Abarat review

[alobear]

On the current OU course I'm doing, we're encouraged to post bits of writing to the forum to have the rest of the tutor group comment on them.  I posted up a very short story I wrote a while ago (based on an idea from Dave, as all my best stories are) and one of the group said it reminded him of Clive Barker.  I'd never heard of this writer, so I went to BookMooch to see what books of his might be available.  Abarat turned up in the post a few days later.

I don't think Abarat is the kind of Clive Barker book my fellow OU student was talking about when he said my story reminded him of Clive Barker, since it's one of Barker's children's novels, and thus the style is more simplistic than I think is found in his adult books.  However, it's wildly imaginative and makes good use of the classic premise of ordinary high school kid gets transported to magical world where she has an important destiny.  It pushed the boundaries of weird for me, though this may have been because of the quite unsettling pictures that accompanied the text in places.  It's difficult to say if I would have found some of the creatures the protagonist encounters so disturbing if I'd only had my own imagination to furnish their appearances.  The other issue I had with the book was that it was basically a series of set pieces, once Candy arrived in the Abarat - she would get captured, interact with her captors, escape and be chased, then get captured by someone else, and so on.

It all went by very quickly and was mostly entertaining, but I don't think I'll be pursuing Candy on any more of her Abarat adventures.  I do think I might try a different type of Clive Barker book at some point, though, to see what he does with more adult themes.

Comments

[lareinemisere.livejournal.com]

I read some Clive Barker horror short stories - 'Books of Blood' - when I was younger and more innocent and really didn't like them. I forget whether the writing was any good or not, but it was all just too nasty for my tastes, at least back then. I still remember the premise of two of them and cringe.

'Weaveworld' is supposed to be good, if you want to try the adult fantasy stuff. I have half an idea that Corone owns a copy (am doing LJ at the office so I can skip the rush hour, so can't check right now.)

[alobear.livejournal.com]

If you do happen to come across a copy of Weaveworld, can I borrow it please?

[prunesquallormd.livejournal.com]

I have a copy, so if they don't, you're welcome to borrow mine :)

[nezumi-sama.livejournal.com]

I have a copy of Imajica you can borrow. I'll bring it along on Sunday if you like?

[alobear.livejournal.com]

If you think I might like it, yes please!

[prunesquallormd.livejournal.com]

I'm quite surprised you hadn't heard of Clive Barker. I thought he was kind of famous, but then, maybe that's only true if you happen to like his brand of occasionally extremely unpleasant fantasy/horror.
He wrote the stories that became 'Hellraiser' ('The Hellbound Heart') and Candyma'n ('The Forbidden'). Candyman comes pretty close to being the best horror film of the last 20 years, I think. I kind of love it :)

All in all, while I loved Weaveworld (which I'd definitely recommend over Imajica), and while he has a rather fabulous imagination, he also has an incredibly unpleasant streak in his writing that I found a bit much after a while. I suspect you may have a problem with that too, but definitely try Weaveworld, it's ace :) (it's also set partly in Liverpool (Barker's a local, but he lives in the US now), so it was rather fun for me to pick out all the places I know :) ).

[alobear.livejournal.com]

Hellraiser and Candyman???

Oh dear - perhaps I'm better off staying away from this guy...