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alyx30's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
manji's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
naokamiya's review against another edition
4.0
A bit of a premature review since I haven't finished the collection yet (I have three tales to go), but I think I've read enough to cast judgment. My main takeaway is that Barker has a deliriously immense imagination but his prose can be a little dry and static at its worst, but at its best it matches the tone of his imagery itself, zipping along with the frenetic and panicked pace of a feverish nightmare in stories like the opener and "Rawhead Rex". He also, like many of the male writers of his time, is *really fucking weird* about women - please for the love of god stop suspiciously bringing up rape every few pages - so that kind of hinders it a bit as well. Nonetheless, it's clear Barker is immensely skilled especially in the realms of horror fiction, and despite my earlier apprehensions I think at this point he's managed to sell me on his specific strand of macabre ethos.
drew1013's review against another edition
5.0
Unbelievably good. F*****g terrifying. I stayed up many nights with this book, not wanting to stop reading but also wanting to savor it. Once or twice, I even had to put the book down and take a breather from these stories, they were legitimately fear-inducing.
I don’t know how I’ve missed out on reading Barker before now, but horror fiction will be different for me from now on. This sets a new bar for horror in its niche, this kind of brutal, bloody, animalistic terror that weaves through horror, science fiction and myth.
More than anything, I feel like Books of Blood has accomplished something I wouldn’t have thought possible: it provides a glimpse past the veil to a believable version of the world of the damned, and what waits there is true evil and brutality. The imaginations of authors over centuries have grasped at descriptions of Hell, but Books of Blood feels like it conjures the kinds of things Hell might actually contain, while at the same time telling believable stories of human cruelty that remind us of the Hell we keep in our hearts.
There are several stories in this collection that are not only terrifying and visceral, but utterly unforgettable. Book of Blood, The Midnight Meat Train, In the Hills the Cities, Dread, and Rawhead Rex are the standouts to me. There wasn’t a single story in this collection that was a miss for me, but those were above and beyond.
I don’t know how I’ve missed out on reading Barker before now, but horror fiction will be different for me from now on. This sets a new bar for horror in its niche, this kind of brutal, bloody, animalistic terror that weaves through horror, science fiction and myth.
More than anything, I feel like Books of Blood has accomplished something I wouldn’t have thought possible: it provides a glimpse past the veil to a believable version of the world of the damned, and what waits there is true evil and brutality. The imaginations of authors over centuries have grasped at descriptions of Hell, but Books of Blood feels like it conjures the kinds of things Hell might actually contain, while at the same time telling believable stories of human cruelty that remind us of the Hell we keep in our hearts.
There are several stories in this collection that are not only terrifying and visceral, but utterly unforgettable. Book of Blood, The Midnight Meat Train, In the Hills the Cities, Dread, and Rawhead Rex are the standouts to me. There wasn’t a single story in this collection that was a miss for me, but those were above and beyond.
himmelstrand's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
fongolia's review against another edition
Tracked down this book just to read the story "In the Hills, The Cities," which is excellent.
ltrue123's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
diziet's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Crazy, imaginative and dark short-stories. Surprised that more of them have not been made into movies - some really novel ideas even now years later.
Would not say I enjoyed all of them - some of them are ‘what did I just read…??’
Mostly the monsters, bad guys and overall evil wins - or more correctly everybody looses. If there are survivors they are changed - and not really for the better.
The short intro by Clive Barker is interesting. He writes about revisiting earlier work. How short-stories are like time-capsules of the authors life, as it was when he wrote story.
"I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore...We are our own graveyards; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were."
Made me think both about how I view myself and also how I review books. With some authors I love their early books - the later ones not so much. But it is kinda unfair to criticize author for this - after all they are not the same as when they wrote books 10 or 20 years ago. Also I am not the same as when I read books for the first time. Tho there are books that I enjoy just as much now as when I read them for the first time.
Barker writes different kinds of stories now - he still liked the old stuff - even if he would like not to be primarily know for the early horror novels and being a ‘horror writer’. But still they please him and ‘That’s the most you can hope, I think: that the work you do pleases, both in the doing and the revisiting’
- we should all be so fortunate.
Would not say I enjoyed all of them - some of them are ‘what did I just read…??’
Mostly the monsters, bad guys and overall evil wins - or more correctly everybody looses. If there are survivors they are changed - and not really for the better.
The short intro by Clive Barker is interesting. He writes about revisiting earlier work. How short-stories are like time-capsules of the authors life, as it was when he wrote story.
