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What's New
Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Clive Barker |
| Author Information |
Reviewed Books |
Other Books |
Notes: (A) - The Art Series
(Ab) - Abarat Series |
Imajica
Damnation Game |
First Book of Hours (Ab)
The Great & Secret Show(A)
Everville (A)
Weaveworld
Hellbound Heart
Sacrament
Cabal
Galilee |
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 Our
Ranking When first starting to read Imajica, I
was surprised to find that it leaned more towards the fantasy side of writing
versus Barker's usual horror. I was even more pleased to find that the book was
actually quite good even though not what I had expected. The book is actually
an enormous undertaking by Barker, spanning five separate worlds (one of which
is Earth), originally over two books. He gets into pretty heavy detail with some
of the other worlds, but then sort of glosses over some of the middle worlds.
This was probably either to save time or maybe he realized just how big of a task
he set himself up for. The basic concept is that there is an eternal battle for
control going on between four of the five dimensions, Earth being the only one
that it is not raging in. However, the two sides fighting are constantly sending
agents to the Earth dimension to try and sway the battles in their favor. The
main character, Gentle, finds himself traveling to these dimensions and unwittingly
becomes a pawn of the war. He must travel across the dimensions to the last one
to complete his task. Barker does a tremendous job describing these worlds and
some very unique creatures that live in them. One of the main characters isn't
human but still winds up having a love affair with Gentle. While disturbing, Barker
does an amazing job making it seem realistic. The only real downside of the book
is that Barker seems to sort of lose control of it at points. It as if it was
just too big and at places he seems lost how to get characters to a place they
need to be for the plot to continue. His solutions sometimes seem pretty sloppy.
If you can get beyond these holes, the book is well worth the time to read it.
Be warned it is a monster of a book size wise. |
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 Our
Ranking The Damnation Game is one of Clive Barker's
earlier works, dating back to the late 80's I believe. Compared to some of his
other stories I've read such as Imajica and The Great & Secret Show, The Damnation
game is certainly more straight forward horror than the others. The other books
had a lot more fantasy thrown in to mix with the horror which added a very cool
aspect to the tales. However, while this is more straight forward than his others,
it is still not your standard Stephen King or Dean Koontz horror. This is Barker
all the way. One thing I've found about Barker, is that he tends to warp reality
a bit. While someone like Stephen King will just take the existing world and use
real people in real settings but throw in some beast or horrific creation to make
the story, Barker takes a slightly different approach. Barker seems to always
create a pocket where reality is just different and tosses it into the middle
of the real world. Nearly all of the main characters trapped in this pocket have
some extraordinary kind of powers or abilities, ranging from the somewhat simple
such as mind reading or drug induced mental connections, or from the very extreme
like the ability to raise the dead for your own means. I have mixed feelings about
this approach. On the one hand, it enhances the story because it is just so different.
But on the other hand, it takes a bit away from the horror because you find yourself
unable to truly relate with these characters since they all seem to have abilities
we don't have. In his other novels, this was fine since most of the characters
were very fantastical, involving whole other races of creatures and even different
dimensions of worlds. You don't expect to completely relate with them. However,
in this one, based in England without the fantasy aspects I found it a bit tough
to get past. The setting was just too real for all the characters to be so surreal.
I felt he really needed to place a few more true characters in it to ground the
story in reality. Beyond this the story was very enjoyable. The plot is fairly
basic, but a good driver. A man known simply as The Last European, has the powerful
ability to raise the dead. He's been alive for hundreds of years and has never
really been bested. However, during the end of WWII a gambler known as Mamoulian,
manages to escape his grasps after the Last European has tried to teach him everything
he knows. The Last European swears revenge upon Mamoulian for this transgression,
but being alive for hundreds of years has made him very very patient. Mamoulian
over the years has lived just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and has surrounded
himself with allies to defend him when the time does come. It is an excellent
tale of revenge and human greed. The characters are written very well, and the
revenge/paranoia aspects of Mamoulian's and the Last European's feud is played
out extremely well. Barker does a good job of having the other characters just
dragged into the whirlpool of chaos their feud has caused. The side characters,
while not as powerful as Mamoulian and the Last European, each have a few tricks
of their own that help in the cause. The main question throughout the novel is
will their powers be enough to tip the scale to one side and if so, which side
will they decide to follow? As for the horror aspect, for the most part Barker
came through. As mentioned above, the characters took away from it a bit due to
the inability to relate with them, however some of the scenes were simply brutal.
Barker's simplistic way of describing the absolutely foul really hits home. There
is one scene in particular that involves Mamoulian's dogs that literally left
me shaking for a bit. If you are a horror fan, this is a good one to pick up.
As a Barker fan though, I must admit I preferred The Great & Secret Show and Imajica
over this one. |
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