Not much of a horror tale but rather a dark humor story about the misadventures of a little spawn from hell trying to fulfill his most difficult assignment. John Bolton contributed beatifully painted art for this graphic novel.

Very cleaverly written. Clive mixes the mystery of the Yatterings and Jack's relationship with humor. Excellent Read.

Clive Barker's 'Books of Blood' contain some of the best horror-short-stories ever written. Barker's talent to scare and impress you both with his literary genius is at his best here.

This second book is not as good as the rest, but especially the first one is really good. Still very good horror.

DREAD, one of the best psychological dramas of the 90s. HELL'S RACE, what we are all experiencing, see existentialism for the basis. NEW MURDERS, what Poe might have followed up with if he hadn't had turned rabid.

Having read the first Volume of 'Books of blood' I was eager to find stories as good as 'The Yattering and Jack'. This book provides such stories. Apart from 'Dread' these are all first class. Dread is good, but the subject matter is a bit sadistic for my liking and the plot lacks Barker's usual imagination.

I think that this book is more consistent than the first volume of 'Books of Blood' and fully deserves five stars.

This is possibly the best collection of horror stories I have read.

which is amazing although I think it may be too scary for young children. Mr. Barker claims this to be a children's book and in writing style and characters it is, but much of the language will be beyond even well-read teenagers. I consider myself to have a better than average vocabulary and found several words I had to look up.As a story, this is a fascinating premise. Candy Quackenbush finds her life unsatisfying and is magically transported to an archepeligo where each island represents an hour of the day. Note to parents, there are scenes of emotional and physical abuse depicted in this book which may make it inappropriate reading for children under 12.As a book of pure fantasy, I enjoyed it but found the pace to be a bit uneven. As a first book in the series, I am looking forward to the upcomng books. I think now that the stage is set, our heroes explorations of the islands will become even more enjoyable. I am especially looking forward to finding out Candy's relationship to the 25th hour and the 3 women who begin this novel (I have an idea and I want to see how close I am).If you like Tolkein, I think you will enjoy this book. While Mr. Barker does not reach that grand scale, he has created an enjoyable retreat, peopled with well-drawn characters and lush scenery. And of course, you will not be able to help singing about The Hamster Tree.

I like to read long books so I picked up this book because it looked long. I read this book near Christmas time.

In this book, a girl named Candy goes to a magical world. She meets creatures and makes some friends.

I enjoyed this book because it was long, and had a lot of strange things. There were a lot of characters.

I would recommened this book to everyone.

For someone who's been reading Tolkein lately, and has seen the horrors within "Hellraiser," Abarat was a pleasant twist in literature.
Candy Quakenbush, an unappreciated and abused girl from Boringville, USA (actually, it's Chickentown, Minnesota--same thing), finds herself overcome by an instinct to...well, get away. And she certainly goes where no human of her century has gone before.
I can't explain too much more, because I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S ABOUT. And that's why I love it. You turn each page thinking you'll get SOME clue to the mysteries of Candy and her acquaintances, and while Barker teases you with little tidbits, he doesn't give everything away (which is why I'd be a terrible writer--I'm not that controlled). This leaves you gasping for breath and craving more. WHY did I have to pick up this book right when it came out? Now I'll have to WAIT for the next three...
The artwork (by Barker himself) is wonderful. I think the last time I read an illustrated book was fourth grade, and it was "Encyclopedia Brown." But Barker's vivid colors and detailed portraits (very Van Gogh at times) give you a glimpse into the Abarat--a truly fascinating world.
Check this book out. You won't want to miss it.

I'm a big fan of Mr. Barker's (although sometimes I don't understand his images and dream sequences throughout his novels), and I ate this book up in one week (see the Razor-Eater for the pun). Great characters and a great story that kept you involved from the very beginning - I loved The Last European!!
I can't imagine how this would be turned into a movie - all the gore would have to be excised, but I'll go if it's done faithfully. I'd like to see Mr. Barker return to his horror roots and write something like Damnation Game, but if not...I could always re-read this one in a couple years.