"I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore...We are our own graveyards; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were."
Made me think both about how I view myself and also how I review books. With some authors I love their early books - the later ones not so much. But it is kinda unfair to criticize author for this - after all they are not the same as when they wrote books 10 or 20 years ago. Also I am not the same as when I read books for the first time. Tho there are books that I enjoy just as much now as when I read them for the first time.
Barker writes different kinds of stories now - he still liked the old stuff - even if he would like not to be primarily know for the early horror novels and being a ‘horror writer’. But still they please him and ‘That’s the most you can hope, I think: that the work you do pleases, both in the doing and the revisiting’
- we should all be so fortunate.
neko_cam's review against another edition
3.0
This edition includes volumes one through three of the 'Books of Blood', a collection of stories ranging from the overtly grotesque to the liminally disturbing but always maintaining Barker's distinctively pulpy, visceral style. For brevity, I will only highlight several of my favourites from the set.
'Yattering and Jack' concerns a demon tasked with driving to insanity a man seemingly too inane to affect. The characterisation of the demon inspires sympathy and the whole story is a delectably strange sort of comedy.
'In the Hills, The Cities' ... I can't even. Even amongst the rest of these stories of incredible oddity it stands out as memorable, with provincial townships whose occupants rituistically lash themselves together to form giants to do battle. Beyond that, it's the moments of insight into the cities as an organism that are truly striking.
'Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testement' is, in its own strange way, a story of female empowerment. Aside from the typically gorey and sexualised violence, it's the way that Jacqueline's power grows to affect her while she sleeps that was most unsettling.
'The Skins of the Fathers' concerns a small desert town and the demon creatures that harangue its citizens every dozen or so years. It's the stark contrast with which the human storie occur amongst this madness that make it memorable.
'Rawhead Rex' is FANTASTIC. More even than the destruction wrought by the titular titan, I loved the Lovecraftian way that its very form inspires awe and madness in almost equal parts among those who encounter it - and who survive long enough to react at all.
'The Body Politic' is brilliantly farsical. It depicts the most troublesome of rebellions; that of ones own body parts. The resolution of the main plot is a little bit disappointing, but the final scene of the story compensates nicely.
Quite unlike most others in the collection, 'The Last Illusion' is more adventure than horror. It concerns a mad dash to have the remains of a famous magician cremated before his body and soul can be claimed by the infernal beings with whom he made the deal to gain his powers.
If there was a 'Best of the Books of Blood', consisting of these and a few other particularly good stories, it would be easy to recommend. As it stands, the collection is closer to 1/3 great, 1/3 merely good, and 1/3 sadly average. As such, I would not recommend the collection in its entirity but to an established Barker fan.
'Yattering and Jack' concerns a demon tasked with driving to insanity a man seemingly too inane to affect. The characterisation of the demon inspires sympathy and the whole story is a delectably strange sort of comedy.
'In the Hills, The Cities' ... I can't even. Even amongst the rest of these stories of incredible oddity it stands out as memorable, with provincial townships whose occupants rituistically lash themselves together to form giants to do battle. Beyond that, it's the moments of insight into the cities as an organism that are truly striking.
'Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testement' is, in its own strange way, a story of female empowerment. Aside from the typically gorey and sexualised violence, it's the way that Jacqueline's power grows to affect her while she sleeps that was most unsettling.
'The Skins of the Fathers' concerns a small desert town and the demon creatures that harangue its citizens every dozen or so years. It's the stark contrast with which the human storie occur amongst this madness that make it memorable.
'Rawhead Rex' is FANTASTIC. More even than the destruction wrought by the titular titan, I loved the Lovecraftian way that its very form inspires awe and madness in almost equal parts among those who encounter it - and who survive long enough to react at all.
'The Body Politic' is brilliantly farsical. It depicts the most troublesome of rebellions; that of ones own body parts. The resolution of the main plot is a little bit disappointing, but the final scene of the story compensates nicely.
Quite unlike most others in the collection, 'The Last Illusion' is more adventure than horror. It concerns a mad dash to have the remains of a famous magician cremated before his body and soul can be claimed by the infernal beings with whom he made the deal to gain his powers.
If there was a 'Best of the Books of Blood', consisting of these and a few other particularly good stories, it would be easy to recommend. As it stands, the collection is closer to 1/3 great, 1/3 merely good, and 1/3 sadly average. As such, I would not recommend the collection in its entirity but to an established Barker fan.