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Summary: Fall into the rapture of Weaveworld
Review: Cal Mooney looks into a carpet and in a split second, realizes that all his childhood dreams and fantasies were true. He's drawn into this magical carpet world which has awoken, and in doing so, has attracted the attention of the powerful evil forces that seek to destroy it.I was completely captivated by this story, drawn in from page 1 and kept rapt until the last line. I can't say much about character development, which is usually my #1 interest as a reader, because I was too busy being swept along into this magical world that Barker created. Not a short book, I wasn't aware of the length because I was so involved in the storyline and rooting every step of the way for the survival of this magical world.
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Summary: Description to expand the mind
Review: The world Barker creates in this book becomes more interesting than the characters themselves, which makes that world fascinating since the characters are addictive. His descriptive language somehow doesn't drag at all. If you think you have seen the limits of the imagination, read this book. He's reached beyond that limit and grabbed an idea of great quality.
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Summary: Fantastic Imagination
Review: Having never read a Clive Barker book, I decided to check this out when I found it on a sale rack at the local bookstore. Wow! Not what I expected from him at all. This book was far from the dark horror works that he's known for. More like a present day fantasy world, the universe that he creates is saturated with a mystic feel that makes you look deeper into your own reality. I was completely impressed by his imagination. In fact, that's all I could think of while I read this book. Even secondary characters feel so real that you can't help but genuinely care about them. As for the primary characters, they felt like neighbors after I'd read this book. I was very impressed and have recently purchased several other books by Mr. Barker. I haven't read them yet but am sure that I will enjoy the creativity that he so deftly conveys with the printed word.
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Summary: Nothing Ever Begins
Review: And with that line we pick up on this story without a beginning and without an end. We meet Calhoun Moody and Suzannah Parrish. Two people who come together. Cal, who lives with his depressed dad and pigeons. And Suzannah who travels from England to at the wish of a cryptic note from her Grandmother she barely knew. She finds her on her death bed. These two are brought together during a run in with a human salesman and the incantatrix Immacolata, who is using the salesman for her will. They are after a carpet. A carpet that houses the Seerkind. Immacolata was once one of them, but she escape now she want them destroyed. And so the story goes from there. Suzannah (who receives part of Immacolata's menstruum, and thus some of her powers), and Mad Mooney must get this carpet back from those two eveil people. They are met by a few stragglers from "The Fugue" who help (and don't help) the two on their journey. This is an epic fantasy novel that could rival classics like The Riftwar Saga and The Lord of the Rings. Clive Barker uses his masterful writing to paint us a beautifl image of England as well as The Fugue, the two places that most of the story is told in. And the words all weave together to tell this wonderful story. And if reading that last three paragraghs doesn't bring a tear to your face as you finally close this chapter of the adventure, I don't know *what* will. You owe it to yourself to pick this wonderful book up and give it a read.
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Summary: Don't expect swords & steeds in this fantasy masterpiece!
Review: As I type this, I am on a break from reading Coldheart Canyon, which I am enjoying greatly. I am going to go back and re-read all the Barker books I have. In the case of Weaveworld, it will be the 5th time I have read it. It is that good. I bought Weaveworld when it first came out in paperback. I read about 20 pages and set it aside, distracted, and unable to get into it. I didn't return to it for almost a year. I had no idea what I was missing. When I finally got around to reading it, I devoured it. When I finished it, I read it again. Within two years, I read Weaveworld four times. The sense of wonder, the feelings of loss and triumph, the concept of "if you had glimpsed wonderland, if you had touched it, how could you return to your normal life?" just entranced me. It has been ten years since I last read this masterpiece, yet the characters and images are vividly fresh in my mind. Cal, Suzanna, Shadwell(that jacket!), Immacolata, Magdalene, the Hag, the by-blows, the Scourge, Balm de Bono, Cal's dad, the Seerkind, the Rake, Lemuel Lo, Jude Pears (giddyfruit)...I remember them all like they are friends and family. When I was reading it, and for a while after, I began having vivid dreams, where I was in lands of wonder. They were brilliant, colorful adventures of my own, having nothing to do with the characters in this book, but similar in style and feel. Those dreams eventually ceased, and I am going to read Weaveworld again, in the hardcover version I bought a few years ago, to try to get that feeling of wonder back. My favorite book by Barker, by far, and one of my favorites in existence, Weaveworld touched something deep inside and stirred me to the beauty of the imagination. Imajica may be better technically; Barker has as much as said so. His writing skills improved with time, but there is a unique fairytale feel to this, mixed with Barker's dark and uncompromising sense of horror, sex and fantasy that makes it compelling reading. A truly wondrous book by an immensely talented man. Thank you, Clive for sharing your worlds with us.
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Summary: Forget what you think you know about Clive Barker
Review: I bought this book years ago just based on the premise, but I just recently got around to reading it. Now I think of the time wasted by not reading it as a loss of time I could have spent being enlightened by the knowledge this book has to offer. This is, on a primitive level, a fantasy book. However, don't judge it by that genre. In fact, it's more of a magical realism work, in which most of the novel takes place in present day Liverpool. The book uses that as its anchor, in order for the reader to better accept the fantasy element that is the Fugue (aka the Weaveworld). The main character, Cal, is an Everyman: flawed, but universally likeable. The best part of the characters is that their motives are never completely clear cut; you have to keep reading to understand them. They each seem to represent the best--and worst--of all of us. In short, this book is a work of art. Its message (to give homage to your dreams in the chance they may come true) is something even kids will get. Buy this book!
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Summary: A surprising epic
Review: Weaveworld is the story of a magical people, called the Seerkind, who have woven their entire world, called The Fugue, into a rug in order to hide from something that was wiping out their entire world, this thing being the Scourge. No one knew what the Scourge was, only that they must get away from it before they all ceased to exhist. Guardians are appointed to watch over the rug, called The Weave, and all of the Seerkind go to sleep. After a long time in the human world, called The Kingdom, all of the guardians eventually die off. After the weave is removed from the home of the last guardian Cal, a human, called Cukoos by the Seerkind, quite accidentally falls onto the weave and enters the Fugue - just for a moment. The bliss that Cal experiences in the Fugue leaves him lonely and despondent for what he believes to be paradise found, then lost again. Cal doesn't have long to brew in his despondency, however, before he meets a few more interesting characters. First, there is Suzanna, the granddaughter of the last Guardian of the Weave. Together, Suzanna and Cal become the main force for protecting the Weave from the final two characters of importance - Shadwell, a 'Cukoo' salesman with a menevolant spirit who wants only to gain the world and Immaculota, a Seerkind witch who was thrown out of the Fugue before the weaving for causing trouble - ie.trying to rule the Fugue. Immaculota and Shadwell also want the weave. Shadwell wants to sell the weave to rich international buyers for huge profit. Immaculota simply wants to destroy the Fugue and gain revenge upon all of those who humiliated and exiled her to the world of the Cukoos. Wrapped up in all of this is a story of complex love, never forgetting, the power of the imagination, and the human being's unbelievable capacity for both hatred and forgiveness. This is not light reading. I was truly impressed, whilst still completely entertained. Though I have tried to lay out the basic plot, as with any epic, this one is complex and involves many, many twists along the way. I found the book to be thoroughly engrossing, though I am not normally much of a fantasy fan. This book almost belongs in it's own genre of fantasy/horror. It has all of the darkness of a classic Stephen King and much of the epic of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
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Summary: Fantasy/Psychology of Growing Up and Losing Sight of Wonder
Review: I read this book the first time in 1989. I was a junior in high school who had just been blown away by the Hellraiser movie so I decided to try one of his books. I have since read the book a total of six times. Once every few years. I am now 30 and can relate much more than I could when I was 16. On one level it is a fantastic fantasy adventure. On another it is a look at the grayness that comes into our lives as move through adulthood settling into domestication. The main character, Calhoun Mooney, leads a normal and mundane life until he sees paradise....then eventually walks through paradise only to lose it again. This seems to be a common theme in Mr. Barkers early novels. Over time Cal Mooney begins to fall into complacency and indifference in everyday life and begins to question whether it really happened or was all just a dream. There is a lot to this. Day after day of commuting back and forth to the office and eating t.v. dinners at home watching junk on the television it becomes easy to become numb and lose sight of the wonder in life. Even the Scourge fell in to sleep having forgotten who he was and building an image of himself based on what was happening around him through the years. Having completely lost his self identity. This is great stuff. And...this is only one aspect of this huge epic novel. There are plenty of character studies in the way different people handle paradise. Some wish to preserve it, some to destroy it and some to sell it. This truly is a monumental work by a prodigy of the english language.
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Summary: Fantastic!
Review: Clive Barker is a genius. I've been reading him for years and he never ceases to impress me. I just read Weaveworld about three weeks ago. This was such a fabulous book. I could not put it down. Barker writes with such style, such pure artsistry, that he pulls you in and doesn't let you come up for air until the book is finished. Barker brings us the story of Cal, a man working a complacent job at an insurance firm who one day loses his prize pigeon in a whirl of chaos and confusion that leads him into the grips of the fugue. The Fugue is a place of wonders, a home to the Seerkind, a race of magical beings that can bring magic to life at their very fingertips. Cal falls in love with their race and his human companion whose grandmother kept hold of the fugue in a woven rug for decades. From their we experience adventure, terror, love, tragedy, and about every emotion one can think of. This book was a godsend and a classic piece of literature. Barker has a mind like no other, and he has my very deepest respect. This book was miraculous!
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Summary: great
Review: Already a fan, I discovered this book a few years ago. I was a little skeptical, it's a "children's book". Well, whatever the case, I loved it. It may have been written for kids, but it certainly captured and held my attention. I am biased, though, I love Clive Barker!... Anyway. I would also recommend this for (slightly older) children. The imaginativeness (is that a word?!) is great, not your typical story. Maybe I'm gonna offend somebody, but I think this would go over very well with older Harry Potter fans.
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