The Nature of Balance

by Tim Lebbon

When citizens of the world die in their sleep, victims of horrific nightmares, Earth becomes a place where humans are no longer welcome and only Blane, a man with no memories, and Fay, a mysterious dark witch, are left to play a deadly game in nature's new era. Original.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Apocalyptic, Fantasy

395 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

I love writing, reading, triathlon, real ale, chocolate, good movies, occasional bad movies, and cake.

I was born in London in 1969, lived in Devon until I was eight, and the next twenty years were spent in Newport. My wife Tracey and I then did a Good Thing and moved back to the country, and we now live in the little village of Goytre in Monmouthshire with our kids Ellie and Daniel. And our dog, Blu, who is the size of a donkey.

I love the countryside ... I do a lot of running and cycling, and live in the best part of the world for that.

I've had loads of books published in the UK, USA, and around the world, including novels, novellas, and collections. I write horror, fantasy, and now thrillers, and I've been writing as a living for over 8 years. I've won quite a few awards for my original fiction, and I've also written tie-in projects for Star Wars, Alien, Hellboy, The Cabin in the Woods, and 30 Days of Night.

A movie's just been made of my short story Pay the Ghost, starring Nicolas Cage and Sarah Wayne Callies. There are other projects in development, too.

I'd love to hear from you!

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seemingly overnight, nature revolts against humans, most of whom die inexplicably while they sleep, bodies crushed horribly by unseen forces, and those that survive are left to deal with a world gone mad. And the remaining denizens, both plant and animals are mutating in deadly ways.

Blane doesn't know about his past, and his love of nature is questioned in this horrific new world he's woken to. He's banded with a few survivors from a nearby village, and they desperately try to seek answers to this sudden and bizarre apocalypse.

Fay is a dark and enigmatic figure, blessed or cursed with strange powers, and while she may hold the answers to the world's fate, she alone knows the true nature of Blane's mysterious past.

Tautly written and frightening in its scope and scale, Lebbon weaves an original tale about the price mankind pays for its decades long abuse of the planet. But this novel does not come off as preachy or political, which is refreshing. Highly recommended.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Nature of Balance is an interesting horror which echoes sentiments of Nod by Adrian Barnes, with sleep, or significant lack thereof being a prime factor in the downfall of modern day society. The popular myth of dying in your sleep by falling from a great height or experiencing some form of significant trauma whilst at the mercy of the sandman has been a told time and time again, generation to generation. Here, author Tim Lebbon exploits that notion and then some; adding an element of animalistic horror, a mysterious entity with godly powers, and a relentless mother earth which wants to reclaim the wild.

There’s plenty of gore and creative massacre built in to this truly terrifying dystopian-like tale so if you’re squeamish, beware.

Whilst I enjoyed the book for the most part, the ending felt abrupt and too convenient for my liking. That said, the opening stanza and first glimpse of Fay was nothing short of breathtaking, perfect for horror aficionados.

If dystopian horror is your thing, I highly recommend giving this one a go. 3.5/5 stars.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*

This book is a very difficult one for me to review.... On one hand, it was beautifully written, had intense characters, and the concept of "Nature" rebelling against the treatment of humans over time. On the other hand, the story was one I had to force myself to keep coming back to. I believe this was mostly because the tale was paced so slowly, and while we know what is happening--as well as part of the "why"--the journey the characters embarked on just didn't seem to really go anywhere.

There were some memorable passages, however: ". . . she had no control. . . With loss of reason went a distortion of love. . . "

Another comment regarding the sudden change that nature has undergone is reflected perfectly by the following sentiment: "That puzzle's changed. . .I don't fit in any more. . . I don't think any of us do . . ."

While the idea behind the novel was one that I felt had a lot of potential, the leisurely pacing and characters walking around trying to capture their thoughts to put into words, just made me feel like the story had stalled after the initial catastrophe.

*I received an e-copy of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

[Milliebot · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting something creepy, maybe a touch horrific and what I got was a mixture of pretension and boredom. This is a story about nature taking over the earth - where animals are running rampant and sometimes trying to kill people. But also they're controlled by some witch. But also she's like a semi-mortal embodiment of nature? But also her other half is living as a human with no memory, but they are still two separate people and he's her brother and they tried to have a baby but it died, but that was a long time ago, so why did any of this happen?

