Rating: 
Summary: Great imagery!
Review: Clive Barker always puts out good, original, quality books. The Damnation Game is no exception. Being so descriptive, the book came alive, and I could see the scenes in my head. If you're looking for a great horror story, this should definately be on your purchase list. Great plot and action, and the main characters aren't your typical good-guy heros (an inmate, a heroin-addicted young woman, and her rich father). I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because it's a great read, but I do believe his Books of Blood was better.
Rating: 
Summary: Damnation game
Review: Damnation Game This is a very nice horror story easily one of the finest horror novels I've ever read. It's not a very easy story to explain to someone I wouldn't recommend it to somebody unless they truly want to read a horrifying story that I would highly recommend to virtually any horror fan. From beginning to end it entertains the characters are very well written and it's just a fun story that just gets better as it goes on. It has very bizarre moments in it but very cool visuals as well. For instance there is a talking fly in it and woman who doesn't even know she's dead yet! There are other parts that are equally bizarre and horrifying but I don't want to give too much away. I love how the characters deal with the situations I just like how it's written. I can't really say anything bad about it. Because there'' a little bit of everything in it. Excellent story telling, very good characters and very horrifying scenes. This is easily a 5 star book and I recommend it to anybody who loves a good old-fashioned horror story. Zombie Claus
Rating:
Summary: Terrifying, depressing, inspiring...
Review: ...these are but a few of the words that come to mind when reading Clive Barker's horror epic The Damnation Game. The downward spiral and descent into the nether regions of existence. Paranoia, sex, violence, mutilation, death...all ideas and topics dealt with in this novel with grace and beauty. Barker has always had the ability to evoke empathy from his readers, you're repulsed because you relate. Granted, you may not eat razors, you may not have played a game of cards with a man capable of bringing the dead back to life, but the emotions and basic human feeling of the story ring true every time. We've all been ambitious, we've all done something we think we will live to regret, and that's the real heart of terror, the constant fear that the consequences of your former actions are just hanging right above your head. read with fascination, expand your horizons of horror fiction, and sleep tight...
Rating:
Summary: JOIN THE DAMNATION GAME!!
Review: Mr. Barker is indeed the true king of horror. This book was a hard one to put down. Through this book we meet the past of Joseph Whitehead and the game he played years ago with a man named Mammoulian, also known as the "Last European". Caught in between becomes Marty Strauss, who is asked to become Whitehead's bodyguard. Strauss learns his boss' past and learns that it becomes impossible to get out of this game unless someone stops Mammoulian. Mr. Barker once again demonstrated that he knows how to build up a scary book, fuelled with unique characters. I don't think there's no one out there, not even Stephen King, that knows how to imitate him. For anyone who indeed wants to read a good scary book try this book, and believe me, you won't even want to put it down until you read the very last page.VERY RECOMMENDED
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Clive Barker story!
Review: To me, this book defines the essence of what is appealing about Clive Barkers vision of horror. It conveys a wonderful sense of immortal evil, the tragedy of human pride, and a clever metaphor which contains just enough truth to terrify. If you enjoy his short stories, but would like to read something memorable that has more depth, this is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: This is what no one could discribe?
Review: I decided to check this book out after i heard and interview with Barker saying that he planned on shooting a movie of The Damnation Game. He said he wanted to go for more of a serious horror film like The Exorcist rather than the many teen slashers out there now.
When i read a number of reviews for it, everyone said that this book was beyond discription. I'll explain it. IT's like this: This guy named Whitehead plays a card game with Mammoulian The Card Player back after WWII, right? Mammoulian is this sorcerer who has never lost a card game in his life. well, Whitehead ends up beating him and we flash foreward to Modern Britian.
It then shifts as we meet the lead character, Marty Strauss, who is an ex-convict. He gets a job for Whitehead who is now rich on a mansion, as someone to tidy things up and stuff. During his stay, he sees unusual things at night and a strange figure. We come to learn that this strange figure is Mammoulian, coming back to re-win his lost game to the one and only man who had beat him.
I only gave the book four stars because, first of all, it just was not scary. I knew it wasn't going to be scary in the very first part we were introduced to Mammoulian, as this tired old sorcerer who seems to be losing his touch. He seemed less mysterious and demonic, and more pitiful and depressed. Maybe the book would have been scarier if we never came to know him so well personally.
Not only that, but it was just over-the-top with its grossness. I don't just mean that it was gory, because that's fine. I mean that where it tried to be scary, it just came off as overly offensive to read and disturbing. Without describing it in too much disturbing detail, there is one scene that has to do with an undead soldier who does...things with corpse's. Yeah, it's that bad.
Rating: 
Summary: Average work compared to his short stories
Review: Humdrum, maybe near boring. I know I am going to get into a lot of trouble out there for this dissenting opinion but i just dont think this book is one of Barker's best, nor even that interesting. The writing was as solid as ever and the plot was interesting, but the story, the way the plot unfolded, just didnt grab me. It probably has to do with the immortal guy completely wasting his power and immortality. At least it seemed so to me. Blah, it just wasnt good. Read the Books of Blood if you are trying to get into Barker, skip this.
Rating:
Summary: He has done it again!
Review: An excellent book on horror and the darker side of deal making.
Rating:
Summary: This should be a movie
Review: Joesph Whitehead is a pharmaceutical baron who had, years before, made a deal with the devil; well, a sorcerer any way. Now the sorcerer wants his part of the deal up held, and so Whitehead hires an ex-con, Marty Strauss, as a bodyguard. The only thing these two have in common is they both gamble. The plot is further complicated by Whitehead's daughter. I liked that the sorcerer is a necromancer, a man who can control the dead, and it has an interesting twist on zombies. This book is mature, gory, and it has a Faust like moral in the end. If you're a fan of Hellraiser movies, than you'll probably like this book. The book flows easily, and you'll be about to read it quickly. I really loved it, and I hope you do too.
Rating:
Summary: An adult, modern, adventure - more fun than fear
Review: Reading throught this book I couldn't help but think of this more as an adult, modern day, Huck-Fin adventure than a horror story. There were gross bits of course. But along with this came a lot of fantasy, and a belief in the main character that I couldn't shake. I enjoyed this book overall, and I can't wait to dig my teeth into more of the author's more fantastical books. An another note, Barker's sex scenes are much better than King's. Every time a sex scene come's up in a King novel, I say "Oh God, not again."
|
