Conrad Williams (1) (1969–)

Exceptionally well written capturing the claustrophobia of urban decay - similar to Joel Lane and a bit of Adam Nevill - with characters full of human traits developed even in such short affairs. Trouble is the stories for me, are either too ambiguous or don't seem to go anywhere.
A couple of the unpleasant endings though have stayed with me.

An Oil rig worker who's underwater comes up and realizes that an apocalyptic even has happened. Throughout much of the book (half or more?) you're not clued in on what wenton (nuclear war?). The second half of the book you suddenly find out--and the story quickly changes directions/tone. While I still liked the second 1/2 of the book--- I liked the first part (the main character's journey through a dessimated countryside) a lot better. Still... the second part of the book is very engaging show more and a page turner as you want to learn the fate of the main characters. Very enjoyable read despite the twist/radical change in direction in the middle. show less

An ugly train wreck of a book, riddled with non sequiturs and gratuitous weirdness that does nothing to help the plot, making me unsure if it was horror or fantasy. Mixing the two would be fine, but he doesn’t do the heavy lifting in setting up the perceived mysticism so that the reader can accept it. There are rules even describing a post apocalyptic world. In fact, after about a hundred pages I remember thinking, ‘If this turns out to be a bad dream on the part of the protagonist, show more it’s going into my collection of Books I Hated.’

Most bad books, and this is a bad book because it was delivered to the bookstores before it was really done, don’t have any gushing blurbs from periodicals or even ‘zines on their covers. Usually they have ‘author of’ reviews- fulsome accolades given by other writers to one of their own. This book had neither, but it was covered-front, back and the first inside pages- with praise for the author’s first book, ‘The Unblemished.’ I think that, based on the success of the earlier book, One was rushed to print before it got the editing and rewrites it needed to make it more effortlessly entertaining. Williams writes well, but the story needs major tweeking.

One more thing, the obsessive search of the protagonist, Richard Jane, for his son, as well as the descriptions of the of physical closeness between the two and the wedge their love for each other drove into his marriage is a little…eepycray.

One deserves three stars, but I’m giving it two because it pissed me off. show less

"One" by Conrad Williams has a post-apocalyptic (due to gamma ray bursts) England as its backdrop. It is the story of a father (our protagonist, Richard Jane) who has survived the cataclysm in the opening chapter for being 600 feet deep in the ocean, a diver repairing pipes on an offshore oil platform. The opening chapter is brilliantly written. While I was reading it, I wondered why I haven't heard about this book being one of the best of the decade in the sub-genre alongside "The Road" by show more Cormac McCarthy, "Oryx & Crake" by Margaret Atwood amongst others. But as I read further, it dawned on me that the reason behind it was that the first few chapters were the only upside of the book.

We follow Richard Jane who is on the quest to find and reunite with his son Stanley, in London, who Richard hoped against hope might have somehow survived the catastrophe. The book is mainly divided into two parts. The second part is 10 years further into the future than the first one and the most unbearable in my opinion. And Richard having frequent hallucinations (more frequently in the second part)about his son doesn't help much. Oh, and there is a tiger, in London, on the streets.

On the upside, the writing is very good although it might cure insomnia because of the lack of plot especially after the first part. And yeah, the book cover looks good too.

2.5 stars. show less