Domain
By James Herbert
Pan Books, 2000
ISBN 0 330 37623 3

Domain is the third book in a four-book series by James Herbert. The first two, The Rats and Lair, were to do with the creation and then spread of a breed of super rats in London.

In Domain a nuclear exchange devastates London and the book focuses on a group of survivors who battle with the rats, radiation, other survivors and the fears of whether the rest of the world is all gone too.

This whole series of books (well, the first three as I have not yet read the last one) is well written and extremely scary. Domain expands the scare factor by developing the fear that we have all had since the 50’s of global thermonuclear war: of how we might survive and what would happen to our loved ones; with the immediate scare value of the mutant rats. It is a combination that works well. The characters have huge fears not only for their immediate survival but whether surviving is even worthwhile if the whole of England and the world have been similarly destroyed. It is only right at the end of the book that there is any indication of a world that is not totally destroyed.

As an end of the world book, Domain offers a limited, very focused view. Many may dismiss it because of the killer rat angle, but you shouldn’t. The combination of the fears present in this book works well to create real tension, to offset the close, personal fear of something eating you in the dark with the bigger fears examined in the book. It thus becomes a very disturbing book because of these multiple levels.

If you can cope with very scary books, this is definitely one to read.