Portent (1992 original; edició 2011)

Portent by James Herbert

In the 1990s everyone's greatest concern was for the environment. Including, it would seem, James Herbert.

Geophysicist James Rivers is called in to investigate environmental catastrophes cropping up all over the world. On every occasion, a simple floating orb is witnessed in the vicinity. The authorities codename it Tinkerbell. James joins forces with Hugo Poggs, a discredited scientist who conducted surveys of preceding crises only to be labelled a climate hypochondriac:

"This man's paper on 'soft engineering' - working with nature, rather than against it - had been widely acclaimed both for its sound premise and cost-effectiveness. Later he had predicted the rise in the levels of the planet's oceans because of global warming, listing the countries whose lowlands would be swamped as well as the islands that would disappear altogether."

James meets Hugo's daughter-in-law Diane, adopted mother to two children plucked from a Romanian orphanage. Their strange visions and uncanny ability to share thoughts unsettle James:

'We're sure they're in danger of some kind. You saw what happened last night.'
'A freak wind. It had nothing to do with the children. Any of us could have been hurt by flying glass.'
'The malevolence was directed at them.'

Hugo believes that Mother Earth is stabilising the environment for its own survival, rather than mankind's, because it is aware that humanity is jeopardising the Earth's viability as an ecosystem. Rivers finds this a struggle to accept:

"Maybe it was tiredness, maybe it was the painful throbbing in his leg that had started twenty minutes ago; he only knew that he had to get out of there, away from these people and their Mother Earth nonsense and kids who saw lights thousands of miles away. Enough was enough."

Many of James Herbert's earlier works also posit a threat to mankind that we've generated from our own foolish behaviour. But they are also very specific in nature. In The Rats our foe became larger and more aggressive after receiving heavy doses of radiation during nuclear testing in remote islands. In The Fog, the vapours that escape from storage under the South Downs were created by biological weapons research conducted by the Ministry of Defence. Those dangers are localised and, once contained, we can continue with our lives.

In Portent, by contrast, we face a global danger that, even when the immediate is dealt with, will recur unless we entirely change our way of living on this planet. I'll leave you to decide whether we're unselfish enough to make that happen!

Enjoy! ( )

A living worldwide nightmare is born. Signs are everywhere, extreme powers are about to be unleashed. Something rather dark is about to happen. Is the Earth in its death throes? For those who love Dystopia with a hint of horror. ( )

Wow I was reading this book, when it really happened! Gaia story, living earth, natural disasters all man made, and here we are destroying the ozone changing the weather. As I was reading about floods..I was listening to the news about our floods, listening to storms....spooky!
Of course James Herbert always tells a good tale. ( )

Wow I was reading this book, when it really happened! Gaia story, living earth, natural disasters all man made, and here we are destroying the ozone changing the weather. As I was reading about floods..I was listening to the news about our floods, listening to storms....spooky!
Of course James Herbert always tells a good tale. ( )

Wow I was reading this book, when it really happened! Gaia story, living earth, natural disasters all man made, and here we are destroying the ozone changing the weather. As I was reading about floods..I was listening to the news about our floods, listening to storms....spooky!
Of course James Herbert always tells a good tale. ( )