James Herbert – The Spear
James Herbert’s attempt to write a neo-Nazi based thriller fared the same as the real Nazi’s attempt to create a super solider…it worked successfully…for about six seconds.
I once said that I’d never review a bad book…and as it turns out, I’ve changed my mind. I thought I’d take a different spin on things and examine where I think a writer’s gone wrong. The Spear had a lot of potential; a story dealing with the political game of chess played between international intelligent agencies and the underground world of neo-Nazism could have made a nail biting thriller, yet combine that with the Nazi occultism and the ‘Spear of Destiny’, you have a story bordering on unbelievable. The result could have looked like James Bond meets the fiction of A. Crowley. Instead, the novel looks like Johnny English meets Rent-A-Ghost.
The book revolves around Steadman; an ex-agent for both the Britain and Israeli intelligence forces who retires to Britain and joins a private investigation firm. An old face returns, wanting him to look into an arms dealer and the disappearance of another agent. Although he refuses it, his partner accepts the job but less than a week hours later ends up crucified to Steadman’s door. MI5 force Steadman to work for the Israelis once again in hope of under covering a dangerous neo-Nazi organisation in Britain.
You have some truly creative ideas in this book, from a tank chase to torture with a hairdryer, to the ghost of a Nazi demon. However, you also have a villain who seems to be an Ian Fleming reject, dialogue and an argument that could have been put together by a schoolboy and a writing style that fluctuates between realistic and enjoyable to being as wooden as the desk I’m sitting at. Already you might see one possible cause of death. Did James Hebert bite off more than he could chew?
The plot is very much the soul of a book, if it’s a bad plot it’s usually a bad book. The Spear is very much a mash of genres, horror mixed with political thriller with a dollop of history. It’s a gamble but it’s not a first. What the story suffers from most is a thinning of the blood, or in plain English, weak storytelling.
The first problem is Steadman’s feelings against the Israelis. His argument is flimsy and limited, which left me hating him slightly for his ignorance. The same lack of conviction also appears in the villain, whose reasoning appears self-defeating and self-damning. Steadman’s like a parrot, constantly responding by labelling them mad. You can’t believe that the Nazi’s are Nazi’s or that Steadman was smart enough to be in British Intelligence. Also, the structure and narrative voice felt like the literary version of the shaky camera technique you see in films like the Blair Witch Project. In moments of pace and action there was more emphasis on excitement and panic than what was actually occurring. Of all the plot twists there was only one I could not see coming…but when I read it I couldn’t take it seriously. There were only a few scenes where I really fell into the story, the best of which was in the form of a flashback, but its positioning couldn’t have been more awkward (unless it was stapled over the original page of dialogue that proceeded it). Apart from that, the narratives’ lack of substance meant that I drifted through it – the reading became mechanical.
I do like James Herbert’s work and his writing style, no matter how taboo, but I’d recommend books like The Secret of Crickley Hall, which showcase his developed and skilled writing style. In the case of The Spear, I imagine he could do a better job now than he did back in the 70’s. I didn’t get much of a kick from damning a book but it makes a pleasant change to my usual ‘this is great’ gushing.
Anyway, it’s about time I review something which isn’t of the horror genre, perhaps even, dare I say, ‘literary’. After all, familiarity breeds something or another…
