Karl is your everyman, his life hasn’t amounted to much and his wife has left him to his own devices. Even worse at the start of the novel Karl is recovering from a bout of a particularly bad flu. As it turns out Karl is lucky to have been bed ridden, as pretty much most of humanity has been vacuumed up by an alien presence and humanity is teetering on the brink of extermination. Karl investigates, finds a general lack of people, but does discover a couple of kids. He also finds that monsters are lurking in the deserted landscape, monsters that attack, mutilate, and kill any life forms they discover. From another survivor Karl learns that safety can be found on the water, so the disparate group head south for the coast. Why are they headed south, the whole environment is changing with the sky turning red, and the redder it gets the stronger the monsters get. Karl will discover that the aliens aren’t the only monsters he is called to deal with, can he save his new wards and can he find safety from the alien and human menace.

Author Nevill enters the realm of science fiction with this novel, though to be honest he hasn’t ventured that far beyond the borders of horror. I guess if I had to draw parallels, and hell why not, I would compare fiends of hell to War of the Worlds, The Day of the Triffids, and The Mist. Yes, we are talking annihilation, yes we are talking the everyman character who rises to the occasion, and yes we are talking about nothing being explained. Why is there and Alien invasion of Earth, what do the Aliens hope to achieve, (besides the annihilation of all life on the planet), and yes the environment is being changed to suit Alien sensibilities. Which is just to say we are talking apocalyptic novel here.

Like most decent horror Authors, and Nevill is one of the best, the writer takes his time to introduce the chaos. Karl, don’t think the character is ever given a surname, has to spend time discovering what has happened. He explores his immediate vicinity discovering everyone has gone, leaving their front doors open. In a very British sensibility Karl initially has misgivings about entering other people’s homes without an invitation. He does discover an older woman however, who is suffering and bedridden. Karl deduces that those left alive were unable to leave their houses during the “red night of bells”, he was bedridden himself with a bad does of the flu; I’m guessing man flu there, but it’s not stated. Anyways Nevill establishes why his lead character survived, before expanding the world viewpoint and introducing Hell’s denizens.

Once Karl is out and about in his town, exploring further from home and still having a faint hope that others have survived, Nevill introduces his alien monsters without going full throttle with the critters. We don’t see the monsters, more on this later, they announce their presence by shattering glass, movement in grass, corner of your eye thing. We do know they are not friendly, to put it mildly, and Karl is clever enough to get out of Dodge rather than doing the normal hero thing of fighting back or spending time trying to define the clear and present dangers. Nevill shows the road to survival for your common man, or women, is to flee the danger rather than taking action against something you are ill equipped to deal with. Outstanding, loved the approach, if this had been a U.S novel the square jawed hero would have taken down an unexplained danger with a pen knife or his fists or whatever. Realism in your horror novel, it’s going to drag the reader into the narrative.

As the novel progresses the red sky expands, almost as if its chasing the survivors. In a few encounters, Karl is under the red sky and learns that the creatures become visible and are far more powerful, worse they are hunting down the survivors of that certain night. We get some extreme sequences where old folks at a home and the patients at a hospital get slaughtered, as Karl is powerless to stop anything. Nevill showing he can get down in the horror trenches with the best of them. We also learn the monsters Karl has been avoiding thus far, aren’t the only creatures romping about, with a much bigger critter encountered toward the end of the novel.

I wanted to mention one part of the novel that caught me by surprise. Karl has learnt the monsters aren’t his only worry, with one of the survivors shooting him, bashing one of the kids, and kidnapping the girl Karl has begun to feel paternal feelings for. I must admit I was worried about where this might be headed, the writer certainly isn’t dispelling everyone’s worse conclusions, but moving along I was appreciating the effort being put in to set me up for what pretty much amounts to a climactic scene. Karl catches up to his human nemesis and a fight erupts which Shaun Hutson would have been proud to include in one of his novels.  We’re talking a pretty brutal battle, with no quarter being given by either side; talk about perhaps the greatest use of a BBQ outside a cannibal epic in a horror novel. Yes, Adam L. G. Nevill surprised me, and I got to say that isn’t a bad thing, holy cow am not going to take any Nevill novel lightly from here on in, the author can use and abuse the reader, outstanding fiction writing!

To the writing style then, and much to your relief we’ll then round out. Nevill isn’t being overcome with the action, the author always takes a measured approach, letting the reader into his character’s thoughts and feelings, allowing the mystery to build, and getting things pretty disparate. Some people might find this approach slow moving, but I’ve already compared Nevill’s style to James Herbert, the author is as always very British and writes what can only be describe as quality fiction. Yes, I found my first Nevill novel hard to get into, but am now excited every time new Nevill lands in my review queue. Can’t wait to read some of his short fiction, I reckon Nevill will be up there with the likes of Shirley Jackson, see The Lottery for how good I thing Nevill will be in the shorten form. So, and major digression here, if after a quality horror read then Nevill has you covered. 

I’m starting to think Nevill cannot write a bad novel, each book I pick up and read delivers something completely new and well written. fiends of hell see’s the writer venture into the realm of science fiction and apocalyptic fiction to excellent effect. In a long history of unexplainable alien invasion Nevill is having a lot of fun, delivering an everyman hero who rises to the occasion, and discovers that ultimately the alien menace isn’t the only danger facing the human race on the verge of annihilation. As Ripley would say, “you don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage”. Clearly a full recommendation, Nevill is must read horror fiction, and this is one of his best novels. Get ready to have your expectations blown away, Nevill will surprise even his hard core fans with this outing.