Clive Barker's Books of Blood 1-3

Who could really top "I have seen the future of Horror and his name is Clive Barker" in praising these books? Granted Stephen King was a bit premature with that assessment and Clive Barker would go on to write children's books and "dark fantasy" (usually without the dark) and beautifully rendered paintings in prose, but that doesn't mitigate the power of these originals.

When I first read these stories I was shocked by the power they had to make me nauseous. Upon reflection (and with his strange career) I see that there's also a power that they have in taking the reader to the world where a woman can twist bodies, a monkey still stalks the rue morgue and other joys of the flesh. It's as if these stories are the culmination of the promise in the Hellraiser movies - they take you to Heaven. They take you to Hell. You don't care because you are enjoying the ride.

Clive barker contains the horror in us all...

books of blood are books of life...

the life that is never shown till now

Years ago, around '86 or '87 a friend of mine in High School turned me on to a then unknown Englishman by the name of Clive Barker. I was a complete Stephen King junkie at the time and this friend of mine said, dude, you gotta read this guy's stuff...he's un-f*cking-real! I kinda wrinkled my nose and shook my head. Read some no-name's book...pleeze. But I trusted this friend with his opinions and while browsing around one day at a local B. Dalton bookstore I came across a hardcover copy of In The Flesh by Mr. Barker on the under $5.00 table. What the heck. It bought it and read it and....Jeezus! The Forbidden still haunts me to this day. But that small dose of Barker was only the beginning. A few months later I had the luck of finding (on the same under $5.00 table in the same bookstore) a harcover copy of The Books Of Blood. Now, in England, The Books Of Blood were arranged in volumes I through VI by a little outfit called Sphere Ltd, but Stateside, they were broken up into Volumes I through III, The Inhuman Condition, In The Flesh and finally at the end of the novel Cabal. Anyway, I took the book home and started to read the short stories represented there one by one. Astonishing. Nothing I had ever read before would prepare me for what Clive Barker was up to. Never before had I witnessed such abominations, such cruelties, such acts of horrifying and engrossing carnal abberations. He scared me more than a little. Great God, where had this guy come from? Stephen King was praising him on the jacket of every book he printed and rightly so. This guy was the new messiah of the modern horror story. Nowhere had I read such raw, brutal and fresh ideas. Nothing cliche here. The stories encompassing all of the orginal Books Of Blood are awesome from "Midnight Meat Train" all the way to "How Spolers Bleed" at the end of Cabal. These stories are definitely a work of genius. All these years later and I haven't missed a Barker publication yet. Still, though, once in a while, I go back (as I do with Stephen King's earlier novels) and reread them. Books Of Blood is not for the squeamish and neither is Clive Barker. He wasn't afraid to eviscirate someone back then or to report pornographic couplings and he isn't afraid to do so now. Visionary. Imaginative. Original. The Books Of Blood rock on all levels!

I am not a great fan of the horror genre, although I have liked Stephen King ("The Shining," "The Stand," "The Dead Zone"), Robert McCammon ("Swan Song," "Wolf's Hour"), and Peter Straub ("Ghost Story," "Shadowland"). I have also enjoyed short stories from King, Poe and Lovecraft. It is obviously extremely difficult to "horrify" a reader in the confines of a short story.

Although I have never read Clive Barker's longer works, I was always intrigued by the mind that could conceive "Hellraiser," perhaps one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen. Like that movie, in these short stories, Barker returns again and again to the themes of copious amounts of blood, cannibalism, and incensed ghosts looking for revenge (are there any other kind?). Unfortunately, most of Barker's short stories, though entertaining, are largely forgettable, and simply don't have the resonance of, for instance, a Stephen King story (e.g. remember "Trucks" -- which was made into a dreadful movie?). Basically, I would generally give these Barker stories two stars, with some exceptions.

The best story is "In the Hills, the Cities," about the entire populations of two towns engaging in an annual phantasmic battle that is difficult to picture in one's mind. For its originality alone, I would give this four stars.

Three stars go to "Dread," in which a sociopath subjects people to their greatest fears while videotaping their inevitable breakdown. I've seen this before, but it was a good story, nevertheless. Other three star stand-outs were "Midnight Meat Train," "The Skins of the Fathers," "Rawhead Rex" and "Scape Goats."

Barker is obviously one of our most important figures of the post-Lovecraft horror genre. However, the majority of these stories simply are not demonstrative of his talents. I would like to see him try again with this format, now that he has so many other works under his belt.

Clive Barker here brings us an excellent collection of short fantasy and horror stories. In this book Barker shows us why he stands above his peers in terms of sheer imagination. You will not find any cheesy re-hashes of old themes in this collection, no vampires or conventional ghost tales. Barker obviously figures that if a story is worth the time invested to write, then it is worthwhile taking the time to do something new, something original.

As others have said here, the best of the bunch is 'In the hills, the Cities'. Once read, you will never forget this tale, it works as a standalone straightforward story, but also works allegorically. It carries you along as you wonder at the spectacles described in the story, you can almost hear the crunching noise as one of the Cities falls to the ground. The ending is one of the greatest things about this story, one of the main characters decide that after having viewed the spectacle of the walking city he might as well travel with it, and give up on life, knowing that no matter how long he lives he will never see anything remotely as interesting again. It is especially poignant that no matter how terrible the imagery of the falling city, it will never compete with the real horror that would descend on the balkans (which is were the story is set) a few years after it was written, the setting adds to the story's weirdness and credibility.

Another gem is the truly despicable Rawhead Rex, this tale is about a sleeping child eating giant accidentally released from it's imprisonment beneath the earth, which goes on a rampage in a small English town boasts some great writing. Barker shows his ability at conjuring up the most vivid of imagery with his deft use of words. Barker clearly takes a demented delight in subverting cherished norms in his stories, so here we have female genitalia replacing the cross as the most potent ward against the beast and we also have a priest converting to the worship of the beast as he takes his holy communion which comes in the form of a shower of the beast's urine.

Other particularly good stories include the Yattering And Jack, Sex Death and Starshine, Dread and The Skins Of The Fathers. Each of the tales in this book offer something different, something interesting and bizarre. If you like short stories (you do not even have to be a huge horror fan) i would strongly recommend this book to you.