Clive Barker - Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three

"Books of Blood" were my second Barker (the first was "Weaveworld"). They held me from the first page and turned me into a horror freak. Believe it or not, before them I didn?t even like horror.

The very idea that all these stories, except for "The Book of Blood" (the first story in the first book) and "The Book of Blood (A Postscript): On Jerusalem Street" (the last story in the sixth book, or, in some versions, in the third book) are carved on the body of a foolish young man is at the same time sickening and fascinating. And the stories continued in the same manner: sickening and fascinating.

The first book was the best to me, because of such jewels as "The Yattering and Jack" (a really amusing story with occasional disgusting scenes, such as an exploding cat) and "Pig Blood Blues" (now that one was terrifying). The rest of the stories were very good too, but these two were the strongest.

I liked books two and three less than the first one, but don?t take me wrong, I don?t think they were bad. They just weren?t so great as the first one. "Dread" (book two) was perhaps the most horrifying insanity story that I have ever read. And if you?ve seen "Lord of Illusions", you can recognize some scenes from "The Skins of the Fathers" (book two). Speaking of the movie, there are some scenes from "The Last Illusion" (book six) in it as well. As for the book three, "Son of Celluloid" and "Rawhead Rex" usually catch most attention.

I?ve heard that the last three books are not available in America. If you?re a Barker fan, that certainly disappoints you. If you are not, don?t worry, you haven?t lost that much. In the book four, "The Body Policy" was the only really interesting story, about body parts (at first, hands) separating themselves from the man?s body and having independent lives. Creepy. In the book five, the interesting ones are "The Forbidden" (later Americanized in "Candyman", quite a good movie, see it if you get a chance) and "In the Flesh", a rather nightmare-like story. The idea of "Babel?s Children" (still book five) was funny, but the story itself was nothing special. In the book six, "Twilight up the Towers" was well-written, but the concept of beast-people Barker already did (and much better) in "Cabal".

Overall, the first three volumes are well-written and attention grabbing. The second three volumes are not that great, but are still more than worth a read. Can?t wait for his next work!