The Survivor cover art

The Survivor

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Survivor

By: James Herbert
Narrated by: Robert Powell
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

The living dead. It had been one of the worst crashes in airline history, killing over 300 people and leaving only one survivor. Now the dead were buried and the town of Eton tried to forget. But one man could not rest. Keller had walked from the flames of the wreck, driven on by unseen forces, seeking the answer to his own survival. Until the town was forced to face the shocking, dreadful truth about what was buried in the old graveyard. And a truth Keller did not want to believe.

James Herbert was one of Britain’s greatest popular novelists and our #1 best-selling writer of chiller fiction. Widely imitated and hugely influential, he wrote 23 novels which have collectively sold over 54 million copies worldwide and been translated into 34 languages. Born in London in the forties, James Herbert was art director of an advertising agency before turning to writing fiction in 1975.

His first novel, The Rats, was an instant best-seller and is now recognised as a classic of popular contemporary fiction. Herbert went on to publish a new top ten best-seller every year until 1988. He wrote six more bestselling novels in the 1990s and three more since: Once, Nobody True and The Secret of Crickley Hall. Herbert died in March 2013 at the age of 69.

©1976 James Herbert (P)2013 Audible Ltd
Fantasy Fiction Survival Scary

Editor reviews

The Survivor begins with a bang and never lets up. In his morbid Mancunian drawl, decorated actor Robert Powell (The Italian Job, Jesus of Nazareth) delivers this chilling tale, following pilot David Keller as he emerges the lone survivor from a gruesome airplane wreck that claims over 300 passengers. As the townspeople of Eton grapple with the unthinkable tragedy, Keller begins to experience horrific visions, leading him to wonder what unfathomable forces want him alive. Master of the macabre James Herbert transports listeners to an eerily quiet English hamlet as he doles out old-world religion and supernatural specters - hallmarks of the "British Stephen King", to be sure. Powell hosts the proceedings in his lilting, melodious death whisper, as haunting and ominous as Herbert’s ghosts.

Critic reviews

"Herbert was by no means literary, but his work had a raw urgency. His best novels, The Rats and The Fog, had the effect of Mike Tyson in his championship days: no finesse, all crude power. Those books were best sellers because many readers (including me) were too horrified to put them down." (Stephen King)
"There are few things I would like to do less than lie under a cloudy night sky while someone read aloud the more vivid passages of Moon. In the thriller genre, do recommendations come any higher?" (Andrew Postman, The New York Times Book Review)
"Herbert goes out in a blaze of glory" ( Daily Mail)
All stars
Most relevant
Really enjoyed this story by James Herbert. Spooked myself so much at the start I was seeing all sorts of things in the fog by torchlight. Not the most sensible story (even if it isn’t The Fog) to listen to while on your own at the stable yard at 2am! Much less scary in the warmth of the (locked) house with the lights on LOL. It might not be the best story he’s ever written, but it’s enjoyable.

Don’t listen in the fog at 2am while on your own at the stable yard...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I read this book so many years ago and it was a great
Listen
First class reading by Robert Powell

Great

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

love James herbert have done since I was in my teens great story couldn't stop listening didn't want the book to end love the story telling rob read a good story enjoyed as always

great story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Only just Discovered James Herbert can’t believe it’s taken this long to find such a great storyteller so enjoying these books

Great story telling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Enjoyed it. Herbert books are a mixed bag so you can never be sure. But on this one, you can hear all the swallowing and mouth noises of the narrator, which is off-putting.
Random, but the pronunciation of ‘fingers’ is also weird and sticks out. Most people say it ‘fing-gers’. This narrator says ‘fing-ers’ and I couldn’t stop noticing it!

This recording needs more editing or redoing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews