

Mike rated it

Diver Richard Jane is off on a job repairing an oil rig when a mysterious cataclysm strikes seemingly reducing the world’s population (or at least England’s) to a bare handful of people. Escaping his remote location Jane makes his way back to England hopeing and believed that his son is still alive. Along the way he wanders through the devastated landscape that provides surprisingly limited clues into the truth of what happened. Jane meets other survivors along the way and when the totality o...more

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Aug 09, 2009

Ed rated it

Conrad Williams is a good writer; that said, the content of this book will not be to everyone's taste. There are two distinct books and two different genre's combined here. The first half of the book has a theme of world catastrophe similar to N. Shute's On the Beach, but better. I thought the first half was excellent (4 stars) and he should have stopped there. The second half is a scifi/horror book that becomes increasingly morbid, dark, and with unclear focus. I thought the characters did not ...more

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Oct 14, 2009

Richard Wright rated it

Brutal, poetic, and harrowing - this is very grown up horror indeed. If I hadn't already read The Road, which is a similar post-apocalyptic journey across another shattered landscape, with another desperate father, I would have enjoyed it more. There's no mimicry intended, and the final third of the book steers a sharp left into freakier territory than The Road allows itself, but it's a little unfortunate. That said, this is highly accomplished stuff, more than enough to make me seek out more no...more

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Jan 01, 2011

Sam Simpson rated it

One of the worst i've read. I am a big fan of postapocolyptic fiction but this one fails on several levels. The main character is somewhat one dimensional, and while he is supposedly a rational man, he holds one ridiculous belief despite immense evidence to the contrary. That eroded his character in my eyes. Also, the story is unfocused. The first half and the second half almost seem like completely different books. There is a very odd and abrupt plot change about midway that throws the narrativ...more

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Jul 18, 2011

Robert Beveridge rated it

Shelves: 2011-goal-list, owned-and-still-own, finished

Conrad Williams, One (Virgin Books, 2009)

I knew too much when I started this book, unfortunately. If you're reading this review, you probably already do as well. I say this because while the first half of the book is good, it's a different animal entire than the second half, and the final sentence of part one is one of those understated sucker punches that just works, but works so much better when you have no earthly idea it's coming. So on the off chance that you got here for some r...moreConrad Williams, One (Virgin Books, 2009)

I knew too much when I started this book, unfortunately. If you're reading this review, you probably already do as well. I say this because while the first half of the book is good, it's a different animal entire than the second half, and the final sentence of part one is one of those understated sucker punches that just works, but works so much better when you have no earthly idea it's coming. So on the off chance that you got here for some reason other than telling you “hey, you've gotta check out this completely awesome [x] novel!”, and if somehow this is the first review of it you stumbled on, I will caution you to read nothing else about the book before reading it, so you can get the full effect. Because of the radical shift in the book, I can't really talk about a large portion of what I'd like to, but preserving that jolt is more important. So think of this review as incomplete, if you like. But the short answer is “read it” anyway.

Plot: Richard Jane is a deep-sea diver at work on an oil rig in the North Sea when The Event occurs. No one is entirely sure what the Event is... at least, no one who survives it, and that number, as it turns out, is desperately few. Jane floats off in a submersible (to keep out of the atmosphere, which gives a new meaning to “acid rain”) and winds up on the northwest corner of Scotland. His son Stanley lives in London. Thus begins a trek across a blasted, dead UK. But not one that is completely dead, and as Jane continues on, he discovers clues as to what happened.

Not all of them, though. The book is left with a number of unanswered questions (and this is not a bad thing, given that there's really no way for him to have gotten them), though the central question of whether Stanley survived is resolved. Ironically, this is the one you could probably have figured out from the get-go, but that whole plotline kept me thinking about Ben Tripp's Rise Again (viz. 19Jan11 review) and how much better, overall, Williams handles it. I can't tell you about most of the rest of those questions (and the huge, gaping plot hole left by Jane's ruminations on the most important one) because they all have to do with that sucker punch at the end of part one, but let's say this is an [x] book that goes where not too many [x] books have gone previously, and I like that a great deal, as always.

(Note: there can be more than one value of [x], depending on your interpretation of the clues Williams salts the book with.)

