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One
This is no country he knows, and no place he ever wants to see, even in the shuttered madness of his worst dreams. But Richard Jane survived. He walks because he has no choice and at the end of this molten road, running along the spine of a burned, battered country, his son may be alive. The sky crawls with venomous cloud and burning rain while the land is a scorched sprawl of rubble and corpses. Rats have risen from the depths to gorge on the carrion, and a glittering dust coats everything. It hides a terrible secret as new horrors take root. He walks on, with one hope.
363 pages, Paperback
First published April 2, 2009
8 people are currently reading
763 people want to read
About the author
Conrad Williams
98 books170 followersIn 2007 Conrad Williams won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel for The Unblemished. In 2008 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, for The Scalding Rooms. In 2010 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for One.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
November 20, 2010
Like _The Road_, but less cheerful.
April 14, 2009
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 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.
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.
January 14, 2018
I'm not sure what to make of this.
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're told what a struggle it is for humans to function and what makes things difficult to survive. We're even told how the rats have somehow thrived and taken on a new mantle of bold and fearless hive mentality. But there is a bit of cloak and dagger going on with the mysterious people with white scarfs and tattoo's and six fingers that seem to be lurking in the background. Who are they? Where did they come from? Are they good or bad? Why? What is their story? Should I pay them more attention. It's just doesn't add up.
At the end I'm left wondering what actually happened. I sometimes like a bit of ambiguity at the end of a story, where you wonder if it will all come right in the end, beyond the final page - but with this tale I'm actually wondering what happened DURING the final pages. Was it the human survivors that ran to the rescue? Or the mysterious white scarfs? Or a combination? Seriously, if you know, please let me in on it because it's annoying the hell out of me.
So, in summary......I liked it enough to keep turning pages but I'd have liked it more if I wasn't asked to guess about the significance of certain elements and their role in the story.
Read it, it's quite good. But then come back and fill me in on all the missing bits.
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're told what a struggle it is for humans to function and what makes things difficult to survive. We're even told how the rats have somehow thrived and taken on a new mantle of bold and fearless hive mentality. But there is a bit of cloak and dagger going on with the mysterious people with white scarfs and tattoo's and six fingers that seem to be lurking in the background. Who are they? Where did they come from? Are they good or bad? Why? What is their story? Should I pay them more attention. It's just doesn't add up.
At the end I'm left wondering what actually happened. I sometimes like a bit of ambiguity at the end of a story, where you wonder if it will all come right in the end, beyond the final page - but with this tale I'm actually wondering what happened DURING the final pages. Was it the human survivors that ran to the rescue? Or the mysterious white scarfs? Or a combination? Seriously, if you know, please let me in on it because it's annoying the hell out of me.
So, in summary......I liked it enough to keep turning pages but I'd have liked it more if I wasn't asked to guess about the significance of certain elements and their role in the story.
Read it, it's quite good. But then come back and fill me in on all the missing bits.
September 8, 2012
Conrad Williams is a good writer; that said, I thought the development of the book was disappointing. There are two distinct stories here. The first half of the book has a theme of world catastrophe, which was very well done. The second half is a scifi/horror book that becomes increasingly morbid, dark, and with unclear focus. Overall, the characters were not well developed, and there was excessive emphasis on the solitary sufferings of the hero, with little else to balance the story.
January 14, 2011
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 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 Stan’s 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 Williams’ 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 didn’t 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.
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 Stan’s 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 Williams’ 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 didn’t 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.
October 22, 2010
(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.
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.
August 1, 2023
Why I continue to do this.. I wanted to read this one because I wanted some zombies and some action and what I got was a boring pointless book...
In this novel we follow Jane (a man, not a woman) as he tries to return to London to get to his son and ex-wife after a apocalyptic event. What even you may ask? Well we don't know and will never know... the only hint is in the acknowledgements he thanks some Drº for explaining what Gamma Ray bursts are, so I deduce a gamma ray burst , well burst into earth? From what I know, is that Gamma Ray Bursts could vaporize earth OR just burn everything it touched. So basically all life. The question is it globally? Or only affect the side the gamma ray strikes? And what the dimension? Will envelop all earth, only a couple of klms or what. I will not pretend I understand so I accept this story premise.. (although it was never really explain OR even talked about).
So this guy was under water, several hundreds meters below on north scotland and when he came up, nothing lived. So he decides to go Scotland and travel to London to check on his boy.
He meets a bunch of people, some not that important, others will be. This is the first half of the book. The second half is ten years in the future where he and some other people are trying to survive and decide what to do... and thus comes the "Raft".
So, the man is obessesed with the child , which is normal but when the writing is putting on paper the chapters he mix the stories. It's confusing to say the least. It's like now he is on "present" now on "past", now he is only thinking of past whilst on present etc. Tho be honest this is a problem throughout the book. This disconcerted immensely.
The second part of the novel, the ten years after start and we are not even aware that is 10 years in the future. After a couple of chapters or pages I don't know, then someone says oh, it has been 10 years. WHAT? The last page of the first "book" doesn't hint for anytihng of that. He had just arrive to london. What did he do? We don't know. What happened throughout those 10 years? Well screw you. Not going to tell you. It doesn't matter... you just have to believe the writer is not important.
And the ending is good Paulo? well darn if I Am going tell you because well it's just is. Going to spoil a bit so...
As expected the boy is not alive and he can't cope really well with it, nevertheless he hook up with Becky which he encountered early and they live together along 4000 other people in makeshift community... because people don't care one for the other.. it's so badly development that I Didn't understand what was happening with those communities. And the ending? What a heck man? Ok, so for ten years they were in london, no connection nicles, nada... and now out of the bat, let's go Europe (france) why? Why thinking that France is a better place than UK? I don't understand...
The all story with his son and then it felt empty. To be honest I didn't want to be alive because that would be even worse but you have to have somekind of closure but no.. we get an open hallucinogetic kind of ending...
What about the fucking skinners? WTHAT A FUCK ARE THEY? Are they zombies? Or something that is not zombies but also not living but due to gamma ray you didn't really explain, created this beings that kidnap pregnant women? how are they created? How do they function , etc, no, no explanation for you...
Another thing that I find strange is how are these people alive? HOW? So gamma ray kills 99%. I don't buy it but ok. If the author says mines are safe, then subways are safe therefore at least a half a million would be underground or in some protective thing... but now, ten years later in London there 5000. OKay another thing that doesn't add up, if people were instant killed by this thing that boiled people, it should have boiled the trees, grass, food , I don't know about fires but okay, lets say it's 300 degrees so, how can after 10 years they are still alive? OK they talk about having low food but I highly doubt it if they don't plant , 10 years would be way past the expiration date of most things, if they were boiled. And then the Tiger... WHAT? How was that the tiger survive in the first place ? Well fuck it. I want a tiger in my book.
Overall.. I am disappointed. IT read fast, don't get me wrong, but I expected more. It's like the Road but less... It's not bleaker. It's okay book, like a an sunday afternoon movie. Unfortunately it felt flat in what I expected. Probably others will love it or not... As you can see the rating is now 3.44 so it's not universally loved 4/10
In this novel we follow Jane (a man, not a woman) as he tries to return to London to get to his son and ex-wife after a apocalyptic event. What even you may ask? Well we don't know and will never know... the only hint is in the acknowledgements he thanks some Drº for explaining what Gamma Ray bursts are, so I deduce a gamma ray burst , well burst into earth? From what I know, is that Gamma Ray Bursts could vaporize earth OR just burn everything it touched. So basically all life. The question is it globally? Or only affect the side the gamma ray strikes? And what the dimension? Will envelop all earth, only a couple of klms or what. I will not pretend I understand so I accept this story premise.. (although it was never really explain OR even talked about).
So this guy was under water, several hundreds meters below on north scotland and when he came up, nothing lived. So he decides to go Scotland and travel to London to check on his boy.
He meets a bunch of people, some not that important, others will be. This is the first half of the book. The second half is ten years in the future where he and some other people are trying to survive and decide what to do... and thus comes the "Raft".
So, the man is obessesed with the child , which is normal but when the writing is putting on paper the chapters he mix the stories. It's confusing to say the least. It's like now he is on "present" now on "past", now he is only thinking of past whilst on present etc. Tho be honest this is a problem throughout the book. This disconcerted immensely.
The second part of the novel, the ten years after start and we are not even aware that is 10 years in the future. After a couple of chapters or pages I don't know, then someone says oh, it has been 10 years. WHAT? The last page of the first "book" doesn't hint for anytihng of that. He had just arrive to london. What did he do? We don't know. What happened throughout those 10 years? Well screw you. Not going to tell you. It doesn't matter... you just have to believe the writer is not important.
And the ending is good Paulo? well darn if I Am going tell you because well it's just is. Going to spoil a bit so...
As expected the boy is not alive and he can't cope really well with it, nevertheless he hook up with Becky which he encountered early and they live together along 4000 other people in makeshift community... because people don't care one for the other.. it's so badly development that I Didn't understand what was happening with those communities. And the ending? What a heck man? Ok, so for ten years they were in london, no connection nicles, nada... and now out of the bat, let's go Europe (france) why? Why thinking that France is a better place than UK? I don't understand...
The all story with his son and then it felt empty. To be honest I didn't want to be alive because that would be even worse but you have to have somekind of closure but no.. we get an open hallucinogetic kind of ending...
What about the fucking skinners? WTHAT A FUCK ARE THEY? Are they zombies? Or something that is not zombies but also not living but due to gamma ray you didn't really explain, created this beings that kidnap pregnant women? how are they created? How do they function , etc, no, no explanation for you...
Another thing that I find strange is how are these people alive? HOW? So gamma ray kills 99%. I don't buy it but ok. If the author says mines are safe, then subways are safe therefore at least a half a million would be underground or in some protective thing... but now, ten years later in London there 5000. OKay another thing that doesn't add up, if people were instant killed by this thing that boiled people, it should have boiled the trees, grass, food , I don't know about fires but okay, lets say it's 300 degrees so, how can after 10 years they are still alive? OK they talk about having low food but I highly doubt it if they don't plant , 10 years would be way past the expiration date of most things, if they were boiled. And then the Tiger... WHAT? How was that the tiger survive in the first place ? Well fuck it. I want a tiger in my book.