Damnation Game

This is a very nice horror story easily one of the finest horror novels I've ever read. It's not a very easy story to explain to someone I wouldn't recommend it to somebody unless they truly want to read a horrifying story that I would highly recommend to virtually any horror fan. From beginning to end it entertains the characters are very well written and it's just a fun story that just gets better as it goes on.

It has very bizarre moments in it but very cool visuals as well. For instance there is a talking fly in it and woman who doesn't even know she's dead yet! There are other parts that are equally bizarre and horrifying but I don't want to give too much away. I love how the characters deal with the situations I just like how it's written. I can't really say anything bad about it. Because there'' a little bit of everything in it. Excellent story telling, very good characters and very horrifying scenes. This is easily a 5 star book and I recommend it to anybody who loves a good old-fashioned horror story.

Zombie Claus

I bought this book out of my love for great horror novels, based on the Clive Barker I know and love. Having finished Sacrament, I thirsted for a new horror from Barker...I got it. There are so many plot twists and horrific images that I never would have imagined. I couldn't put this book down from the very first chapter and still didn't want to at the end of the last. Barker presents his own "intellectual" horror, as I like to call it, and this book is such a great example of his work, that I heavily recommend it to ANY and ALL horror fans, and some who aren't. If I had to pick one word to describe it...ENCHANTING. Even as the most awful images are presented to you, you can't look away, and have to turn the page.

Sandman, Neil Gaiman's wonderful creation, is the concept that this group of stories is based on. Like any story collection, this one has its hits and misses.
Hits:
"Chain Home, Low" What happened to those affected by Dream's disappearance?
"Each Damp Thing" Barbara Hambly has a good grasp of Gaiman's cast of characters. Set in The Dreaming this one would have made a good comic.
"Seven Nights in Slumberland" Little Nemo? Now Windsor McCay's work makes more sense. I think.
Both Wanda stories. A character that certainly warranted more examination than the comic allowed.
"Endless Sestina" For the sheer nerve of it.
"The Gate of Gold" The flip side of "The Writer's Child," but much more fulfilling. There really are "good" dreams.
"A Bone Dry Place" Dream and Delirium together again.
"The Mender of Broken Dreams" The concept is not new, but it is so well written you won't care.
"Valosag and Elet" There are so few folktales being written anymore. At least good ones.

"Stopp't-Clock Yard" Captures the true essence of Gaiman's creation. This is another one that Gaiman could have written.

Misses:
Desire stories. This character is tedious as all stories end up being variations on the same theme. Especially "The Witch's Heart" it goes on and on....
"The Birth Day" A clever idea but not fully developed.
"Splatter" A little obvious.
"The Writer's Child" Ditto.
"Ain't You 'Most Done?" 32 pages long and I couldn't remember what it was about by the time I finished the book. And it's one of the last stories.
Advertising Clive Barker's participation. It's a frontispiece and it's Death not Dream.
Taking an existing character, whose popularity lies in a graphic medium and using him and his supporting cast as the basis of an anthology is a risky proposition. While this book is not entirely successful, it's definitely worth a read for the Sandman fan.

This is a really very cool book, although you need a fair bit of the Sandman background for it all to make sense - I first read it when I'd only read the 'The Kindly Ones' sequence and some of it went over my head. Then I got the rest and suddenly quite a lot of things became clear...
It loses a star cause there's no actual Gaiman stories (although his comments at the start of each book are nearly as interesting as the stories - 'what Gandalf's rock'n rolling younger brother would look like if he were secretly a pirate' is a truly funky description for anyone).
For me the best are the Barbara Hambly, 'Stopp'd Clock Yard' and the 'Ain't you the most done' stories - the collection does veer pretty wildly between cool, cute 'n funky and seriously weird / sick.... Depends what you like. Like the comics, don't let children read it.

i found this book at an ancient book store somewhere in India.It was lying there in the shelves with dusts and webs.The moment i saw it i have to have it.And since i'm a huge Tori Amos follower,anything with her name is a must!.But i found something else too,and i also loves the Sandman Comics,this book is a lot of things to discover.Written by well known and acclaimed writers in various fields,its a bonus to have this book if you are an avid reader of the Sandman comics.Some of the stories are realy disturbing and dark,some are also enchanting,true to the Sandman style.Its a collectors dream.

I bought sacrament expecting something grand
I didn't get something grand
I'm not sure if I got anything at all.

The book starts very promising. A photographer in the North Pole. Interesting.
Oh he falls into a coma, and flash backs into his childhood. Pretty interesting story.

Ok, I'm wrong. It's not really that interesting. It's incredibly clichéd. Maybe Barker thought if the main character was gay, it would make it original. It doesn't. But hey, it's got nice descriptions, and the characters aren't half bad either. I'll keep on going. Now there are some pretty disturbing scenes in here. But I'd expect that from a horror writer.

Oh, he wakes up from the coma. Now it goes deeply into his personal and love life, which is totally and completely irrelevant to the main story. But hey, if he's gay, you got to put at least a hundred pages of gratuitous romance and sex scenes that does absolutely nothing in the end, don't you?

Now this book keeps building up a huge mystery throughout the first two thirds of the book. That's ok, I actually LIKE that. But what I don't like is when it doesn't really solve anything.

In other words, Sacrament is pretty much the most unfulfilling book I've ever read in my entire life. The problems aren't solved, they just seem to fade into the background. The whole super-natural element is totally unexplainable, and when it starts making a little bit of sense it disappears completely.

I have nothing against having an established horror author getting in touch with his sentimental side (Hell, I actually prefer Stephen King without the gore), but if this is Barker's nice side, then by God man, HIDE IT!

Too much filler(the main character's love life), too much build-up that wraps it up in the most disappointing pages in the history of literature (Domus Mundi and Rukenau do not live up to the hype established in the build-up, not by a long shot).

I have Imajica sitting in my shelf, waiting to be read. I honestly hope that will be better than this.

This is the book that made me a Clive Barker fan. The way it combines fantasy elements (the Nilotic creature as a tangible manifestation of the human desire for spirituality) with social/environmental commentary (AIDS as a metaphor for the continuing extinction of rare species and vice versa) turns a standard "man's perversion of nature" (i.e. Frankenstein!) story into something relevant, poignant and breathe-takingly creative.

Sacrement has all the traditional visceral horror elements (the polar bear attack is the most frightening sequence I've ever read in any book!) to please any horror fan. But it goes a step further than most horror novels to provide the reader with one man's experiences (both mundane and fantastical) that leads him to such a dark, fantastical place.

I finished reading Sacrament for the second time today.It seems that Clive Barker writes not just to tell a story,but to reach further out to touch the invisible fabric of something he senses ever so clearly.Yes,this story has very human characters,and within the cycle of the book they have human experiences.But as a whole,Barker knits them together in such a way as to point again and again to something undefinable,an absolute sense of spirit.It seems that he lives through his characters the same journey,the journey to wholeness,where they become one with this untouchable spirit.For me,the most inspired part of Clive's writing is the constant presence and acknowledgement of this placid spirituality just beyond our fingertips.These emotions that connect to them are supernatural,fitting in seamlessly with the flawless universes Barker creates.I dont mean to not talk about the book:Sacrament is a brilliant novel.But I was so stirred by the beauty of it,the poetry,and most of all the great clarity that Barker has in telling tales of this very real spiritual perimeter,that I forgot to outline the story and characters.No matter-the heart of this book has already been explained.

Clive Barker is one of the more amazing writers that have come out of the 20th century, and into the 21st century. His imagination is dark and fertile, something to be admired even if you dont personally read every one of his novels.

Hellraiser is an intriguing mythos, something darker in a more sexual sense than a mythos say by H. P. Lovecraft or Stephn King. The first movie was a new version of the old haunted house routine. The second one, however, was amazing, a new cosmos of hell. The movies after that were watchable, but I think they did not do justice by excluding the universe of hell itself instead of having Pinhead come around the corner every so often and tearing some poor fool apart.

The stories of the Hellraiser comics were fascinating at first, dont get me wrong. But, but the main problem is this. What was so at heart about the movies is the reaction of the humans to the inhuman, the heroes male and female toward the damnation around them. This was not so in the comic book series.

You see the Centobites are important to the hellraizer universe, but they are a part of the "sentence" not the "punch line" if you get my drift. Salvation for characters like Cirsty is what is important, at least for me, from the original two movies. The Centobites in these comics, though well drawn and having personalities which yes is a good point, they come in, say some "relavent" concept toward damnation, then kill the poor sods. Again. And Again. And Again.

It does grow tiresome. There is now in my eyes a throw toward the other side, you see hell so much it does not become shocking anymore. It doesn't have the punch as it did when you first saw Laviathin in Hellraiser 2.

I want to see the human heart succeeding or failing against the growing odds. Yes I dont think every story should have a happy ending, but if you read the same ending...after awhile...it just grows tiresome. So that is why I stopped reading the Hellraiser comics.

Now yes there are some very good short comic book stories in this collection, if you really enjoy the artwork which is VERY good, then yes by all means get the book. Just dont read it in one sitting or you will grow ... in my opinion ... bored.

I have collected about 15 Hellraiser comics over the years, but there were many stories here I had not read. Though not written by Barker, they are well researched and keep the myth alive. We would not have hellraiser 3,4 and 5 without the comics and whether thats good or bad they are still worth the indulgance (and Franchise). Alot of the artists used were fresh talent at the time, so there are some interesting spins on the traditional cenobites. Still v. bloody and sadistic. Created for all die hard fans.

Here is the complete list of stories and the original Books they came from, cross-reffed from Amazon & [another web site]
Dead Man's Hand (Sholly Fisch, Dan Spiegle): book 1
The Harrowing Pt. 1 (Clive Barker, Alex Ross): Book 17
The Harrowing Pt. 2 (Clive Barker, Tristan Shane): Book 18
For My Son (Frank Lovece, Bill Koeb): summer special
Like Flies to Wanton Boys (Bunny Hampton-Mack, Scott Hampton): Book 4
The Girl in the Peephole (Del Stone, Jr., Marc Hempel): Book 20
Wordsworth (Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean): Book 20
Mazes of the Mind (Mark Nelson): Book 5
Dead Things Rot (D.G. Chichester, Mike Mignola): Book 13
Dear Diary (Sholly Fisch, Colleen Doran): Book 5
Death, Where Is Thy Sting? (Malcolm Smith, Paul Johnson): Book 19
Losing Herself in the Part (Doug Murray, Dwayne McDuffie): Book 8

I would recommend this book for all passing horror fans and experts alike; Clive Barker, that well respected mentor of modern English horror, has created a fine compendium. If at times a little pretentious, particularly in the sprawling and philosophical introduction, the layout is first-class and it doesn't dwell on the statistics-for-anoraks that so many of these type of film book do. Enjoyable, perhaps even essential for your film shelf. It is at times a little lightweight; at others, snobbish and frothy.

This book is not written by Clive Barker, but is based on the tv-series that took its que after the successful author. As far as i can see most of the text is written by Stephen Jones. But this should not scare away the Barker fans, because the book is packed with illustrations and qoutes from our favourite author. On top of that the book contains a lot of interesting essays about a lot of horrorrelated subjects(A-Z).
Great buy and beautiful book!

Combining short but insightful text with a visually stunning layout design, _Clive Barker's A-Z of Horror_ provides a light read on some very dark subjects. It would make an excellent gift for both those making their first steps into this genre as well as for old hands looking for something to keep around for visitors to squeal about.

Barker is strong with making hateful characters romantically appealing, and turning them aside from evil. Surely his early short stories are rife with the injustice caused by the unloved, and the unloved being punished for their helpless causation; but Barker has expressed his feeling that no one deserves spite and hate is always entirely biased and only justifiable from a selfish point of view.

