Title: The only horror here is the bad writing
Review: When you consider how good Herbert can be: Haunted, The Magic Cottage, Moon - this book is a real disappointment. The story begins quite well but starts to drag halfway through, so that by the time you reach the denouement, you are beyond caring. Part of the problem lies with the characterisation, which is wooden and lifeless. The characters are archetypes, never individuals, and so you care neither one way nor the other about them... Herbert's descriptive powers seem to have deserted him. The house of Neath never vividly comes to life. It is like a set on an empty film lot. Yet, the house is central to the story. The horror, despite its gaudiness (which is a lamentable feature of most of Herbert's works), never really horrifies, which for a horror book, is pretty damning. When Herbert writes well, he writes very well: When he writes badly, he writes books like Sepulchre.
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