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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If you start this book knowing that it will be weird (I mean, it is Clive Barker), then I think you will enjoy it more. It is strange but intriguing with the right balance of what the fuck(?) and WHAT THE FUCK. I've read this several times and have always liked the odd little worlds that Barker creates.
This book is a great book. It is a lot less disgusting than Coldheart Canyon, whilst retaining the quality writing. I recommend it.
This book sucked, some good moments and ideas, the character where bland, never developed, I felt violent hatred for the cast and wish painful deaths for all of them. At the climax I yearned to read a love craft instead so thanks Clive for sparking my passion for a better author, shit dog 30 hours I’ll never get back cash in my Clive barker stack for a 5$ chicken popper sweat and spicy form aldi catch me in cavil ave Clive I’ll fold you up like sofa throw put you in the cupboard with some moth balls for the winter
I revisited this book after about fifteen years, and it's even better the second time around. Great and Secret Show is somewhat reminiscent of Stephen King's middle years -- it's all about the inhuman and fantastic interfacing with modern American suburbia. Palomo Grove is like Derry, Maine, a quiet town where immortal spirits come to duke it out, using the town's inhabitants as vessels and tools.
Barker is fantastic at building his own mythologies. Great and Secret Show nods to Lovecraft without becoming a pastiche, and echoes the magical conceits of Imagica without aping it outright. Most of all, he manages to take familiar ideas and make them fresh -- an antagonist who literally feeds upon nightmares (while remaining just a little bit sympathetic -- classic Barker) and a failed shaman / mentor whose power is fueled by dreams. Both are given flesh and form in the story, but the nightmares, as in many horror novels, end up being far more compelling.
The book is not perfect -- the middle act sags a little, and a few elements feel underdeveloped, while others outstay their welcome. But this is modern fantasy at its best -- dangerous, primal, unpredictable, full of beauty and terror. This book went on my shelf of favorites long ago, and it's earned the right to stay there.
Barker is fantastic at building his own mythologies. Great and Secret Show nods to Lovecraft without becoming a pastiche, and echoes the magical conceits of Imagica without aping it outright. Most of all, he manages to take familiar ideas and make them fresh -- an antagonist who literally feeds upon nightmares (while remaining just a little bit sympathetic -- classic Barker) and a failed shaman / mentor whose power is fueled by dreams. Both are given flesh and form in the story, but the nightmares, as in many horror novels, end up being far more compelling.
The book is not perfect -- the middle act sags a little, and a few elements feel underdeveloped, while others outstay their welcome. But this is modern fantasy at its best -- dangerous, primal, unpredictable, full of beauty and terror. This book went on my shelf of favorites long ago, and it's earned the right to stay there.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a tough one. Barker's formidable imagination is on display here, as is his unmatched facility with creating mythology. It's also a bit of a mess, structurally speaking, and doesn't really build to much of a crescendo by the end. It's unfocused and really only works at all because of how good Barker is.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Great and Secret Show is an epic novel (and I rarely use the word epic). It's an epic of mythology born from Clive Barkers mind. It spans some 4o years and involves a huge cast of characters. It's a story of good and evil I suppose but saying that is a bit too reductive. It is about a tug of war of yen and yang, two energies necessary for the world to exist. And above all how these to forces effect the ever changing world they inhabit. To say more would ruin the story.
The ease with which these 600+ page passed by for me was simply incredible. It seems unfair to other writers that such a long book should feel so lean and concise. Unlike most books that cycle between multiple narratives, none of the various story lines seemed to just be filler--they all moved the story forward and had a reason for being there. The intricacy of all the moving parts of this story--its themes, its characters and its myth--are astounding.
This is now a favorite book for me and I think it's the best I've ever read from Clive Barker. I'd recommend it to those dipping their toes into horror, or those that love fantasy and maybe those that love metaphysical themes.
"As within, So Without, as the universe so the soul"
The ease with which these 600+ page passed by for me was simply incredible. It seems unfair to other writers that such a long book should feel so lean and concise. Unlike most books that cycle between multiple narratives, none of the various story lines seemed to just be filler--they all moved the story forward and had a reason for being there. The intricacy of all the moving parts of this story--its themes, its characters and its myth--are astounding.
This is now a favorite book for me and I think it's the best I've ever read from Clive Barker. I'd recommend it to those dipping their toes into horror, or those that love fantasy and maybe those that love metaphysical themes.
"As within, So Without, as the universe so the soul"
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes