"Portent" by James Herbert

I discovered James Herbert completely by accident,in ship's library - his "Nobody true" was actually genuinely interesting,original and enjoyable thriller told from a point of view of murder victim who is watching everything from above,unable to actually react or help anybody. Than I did some research and found that Herbert is actually very famous in UK and sort of local Stephen King,I read several of other novels by him but nothing left deep impression on me like the very first one.

Now again - Deja vu - ship's library and James Herbert,perhaps he is perfect vacation read,who knows.

This time around I gulped his book but it was more in frustration than in real excitement as I waited the whole time for something exciting and in the meantime read weather reports from around the world - Herbert enjoys his little side-stories about this indian dying in earthquake,that chinese dying in tsunami,that australian dying in whatever natural catastrophe - when you look closely,it's all bombastic and real story not so interesting,actually it is a very thin,cartoonish plot focused on mysterious children and people who are protecting them from some evil fat woman. But it drags forever (because we need to go through earthquakes,floods and tsunamis) and at the end of course it's all one big explosion and evil destroyed not unlike some big budget movie hit with special effects bursting from the screen.

Because I read Herbert earlier,I noticed a certain similarities in his work - there is always some kind of disability involved (in this case main character walking with a stick and limping and falling everywhere), there are kids or some other helpless creatures in danger and FAT WOMAN who is usually negative character and described as mythical evil. Just go and check Herbert's other novels, sooner or later it turns the evil comes in disguise of fat woman who is dangerous and needs to be stopped from her evilness.

At this point I have one more Herbert's book lined in front of me and not really looking forward to it - I can imagine cliche after cliche and fat woman wanting to destroy the planet.