Introducing: A cast of characters I didn't give a shit about; random attacks from animals; people dying violently in their sleep from nightmares that seemed in no way related to nature trying to reclaim the earth; a cast of characters who can easily go days without sleeping; copiuos amounts of showing and then telling in case you're too fucking stupid to understand the powerful pretentious subtleties written by the esteemed author; and a scene where the witch villain basically orgasms from watching a herd of cows murder a group of people because she's an evil woman and finds her powers sexually appealing and definitely wasn't just written that way so a dude could write an almost orgasm scene in a story where sexual activity was in no way necssary to the plot or character development.

Oh and villain woman is crazy and is doing all this because she's crazy and women are fragile, right?

Here's a quote from the end of the book that pretty much sums up the whole story, said by our witch villain:
"We're so very old, Blane. We have control, you and I. We're the ideas of nature, the basic forms of male and female. The controlling influences. Only...I went mad. I saw what humans were doing to the world, and I couldnt stand it, and I went mad. I have been for a long time. I went mad, and you couldn't stand it, and you went mad too, in your own way."

You might ask why I read this whole book, given my lack of glowing review. At first I was intruigied by our villainess. Her inital physical description seemed badass and I figured she'd be powerful and awesome and scary. Nothing about this book was awesome or scary. As our bland characters navigated the strange landscape, setting everything up for Ultra Bland Blane to meet up wth Witch Villainess in order for her to monologue the explanation for the entire book, I lost hope in our villainess. Then I kind of just wanted to understand what the fuck was going on and why. It ended up all very underwhelming.

The writing was at times overly pretentious, but in all it wasn't awful. Mostly I was bored and should have just DNF'd this. But I didn't quite hate it.

I do have two other Lebbon books on my shelf (somehow I've started a small collection without realizing it) and I'll give one of them a chance. If I don't enjoy it, I'll likely donate the third without reading.

[Alondra Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

Meh? This was just okay for me, and kind of boring. Lots of boring gore. Lots of animals going ham on humans (pun intended). Mother Nature or an entity made in her image, is slowly losing her mind, and humans and animals alike, are paying the price. How we get there is kinda boring. It took me 14 days to read this 350+ pg book. Ugh

Anywho, I highly recommend Zoo, if you are looking for a fast-paced story of nature versus man.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this and skimmed most of it. I felt like, as a reader, I wasn't welcomed into the book; the book starts out with something that never really gets tied into the plot; the actual plot doesn't get set up and just comes out of nowhere about 2/3 of the way through the book; the book felt like it was all setup until it hit the very ending. The ultimate bad guy was boring until they suddenly developed backstory (at the end). The penultimate bad guy was boring, even after we knew their backstory (near the beginning). The good guys were better fleshed out, but not compelling as protagonists. The ending isn't explained or set up: it just happens because of flawed story logic and bad prophesy.

However, I feel like there's no way I can be objective about this book, because it messes up the things I'm trying to do as a writer, so all I can see are flaws.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this 3.5/5 stars. Reminded me to a degree of James Herbert's work, but with dark fantasy elements mixed with the horror.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tim Lebbon, The Nature of Balance (Leisure Books, 2001)

It's interesting that horror has made a comeback in the American bookselling business these days, the same way it did in the eighties. (And the same way it will again twenty years from now.) Often, cycles of something being popular and unpopular are blamed on a fickle public. Those of us in the business of media manipulation through the creation of art know better. Without going into the details, let's just say that the more popular something guess, the more the quality is likely to decline. The business itself brings about the downfall of the genre, whatever that genre may be. (Look at the long, painful death of industrial music in the mid-nineties.)

It's pretty easy to see that the new horror revival will soon be headed that way, as well. The stalwarts who weather the last death of horror as popular art form are still around, of course. King, Koontz, Ed Lee, etc. will never go anywhere while they live. And, as always, the newer crop of horror writers contains some brilliant writers who are destined to topple and replace the stalwarts (Kiernan, Brite, etc.), some who have been around for years and just never got the recognition they deserved (Koja, Laymon, et al.), and, well, the rest.

