Rating: 
Summary: QUICK EASY READING WITH AN EDGE.........
Review: This is not your typical in depth, fantastic voyage that Barker has put out in the past (Imajica, The Great and Seceret Show, etc.), but it has its moment of beauty and insight into the corrupt lifestyle of the famous and rich. It reads quite easily and is gripping despite its grammatical flaws. There are classic Barker moments of the flesh and desire and his view on Hollywood gives us some relief that we are not of that genre. It does seem that this was written a little more haphazardly then most of his work, but it still entertains and leaves you with a slight tingle in your bones when you are finished.
Rating: 
Summary: How many editors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Review: I think the best way I can describe my feelings while reading COLDHEART CANYON is to use some of Clive Barker's own words from the book (out of context, of course):"Not once did she look away, though every second that it continued she told herself she should do so, because this was just a common atrocity now. It was nothing to look at, and nothing to be proud of looking at." COLDHEART CANYON marks the first (and, I pray, last) pratfall in Barker's otherwise highly commendable writing career. I'm sad to say it, but the entire story, from start to finish, is the type of pedestrian writing I've always held up as an example of what I never wanted my own writing to become. It's rife with two-dimensional characterizations, inane dialogue, glaring grammatical errors on nearly every page and an abundance of amateurish splatter theatrics. All in all, Coldheart Canyon shows the failure of an otherwise gifted storyteller (and a litany of editors) to do the job we pay them to do. I'm simultaneously angry and sad that Barker put out a book of such embarrassingly poor quality. It appears to me that he has reached the point in his fame where the notion of being a star and a media mogul have overshadowed his original desire to write great stories. His time and attention is obviously spread way too thin these days and now those of us who are mature, discriminating readers and fans of his work are paying the price for the past two books he's churned out. They've been either half-baked (as with GALILEE) or still frozen at the back of the freezer, as is the case with this mess. The author and the editor are equally responsible for a poorly edited manuscript. Barker admits that no fewer than four people (including himself) were supposed to have fine-tuned this offering. Well, they're either lazy or suddenly they've all become functionally illiterate. My advice to you is to cancel any plans you might have made to visit COLDHEART CANYON. It looks a lot better in the brochure.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it!
Review: "COLDHEART CANYON" by Clive Barker Clive Barker, known for his strange and wonderful stories of magic and terror, brings Hollywood to brilliant life in his latest work, "Coldheart Canyon". Though perhaps "life" is the wrong word to use.
Hollywood in the 1920's and '30's was a glamorous world filled with the classy silver screen stars that helped put the movie capitol of the world on the map. What the world rarely saw or heard of was the seamier underbelly of that same glitzy lifestyle, the sexual peccadillos and perversions of some of Hollywood's brightest stars. Barker delves deep into this depravity, and weaves one helluva ghost story to boot.
Todd Pickett is the fictional main character, an A-list hunk on the level of Cruise, Pitt, or Gibson. It's not that he's a great actor, or that he stars in great films. But he was blessed with the genetic attributes that causes a whole nation to swoon over his every expression. But, in Hollywood, age can be anathema to any beautiful face, and so it goes with Pickett. Under the ill-advisement of a wunderkind producer, Pickett decides to "go under the knife" of one the that city's best reconstructive and cosmetic surgeons. Of course, the surgery somehow goes horribly wrong, permanently disfiguring Pickett's face.
In an effort to avoid the press frenzy sure to follow such a fantastic story, Pickett retreats to an old mansion hidden deep in the hills above Sunset Blvd., a mansion thought to be deserted. What Pickett finds out, in the worst way possible, is that its not deserted at all, but filled with the souls of the Who's Who of Hollywood past, trapped there by a piece of art transported from Romania by a man obsessed with his wife, the great screen star Katya Lupia.
The story is filled with the names and faces that made Hollywood what it is today, but in ways that are tittilating and fantastic. With his usual panache and deft scene structure, Barker creates a thrilling story, well worth the read!
Be forewarned, this book contains very sexually explicit scenes...with ghosts.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excercise in Editorial Absenteeism
Review: Barker tells us in his introduction about what a difficult time he had writing this book. By the time I finished it, I can understand what he meant. At its core, this is a wonderful story, and the Country is a marvellous invention. However, it is clear that in their attempt to ensure that he finished the project, the editors forgot to finish the job and make sure there was a viable novel at the end. I can almost picture some representative from the publishers standing over Clive with a whip and a cattle prod forcing him to complete his pages, despite any personal tragedies he was dealing with, and then ripping the still warm pages from his hands to take them straight to the presses. That being said, I firmly believe there is no bad Barker, only bad editing. Case in point, the story of Todd's dog. It is beautifully written, and the emotion invested in the story is evident. But it doesn't belong in this novel. It is a wonderful stand alone story, but it adds too many pages to an already overlong book that takes way too long to get to the meat of the plot as it is. There is a great novel hiding in here somewhere. Barker is still one of the most imaginative and sensuous writer out there. But the editors should be severely punished for not finding that book before releasing it to the general public. Barker should demand better of the people he is entrusting with his art.
