No comments about Im Bergland: Agonie der Städte.

No comments about Being Music.

No comments about Days of Magic, Nights of War [UNABRIDGED] (Audio CD) (The Abarat fantasy series, Book 2 of The Abarat fantasy series).

5 comments about Coldheart Canyon CD: A Hollywood Ghost Story.

1. This is the first Clive Barker novel I read. I hated it. It reads like it's a pure Hollywood story. Also, the events in the story are so nonsensical, I couldn't help but continuously think, "This is stupid."
   
   I love horror novels, but this isn't much of a horror novel. I'll never read another Clive Barker book.
   
   Added on 2007/03/24: I forgot to mention. This book is huge. 686 pages. At around 3 different points in the book, I thought, "Ok now it should end." Yet it kept dragging on. Bleah.
   
   I can't recommend this book for anyone. I guess diehard Barker fans would like it.



2. Not a masterpiece, not incredibly awful---just a mildy entertaining piece of fluff. It occurred to me early on that this book is nothing but a beach read. There's nothing here to challenge your mind. Good book for a long train ride or the ICU waiting room.



3. This is the first Barker book I've ever read. I understand that some people think its far too sexually graphic at times, but I don't think that those scenes really distract too much from the larger story. The first few chapters are slow... dead dog, face lift, etc. But once Todd gets to Coldheart Canyon, the story really starts moving. I read in two days at work. I found it engaging and I was almost sad to finish it. Its a good book, and it even rekicked my love of silent films.
   
   I'm giving Barker another go, with 'The Inhuman Condition' this time.



4. Before this book came out, I was begining to believe that Clive Barker was past his prime. I enjoyed the Books of Blood through Sacrament, and then I waited a long time for Galilee, wich was good, but not quite as good as the rest of his work. Thankfully, Coldheart Canyon blew me away.
   
   There was good reason to believe that this tale of hedonism in the early age of Hollywood was going to be another soap-opera like the previous book. It was nerver wrecking to think that maybe he was just going to re-hash some of his ideas of fetishism with a bit of hollywood gossip tabloid drivel.
   
   I was not expecting such a powerful and surreal experience. There are scenes here that are so suspenseful the hairs on the back of my neck were raising. The monsters, ghosts, and wonders here rival anything that he has written before. The parts of the story that deal with "the hunt" are downright nasty. Meanwhile, the celebration of the hollywood ghosts are so surreal and beatiful in their dark way. Never before have I met such a seductive and evil bad-girl as Katya, she could teach the sisters from Weaveworld about cruelty.
   
   This is a long book, but it rewards heavily. There is no one in any genre who writes storys as complex and imaganative as Clive Barker. These images and characters will be in your head for a while. As this stroy builds to it's climax, it will have you gripping the pages so hard the circulation will be cut off from your fingers. When the revelations hit, as all the plotlines converge and things click, your mind will be blown.
   
   A powerful performance that is somehow very underrated. I reccomend it to all fiction readers that have an open mind. Those looking for another Stephen King knock-off might want to pass.



5. i just finished clive barker's coldheart canyon and i wasnt disappointed. i must agree with other readers and say that it was about 100 or more pages too long (unimportant or nonrelevent information), but all in all i wasnt ready for the story to be over when i finished it. it took me about 3 days to read it; when i would start again i didnt want to put it down. it does have a lot of sexually explicit language and scenes throughout the story so if youre weary of those types of reads then i would pick something else (i like those types of reads myself so i thoroughly enjoyed it). i also didnt find it at all scary, frightening or suspenseful either, but like i said i liked the story and in a couple-few years i'll probably pick it up and read it again for old times sake.

1 comments about Abarat.

1. This is young adult fiction ay it's finest. Harry Potter eat your heart out. A fantasy world to rival Wonderland. All the things that go bump in the night and beautiful exotic creatures of the light.

5 comments about Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War.

1. It had been quite some time since I read the first book of Abarat, but it really didn't matter. Even though I didn't remember everything from the first book this storyline pulled me right in and refreshed my memory.
   
