The Damnation Game and Everville established Barker as a highly
successful writer of adult fantasy, while his first foray into
writing for children, The Thief of Always, introduced the power of
his glorious imagination to a younger audience. These young readers
are in for the reading experience of a lifetime with the
publication of this first book in an eagerly awaited quartet. The
project began as a series of oil paintings which Barker intended to
incorporate into a story entitled The Book of Hours. But as his
artistic output proliferated and his fantastic imagination took
flight, the concept of a four-book series was born. Barker makes
few concessions in writing for a younger readership - the images
and events here are almost as terrifying and graphic as anything in
his books for adults. Although the author himself admits to
influences as diverse as The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland,
with a smidgeon of Potter and Tolkein thrown in, Abarat is unique.
Candy Quackenbush lives in Chickentown, Minnesota, and the
suffocating dreariness of the place, combined with her miserable
life at home, is driving her to despair. Storming out of school one
day, she ends up in a part of the town she has never been to
before, and unknowingly crosses the boundary into another
dimension. Crossing the Sea of Izabella she finds herself in the
Abarat archipelago - 25 islands, each of which exists for one hour
of the day, apart from the 25th island which is in 'time out of
time'. Candy clearly has a destiny amongst these islands, which
have been in conflict for generations. Most terrifying of all the
bizarre creations she encounters is Christopher Carrion, who rules
Gorgossium, the Midnight Island. He desires to have mastery over
all the islands and then conquer the human world, known as
Hereafter. Carrion is evil personified - attached to his face is a
bowl full of fluid which contains all the nightmarish, evil
thoughts in his head, from which he constantly feeds. This is an
enthralling epic which will sink its talons into the imagination of
young readers - and adults - everywhere. The pace becomes
increasingly frantic as Candy and her loyal friend, the geshrat
Malingo, flee from island to island in a desperate attempt to
escape Carrion's clutches. Exhausted, they are cast up on the
shores of the 25th island where Candy meets the prophetic sisters
of Fantomaya. Finally, some parts of the puzzle about her past and
her future begin to fall into place, and with the faithful Malingo
at her side she sails off in search of her destiny. Ages 11+
(Kirkus UK)
A dazzling fantasy adventure for all ages, the first of a quartet.
Abarat: an archipelago of amazement and wonder. A land made up of
twenty-five islands, each one representing one hour of the day,
each one a unique place of adventure and danger (and one mysterious
place out of time), all ruled over by the evil Christopher Carrion,
Lord of Midnight, and his monstrous grandmother, Mater Motley.
Candy Quackenbush, a 16-year old from Chickentown, Minnesota,
crosses by accident from our world into Abarat, and discovers she
has been there many, many times before. She has friends there and
she has enemies. As Candy makes her journey between all the islands
of the archipelago, she will discover a plot by Christopher Carrion
to block out the Sun, Moon and stars to achieve a condition of
Permanent Midnight. In order to prevent this disaster, Candy must
find the courage to confront the Lord of Midnight; and in doing so
come to know who she really is: a revelation which will transform
her own understanding of her place in the epic events. The first
book of Abarat is a spellbinding adventure for all ages, combining
the heartstopping tension of a thriller with the powerful charm of
the most enduring fable. And beneath all, it possesses the
quicksilver imagination of one of the finest writers at work today.
The four books of Abarat have been rightly called Clive Barker's
Narnia, his Wonderland. A sumptuous treat that will capture the
imaginations of adults and children alike.
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