Overall.. I am disappointed. IT read fast, don't get me wrong, but I expected more. It's like the Road but less... It's not bleaker. It's okay book, like a an sunday afternoon movie. Unfortunately it felt flat in what I expected. Probably others will love it or not... As you can see the rating is now 3.44 so it's not universally loved 4/10
June 27, 2017
Голяма греда, която дори десетината прекрасни сцени и описания из страниците на романа, не могат да спасят. Сюжетът е накъсан и спорадичен, оставя незатворени линии и прескача цели важни за произведението моменти. Създава впечатление за яко редаткторско дялане в последния момент. Признавам си без бой, че заради чисто британските фрази и идиоми може да не съм хванал всичките извивки на книгата, но едва ли чак да съм изтървал някой край.
Първата част започва много обещаващо, но бързо се превръща в низ от скучни случки, прекъсвани от лигава мелодрама, е, и някое друго чудесно описание, а накрая те оставя в нищото без отговори на десетките повдигнати въпроси. Втората част започва на чисто, 10 години по-късно и отново се захваща да гради сюжет, поставяйки нови въпросителни, без да се отговаря на предишните. Краят е с два микроконфликта и опропастява добре изтъканата мистерия около цялата ситуация.
Джейн (да така се казва главният герой :) ) работи на батискаф в северно море, това го спасява от световен катаклизъм подобен на ядрен взрив, който е опустошил цяла Британия, а може би и Земята. Тръгва пеш по дългия път до Лондон, крепен от единствената надежда да намери сина си жив. По пътя среща други оцелели и усеща, че има нещо много, много сбъркано в цялата ситуация. Във втората част вече е в Лондон и с група спасили се хора се бори за оцеляване след армагедона. Ситуацията допълнително се усложнява от вдигащите се, гладни за плът трупове на хора и животни и зараза, която изяжда живите от вътре на вън.
Много пропуски има книгата и много нестиковки. Както казах – греда. Има много по-добри произведения в жанра.
Първата част започва много обещаващо, но бързо се превръща в низ от скучни случки, прекъсвани от лигава мелодрама, е, и някое друго чудесно описание, а накрая те оставя в нищото без отговори на десетките повдигнати въпроси. Втората част започва на чисто, 10 години по-късно и отново се захваща да гради сюжет, поставяйки нови въпросителни, без да се отговаря на предишните. Краят е с два микроконфликта и опропастява добре изтъканата мистерия около цялата ситуация.
Джейн (да така се казва главният герой :) ) работи на батискаф в северно море, това го спасява от световен катаклизъм подобен на ядрен взрив, който е опустошил цяла Британия, а може би и Земята. Тръгва пеш по дългия път до Лондон, крепен от единствената надежда да намери сина си жив. По пътя среща други оцелели и усеща, че има нещо много, много сбъркано в цялата ситуация. Във втората част вече е в Лондон и с група спасили се хора се бори за оцеляване след армагедона. Ситуацията допълнително се усложнява от вдигащите се, гладни за плът трупове на хора и животни и зараза, която изяжда живите от вътре на вън.
Много пропуски има книгата и много нестиковки. Както казах – греда. Има много по-добри произведения в жанра.
October 1, 2019
This story is heartwarming, in a weird way. A father on his way to see his boy, when almost all in the world is dead.
I realized that this post apocalyptic stories interests me. Seeing how the people try to survive after the civilization got almost wiped out.
It is the first of its kind that i have read and so i enjoyed it a lot! I imagine this to be good if turned into a tv show. Highly recommend but watch out for the gore.
I realized that this post apocalyptic stories interests me. Seeing how the people try to survive after the civilization got almost wiped out.
It is the first of its kind that i have read and so i enjoyed it a lot! I imagine this to be good if turned into a tv show. Highly recommend but watch out for the gore.
June 13, 2011
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 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!
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!
July 18, 2011
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 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
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
April 19, 2010
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 kind of like The Road, but not in a plagiaristic way, and it is well done.
The difficult part for me is that the author is, I believe, from the UK, so a lot of the word usages were lost on me. Some of them you could figure out from context, but some I had no idea what he was saying. I have read a lot of British authors over the years, and have found that, even when I enjoy the story, the writing is often lost on my American brain. I find it sometimes plodding and obtuse.
It's not too much of an issue with this book, and given that this is a zombie/horror novel, the writing is really very well done. Another reviewer wrote something along the lines of believing that the author was trying to be literary (or something). I can see what the reviewer meant by that, and I agree, but it's not a bad thing in this case.
The one issue I really have is that...
STOP LOOKING BECAUSE THIS MAY BE A SPOILER - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED
the "event"...happens, Jane makes his way to London, walks up the stairs to look for his son and then BAM! - it's ten years later. We know the world sucks, we know there are killers out there devastating the survivors' ever dwindling population, but we miss out on all of the discovery information because of how this was done. I'd have liked more detail before ten years passed, that's all I'm saying.
This book has been added to my ever growing collection.
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 kind of like The Road, but not in a plagiaristic way, and it is well done.
The difficult part for me is that the author is, I believe, from the UK, so a lot of the word usages were lost on me. Some of them you could figure out from context, but some I had no idea what he was saying. I have read a lot of British authors over the years, and have found that, even when I enjoy the story, the writing is often lost on my American brain. I find it sometimes plodding and obtuse.
It's not too much of an issue with this book, and given that this is a zombie/horror novel, the writing is really very well done. Another reviewer wrote something along the lines of believing that the author was trying to be literary (or something). I can see what the reviewer meant by that, and I agree, but it's not a bad thing in this case.
The one issue I really have is that...
STOP LOOKING BECAUSE THIS MAY BE A SPOILER - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED
the "event"...happens, Jane makes his way to London, walks up the stairs to look for his son and then BAM! - it's ten years later. We know the world sucks, we know there are killers out there devastating the survivors' ever dwindling population, but we miss out on all of the discovery information because of how this was done. I'd have liked more detail before ten years passed, that's all I'm saying.
This book has been added to my ever growing collection.
September 23, 2009
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 of the destruction turns out to be only the beginning of the horror.
Full review here.
Full review here.
October 14, 2009
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 novels from Williams, and establishes the author as a frontrunner of UK dark fiction.
January 2, 2011
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 narrative off kilter.
March 6, 2010
I probably shouldn't have read this during my lunch hours as it was quite gruesome. Very enjoyable and just my sort of thing! Sometimes the writing seemed a bit repetitive though and then at other times I wasn't sure what was happening because it wasn't explained. Still great though.
November 10, 2025
Richard Jane is a deep sea welder. While at work the end of the world happens.
This is a hard book to explain but the basic storyline is: Richard Jane gets to shore and walks the long road back to London. He wants to see his son, he is sure his son is still alive and through out the book we get to experience his life with his son.
Along the way he meets up with a number of survivors, an Australian couple who constantly bicker and the wife goes nuts; an elderly British couple (their role in the book is short lived but required); Becky and her young ward, Aiden (who has a blood disease). There are thugs and druggies, a strange girl in white who decides to follow Richard and a few other people along the way, including zombie! Yay! But these zombies are called Skinners and I won’t say what they really are.
The book is broken into two parts: Births, Deaths and Marriages and Lazarus Taxon.
Book one is all about Richard Jane’s (herein after called Jane as in the book) trek to London and the many problems that arise. Book two (ten years) Jane is in London as part of a resistance kind of outfit. Skinners are the main problem. They are blind but all other senses are heightened. Oh, and there’s a Lion on the loose, rats are not afraid of humans and will feed on sleeping adults. There is rumour of a raft and once confirmed a huge exodus take place. It seems as if there are hundreds of hundreds of people still kicking around in London.
Conrad Williams is an awesome writer, his words flow smoothly and hours can pass without your knowledge as the pages keep turning. But, and it’s a big one. Stuff just happens in the middle of a paragraph. Other scenes are not described clearly, especially the last scene leading to the war and the explosion, because stuff just happens off the cuff, in the middle of something else. There’s no lead up, no build up and maybe that is what Conrad was going for, but to this reader it was confusing and many times I had to go back and re-read the last few pages trying to find the start point that hints at the coming event–but there is none.
Jane is a man driven to keep breathing in the hope of one day seeing his son. He won’t accept the fact the boy could be dead, he refuses to accept it. He has hallucinations and dreams of his son and he talks out loud to the non-existent child.
The end is as you would expect, but it is a chocker moment (yes a near tear jerker), because Jane is such a rounded character driven by a basic need to find his son.
This is a hard book to explain but the basic storyline is: Richard Jane gets to shore and walks the long road back to London. He wants to see his son, he is sure his son is still alive and through out the book we get to experience his life with his son.
Along the way he meets up with a number of survivors, an Australian couple who constantly bicker and the wife goes nuts; an elderly British couple (their role in the book is short lived but required); Becky and her young ward, Aiden (who has a blood disease). There are thugs and druggies, a strange girl in white who decides to follow Richard and a few other people along the way, including zombie! Yay! But these zombies are called Skinners and I won’t say what they really are.
The book is broken into two parts: Births, Deaths and Marriages and Lazarus Taxon.
Book one is all about Richard Jane’s (herein after called Jane as in the book) trek to London and the many problems that arise. Book two (ten years) Jane is in London as part of a resistance kind of outfit. Skinners are the main problem. They are blind but all other senses are heightened. Oh, and there’s a Lion on the loose, rats are not afraid of humans and will feed on sleeping adults. There is rumour of a raft and once confirmed a huge exodus take place. It seems as if there are hundreds of hundreds of people still kicking around in London.
Conrad Williams is an awesome writer, his words flow smoothly and hours can pass without your knowledge as the pages keep turning. But, and it’s a big one. Stuff just happens in the middle of a paragraph. Other scenes are not described clearly, especially the last scene leading to the war and the explosion, because stuff just happens off the cuff, in the middle of something else. There’s no lead up, no build up and maybe that is what Conrad was going for, but to this reader it was confusing and many times I had to go back and re-read the last few pages trying to find the start point that hints at the coming event–but there is none.
Jane is a man driven to keep breathing in the hope of one day seeing his son. He won’t accept the fact the boy could be dead, he refuses to accept it. He has hallucinations and dreams of his son and he talks out loud to the non-existent child.
The end is as you would expect, but it is a chocker moment (yes a near tear jerker), because Jane is such a rounded character driven by a basic need to find his son.