   In this book Candy really grows as an individual and begins to understand her feelings about herself, her family (mostly her father) and also she opens a can of worms in regards to the untold story of Christopher Carrion and Princess Boa. What really happened between them?
   
   Candy also begins to realize her power.
   
   The characters, creatures and landscape are all amazing. So beautiful and intricate that I want to be there. I couldn't put this book down until the very end, and now I want more.
   
   It's a pleasure to see something truly original and inspired for young adults that can also wholly please an adult. It's also a pleasure to see a female in the lead role instad of the obligitory young boy in the lead with females only for supporting characters.
   
   I reccomend this book to anyone who who wants to embark on a voyage into the fantastic and unknown. I reccomend this book to anyone who has a heart, young or old you won't be disappointed.
   
   Put down the harry potter and pick up Abarat! :-)



2. I loved both Abarat book and would highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys fantasy books. It is fast paced and intriguing.



3. At first glimpse, it might seem that with the Arabat books, Clive Barker has jumped on the Harry Potter bandwagon which has driven several "adult" writers to pen novels targeted to the young adult market. Since Barker's excursion into this field actually predates the Rowling books with his tale The Thief of Always, the charge is not completely legitimate, but it is also not completely off-base either: while The Thief of Always is a dark, standalone fairy tale, the Arabat books attempt at something more epic, not unlike the Potter series. Regardless of Barker's motives, the series can succeed if it is well-written; and by this measure, it is a mixed success.
   
   The second book in the series, Arabat: Days of Magic, Nights of War, continues roughly where the first volume left off. Candy Quackenbush, the teenager from Chickentown, Minnesota, is still in the strange and magical world of Arabat, where the sun doesn't rise and set in a normal fashion. Instead, there is a different island for each hour of the day, and each island is frozen in that time (there is also a 25th island which has its own mysterious properties). The lord of the midnight island, the villainous Christopher Carrion, wants Candy as his prisoner, fearing that she has some unknown power that could usurp his plans to plunge all Arabat in total night.
   
   Much of the novel deals with Candy running from place to place, often just half a step behind Carrion's minions. While all this is going on, she will begin to learn something about what makes her special and also get an opportunity to have contact with her old home in the Hereafter (which is what the folk of Arabat call Candy's world). Even as Carrion worries about Candy, he also is busy bringing his plots to fruition and gets entangled with the intrigues of his nasty grandmother.
   
   Barker is very imaginative, perhaps too much so for this story. With so much running around and so many weird creatures and bizarre situations, there is little chance to really take all of it in. And though much is resolved, there is also much that is left in the air, as befits the second book in what I've heard will be a four-book set. Of course, it's been almost four years since this book came out, so I have to wonder about Barker's continued commitment to the story (I'd also heard that The Great and Secret Show and Everville were the first two parts of a trilogy, and it's been 14 years since book two in that set).
   
   Barker is a very good writer, but Arabat is not Barker at his best. A little more restraint and a little less action is required. This is not to say that these books are bad, but at best they rate a low four stars. Whether you're a fan of Barker or young adult fantasy fiction, this will not be tops on your list, but it won't be at the bottom either.



4. I loved this book (as I love all Clive Barker material). Although this is classified as a "Young Adult" book, I think any grown-up with a sense of whimsy will thoroughly enjoy it. The illustrations are imaginative and original and the prose is acceptable. The whole world of Abarat is fantastical and quite different from other fiction of this type. Candy Quackenbush is a heroine for the ages and the villains are satisfactorily villanous. Altogether a satisfying read.



5. On the one hand, I would have given Barker's 'Days of Magic, Nights of War' the 4 and 1/2 or maybe 5 stars it deserved back in 2004, when it emerged in hardcover glory. The second installment in his Abarat "series" brought greater excitement (as one would hope) to the adventures of Candy Quackenbush & friends in the wild, weird world she entered. In this 2004 segment, Barker regales with a nearly over-burdened plot, but manages to create a compelling world teeming with amazements. His paintings/illustrations are utterly exquisite and make this entire idea a thing that ought to be forever treasured.
   
