De verdensforviste (1987)

This book probably deserves a full analysis, going into a full and deep review mode that gives a grand majority of the characters, both good and evil, lots of time to explore ambitions and twists and character growths and failures. I should also go into a twenty-page monologue on how beautiful and strange and wonderful the fantasy elements are, from the sideways-twisted tormenting of christian beliefs, the reimagining of so many mythical elements, the fact that good and evil are never what they seem and they often fly into each other's territories regardless of how the quasi-demons, quasi-fae, quasi-witches, or quasi-humans look or feel on the page.

It's scary. It is a horror. And while so many horrific creatures with truly awesome descriptions grace these pages, we're not allowed to go with all our natural assumptions. We're supposed to go off the deep end and humanize everyone, not that they particularly deserve it or that the exercise is especially rewarding. Non-magical humans are Cuckoos. The magical races are Seers. The magical realm is called the Fugue. Do these descriptions raise a LOT more questions than they answer? Yes? That's because things are really MESSED UP and that's what Clive Barker is really good at. :)

We switch between the real world and the magical one many times during this epic tale. It starts as a firm grounding in the real world with the baddies on the way to unweave the Fugue which happens to be a magic carpet that contains a magical universe, and so we've got adventure... but that's such a small part of the whole book. It goes much farther, into epic battles, ambitious salesmen, ages-old revenge, demons from a glass-darkly garden of eden, angels who are scourges, and cthulhu-like entities everywhere, with heads like wounds and stomachs digesting on the outside. This is Clive Barker, after all.

The world-building is truly amazing, and so is the deep reimagining of all magic. Can you get an idea how disturbing it is when the magic is called the Raptures and the Menstruum? Or that an old necromancer could be brought back as boneless assassins even though it is implied that he was the one who created the Cenobites from Hellraiser? I LOVE these kinds of hints and terrors. Not only does it tie so much else together, it just keeps going on and on being inventive and creative and huge!

And on a side note, I kept thinking about playing one of the Desgaea games again, because I'm SOOO sure that they stole the idea of going into items to level them up from the novel. It would make so much sense! But in this case, it's just a carpet with a WHOLE UNIVERSE inside it. :) :)

Everything in here *is* basically based on christian good and evil, but is so nicely subverted and wrenched out of place that it nicely serves the purpose of real horror. You know, looking at the reflection of a thing and recognize it for what it is, and yet it is so sinisterly *off* that it dredges up a whole slew of emotional reverberations that keep us off balance? Yeah, that's Clive Barker for you.

My only real complaint is that I sometimes got lost in a little boredom between all the awesome bits. I can't honestly say that the book could do without them, tho, because when everything is so intense, I'd also lose the thread of letting it settle and get the implications in. It's a long book, and placing this up against ANY modern dark fantasy epic will probably impress just about anyone if they turn a critical eye upon it. Brilliant is an accurate description. Detailed and far-reaching and extremely-deeply thought-out is another.

I love most of the characters, but I didn't love the null spots. Maybe we needed them for just that extra bit of twisting and fleshing for the characters, but lets face it... there were a LOT of characters to get full-dimensionalized. Hats off. I was immensely fascinated for most of the book and creeped out a great deal of the time, too.

It's my own fault, I think, if I didn't care so much during some of the character's crusades. Fortunately, on the whole, this is a truly magical classic. :) ( )

This book has its flaws to be sure, but I love it. I love the mix of adventure, horror, magic, personal stories of love and loss combined with an epic tale of attempted genocide, and all the weird psychosexual aspects that make this book utterly compelling and (so far in my reading) unique. I've re-read it so many times since the first reading (when I was 14 or so), and I don't doubt I'll be reading it again in the near future. ( )

"We weren't hiding," said Jerichau. "We just weren't visible."
"There's a difference?" said Cal."
"Oh certainly."

Clive Barker truly is extra-ordinary. I have honestly not encountered anyone like him, and I am pretty sure I never will. That makes it feel even more stupid to try and compare, but it's extra-ordinary in the way of Tolkien or Siken. It's a good read but it's most of all an experience, a story. It happens to you, you know? Weaveworld is just more evidence of Barker's wonders. Try to explain not just a character chasing after a bird for, like, ten pages but how engaging these ten pages are. It's hard. I guess that goes for most books, but I always find myself struggling to describe or summarise Barker's work. There's so much I want to mention, but also so much I don't want to explain or describe in my own words when the person could just.... experience it themselves.

That being said, my dad has always told me that while Barker is one of his absolute favourites because he is so fucking good when he is good... he is also pretty bad when he is bad. And I think I know what he means after reading Weaveworld (which is tragic as it is my dad's favourite Barker story) because while much better than most others, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. I'm not entirely sure what it was; because the world was so rich and exciting, and some of the characters truly stood out in ways few characters do... but it still lacked that something that keeps Coldheart Canyon in my thoughts even months after reading it. It was fantastic, but not a masterpiece. But I also have a feeling this is one of those kinds of books that you have to read more than once... and I'm perfectly fine with that. ( )

I didn't finish the book. I couldn't relate to the characters and the story bored me. I'm just not the reader for this book. ( )

A very well-written dark fantasy novel. Full of charming characters, surreal imagery, and patches of wonderfully disturbing writing. I honestly cannot believe it took me this long to read Clive Barker. What was I doing with my life? This is a medium-to-long book, and Barker's narration never failed to keep me engrossed: through imaginative and detailed prose, Barker brings his characters and their vibrant, fantastical settings to life.
I cannot wait to dive into Barker's oeuvre. He seems like a relatively forgotten Fantasy/Horror writer who definitely deserves more attention. ( )