October 9, 2016
Time taken to read - 6 days
Pages - 363
Publisher - Virgin
Blurb from Goodreads
This is no country he knows, and no place he ever wants to see, even in the shuttered madness of his worst dreams. But Richard Jane survived. He walks because he has no choice and at the end of this molten road, running along the spine of a burned, battered country, his son may be alive. The sky crawls with venomous cloud and burning rain while the land is a scorched sprawl of rubble and corpses. Rats have risen from the depths to gorge on the carrion, and a glittering dust coats everything. It hides a terrible secret as new horrors take root. He walks on, with one hope.
My Review
This book started off really strong, Richard Jane is a diver and down in the ocean when it hits. After witnessing horrors and experiencing his own brush with death, Jane makes it to the topside the world as we know it is gone. Death is everywhere, people, animals, the land, the sky is wrong and the rain burns. Jane fits himself with protective gear and heads for home, the idea of getting to his son the only thing that keeps him going. When Jane thinks all is lost and that he is the only survivor, he finally finds others. Together they struggle to come to terms with earth as it is now, surviving, loss, self purpose and trying to stay alive.
This first part of this book I really liked, the main character goes through all of the trials and tribulations, emotions, struggles and a few hairy moments that are so well written at times I felt claustrophobic. However, the books splits off to a decade later about half way through, no explanation of why and the set up in the later part is completely different. I really dislike when books do that, it also took the apocalypse in a whole other direction, we have more survivors, what happens to them is completely different, there is a tiger running around. The later part reminded me of so many other books and movies it seemed like two completely different books merged into one and all apocalypse ideas thrown in.
It is gory, creepy, tackles lots of different areas of apocalyptic stories, had it stuck to the formula in the first part I think I would have really enjoyed it. Instead, for me, by covering so much it rather diluted the story for me, too many plot holes, unanswered questions and I generally don't like that. To be fair, Justin Cronin did that with The Passage, one story broke into two parts, and The Road which I also didn't enjoy. If you liked the format of those books you may well love this, sadly it just wasn't for me, 2/5 this time.
Pages - 363
Publisher - Virgin
Blurb from Goodreads
This is no country he knows, and no place he ever wants to see, even in the shuttered madness of his worst dreams. But Richard Jane survived. He walks because he has no choice and at the end of this molten road, running along the spine of a burned, battered country, his son may be alive. The sky crawls with venomous cloud and burning rain while the land is a scorched sprawl of rubble and corpses. Rats have risen from the depths to gorge on the carrion, and a glittering dust coats everything. It hides a terrible secret as new horrors take root. He walks on, with one hope.
My Review
This book started off really strong, Richard Jane is a diver and down in the ocean when it hits. After witnessing horrors and experiencing his own brush with death, Jane makes it to the topside the world as we know it is gone. Death is everywhere, people, animals, the land, the sky is wrong and the rain burns. Jane fits himself with protective gear and heads for home, the idea of getting to his son the only thing that keeps him going. When Jane thinks all is lost and that he is the only survivor, he finally finds others. Together they struggle to come to terms with earth as it is now, surviving, loss, self purpose and trying to stay alive.
This first part of this book I really liked, the main character goes through all of the trials and tribulations, emotions, struggles and a few hairy moments that are so well written at times I felt claustrophobic. However, the books splits off to a decade later about half way through, no explanation of why and the set up in the later part is completely different. I really dislike when books do that, it also took the apocalypse in a whole other direction, we have more survivors, what happens to them is completely different, there is a tiger running around. The later part reminded me of so many other books and movies it seemed like two completely different books merged into one and all apocalypse ideas thrown in.
It is gory, creepy, tackles lots of different areas of apocalyptic stories, had it stuck to the formula in the first part I think I would have really enjoyed it. Instead, for me, by covering so much it rather diluted the story for me, too many plot holes, unanswered questions and I generally don't like that. To be fair, Justin Cronin did that with The Passage, one story broke into two parts, and The Road which I also didn't enjoy. If you liked the format of those books you may well love this, sadly it just wasn't for me, 2/5 this time.
June 20, 2009
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 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.
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.
June 17, 2024
This book took me forever to get through. I would take a break and then pick it back up, reading books in between the breaks of this one. It was a good premise- end of the world, potentially real stuff. Survival mode. Apocalyptic. It was kinda depressing with a man trying to find his son throughout the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2018
A brilliant start but went downhill with a weird ending. The closest I've come to not finishing a book.
October 9, 2020
Good concept but really badly written, consisting mainly in the narrator whining how much he missed his son. Action scenes very poorly described
Expected better from highly rated writer
Expected better from highly rated writer
June 25, 2023
Loved it. Interesting take.
August 22, 2014
My favorite sub-genre of horror novel is Post-apocalypse. I love the classics like Alas Babylon and On the beach as well as more modern classics like Swan Song, The Road and the Stand. I had this one on the shelf for a long time and I’m sorry it took me so long to get to it. I know this will sound like hyperbole but One is much darker than any of those other novels even McCarthy’s the Road. Much like my experience reading Swan Song my heart hurt for the character’s experiencing the events of the novel.
It doesn’t have the epic scope of Swan Song but in all the good ways this was a British Swan Song. That folks is my second favorite novel of all time so keep that in mind.