To call Tim Lebbon one of the rest is not to imply that Lebbon's work lacks quality. It doesn't. The Nature of Balance is a good, solidly-written novel that keeps the pages turning and is likely to appeal to any horror fan (it may be a bit laid back for fans of extreme horror novelists like Laymon and Lee). But it's not more than that. When you pick up something by Cait Kiernan or Kathe Koja (when Koja's writing horror, anyway), you're not only getting horror, you're getting your socks knocked off. They transcend simple horror novels and become something else. The Nature of Balance never achieves that transcendence.

Anyone remember Rick Hautala? Ken Eulo? John R. Holt? William Valtos? Doug Hawk? Leslie Whitten? I could keep going for a very long time here, and at a guess, you'll get maybe ten percent of the names unless you were an obsessive horror fan like was an obsessive horror fan back during its last popular heyday. If it hit the Atlantic Books shelves in the horror section, I was there waiting with $3.99. (Depressing, isn't it?) And all of the above authors were writers of good, solid horror novels (okay, we'll make an exception for Whitten). I can (and have) go back and pick up John Holt's When We Dead Awaken or Edward Levy's The Beast Within and come up with a fantastic read. It's not a new Kathe Koja novel, but it's a great way to kill a few hours on a rainy day. And, ultimately, that's what The Nature of Balance is; good for what it is, but at a guess, not destined for immortality. ***

[William M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, my first experience with Tim Lebbon. It took a while to get into the story, but it was interesting enough for me to finish it. The big problems were the lack of character development and the overwritten style of his descriptions. He takes a full page to describe what should be only be a paragraph. By doing this, I constantly got pulled out of the story. What brought me back? The villian. I love a powerful antagonist that seems on track to conquer our hero, and this novel made up a few points in that area. Those two complaints aside, I had a fun time with it and I look forward to reading more by Mr. Lebbon.

[Fiona Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good - if weird - read. It doesn't take long to get into the story, and I did like the gradual increase of tension and horror. Beautifully written, too, as Lebbon's work usually is!
However, there was an awful lot of aimless story - most of the middle 60% - which caused it to lag an awful lot. With my "to read" pile getting taller by the hour, it's hard to pull myself back to something when it starts to drag, or lose it's point.
That said, there's a lot to recommend a good quick horror read, especially if it's weird but actually has a recognisable resolution, which this definitely does.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book that I had to force myself to keep reading. I like the idea of nature revolting, but I've read books where this idea has been executed so much better.

I suppose my main issue with the book was that it really moved very slowly. I almost felt like I was wading through sticky mud to get to the interesting parts. This book, ok - nothing special.

[Ryan Croke · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really struggled to finish this. The plot made no sense and the ending was lazy. There were some sentences that seemed like stream of consciousness writing. Yuck.

[Ken Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one opens with a gory bang as a strange force first makes everyone literally explode, and then starts quickly mutating everything left. Afterward a few survivors try to make sense of the strange new world.

I liked the way the mutations here are guided by viciousness. The animals all grow deadly spikes. Streams surge wildly to wear away infrastructure like bridges or foundations. Tree roots tear apart any building that might provide shelter, while the limbs above hoist human remains up to the sky along with the wreckage of the roofing.

The nice thing about this apocalyptic eco-horror is how it manages to surprise while avoiding so many tropes that have emerged in the decades since it was published. Also the author nicely evokes the sense that the people we are following are beside the point in this new world as nature reclaims the land - it's no Eden for these stragglers!

