’48

From Wikipedia '48 is a 1996 alternate history horror novel by British horror author James Herbert. The book follows an American pilot stranded in a dystopian London after Hitler, moments before being completely defeated, uses a biological weapon in the shape of V2 missiles, that wipes out the human race with the Blood Death - aside from those who suffer the Slow Death and those with AB blood type. The story is written in first person from the viewpoint of the American pilot, Hoke, and tends to ramble in his thoughts which sometimes leads us to question his sanity - even he suggests several times that he may not 'have all his marbles'. Read more - Shopping-Enabled Wikipedia on Amazon В В В В В В In the article: Plot summary | The Disease | Characters From Kirkus Reviews Mad Max meets dystopian London bloodsuckers three years after the Allies lose WW II, in a what-if tale by the author of (among 18 others) the much richer, or at least completely different, Portent (1996). Hitler hits London with his V1 rockets but still finds himself losing the war. So he fires off V2 rockets, which hold a deadly virus that freezes human blood and causes fast death, although some rare victims die more slowly. Only that three percent of the population with AB negative blood survive the virus--so that gangs of slowly dying Blackshirts roam the city looking for AB-negs whose blood they hope to exchange for their own. One of those fighting the Blackshirts as they pursue him is Hoke, an American once with the RAF who now holes up in a vacated luxury hotel, the Savoy. Hoke has been cleaning the streets around the Savoy of dead bodies and hauling them to a stadium where he expects someday to have a mass cremation, his little gift to mankind. Meantime, he races about on his Matchless 350 motorcycle, locked into anger against the Germans because the virus killed his wife and child, while the Blackshirts are Nazi sympathizers sprung from England's worst prewar racists. So when an AB-neg German pilot and two women save Hoke from an attack by Blackshirts at the National Gallery, Hoke leads them to safety through Tube lines filled with dried corpses and houses them in his well-stocked digs at the Savoy. Eventually, the Blackshirts are led to the group by one of the women, an upper-class Nazi sympathizer, and once more the chase is on. All praise to Herbert for his haunting vision of Ghost City, the hotels and subways and buses filled with the long-dead and dried-out. But the plot goes forward like a tiresome movie crunchfest, action scene upon action scene, boom upon boom. -- Copyright В©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. As millions of readers around the world will testify, James Herbert's ability to shock and enthral is matchless. Now, in '48, he has surpassed his own remarkable achievements to create an electrifying new novel of pure heart-stopping action and invention that will take readers to new levels of terror and excitement. In 1945, Hitler unleashes the Blood Death on Britain as his final act of vengeance. Hoke, an American pilot and one of a tiny minority with a rare blood group unaffected by the deadly disease, has survived alone among the debris and the dead of London for three years. Now, in 1948, a slow-dying group of Fascist Blackshirts believe their only hope is a transfusion of blood from one of Hoke's kind. Ever more desperate as their deaths approach, they're after his blood. From the author of Haunted, The Ghosts of Sleath and Ash, comes an electrifying action-thriller that will take readers to new levels of terror and excitement. In 1945, Hitler unleashes the Blood Death on Britain as his final act of vengeance. Those who died at once were the lucky ones. The really unfortunate took years. The survivors; people like me who had the blood group that kept us safe from the disease were now targets for those who believed our blood could save them. I survived for three years. I lived alone, spending my days avoiding the fascist Blackshirts who wanted my blood for their dying leader. Then I met the others - and life got complicated all over again .. Herbert's latest horror story is full of heart stopping action and will not fail to enthral the reader. He is one of the world's bestselling horror authors and is still a favourite after 20 years of writing