I went into this novel cold. I didn’t read much about the plot and for that I was glad I didn’t. If you trust me and you are a fan of post apocalypse novels then stop right here and order the book.
So in many ways ONE is a masterpiece of the subgenre. Ironically considering the title it is like two books starting off like a straight forward end of the world novel and then in the second half becoming an excellent supernatural horror novel that is really the novel I wanted Simon Clark’s Blood Crazy to be.
Jane, who is a father and deep sea diver is deep off the coast of Britian when the majority of the human race is cooked by a massive solar flame. The first half of the novel is a painful hike across the ash cover remains of a Scotland and England burnt to a crisp. Jane needs to make it back to London in an attempt to find his son, who in his heart he admits is likely dead. Like the McCarthy’s The Road this novel explores the nature of the relationship between Father and son. ONE however does this through a series of beautifully written letters/journals Jane keeps for his son as he survives.
In the second half of the novel Williams takes the story 5 years into the future. A disease that no one can understand is carried in the layer of ash that has coated the earth. It could be argued that the infected feral cannibal humans running around London know as Skinners in the novel are zombies. Not exactly and that sells Conrad Williams skill short. I never felt like I was reading a zombie novel, but something similar and more original.
This is my first novel by Conrad Williams but I am so impressed I plan to read everything as soon as I can get my hands on them. Best novel I have read all year and probably my second favorite reading experience behind Cody Goodfellow’s Repo Shark.
It doesn’t have the epic scope of Swan Song but in all the good ways this was a British Swan Song. That folks is my second favorite novel of all time so keep that in mind.
I went into this novel cold. I didn’t read much about the plot and for that I was glad I didn’t. If you trust me and you are a fan of post apocalypse novels then stop right here and order the book.
So in many ways ONE is a masterpiece of the subgenre. Ironically considering the title it is like two books starting off like a straight forward end of the world novel and then in the second half becoming an excellent supernatural horror novel that is really the novel I wanted Simon Clark’s Blood Crazy to be.
Jane, who is a father and deep sea diver is deep off the coast of Britian when the majority of the human race is cooked by a massive solar flame. The first half of the novel is a painful hike across the ash cover remains of a Scotland and England burnt to a crisp. Jane needs to make it back to London in an attempt to find his son, who in his heart he admits is likely dead. Like the McCarthy’s The Road this novel explores the nature of the relationship between Father and son. ONE however does this through a series of beautifully written letters/journals Jane keeps for his son as he survives.
In the second half of the novel Williams takes the story 5 years into the future. A disease that no one can understand is carried in the layer of ash that has coated the earth. It could be argued that the infected feral cannibal humans running around London know as Skinners in the novel are zombies. Not exactly and that sells Conrad Williams skill short. I never felt like I was reading a zombie novel, but something similar and more original.
This is my first novel by Conrad Williams but I am so impressed I plan to read everything as soon as I can get my hands on them. Best novel I have read all year and probably my second favorite reading experience behind Cody Goodfellow’s Repo Shark.
August 2, 2015
Any book which makes me go to bed early to read it is already doing something right.
This is The Road, set in Britain, but with correct use of apostrophes.
Actually, that undersells it. It is its own complicated beast. But we travel with a father. Such an intense focus on one mind works for immersion, even if having an unreliable narrator sometimes irritates. It's like being inside someone else's head, wanting to control their body, to make them ask a question or look at a certain thing so you can find out more, but their head stubbornly refuses to move. It has its own agenda. You are a passenger, with your own intelligence, along for the ride.
The prose is sparse and often beautiful.
The book entertained. It finished with plenty to think about. It sustains itself and reader interest. ONE star short of five.
*** Spoilers below. ***
Don't read on if you've yet to finish the book.
You were warned.
I knocked off one star because there are niggles, which I'll cram at the end out of sight in the shadows of spoilerville. Don't take them as my final thoughts - I've already praised the book. More a chance for me to vomit out some crunchy bits.
For example, the tiger as a motif - great. One tiger, one focus for significance. Then the protagonist encounters a tiger in the zoo. It seems to be more decayed than the one encountered earlier. "The tail had long since worn away." So... is this the same tiger he'd encountered only a few days before, but now described in more detail? Had it rotted in the short time, even though it had presumably been wandering for ten years? Or is this a different tiger, confusing the motif when a different antagonist could have kept things simpler? I think it is the same one, but had to go back and re-read section to check.
The ending - yes, some lack of clarity there. Again, understandable because of the main character's focus, but as a reader you wonder how much is real. In fact, the whole white scarf/masked Shaded subplot doesn't fully resolve, despite a helpful paragraph where the main character imagines what might have happened. We think back to when the main scarf girl first appeared. It wasn't long after things started, 6 weeks maybe, is that enough time for a sick girl to develop superhuman killing, tracking and sneaking powers? To enable a girl to enter and leave locked rooms without leaving a trace? For whole groups of them to meet up, get organised, create a subculture, elect a leader and start their ten-year skulking campaign? I'm not sure.
This is The Road, set in Britain, but with correct use of apostrophes.
Actually, that undersells it. It is its own complicated beast. But we travel with a father. Such an intense focus on one mind works for immersion, even if having an unreliable narrator sometimes irritates. It's like being inside someone else's head, wanting to control their body, to make them ask a question or look at a certain thing so you can find out more, but their head stubbornly refuses to move. It has its own agenda. You are a passenger, with your own intelligence, along for the ride.
The prose is sparse and often beautiful.
The book entertained. It finished with plenty to think about. It sustains itself and reader interest. ONE star short of five.
*** Spoilers below. ***
Don't read on if you've yet to finish the book.
You were warned.
I knocked off one star because there are niggles, which I'll cram at the end out of sight in the shadows of spoilerville. Don't take them as my final thoughts - I've already praised the book. More a chance for me to vomit out some crunchy bits.
For example, the tiger as a motif - great. One tiger, one focus for significance. Then the protagonist encounters a tiger in the zoo. It seems to be more decayed than the one encountered earlier. "The tail had long since worn away." So... is this the same tiger he'd encountered only a few days before, but now described in more detail? Had it rotted in the short time, even though it had presumably been wandering for ten years? Or is this a different tiger, confusing the motif when a different antagonist could have kept things simpler? I think it is the same one, but had to go back and re-read section to check.
The ending - yes, some lack of clarity there. Again, understandable because of the main character's focus, but as a reader you wonder how much is real. In fact, the whole white scarf/masked Shaded subplot doesn't fully resolve, despite a helpful paragraph where the main character imagines what might have happened. We think back to when the main scarf girl first appeared. It wasn't long after things started, 6 weeks maybe, is that enough time for a sick girl to develop superhuman killing, tracking and sneaking powers? To enable a girl to enter and leave locked rooms without leaving a trace? For whole groups of them to meet up, get organised, create a subculture, elect a leader and start their ten-year skulking campaign? I'm not sure.
September 9, 2009
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 to the little things is what makes this novel so unsettling and he truly shows how screwed modern man would be in an event such as the one he writes about. As always, Conrad shows great pose in writing what he sees and leaving little to your imagination and what he sees is not only detailed but slowly eases you into a very dark and desperate final chapter of humanity.
I think that caring parents will be most effected and could readily relate to Richards condition and train of thought while going through such an event. This isn't Conrad's first bout with apocalyptic dwellings, but its his first dealing with the actual process instead of writing in an developing pre or established post apocalyptic settings and he does a very good job. The end of the novel had some images I want to forget and scenes that made me feel actual emotion for these fictional characters. For what lack of imagination he lets you have in the main story, he lets you run with at the end of the novel, and that is all I can really say without spoiling the novel. Like most Conrad Williams novels, I would recommend this for anyone who like apocalyptic fiction and would highly recommend more of his fiction if you like this story.
I think that caring parents will be most effected and could readily relate to Richards condition and train of thought while going through such an event. This isn't Conrad's first bout with apocalyptic dwellings, but its his first dealing with the actual process instead of writing in an developing pre or established post apocalyptic settings and he does a very good job. The end of the novel had some images I want to forget and scenes that made me feel actual emotion for these fictional characters. For what lack of imagination he lets you have in the main story, he lets you run with at the end of the novel, and that is all I can really say without spoiling the novel. Like most Conrad Williams novels, I would recommend this for anyone who like apocalyptic fiction and would highly recommend more of his fiction if you like this story.
December 20, 2013
Most of this book I read wincing at the imagery only to recoil at the sight of stopped traffic. There are moments where clogged highways of the dead made me think it would be preferable to the endless traffic jams I found myself in these last few days. I could walk over the roofs and head home in half the time it ultimately took me. Of course--if my journey mirrored the main characters--even my kin would possibly be dead.
This book--oh, there's so much to say, but it's late--made me grateful in its use of the Fantastic, especially in the 2nd half with it's monstrous Skinners in lieu of zombies. There's so much imagery of a doomed world, it was getting more depressing than frightening. The thought of everything wiped out in a mysterious blink of an eye, the remnant world contaminated and smouldering, I'm getting down as I type these words! I couldn't help but think of copy editors putting this book together and having to take a walk outside every few pages, have some coffee, call a loved one for a reassuringly bland conversation.
Conrad Williams writes pain like no one I've read for a long time. This book has howling passages of sheer agony---and oy, is there so much vomiting! I kept worrying over the protagonist, because of the scarcity of food!
It's a beautifully written, and utterly harrowing, novel. Williams makes me reluctant to put pen to paper because he reminds you that if you want your scenes to be so vivid as to leave a mark, you need to do your homework. Writers, read this guy.
This book--oh, there's so much to say, but it's late--made me grateful in its use of the Fantastic, especially in the 2nd half with it's monstrous Skinners in lieu of zombies. There's so much imagery of a doomed world, it was getting more depressing than frightening. The thought of everything wiped out in a mysterious blink of an eye, the remnant world contaminated and smouldering, I'm getting down as I type these words! I couldn't help but think of copy editors putting this book together and having to take a walk outside every few pages, have some coffee, call a loved one for a reassuringly bland conversation.
Conrad Williams writes pain like no one I've read for a long time. This book has howling passages of sheer agony---and oy, is there so much vomiting! I kept worrying over the protagonist, because of the scarcity of food!
It's a beautifully written, and utterly harrowing, novel. Williams makes me reluctant to put pen to paper because he reminds you that if you want your scenes to be so vivid as to leave a mark, you need to do your homework. Writers, read this guy.
