One of the oldest tropes in science fiction is the alien invasion, with the great granddaddy of this type of tale being of course War of the Worlds by HG Wells, first published as a serial in Pearson's Magazine back in 1897. Since then the earth has been attacked by strange beings from the great beyond countless times, with hostile invasions spearheaded by legions of flying saucers, and a seemingly never-ending menagerie of alien lifeforms attempting to take over the earth by various means. These alien invasions have given us a great many fantastic tales in movies, comics, and on TV, with the likes of Independence Day, V, and Doctor Who delivering famous stories of less than friendly extra-terrestrials coming to call.
However no alien invasion yarn has ever quite captured a key element that Wells conjured up in his seminal tale - the dread and terror that comes as enigmatic invaders seemingly wipe out our civilisation in one fell swoop. And I don't think we have had an alien invasion epic that has ever quite captured the same shock and awe of War of the Worlds...That is until now, and Adam LG Nevill’s new novel All the Fiends of Hell which brings home again just how utterly terrifying an alien attack would be. And while a story about our little blue planet being pummelled by strange invaders might seem something of a new direction for one of the best horror writers working today, make no mistake, he’s not left the genre for science fiction. For this is a uniquely terrifying novel, and by the time you finish it you won't just be watching the skies but be casting wary glances over your shoulder whenever a slight unexpected sound breaks a silence. Let me explain why…
Firstly we have the wonderfully unsettling cover from the great Sam Araya, whose art has graced the last half dozen books from Nevill under his own Ritual Limited imprint. And once again Sam has knocked it out of the park with a truly eye-catching image as it is as beautiful as it is horrible, and as subtle as it is brutal - indeed a perfect match for the novel inside. And as with all his art for various Nevill books, it’s only when you have immersed yourself in the horrors within that you realise what a perfect cover image it is, crystallising the vibe of the book into an eyeball-searing image.
So what of the story itself? Well, this is not your usual tale of alien invaders, and All the Fiends of Hell is much stronger for it. In previous works, we have seen how Nevill can take what seems like a well-worn trope such as getting lost in the woods, or tangling with a sinister cult, and weave imaginative and striking stories from what many would have considered tired and thread-bare concepts. And with this novel we have what is probably his boldest and most far-reaching treatment of a very familiar type of tale.
Now an alien invasion has been such a staple of popular culture for so long it has become somewhat cosy. We know how this type of story is supposed to go, the earth is over-run by an otherworld menace, a brave few strike back, and as quickly as it started the invaders are vanquished often by something unexpectedly simple and mundane, and normalcy restored in swift order. In other words, endless riffs on Wells’s Martian invasion, with humble earthly bacteria being replaced with by everything from water to car headlamps to even yodelling cowboys records. However you can expect no such familiar plot twists or story beats in All the Fiends of Hell which brings us perhaps the most original vision of an alien invasion in decades.
In this story there is none of the usual comfortable narrative furniture. No alien warlords pontificating on starship battle bridges, no fleets of sleek saucers lighting up the sky with lasers. Nor do the aliens have some outré plan involving clones, robots or meteorites. And as for the home team, there’s no smart scientist who figures out a convenient weakness, no square jawed hero ready to punch out any passing aliens, and there’s certainly no rousing speeches in bunkers. Instead we have something far more realistic, and indeed, an invasion that is truly and unsettlingly alien.
Our lead character is Karl, an ordinary middle aged man with real-life worries aplenty. He’s not the usual lead for this kind of story - that is to say, he’s not a scientist, nor a roving reporter, or even an ex-military fellow with a special set of skills. He's just a completely average guy, and that’s the first indication that there are no guard rails on this particular wild ride. Indeed, at the novel’s beginning, we find Karl is racked in the throes of a flu-induced fever. In his delirium, he dreams of bells ringing, red lights, and gravity seemingly reversing, with people tumbling into a crimson sky dominated by vast black shapes. When the fever breaks and he returns to ordinary consciousness he discovers a strangely silent world.
It seems like everyone is gone, vanished. The TV and radio channels are empty of broadcasts. There’s no sound of traffic. No birdsong even. It is a brilliant eerie situation, and the perfect foundation for further uncanny revelations. We will discover that there are some survivors, others who lived through what the characters term the night of the bells. But the world is now home to other things too, dubbed simply ‘the Horrors’, which are stalking through the now silent world, hunting down and brutally executing the few who have survived…
Now that is all the plot I am willing to reveal without risking unleashing spoilers, but suffice to say, All the Fiends of Hell is a compelling and very disturbing journey that you will accompany Karl on. In this tale, Nevill has brought back the terror to the concept of an alien invasion, the shock and dread at discovering that your world has been ended pretty much overnight by forces far beyond our understanding. As the novel progresses, Karl begins to pick together what has happened and learns something of the sinister and strange nature of the invaders. However there are no easy answers to discover, for this global assault upon the earth is by entities that are completely enigmatic, commanding technologies that seemingly can alter the laws of physics themselves, and are acting on utterly alien motives. Have they come from the stars or elsewhere? Is this an attack, or a hunt? A harvest, a sacrifice?
While it is perhaps something of a cliché that the most frightening thing is actually the unknown itself, it is very true that in a situation where things are not clear, the human mind excels in imagining increasingly disturbing possibilities. And Nevill adeptly harnesses this quirk of our minds to chilling effect - riding alongside Karl, being privy to his innermost thoughts and feelings, this apocalyptic invasion becomes a descent into a hell of uncertainty. Indeed part of the terror of the novel is not just seeing a devastated world, but trying, alongside Karl, to comprehend what has actually happened, to process the magnitude of what has befallen, and has now benighted, the earth.
Now much like alien invasions, a destroyed earth if often now somewhat cosy and familiar concept - cities being razed to the ground is the stuff of cinematic spectacle, an accompaniment for popcorn, and ever since George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, many of us have playfully put together our survival plans for an end of the world scenario.
However one of Adam Nevill’s great gifts as a writer is being able to think into the corners of a situation, finding a believable reality in common tropes, and giving the fantastic and the uncanny a genuine weight. He is a master at capturing a credible human response to such fantastical situations. Hence in All the Fiends of Hell, we do not just get to see a world emptied overnight, but through Karl, we get to feel it. We struggle with him as he attempts to comprehend the fact that everyone he has never known has probably vanished, swallowed up by a blood red sky, that human civilization is effectively over, and he is now staggering through the very end of the world.
And so, while Nevill’s vision of a devastated world haunted by shell shocked survivors and stalking horrors has all the infernal intensity of those paintings of the End Times by the old masters - for example Bruegel's The Triumph of Death - it’s the emotional impact on Karl, and by extension on the reader, that is truly bone chilling. For it’s not long before the novel makes you realise that in this situation, most of us would be utterly unable to cope; that the weight of the shock is more than most of us could bear, and our plans to hole up in the local mall seem trite and childish in the face of the strange intruders who are exterminating survivors with the cruel brutality of mediaeval demons. This novel doesn't just bring a vision of the end of days but makes you realise what living through such an apocalyptic event would be like, what it would mean to you personally. This isn’t just a book you read, it’s one you try to survive.
There are of course some bright points of light, little flickers of touching humanity, like candles in the darkness. However these moments, echoes of a now vanished normal sunlit world, only serve to expertly contrast the rising tide of darkness threatening to overwhelm the last of humanity hiding out in the emptied world. But as harrowing as this voyage into the end of humanity is, it is most definitely a journey worth taking. While there is eerie dread, creeping terror and visceral horror, there is also a huge imagination at work here that you cannot help but admire. This is an invasion story like no other, an unpreceded apocalypse, where the world falls to foes that are as mysterious and intriguing as they are horrific.
Furthermore this novel offers what might be termed the comfort of nightmares - for on finishing this often gruelling and unsettling tale one has the same reassuring relief that one has when awakening from a terrible dream, a glad realisation that the horrors have been unhappened, and the world is unfractured again. And after journeying into the haunting and disturbing end of days conjured by All the Fiends of Hell, one cannot help but be thankful for, and indeed freshly appreciate, our flawed but still intact world.
For fans, this book marks another glorious novel from Adam Nevill, exploring yet more new narrative territory. And while it is something of a baptism by fire, it's also a perfect jumping-on point for new readers too. Although be warned, you may not come back from this literary journey quite the same... But is a voyage that you will never forget!
All the Fiends of Hell is out now in paperback, audiobook and ebook. Signed copies available at the Ritual Limited webstore and there will be a hardback edition coming later in the year.
Plus you can get a free ebook of selected writings Cries from the Crypt here
Sam Araya’s art can be found here - https://www.arayaart.com/
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