Boekverslag : James Herbert - The Fog
De taal ervan is Nederlands en het aantal woorden bedraagt 663 woorden.
De taal ervan is Nederlands en het aantal woorden bedraagt 663 woorden.
Samenvatting
1. Title Explanation
The title is a reference to the phenomenon that causes the mayhem and is the subject of the book
2. Genre
It is a science-fiction/horror story, but science fiction only in the way of technological evolution. It takes place in this time. It also has a psychological tinge, wich you feel when the characters are described.
3. Theme
The theme is, I think, human society. Because there are a lot of indications towards habits or things we do in normal life (or things we would do in a disastrous situation), with which the author does not agree
4. Setting
The story takes place (as said) in this time, and tells itself in Great-Britain, and finishes in London.
5. Characters
The main character is John Holman, the man who is Britain’s best hope (in the story). Other main characters are Casey, his girlfriend, Professor Ryker, one of the scientists who examine the fog, and detective inspector Barrow, who acts as Holman’s personal bodyguard, before he gets affected with the fog.
6. Events
Due to an unrealistic earthquake that takes place in a village in the area of Winchester, a strange kind of fog is released to find it’s path to the surface. Later it will be found that the fog isn’t a freak of nature, but a man-made disease, buried away because it was to dangerous to use. The fog appears to have a devastating effect to living creatures, it drives them insane. The effects of the fog aren’t accepted though, until a exercise room of a local school burns down, and the bodies appear to be covered with mutilations apparently inflicted by other schoolboys. This shocks the country, but the fear really hits Britain when half of the Bournemouth population commits massive suicide, by throwing themselves in the sea.
John Holman comes in contact with the fog when it just burst into the sky after the earthquake. Also he becomes insane, but can be rescued by a bloodtransfusion before the mutated cells of the fog start destroying the healthy braincells. At that time, now-one knew off course what the effects of the fog were, but Holman’s transfusion made him the most important figure in Britain, cause he’s the only one immune to the fog’s effects.
The pandemonium reaches it’s climax when the killer fog reaches London, and the city turns into a madhouse. Now it is up to John to get to the core (nucleus) of the fog, so that a sample can be taken and a cure can be found, and after that to destroy the nucleus, and hopefully save the London population.
7. Point of view
The story is told by an all-knowing storyteller, who describes a variety of persons and their experiences with the fog, with which effects it has upon them.
8. The End
Holman, Ryker (already affected by the fog) and an explosives’ expert ( a soldier) try to trap the nucleus in an old London tunnel, and after taking a sample, they decide, after Holman’s idea, to seal the tunnel’s entrances and to trap the nucleus inside. Though the entrances are sealed by tons of rock coming down after exploding these entrances, nevertheless the nucleus escapes! It heads for a gasfactory wich contains carbondioxide, a substance the fog needs to survive. Ryker and the captain decide to blow up the factory, causing a major explosion, but also destroying the nucleus with it.
John survives though, and drives back trough the crazy city to his apartment to get Casey before the city is covered with sleeping gas, preventing the inhabitants of hurting each other more before a cure can be found.
At his home he finds Casey, but also an uninvited visitor, namely Barrow, completely out of his senses, with the only intention of killing the two. After an exhausting fight, John succeeds in killing Barrow, and he and Casey wait for the planes with sleepinggas.
9. Own opinion.
I liked the book a lot. It is exciting, fascinating, and has a bizarre theme. Nevertheless the small hints the author gives towards our own society are easy to understand, and should be taken seriously.
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