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This second book is not as good as the rest, but especially the first one is really good. Still very good horror.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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
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Great buy and beautiful book!
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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.
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.
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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?