   But it's hard to do so. The first book arrived six years ago in 2002. The second four years ago in 2004...ominously along with hype about a film, a theme-park deal, etc. With the complexity, incoherence, and surrealism of his Abarat plotline, this is a series that Barker needed to keep coming at a viable pace (at *least* one book every other year).
   
   But with the sad and apparent neglect given to finishing this extended work, it has been all too easy for initially enthralled readers (and buyers!) to lose complete track of the basics of this story. Moreover, it has been all too easy to lose interest altogether in its outcome. The unfolding of this series has been so ruined by whatever strange delays have taken place, that one is hard-pressed to imagine how Harper Collins is really going to salvage the project in terms of contemporary viability.
   
   It's apparent that the film is OUT (and understandably so, after such sloth in Barker publishing the whole thing). I can't help but feel that Barker has really short-changed his audience and his great Abarat (once so full of potential) by failing to complete the installments in a remotely reasonable fashion. Again, one wonders how excited the publisher is going to be to promote the future 3 volumes(3 more?!? I don't see it happening).
   
   That's a shame--if Barker had stuck to his work ethic and vision, forgoing the lure of hasty, premature movie-studio deals and theme-park rights, this series could well have been one of the great multi-part sagas of our time for young adults (and those who "think" young). But as it is, the audience of 13 year-olds he targeted in 2002 is now getting ready for college and interest for the project as a continuum has been fatally lost.
   
   I was moved to write this review because I was recently reorganizing my library and happened upon my 2004 hardcover copy of "Days of Magic, Nights of War" and nearly flipped. "Wow! I just about forgot this series existed!" I said to myself. "The rest of the books must have come out ages ago and I happened to miss them in the bookstore." Wrong. I was very disappointed to learn of the serious discrepancies in the publishing history of this series. Not only because I paid hardcover prices 6 and 4 years ago, expecting to have the whole set in reasonably timely fashion (every other year, perhaps), but also in a bit of sadness for a magnificently complex tale I expected to savor and unravel during my actual *lifetime.*
   
   I'm glad to know that these books have a second life in paperback, and may win some new fans in that form, but even the paperback edition of this portion came out 2 years hence, and this only underscores how terribly this once-vibrant project has been derailed. At such a rate, I will indeed be ninety before the last one comes out--which I won't be waiting for.
   
   The interest, once-piqued, has dimmed. The reader's faith (once-earned) has been breached. The best we can hope for is that Barker will even finish this tale one day, and that, after we are all long dead or aged, the whole series will be able to be purchased at once by future-folks. But Barker has even jeopardized that hope. Why should publishers be eager to manufacture & market five expensive illustrated volumes in the distant future if the project couldn't even get off the ground properly in its own day(s)? The entire project needed one cohesive decade, at least, to build up its classic status, its legend, and its mystique for posterity. Instead, it has been left in the proverbial lurch. A failure, especially given the greatness of Barker's artwork--which really is as crucial as the narrative, in this case.
   
   And, to reiterate, had this series been given its due diligence by the author himself, it would have been a collection worthy of all-time greatness. Now, I'm sure some die-hards may still care, but there can't be enough. After six, seven years, I'm a former die-hard who's not going to go back and read them the first two again, especially with no real guarantee that an ending will ever come! If you happen to read this, Mr. Barker, please know that you have disappointed an admirer of what ~could~ have been something truly, truly monumental.

5 comments about Mister B. Gone CD.

1. Reading this book on a Kindle was a special treat given its postmodern self-reference. A pleasurable read. Recommended.



2. I know that the written version is full of grammatical errors. May I suggest the audio book? I just finished it and I can tell you that the acting from the reader is really good and I think it makes it a better book that way. And you wont get distracted with the errors in the text.



3. I've read many of Barker's novels, and this has been a fun ride. Aside from The Thief of Always or his short fiction, it has been his easiest and most fun story to read.
   
   Several reviews have complained about different typographical errors in the book. If any of them would actually use their brain they would realize that the book is coming strait from the mouth of a demon. It would make sense that the demon has not mastered the english language.