Weak points were characterization and a fantasy storyline I didn't care much for. It served its purpose to drive events along in the second half, but seemed more contrived rather than connected organically to the book's opening. I don't need everything explained, but a character suddenly discovering supernatural powers just to wrap things up was not a pleasant surprise. Otherwise this is a must-read for fans of animal attack horror.
"
Blane followed the road, although he could barely see it. He stepped carefully, always certain that in this bastardized version of the nature he so loved he would find, by accident, a mutated Venus's-flytrap or other vengeful plant. Each time his foot set down he waited for pain to intrude into his shock, acid to start eating at his old shoes. Most carnivorous plants killed by slow digestion, he knew. Once, he had thought that this was simply the most efficient way, that there was never any cruelty intended by nature. Now, doubt pressed in. What more terrible way to kill something? Humans often felt guilty about the remains of cute lambs or cuddly calves on their plates, but at least these animals were killed quickly. Nature was not nearly as efficient in killing its food, often stretching a death out for hours on end while the hunter ate into the living belly, gnawed through bones even as the victim writhed in agony.
"

[Nolan Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s probably just me not having a big enough brain but for me this book was hard to make myself trudge through other than I’m stubborn. Nature turning on people, check. The dream killing people thing, check…even though it just becomes a non factor after the first bit of the book. The whole god thing doesn’t mesh for me at all. I found myself asking a lot just why, especially towards the end with Fay and Blane. It just felt disconnected without any real reason to be in the story. Lots of vague statements about things. Then Peer for some reason being special and Paul’s child for some reason being special. I feel like it would have been better without it. I know a lot of people loved it but for me it just felt out of place. Nature just doing it’s own thing would have been better to me.

Maybe it’s because I had somewhat checked out on the book but for me it just left a lot of unnecessary open ended stuff that wasn’t delved into enough. I enjoy Tims works but this one was just hard for me. Which sucks because I was excited when I started it.

[Carmilla Choate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went 4 stars because I really like the book but I'm also kind of middle of the road on it. The plot is strange and never very well explained, but I don't think that was really the point. I had a hard time keeping the characters straight in the first few chapters but that was more a me thing than the book's thing

The writing is evocative and beautiful and horrific, sometimes all three at once. The ideas are interesting though the book raises may interesting concepts that it never explores. What it does explore is really great but it leaves out so much more that could have been done with the concept

[Sara]

Escape from hole
fall from hieght at sleep
rise wild from last myths
south the news to mix calm
hold the breath and cook balance
from 7 skys fly to lose reason
to distubut love
nuture
why nasty animal kill human under sleeping cloud
tow face of coin join river of life
afraid from world that can take ash of love
and dust many music without dicorat
gold heart walk another road
karma

[D.M. Shiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm just going to say, I did not see that one coming.
Absolutely intense read with imagery that will haunt my nightmares for nights to come.

[Andy Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but very slow; it dragged on and on.

[Ted Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could not finish this, the characters and the story simply did not really grab me. I've liked some of Mr Lebbon's other books but this one was not for me.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

My feeling is pretty luke warm, to grossed out, as it usually is with these Leisure Horror books. I mean, maybe it's the huge font they use in their paperbacks, or the ugly photoshopped covers, but I can't take them seriously. Or maybe it's the tendency of these books to have promising premises, and fair to moderate character development and writing, but then devolve into fantasy mystery mumbo jumbo.

Lebbon's book isn't horrible, in fact a lot of his character development reminds me of Stephen King. His way of showing a character dealing with the mundane, everyday stuff and then showing them deal with the apocalypse is quite intriguing. The apocalypse of "The Nature of Balance" is quite compelling. Nature has turned against man - not only the plants and the animals - but the very physics of existence. Unfortunately this has been caused by an angry witch who doesn't show up until the book is 2/3 of the way through, and the reader is comfortably rolling with a very scary, yet very possible and not at all corny end of the world scenario. I mean, Paul, one of the secondary characters and a rational forester, actually explains how the turning of nature and existence might happen by twisting astrophysics just a little bit. But no, Lebbon doesn't listen to his own characters. He drives them all to a climax that is unbelievable and boring.

It's a damn shame, too. I had high hopes for this book and Lebbon.

On a more positive note, a scene at the midpoint of this novel sticks with me. The group of survivors holes up at a rest stop in the British countryside, waiting for help, deciding what to do. When they finally make their way out through the still-working automated sliding glass doors toward their vehicles, a mass of birds, swifts and crows and sparrows, swarms down upon them, clogging up the vestibule and ravaging a woman, forcing them all back into the building. The onslaught of the birds is unrelenting. This is shockingly vivid in Lebbon's words - not so much in mine.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weirder than I was expecting. The atmosphere was taut and richly described. The massive scale of the event was impactful and the writing was pretty well done. I thought the ending came together a bit rushed after the terror of the beginning and then this odd little wrap up and done.

