Tim Lebbon's The Silence (movie tie-in edition) was published by Titan Books in March 2019.
Tim Lebbon (born 1969) is a horror and dark fantasy writer, and a judge at the 2005 World Fantasy Convention.
Tim Lebbon was born in London. His short story "Reconstructing Amy" won the Bram Stoker Award for Short Fiction in 2001 and his novel Dusk won the 2007 August Derleth Award from the British Fantasy Society for best novel of the year. His novelisation of the movie 30 Days of Night became a New York Times bestseller and won a Scribe Award in 2008. Tim lived in Devon until he was eight and then in Newport until the age of 26. He now lives in Goytre, Monmouthshire with his wife and two children.
by Tim Lebbon
In the darkness of a underground cave, blind creatures hunt by sound. Then there is light, voices, and they feed... Swarming from their prison, the creatures thrive; to whisper is to summon death. As the hordes lay waste to Europe, a girl watches to see if they will cross the sea. Deaf for years, she knows how to live in silence; now, it is her family's only chance of survival. To leave their home, to shun others. But what kind of world will be left?
REVIEW: THE SILENCE BY TIM LEBBON
This new edition of Tim Lebbon's The Silence is a feast of terror for readers who love suspenseful horror stories and deep characterisation. It presents readers with an epic and chilling end-of-the-world scenario that is brilliantly different and fascinatingly original.
Tim Lebbon's The Silence is one of the most compelling modern horror novels of recent years. It's a strikingly terrifying glimpse into a world that changes drastically due to an emergence of blind predatory creatures that hunt by sound and feed on people. It's a dark, brutal, intimate and horrifying apocalyptic tale that will cling to your mind.
One of the best things about The Silence is that it is not merely a horror novel, but also an intense story about family, relationships and survival. One might easily think that this novel is just another monster feature, but it is not. What makes the story so powerful and memorable a reading experience is the author's ability to immerse the reader into the lives of his characters. The characters are realistic persons who have to face a terrifying threat and learn to adapt to a new world.
The Silence tells of Huw, Kelly, their children (Ally and Jude) and Kelly's mother (Lynne) and their attempts to survive in a world where making a sound will get you instantly killed. The author chronicles the family's desperate struggle to survive in an intimate and gut-wrenching way. I was positively surprised by how captivatingly and intimately the author wrote about the family and their attempts to get to safety and to survive in a hostile world, because he effortlessly describes what kind of hardships they face and how they feel about the happenings. The author fleshes out the characters' problems and their insecurities in a wholly believable way.
The characterisation works perfectly. Everybody who reads this novel can't help but be impressed by how solid and real the characters feel, especially Ally, who is deaf. Ally is an interesting person who has been deaf since a fatal car accident and has learned to live in a world without sound. She is a realistic, flawed and fascinating character who acts like a real human being.
The author's strong way of writing about things from Ally's point of view is something that deeply impresses me. These parts of the story are excellent, because the author shows the reader what it means to be deaf and what the world is like when you can't hear anything. The author lends credibility to Ally's voice by writing about what has happened to her and how she has coped with her disability since the accident.
This novel introduces readers to a new breed of flying creatures - vesps - that are blind and hunt by sound. These deadly creatures were discovered in Moldova in a cave system that was cut off from the outside world for over five million years. They're vicious and voracious eaters that reproduce quickly. There's something about them that reminds me of bats and pterodactyls, because they use sound to hunt their prey and have leathery wings.
The author's way of writing about how fast the creatures spread around the world and how much death and devastation they cause is creepy and effective, because he tells of how cities fall to the creatures and how people are affected by the news. The news broadcasts and social media snippets enhance the threatening atmosphere.
One of the main reasons why I find this novel compelling is the author's way of tackling with deep and thoughtful themes (there's quite a lot of depth and emotion beneath the dark and grisly story). One of the themes explored in this novel is what kind of a world be left if the vesps can somehow be killed, because they've had a negative impact on nature and wildlife. The author also explores how people react to the creatures and what kind of desperate things they do, because the human psyche is put to test in terrifying situations.
I enjoyed the author's writing style and was pleased with his prose, because it has a literary feel to it. The story is immersive and exciting, and the ending is atmospheric, because the author has chosen to write a different kind of an ending that is not your normal kind of a neat and tidy ending where everything is resolved.
Before I write the final words of this review, I'll have to mention this: Please, don't make the mistake of comparing Tim Lebbon's The Silence to the recent film called A Quiet Place (2018). There are similarities between them, but they're different from each other. The Silence was originally published in 2015 and is a wholly original and fresh story that has absolutely nothing to do with A Quiet Place. A Netflix film version (starring Kiernan Shipka and Stanley Tucci) based on this novel was released in April 2019.
Tim Lebbon's The Silence is one of the finest apocalyptic horror novels I've ever encountered. I can highly recommend it to readers who love good characterisation and intense survival stories, because the author's vision of the end of the world is intimate and memorable. If you love apocalyptic horror novels, you can't afford to miss this one.
Excellent and utterly captivating horror fiction!