Rating: 
Summary: A-List Author as Brand
Review: I believe Clive Barker is now a brand like McDonalds, albeit without the quality control. After reading the acknowledgements (or should I say, the "Look at me, Look at me, aren't I great!!!" section) and finding out the picture on the cover was his, my first thought was that this is somebody who gets everything he wants - and throws tantrums if he doesn't. Perhaps a bit like Hollywood A-List people. I can't help but think that is intentional - because in the book he gleefully eviscerates those who behave similarly. As other reviewers have mentioned, it appears that computer spell-check and grammar check may have been done on the manuscript, but that nobody besides the author had any say in the content. In other words, he had Final Cut. Which means that there are whopping plot holes, inconsistencies and bloat. But in Brand management that doesn't matter because it is "Good Enough" to further the Barker Brand - which means good pace, imaginative plots, and nightmarish situations and behaviors. Coldheart Canyon is good enough to not waste your time, but I wish it could be a better, tighter product with more quality control.
Rating:
Summary: Failing Coleridge's Test
Review: Based on a long, glowing interview of Clive Barker in the San Francisco CHRONICLE, I wanted to love this book, the first by the author I would try to read. The I recalled the infamous '30s Dorothy Parker review: "I put this book down and could not pick it up." I did persist to the end--my mistake.
Only a much longer review could capture the breadth and depth of Barker's inadequacies as a writer, glaringly evident in this dreadful book. Beyond the grammatical, syntactical, structural and associated technical problems, the characters are paper thin and unrealized, the 'plot' replete with inconsistencies, the descriptive material pedestrian and full of clangers (example: an earthquake he calls a 'trembler' is actually a temblor, but there are scores of others).
A glance at the excruciatingly self-referential acknowledgements should be warning enough. Barker, though British, has come over to the U.S. to prove with his writing the aphorism attribted to the great H.L. Mencken: "You'll never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public." And he fails the basic test for writing credibility immortalized by Coleridge, the 'willing suspension of disbelief' a reader must perform to accept a piece of writing, especially fantasy such as Barker attempts. Little in the book meets this test. Stay away. Why would HarperCollins want to produce such a mediocre mess? How many much worthier writers won't be published because Barker gets the gig? Won't Amazon create a new review category: no stars?
Rating:
Summary: Could be better
Review: This novel of Hollywood has to do with an aging leading man, Todd Pickett, who, seeing himself being replaced by younger stars, undergoes a painful and not too successful facelift. To avoid the public eye while recovering, he moves from his home in Bel Aire to a palatial estate on a mysterious and unnamed street in the hills above Sunset Blvd. Here, he finds an unexpected occupant, the beautiful and youthful Katya Lipi, who claims to be a star of the silent era. There prove to be many less substantial, but deadly, occupants about as well. The estate turns out to be a place of fear and promise for Todd. The promise for the reader is that Todd will abandon himself to the magic of the place and thereby reclaim his youthful beauty and his career. This may have seemed too trite for the author, however, and what we get is a promising setup, followed by a series of orgiastic and sadistic scenes involving the infernal occupants of Coldheart Canyon and various human interlopers. There is a bit much of this battling ghosts and demons, and the novelty wears off long before we get to some sort of resolution. Amusing photo of the author on the dust jacket, though.
Rating:
Summary: Three stars for a (poorly edited) creative attempt....
Review: I loved Galilee, and couldn't wait to read Coldheart Canyon. The concept sounded delicious. However, I have said it before in these reviews and I'll say it again: why don't they edit these bestselling writers? This is like one of those disappointingly self-indulgent Stephen King novels you keep trying to find the "real" book in, and by the time you're finished you're exhausted and wonder why you wasted so many hours wading through it. In fact, this book reads more like Stephen King than Clive Barker...it has a mundane quality to it. Now, I love Stephen King, but he can (usually) carry off the mundane - he's wittier at it. Barker is wittier at the fantasy stuff. By trying to tackle "ordinary" characters like Tod and Tammy he just doesn't make it. In fact, IF THIS BOOK WERE SUBMITTED BY A FIRST-TIME AUTHOR, IT WOULD BE SENT BACK WITH A NOTICE TO "KEEP TRYING, BUT WE JUST DON'T HAVE THE TIME TO MAKE IT INTO A VIABLE WORK." You know what I mean, all you would-be authors out there, yours truly included. It's overly-long, boring, who-cares. Also: it gives Lilith a bad name (as if she needs the negative press) and it's a Hollywood re-hash of the 'Isle of Dr. Moreau,' which I find quite nauseating.
Rating:
Summary: Good idea...but he didn't know when to stop
Review: This was my first Clive Barker book and I have to say I was impressed initially.The story was very entertaining up to a point. Then it became a burden to finish and silly.It should have ended 300 pages earlier. I was very disappointed. Now, I have no desire to read any more of his books.
Rating:
Summary: inflation
Review: From the vanity photo on the cover to the six hundred page length, everything about this novel is inflated. I heard an interview with Clive Barker on the radio in which he stated this novel started as a short story. It was probably a good short story...in fact it still is. Of the six hundred pages, probably 350 tell an exciting, even chilling story. The other two hundred plus pad, inflate, and bore. The story logically ends and then continues for at least two hundred pages. This is a clear example of a good short story turned into an overwrought inflated novel. I'm glad those extra two hundred pages only cost me fifty cents at the library for overdue book fees.
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