October 3, 2014
Richard Jane is a diver working on an off-shore oil platform in the North Sea when something happens and he loses contact with the surface. He finds that a terrible accident has occurred and that the whole crew is dead or dying, with everything burned. It becomes apparent that 'The Event' isn't restricted to the rig when he reaches the mainland.
The first half of the book concerns Jane's journey from near Aberdeen to London, where he hopes to find his young son alive. The author does a great job at portraying the desolation left behind (event if the effects of the 'fire' are somewhat inconsistent) and we really start to feel Jane's desperation that his son is OK. This part of the story is great, and a good example of a post-apocalyptic novel.
However... without spoiling things, the second half of the book gets a bit silly in my opinion. There is a fairly drastic change of pace and the story becomes more of a horror story. This would be fine in itself, but the two halves of the story don't really hang together.
On top of that, I really didn't understand the ending. The last few pages felt like the author was late for something and just scribbled down the ending quickly, with little care, which I'm sure wasn't the case. I'm sure he understood what was going on, but I felt a bit let down.
In summary, not a bad book. There is a conclusion of a sort, but don't expect an amazing ending.
The first half of the book concerns Jane's journey from near Aberdeen to London, where he hopes to find his young son alive. The author does a great job at portraying the desolation left behind (event if the effects of the 'fire' are somewhat inconsistent) and we really start to feel Jane's desperation that his son is OK. This part of the story is great, and a good example of a post-apocalyptic novel.
However... without spoiling things, the second half of the book gets a bit silly in my opinion. There is a fairly drastic change of pace and the story becomes more of a horror story. This would be fine in itself, but the two halves of the story don't really hang together.
On top of that, I really didn't understand the ending. The last few pages felt like the author was late for something and just scribbled down the ending quickly, with little care, which I'm sure wasn't the case. I'm sure he understood what was going on, but I felt a bit let down.
In summary, not a bad book. There is a conclusion of a sort, but don't expect an amazing ending.
October 4, 2023
It starts out as apocalyptic survival, and descends into something far more surreal. It kept impressing me with each turn of the story. I had multiple "Wait, really? Woah!" moments, which I don't often get from post-apocalyptic stories. Too many others in this genre are too predictable, but this story keeps it fresh with the way the story churns on, particularly as the monsters are introduced.
I really appreciated the surrealism of the 2nd part of the story. I felt it expanded how the main character was... not so much growing more insane, but that the reality he lived in was becoming more unrecognizable the further into the apocalypse he survived.
The "skinner" monsters (or are they aliens? or demons?) in this book are a mystery to be solved by the reader, and were what kept me glued through the second part of the novel. Personally I think they are similar to the Cenobites from Hellraiser — paranormal monsters that are drawn to Earth. Skinners are drawn by the extreme emotion of despair caused by those who survived the cosmic solar flare. They feed off of despair, which is why they seek out and devour newborn babies, not for their nutrients, but for the emotion that it causes in the living mothers.
There's also that other, six-fingered mutant. That one is even more puzzling, and I don't recall as much to make claims about them. If I ever give One a second read, I will be surely on the lookout for more details about them.
I really appreciated the surrealism of the 2nd part of the story. I felt it expanded how the main character was... not so much growing more insane, but that the reality he lived in was becoming more unrecognizable the further into the apocalypse he survived.
The "skinner" monsters (or are they aliens? or demons?) in this book are a mystery to be solved by the reader, and were what kept me glued through the second part of the novel. Personally I think they are similar to the Cenobites from Hellraiser — paranormal monsters that are drawn to Earth. Skinners are drawn by the extreme emotion of despair caused by those who survived the cosmic solar flare. They feed off of despair, which is why they seek out and devour newborn babies, not for their nutrients, but for the emotion that it causes in the living mothers.
There's also that other, six-fingered mutant. That one is even more puzzling, and I don't recall as much to make claims about them. If I ever give One a second read, I will be surely on the lookout for more details about them.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 19, 2010
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 main strength is Williams' incredibly precise and evocative prose. As Richard Jane makes his journey through a devastated Britain, Williams manages to describe umpteen dead bodies in new and viscerally exact ways - never resorting to cliche and managing to bring something new to the table with each description. That really is no mean feat, and thrusts the reader into believing a (normally) quite unbelievable situation. In the second half of the book, society's breakdown/survival feels genuine and not forced, with the Skinners a natural product of the Event. Unlike a lot of horror, "One" doesn't end up parodying itself and whilst taking familiar ground as a concept manages to be original in it's execution. A truly involving story with a bittersweet ending, this is what all good horror boils down to: the unexplainable and the inescapable.
The main strength is Williams' incredibly precise and evocative prose. As Richard Jane makes his journey through a devastated Britain, Williams manages to describe umpteen dead bodies in new and viscerally exact ways - never resorting to cliche and managing to bring something new to the table with each description. That really is no mean feat, and thrusts the reader into believing a (normally) quite unbelievable situation. In the second half of the book, society's breakdown/survival feels genuine and not forced, with the Skinners a natural product of the Event. Unlike a lot of horror, "One" doesn't end up parodying itself and whilst taking familiar ground as a concept manages to be original in it's execution. A truly involving story with a bittersweet ending, this is what all good horror boils down to: the unexplainable and the inescapable.
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