Not the easiest book in the world to get ahold of in America, but a rewarding quest item for those who take the time to hunt it down. If you're a fan of post-apocalyptic survival horror, you'll want to check this out. *** ½
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Oct 22, 2010

Vic rated it

(This is a somewhat edited version of an e-mail I sent a few friends after first reading it. --v)

This one’s a postapocalyptic SFF novel about a deep-sea diver in the North Sea (present day) who's fixing the leg of an oil rig, feels a tremor, and comes up to find the world all scorched and pretty much everything dead in grisly fashion. He then sets off to make his way down the length of the UK, hoping to find his son alive in London against all odds.

There are of course a lot o...more(This is a somewhat edited version of an e-mail I sent a few friends after first reading it. --v)

This one’s a postapocalyptic SFF novel about a deep-sea diver in the North Sea (present day) who's fixing the leg of an oil rig, feels a tremor, and comes up to find the world all scorched and pretty much everything dead in grisly fashion. He then sets off to make his way down the length of the UK, hoping to find his son alive in London against all odds.

There are of course a lot of echoes of previous works here. The list of postapocalyptic stuff is too long to mention. What attracted me to this book is that we're right there when the cataclysm happens--not starting in the aftermath as with say The Road or False Dawn or I Am Legend or Mad Max or Fallout--and it jumps right into things rather than having a lot of setup like, I dunno, Alas Babylon. I think it goes down on like page 3 in One. From there it's mostly Williams's prose, which is consistently above average for horror/dark SFF fare. He's just a really elegant writer who does an excellent job getting into the head of someone who feels like a sole survivor. He's also brutally graphic in his descriptions but I don't think that was a big surprise. Finally there are the monsters, which I won't detail but which I thought were a pretty cool mix of previous ideas.

The book is longer than it needs to be; it drags in places, just feels a little slow and flabby. And though his writing is good he trots out a purple simile every chapter or two, overreaches. There's a structural move he makes that might bother some people but didn't bother me at all. And there's one glaring plot weakness that annoyed me like crazy for about the last 40% of the novel and still does now. Oh, also, the cover art and jacket copy are pretty horrible; looks like a video game more than a novel. I don't judge books by their cover but oh wait yes I do that's a demerit.

All in all though this was a good solid postapocalypse. Nothing groundbreaking but just a really well-done entry in a field I have a soft spot for. I also may have been soft on it because it was so much about the dude looking for his son; ever since I multiplied I'm reduced to blubber by anything that's about fathers and sons. I've broken down crying at episodes of One Tree Hill and Friday Night Lights just because they like showed a tender moment between father and son. It's really embarrassing. I probably would've drowned in tears if I'd had a kid when I read The Road. Anyway, yeah, Williams was pretty good on fathers and sons in this one too.

If you’re in the mood for horror or dark SF or a pretty tight postapocalyptic novel, give this one a try. I'll probably check out more of the guy's stuff down the line.
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Aug 31, 2009

Jerry rated it

Hmmm, bit disappointed with this one. After the brilliant "Unblemished" I was interested to see how the author would lend is hand to the classic, if somewhat overdone, zombie/end of the world novel.

It started off well and I soon settled into the powerful and unique voice the author has. The imagery was sharp and visceral but at times slightly too literary for my liking and confused the flow of the story for me.

I really started to like it...more Hmmm, bit disappointed with this one. After the brilliant "Unblemished" I was interested to see how the author would lend is hand to the classic, if somewhat overdone, zombie/end of the world novel.

It started off well and I soon settled into the powerful and unique voice the author has. The imagery was sharp and visceral but at times slightly too literary for my liking and confused the flow of the story for me.

I really started to like it when the sole survivor, the "one", teamed up with some other survivors and started to reveal more of himself, his thoughts his character, personality etc. However it isn't long before they separate and again the reader is plunged into the search for the central characters child once again.

Much of it is flash back to times and conversations had with his lost son while he currently searches for him in the aftermath of ,"whatever happened";(no you don’t find out). The strong paternal desire to find his offspring is very strong and emotional at times, and done very well. I did like the little snippets of the son's babyish voice, very cute and added to the dark contrast of the settings in which he was presumed dead or lost.

