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sarah_stokes's review
5.0
This astonishing, inspirational book retains a freshness and depth such that, a decade after its publication, it is never far from our desk. Testament only to the very best sources of knowledge and research, its covers rarely stay closed and we, long ago, had to buy a second copy as a working copy.
It's a beautiful book - the layout and format are instrumental in its dual abilities to act as a kind of Readers Digest of quotes at the same time as offering in-depth articles, criticism and insight. The enormous impact of the design team at Underwood-Miller cannot be underestimated here as the same overall approach by Stephen Jones in his James Herbert book, By Horror Haunted, produced a far less user-friendly experience.
It's also a wealth of fascinating information. Shadows In Eden was the book that fired our desire to gather together our own thoughts and insights in order to track and remind ourselves of all that makes Clive's work an essential part of our lives. We had a clear vision at the start of creating Revelations about the kind of areas we wanted to cover and this was helped in no small part by the understanding we had taken early on from Shadows In Eden of the various facets of Clive's work.
Published at a time when horror - and the economy generally - was at a low point in the cycle, the high cover price and "serious" nature of the work deterred some consumers and some critics, already annoyed at Barker's seemingly meteoric rise to fame, openly questioned the need for such a work about such an author. However, the collection was acknowledged as ground-breaking by many and won the 1992 Bram Stoker Award in its genre. A paperback release of the book in 1993 attempted to make the work more accessible with colourful images from the Razorline comics and Hellraiser 3 on its cover and a much friendlier price.
We can offer no greater praise than, if asked to recommend one non-fiction item to a friend to explain just why it is that we devote so much time to Clive Barker, this would be the one. It's long out of print but, if you don't own a copy, give yourself a treat and get out there and find one...
Revelations Review
By Phil and Sarah Stokes, March 2002
It's a beautiful book - the layout and format are instrumental in its dual abilities to act as a kind of Readers Digest of quotes at the same time as offering in-depth articles, criticism and insight. The enormous impact of the design team at Underwood-Miller cannot be underestimated here as the same overall approach by Stephen Jones in his James Herbert book, By Horror Haunted, produced a far less user-friendly experience.
It's also a wealth of fascinating information. Shadows In Eden was the book that fired our desire to gather together our own thoughts and insights in order to track and remind ourselves of all that makes Clive's work an essential part of our lives. We had a clear vision at the start of creating Revelations about the kind of areas we wanted to cover and this was helped in no small part by the understanding we had taken early on from Shadows In Eden of the various facets of Clive's work.
Published at a time when horror - and the economy generally - was at a low point in the cycle, the high cover price and "serious" nature of the work deterred some consumers and some critics, already annoyed at Barker's seemingly meteoric rise to fame, openly questioned the need for such a work about such an author. However, the collection was acknowledged as ground-breaking by many and won the 1992 Bram Stoker Award in its genre. A paperback release of the book in 1993 attempted to make the work more accessible with colourful images from the Razorline comics and Hellraiser 3 on its cover and a much friendlier price.
We can offer no greater praise than, if asked to recommend one non-fiction item to a friend to explain just why it is that we devote so much time to Clive Barker, this would be the one. It's long out of print but, if you don't own a copy, give yourself a treat and get out there and find one...
Revelations Review
By Phil and Sarah Stokes, March 2002
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