I don't mind weird if it's done right. I liked the use of nature as a visual horror, enacting a sickness upon humankind for all the awful things we've done to the planet. I've always been interested when people use horrific metaphor to convey the feelings of the earth. I'm one of those people who recycles and respects animals and their right to life etc. so I definitely enjoyed the human/nature involvement and turn.

There wasn't much build up to the reveal of Blane's identity. No foreshadowing. That deeply in to the story you're aware of the supernatural element impacting the world, but never hints about why. Or vague as hell hints to that conclusion. Anyway, the bit of reveal for Blane left me feeling bored. It seemed like a "just because" stereotypical fairy tale ending that would somehow work out and then happen again. The tone of the very end, the positivity, felt out of place among the story with so much gore and woe.

I liked it. It was a different sort of read, but the social commentary overtones were overkill and that took away from the "horror" aspect. Anyway still enjoyable.

[Jess(ToTheMoonAndBackReviews) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slow starter for me. I actually had to force myself to keep reading, I am not one to readily put a book down unless it was absolutley horrid. I have also had books, that take forever for me to get into. This was partially the case.
While it isn't a book I would re-read, it was deffinatly an interesting read. I mean you have to wonder, how would people react if they couldn't sleep? If the ones they held dear to them suddenly died, with no explination what so ever. It wouldn't be an easy death but a horrific one that has body bits showing that should be on the inside.
I like the thought put behind the detail, because it truly was well written, and brought to mind how humanity really is on the knife edge, dangerously tipping each way.
The end of the story had a great twist to. I would recomend it more for men then female, I don't know if all the gory bits is why the guy who recomended it to me recomended it but it still was a good story once I found myself submerged into it.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like I was reading a horror movie, and as a result it was taking too long.

Lebbon creates the disorientation of a world where most of the population has died -- horribly -- in their sleep. And that sleep is the enemy is perfectly captured in a scene where a woman comforts a sobbing child who has lost his family. She strokes his head, he dozes off, his head collapses in on itself.

There is a predictably mismatched band of survivors, who while contending with flesh eating farm animals find time to complain that emergency services are not doing their job. At least there are no zombies. What you get instead is a plot that over reaches itself to incorporate dying earth spirits gone berserk and an ending that comes several dozen pages too late.

But I did like the flesh eating farm animals.

[Richard Barber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to start this off with a caveat and an explanation. Tim is a stunning writer, but for me this isn't quite up there with the best. It may just be that my head wasn't in the right place to engage with the story (I'm really busy at the moment so I pecked at this book which couldn't have helped) but I never really got drawn into the narrative. The opening is suitably intriguing, and the basic premise is certainly interesting, but it took too long for me to get the characters straight in my head.

[Andy Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't terrible but I had to force myself to finish it. It starts off well with an interesting idea of everyone asleep simultaneously being killed in a rather messy fashion, and a group of survivors trying to figure out what to do. These characters are mostly believable and the writing style is good.

The negatives are mainly associated with the supernatural elements to the story, which I found more ridiculous than scary. The end of the book in particular is awful, in my opinion.

Not a bad horror book, and well written, but a few elements let it down for me.

[Stitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was thirteen and then didn't sleep for a week because I was so frightened to close my eyes. This book was everything I didn't know I wanted and at the last readthrough, I was still in chills because of that scene with the (potentially flesh-eating) cows and their bloody mouths. God. I don't think I'm ever going to get over this book entirely and I'm honestly okay with that.

[Scott Wieczorek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book started out strong, but seemed to fizzle toward the end. The ending itself fell flat for me and the plot came off contrived. The editing seemed decent, but I did catch a number of small mistakes peppered through the pages. All in all, I'd say that I liked it, but was not overly wowed.

[Kevin Gallan · Rating 4 out of 5]

i enjoyed this book very much

[Gizmatic Cantor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Tim Lebbon!!!

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to not very interesting, it has weird supernatural things happening and odd characters that are never fully explained.