All this takes place across a ravaged and scorched Britain. A lot of it reminded me of McCarthy’s "The road", some of the film "Children of Men" and everything else pretty much a mish mash of "28 days later", James Herbert's '48, I’ am legend, that type of thing. So for me I was reading something well written, I love this authors style don’t get me wrong, but because it leant from these other bodies of work (or reminded me of them) it detracted away from the originality I was hoping (expected) the author to instil in this story.

Pros: Well written. There is some good characterisation. It's Evocative. I'd say a must for hardcore fans of apocalyptic works and also the author himself.

Cons: Overlong. Not enough character development. Continuity; half way through there is a time shift and the sudden inclusion of protagonists’ with little or no explanation. It can be slightly "fuzzy"; unsure of the author’s vision in parts. Inquisitive types new to the author read "unblemished" first.

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Sep 09, 2009

Jerrod rated it

Recommends it for: apocolyptic fans, horror, dark fiction, tragedy.

Shelves: dark-fiction

Conrad delivers another slowly unsettling novel following Richard Jane, a deep sea welder than survives an apocalyptic event. His life marriage is falling apart and the only thing that keeps him going is his son Stanley. The story's pace is overall a nice and steady, but some readers might find the repeated reference and integration of his son Stanley a little irritating. But this is one major thread of the story and a large piece into the character, Richard Janes, head. Conrad's attention t...more

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Jan 15, 2012

Mara rated it

Shelves: apocalyptic

Dark, expressive but repetitive. It's hard to sympathise with a character who spends the entire book thrashing around in his own particular madness. His death was a relief, both to himself and to me, the reader.

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Apr 10, 2011

Oglaigh na hEireann rated it

OK all hell breaks loose while you under the ocean diving with a team. Above you,.. you have not the slightest clue that armagedon has just happened,...what do you do ? Well taken from a completely lost and utterly f'ed situation,...I have to say it was an jump into the basics of human nature,..fight or flight,...and the S*hit was ON.

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May 09, 2009

Sam Stone rated it

This is an excellent post-apocalyptic novel. If you want something new William's book will give you shivers - thought provoking, terrifying and brutal.

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May 18, 2011

Jason rated it

Shelves: teotwawki-books

This was a good book. I did have a few issues like the writer jumping into scenes without explaining why the character was even there in the first place. The "elegant" description if things made no sense for a book like this. What was up with the mystery character that had protected him in the beginning & the end but had no background or history. Other them that I did like the fact that the hero was falling apart during the book. Losing his teeth, getting injured toward the end, & ...more

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May 13, 2009

Rhonda rated it

I loved this novel. I've just finished it and I think I need to re-read it just to explore some of the hidden depths within it. Definitely a recommended read

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Aug 21, 2011

Robert rated it

Okay writting - but nothing caught me - and the 'horror aspect' didn't affect me .

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Feb 07, 2012

Wendy rated it

This was a little weird but overall I enjoyed this book. It did make me cry.

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Mar 02, 2011

Amanda added it

Shelves: horror

I simply couldn't get into this one right now. I may pick it back up later. What I did manage to read (the first 70 pages or so) wasn't bad; it just isn't the kind of horror novel I'm in the mood to read.

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Dec 20, 2010

Michelle is currently reading it

He's brutal. Love his work.

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Apr 03, 2011

Mark rated it

I enjoyed the first half. The second half, however, is a bit sketchy. Especially towards the end; it all goes a bit abstract.

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Nov 20, 2010

Bryan Alexander rated it

Shelves: gothic

Like _The Road_, but less cheerful.

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Feb 17, 2011

Gareth rated it

A good book, but grueling. There's only so much end of the world you can take.

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Aug 06, 2011

Phil Hopper rated it

Mawkish, The Road with a twist mid-way through. I'd read The Unblemished, and thought it was pretty average, but the blurbs on the back of One tempted me...I'm not sure whether I'll give the author another attempt to win me over or not.

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Nov 22, 2011

David rated it

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy-zombie

pretty grim reading about survial after the UK is destroyed by an event?

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title link	preview: One
avg rating	preview: One Goodreads rating: 3.60 (124 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6315359-one?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312026886m/6315359.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6315359-one?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]One by Conrad Williams[/url]

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