4. It is hard to be impartial when it comes to Barker, for I have been a fan of his work since I was in my mid to late teens. But, I will not recommend this to first time readers of Clive's work. You won't care for Barker if you take this as an introduction. This was obviously written for longtime Barkerophiles, and I have to be thankful for it. It is filled with satirical whimsy and tongue-in-cheek blasphemy Clive fans will enjoy and, trust me, you won't be able to stop yourself from chuckling out loud at some sections.
   
   Jakabok is oddly endearing or, rather, becomes so over the course of the novel. Some stunning imagery and words, as always (particularly near the end), from Barker.
   
   Again, not a book for newcomers to Barker, but if you have read "Imagica", "Books of Bloods", "Cabal," et al., this is a read I think you will enjoy, just enter with the caveat it is not a horror novel, it is a dark satire. A comical look at a lower demon's life, and his travels with a beloved fellow demon friend, after the lower demon is accidentally dragged from the lower levels of hell and into the human world.



5. 
   Clive Barker took a break from horror for a while. He wrote some awesome fantasy novels, including Weaveworld and Imajica, which are profoundly effective in what they set out to accomplish. He wrote two volumes in a series of books for younger adults with three more on the way, and a couple of films. For a Master of Horror, there were a few years there where he rarely touched the visceral darkness that made his name with publications like "The Hellbound Heart" and the "Books of Blood".
   
   "Mister B. Gone" is marketed as a triumphant return to Barker's particular style of uneasy, bloody horror. The premise is simple: within the pages of the neat little hardback the readers holds, a demon is imprisoned and talking to them. You, as the reader, are alternately coerced, seduced and threatened by the demon. Its sole concern? That you burn the book and forget it ever existed.
   
   It's a compelling idea and certainly makes the first ten pages entertaining and refreshingly original. Not since Mark Z Danielewski's "This is not for you" has a reader been so determined to read further. On this occasion, you merely want to learn a bit more about this silver-tongued devil trapped between the pages. He reveals his name - Jakabok Botch - and that he was once chased by his abusive father right out of the highest level of hell and to the "Surface World", where he isn't well received by 14th Century humanity. He reluctantly provides pieces of his story, which is in turn humorous and repulsive - he is a demon, after all. Eventually his tale leads to a clash of events involving the creation of a wonderful new machine, and the conflict between demonic and celestial beings to decide who should control it.
   
   Although the novel is an amusing, brief diversion, it unfortunately fails on a number of points. The primary hook of the story - that of Mister B. compelling the reader to end its life by burning the book that holds him - soon becomes a tiresome repetition of phrases and part of a predictable structure that really serves only to slow down the true story. It never really stops being amusing, but the reader will quite likely feel like using the book's nifty little bookmark-ribbon and taking a break every time Mister B. abruptly halts the story to once again complain about the reader's stubbornness.
   
   That's another problem. It's amusing, perhaps too amusing. That's the big problem with marketing a novel as being of the horror genre: if it's not scary, or at least gruesome, then you're going to get a lot of pissed-off horror fans. Sadly this is the case this time. There are brief moments of bloodiness, but the protagonist deals with them in such a flippant manner - why should a denizen of Hell give a stuff if he fill his bath with the blood of babies? - that any glimpses of horrific acts fail to register. The tone of the novel is simply too light, and although the quality and style of the narrative is smooth and of a high standard, the tone lets the book down.
   
   The characters and their relationships suffer from the brevity of the book, resulting in the reader caring little, if at all, about the actors in the story. Even the protagonist, who eventually describes his childhood and every emotional, significant or traumatic event since, is not quite three-dimensional and rarely manages to elicit any kind of emotional response from the reader. The characters intermingle in uncertain, sexually-ambiguous relationships that are reminiscent of Anne Rice's work, but even though Barker has established himself as a strong emotive writer, he still never quite succeeds in getting the point across with this one.
   
   The fact that I read the book in three sittings means that there must be something decent there, something that retains interest, but I can't put my finger on it. The conclusion to Mister B.'s story is much built up, but is only satisfactory compared to the type of staggering denouements we're used to in such works as "Imajica". Are we expecting too much? Or is it just too much to ask to get at least a little fright from our horror fiction? It's not a bad novel, and it's very well presented. It's only a shame that it doesn't live up to expectations.