Britisher Barker, horror's Wunderkind, has dazzled in several
short-story collections (The Human Condition, In the Flesh, etc.),
but disappointed in his one previous novel, the unwieldy The
Damnation Game (1985). Never mind: his new dark fantasy, an epic
tale of a magic carpet and the wondrous world within its weave,
towers above his earlier work - and, despite some serious flaws,
manages via its powerful and giddy torrent of invention to grasp
the golden ring as the most ambitious and visionary horror novel of
the decade. Barker attempts nothing less here than the resurrection
of the imagination as the prime force in human destiny. To do so,
he posits a race of magicians - the Seerkind - as always having
cast spells of delight alongside humankind. But at the dawn of this
century, modernity's onslaught forced the Seerkind to retreat
within a magical fortress - a carpet. As the story begins, young
Cal Mooney, an office grind with a fanciful heart, chances upon the
rug and is transported into the enchanted fields and towns of "The
Fugue" - the marvelous land woven within the rug. Cal faints from
this vision; when he awakes, the rug is gone - and in its place are
Immacolata (a demonic/erotic spirit) and Shadwell the Salesman (a
human embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins), veteran seekers for the
rug Who, believing that Cal knows its location, pursue him with all
the hounds of hell. After ferocious battles with evil entities, Cal
links up with Suzanna - descendant of the carpet's dead caretaker -
who soon learns that Seerkind blood courses in her veins.
Eventually the two track down the carpet, and, after it unweaves in
northern England, visit the Oz-like land of The Fugue. But Shadwell
follows them there and destroys the magic land in a ocean of blood.
As homeless Seerkind wander England, their ancient enemy, "The
Scourge" (an incredible creature akin to a mad fallen angel),
wreaks havoc on Seerkind and humanity alike - until at novel's end
Cal and Suzanna harness their personal powers of wonder to defeat
Shadwell and Scourge and to re-create The Fugue. Like Barker's
earlier fiction, this complex work erupts with explicit sex and
violence - but now the shocks punctuate a raging flood of image and
situation so rich as to over-flow Barker's abilities to formalize
it. Nearly every page teems with original ideas; what's missing,
however, is an emotional vigor to backbone all this activity; Cal
and Suzanna remain distant creations. Here Barker has unleashed
literary genius without taming it - though cemented his position as
the major horror rival to King. (Kirkus Reviews)
Reissue of the highly acclaimed thriller by the world's most
outstanding dark fantasist. WEAVEWORLD is an epic adventure of the
imagination. It begins with a carpet in which a world of rapture
and enchantment is hiding; a world which comes to life, alerting
the dark forces and beginning a desperate battle to preserve the
last vestiges of magic which Humankind still has access to.
WEAVEWORLD is a book of visions and horrors, a story of quest,
titanic struggles, of love and of hope. It is a triumph of
imagination and storytelling, an adventure, a nightmare, a
promise... 'Barker's fecundity of invention is beyond praise. In a
world of hard-bitten horror and originality, Clive Barker
dislocates your mind.' THE MAIL ON SUNDAY.
General
Imprint: |
Harper Voyager
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
April 1997 |
Authors: |
Clive Barker
|
Dimensions: |
177 x 111 x 43mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Mass Market
|
Pages: |
721 |
Edition: |
Reissued 10th Anniversary Ed |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-00-648300-7 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
Genre fiction >
Fantasy
|
LSN: |
0-00-648300-3 |
Barcode: |
9780006483007 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!