Anyone who would think Barker's novels weaker than the movies made of these books and stories is really saying they cannot gather the subtelty and beauty of his novels. (The one exception to this is the short novel The Hellbound Heart, truly weakly wrought, not very astounding as an analysis of human interaction, and just a blatant statement of Barker's individual style of horror. As such, it is useful; otherwise, it is foul.)

Cabal among all mature works of Clive expresses love for the terrorized, and sympathy, compassion for those marginalized and weakened by society. Even the serial killers can be loved, even the perverts are people and worth compassion and are adorable; not only in Clive's fiction, but to an extent in the real world... to a very large extent, in the real world too.

This is the first C.Barker book I've read and it still hold a dear place in my heart. The author creates a dark world, where good and evil is slightly different. The creatures of the night live beside us: the werewolf, the vampire, and the bogeyman. And they are an entirely different community, with their own laws, customs and lore. And they also have their enemies, who, although human in form, hide a monstrous soul.

In the dark underworld of the 'Nightbreed', we follow the heroin in her search of her dead lover, who proves to be not as dead after all. Together they defend the hidden clan from their pursuers, fulfilling an old Messianic prophecy.

I just wish Clive Barker would write a sequel to this excellent tale.

Clive Barker is the greatest author in the Horror genre simply because of his technique. He weaves and creates a complete world for the reader to step into and experience the words he writes. I felt like I was standing in that seemingly abandoned town of Midian, waiting for those "monsters" to come take us where Boone felt he belonged. I felt every emotion on those pages. Thank you, again, Clive Barker, for a wonderful read.

Okay. Now although Everville was a good book I feel it didn't deserve anything higher than a 7. I mean, how can this book compare to "The Great and Secret Show"? I miss the Jaff to tell you the truth. And Tommy Ray didn't seem to have a reason for being there other than to get Jo Beth. It never really explains in which way he loved her either. I did find that many of the characters that COULD have been interesting were killed before they could develop. And I REALLY think Clive should dispose of the whole Lix thing. It really is disgusting Clive. And although Kissoon was a GREAT villain, I prefer Barker's other evils such as Pinhead or Nix. And what's strange is that in Everville the Iad are written to be like Kissoon's puppets while in the first Art novel they were supposed to be benevolent creatures of destruction with no leaders. Now, anyone who hasn't read this book yet I'll have to warn you. The beginnings and endings are tedious! The beginning was so boring I skipped over a few pages. And the ending was sooooo confusing I almost threw the book I was so angry. The whole thing with Flicker and Phoebe REALLY looped my mind. But there is one element that gripped me in here. And that's The Jai Wai. Now THEY were interesting. I also found myself waiting and waiting for Tesla to come into it. Was I happy when she finally did! Well, there's my review. I suggest reading it but don't expect it to be better than the first one.

In Everville: The Second Book of the Art, Barker once again throws us into a mystical world of amazing possibilities. Like The Great and Secret Show the bizarre events are all the more fascinating because it's mostly set in our world (The general area of Oregon I grew up in, as a matter of fact). New characters are introduced and surprising fates await the characters from the first book. Also, the fascinating Harry D'Amour plays a much larger role. The book is filled with Barker's trademark mind-bending imagery and strange creatures. However, the book isn't quite as fast-moving as the first and drags on at times. Also, the world of Quiddity doesn't seem quite so mystical this time around. Fans of Barker and of the first book will still find it worthy to be on the same shelf as his other surreal epic fantasies.

Everville was founded by a little pioneer girl, Maeve O'Connell. I didn't realize until I was well into the book that "Everville" is a sequel to "The Great and Secret Show" (which I never finished, much to my chagrin).

The town of Everville houses the gateway between Cosm and Quiddity. The story jumps from Maeve's journey on the Oregon Trail to the 1990s and the town's current inhabitants. It takes not only a lot of pages but a skilled writer to keep all the characters (from both "The Great and Secret Show" and from the Everville township) straight; Barker does an admirable job.

Kirk Reinart's cover art ... was what drew me to this book. I don't remember the last time that happened.

What really struck me as I read was the parallel between Everville and some of the conspiracy theories I've recently heard. Does Barker know too much? or was he ahead of his time?