Barker's most ambitious work yet, topping even Weaveworld: a
massive (560 pp.) and brilliant Platonic dark fantasy that details
an eruption of wonders and terrors - as the veil between the world
of the senses and the world of the imagination is rent in a small
California town. The torrent of invention here is astounding In the
First 44 pages alone, antihero Randolph Jaffe, a clerk at the Dead
Letters Office in Omaha, discovers among the letters hints of a
gloat esoteric knowledge called the "Art"; goes mad with lust for
the Art, savagely kills his boss, and flees; wanders into a time
loop beyond our universe to match wits with Kissoon, erstwhile
guardian of the Art; in order to prove worthy of the Art, teams up
with a top scientist, Richard Fletcher, to isolate the substance -
the Nuncio - responsible for evolution; ingests the Nuncio, thus
becoming transformed into a near-immortal, the Jaff; and goes to
war with Fletcher, who's also partaken of the Nuncio. And all that
is just prelude to the main conflict: the war that's fought a
decade later between the evil Jaff and good Fletcher - a war that's
witnessed by their children (spawn of their rape of four teen
girls) and by a sympathetic reporter and his semi-girlfriend (the
novel's hero), and that, played out against an all-American
mall-bound town, threatens the order of our universe. For if the
Jaff wins, and thus can practice - imperfectly - the Art, Kissoon
will lead an invasion into our world of the lad, monstrous lords of
a parallel universe separated from ours by the great sea of dreams,
Quiddity. With monsters made of animated feces and of foul emotions
at his command, the Jaff finally does win - plunging many folk into
Quiddity, from which a heroic, transformed few will return to do
final battle even as the terrible Iad draw ever closer to our
world. Over the top and at times out of control; but the total
impact is staggering as Barker creates (with borrowings, e.g., from
Lovecraft) - in addition to a prime sex/gore fright entertainment -
one of the most powerful overtly metaphysical novels of recent
years ("mind was in matter, always. That was the revelation of
Quiddity. . . Before life, the dream of life"). A major horror
novel. (Kirkus Reviews)
In the small Californian town of Palomo Grove several children are born, the offspring of the Jaff, a man-spirit obsessed with darkness and depravity, and of Fletcher, a force for light, who has fought the Jaff across America.
Their prize is the Art, the greatest power known to mankind, a doorway to the dream-life of the species. To possess it, the two men intended to fight through their children. Until their children fall in love. Then all hell breaks loose.
This time, they will fight to the death, gathering their armies from the souls of Palomo Grove. Nightmares will walk the streets. Dreams will be made real. At last, the Grove will see the Great and Secret Show.
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