Rating: 
Summary: A Real Page-Turner, but Great Literature?
Review: I can remember the first time I picked up a volume in Clive Barker's _Books of Blood_ series of short story collections. Wow! I thought, this guy can write! When _The Damnation Game_ was released, I was in heaven. Then, somewhere around page 100 of _Weaveworld_, I got a bit bogged-down and never finished the book. Similar experiences awaited me with _The Great and Secret Show_, _Imagica_, and _Everville_. Now, at last, I've come to the end of another Barker novel._Galilee_ is a real page-turner, a compulsively readable novel that grabbed me and didn't let go, in a way that some of Barker's other books haven't. This is a strange mix of horror and romance, the "romance" of a Nathaniel Hawthorne, rather than a Danielle Steel. The tale of the Geary and Barbarossa clans, two powerful, interlocked families, kept me hooked, with just the right number of allusions and hints to the real connections between them to keep me reading. Occasionally, the device of having the narrator recount what is happening now, around him, in the Barbarossa home, L'Enfant, got a bit too much, in that it delayed my return to the suspense of what was happening with the Gearys. Also, a number of unresolved plotlines are left hanging at the end, though it doesn't seem that there's enough story left to warrant a sequel. Finally, I was amazed at the frequency of the typographical errors present in the text--now that Barker has ascended to the heights, doesn't anyone edit his manuscripts anymore? Nevertheless, I'd give the book a fairly strong recommendation. Perfect summer reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Had to put it down
Review: I don't understand the 5-star reviews of this novel. I've read everything that Mr. Barker has written and continue to buy his novels as soon as they are released, which may have been a mistake this time. After 250 pages, I still feel that the story hasn't gotten anywhere. I've hung in as long as I can. Galilee will go back on the bookshelf until I run out of things to read. I hope Mr. Barker reads his readers comments, and if so, I offer this...your imagination is far too vivid and your talent far too large to have wasted the time of both yourself and your readers with this.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Story
Review: Clive Barker does it again! Another book that you do not want to end. Unfotunately it does, but the end is left open to a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Not the sum of its parts.
Review: GALILEE is an epic-long (582 pps) novel of a very broad scope, chronicling the lives of 2 families; one mythical the other secular. The mythical family are the Barbarossas', whom reside in a magical house built by Thomas Jefferson. The leader of this clan is Cessaria, the mother "who had no parents", intimating that she has been here for a great long while, even before Christ. Her son, Galilee was thrown out of the house and family for an idescretion that is not fully known until the last section of the book, but is the catalyst for this story. Galilee's story is intertwined with the family Geary, America's richest family (kind of like the Kennedy's). Starting in the Civil War, both families were forever linked by sordid detail after sordid detail. And then comes Rachel, a "common girl" who is swept off her feet by Mitch Geary and they marry. But after a few tragic incidents, their marriage is over and she's off to the island of Kauaii to visit "The Geary womens' sanctuary", a house that is visited by Galilee when the women need servicing. But this time, more than that happens and it puts into place the battle the two families have been inching towards for centuries. This is all told through the journal entry-type eyes of Eddie, a half-breed Barbarossa. It's a very effective style that allows the reader to experience various points of view without losing the narrative's electric prose and action. I found the novels breadth to be vast and was more of a character study than a novel. Clive masters the poetry of prose to stimulate feelings and emotions about many characters so you don't know who to root for or against. The only problems I had with this work was that I felt a war was going to result with all of the layering Barker does through the first 400 pages. But the climax is but a peep, resulting in a overly simplistic ending to the threat of the Geary's. Also, Mr. Barker seems to have lost the need for explicitness, be it in describing one characters pred! ilection for bedding women who pretend to be dead or in scenes of ultra-violence. He seems to have joined the group that believes the diatribe: less is more. The novel is great, don't get me wrong. It just could have been and should have been more than it is. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books by Clive Barker, a true "americana"
Review: The book by clive barker, though not as beautifully written as Imagica and his "art" series, is one of his best. It is a classical story on several levels. First, it describes (via the two families) how the flesh and the spirit are at contant war with one another. the Geary family represents the flesh, the Bar. represents the spiritual (not nec. in a Jewish/Christian sense, more of a Greek mythological sense). Secondly, it is a Shakespearian drama of two people in love while their families are waring. There is damnation and redemption, a bonding of the mythical sacred male and the sacred female.
Rating:
Summary: Well, it's not _Imagica_, but...
Review: I have always enjoyed Clive Barker's fiction- especially his short stories. The biggest failing that I noticed with the earlier novels that he wrote (_Weaveworld_, _Great and Secret Show_), is that they didn't /end/. He didn't seem to be able to tie off the loose ends of the plotline, and the book sort of floundered around desparately seeking closure for 20 pages before the back cover hit. When _Imajica_ came out- which I thought was the most nearly perfect novel Mr. Barker'd ever written- I imagined he'd defeated this weakness. The three novels that followed continued to fulfill this promise- in them, Barker's writing is not mere style-over-substance, but in which a complete and conclusive plotline unfolds. Sadly, _Galilee_ breaks the basic rule of ending the novel before arriving at the back cover of the book. It doesn't stand alone- there is very little resolution achieved in the 500+ pages of the novel. Which is saddening- there are a lot of gorgeous plotline ideas. I would estimate that we will see a novel which is a sequel to this one- probably after the sequel to _Everville_. Stand-alone, though, the novel doesn't march across the finishline- rather, the novel suddenly realizes that 100 yards back, it ran through the ribbon. That said- even Barker's worst writing is consistently more important and interesting than any other mainstream-bestselling horror/fantasy author. While it's not his best novel- you should read it.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing trip for the mind and the soul...
Review: An amazing tale that spans the imagination. Looking forward to more from Mr. Barker as always!
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Summary: Barker does the fetish!!
Review: Clive does the trick again!Marvellous prose and bizarr erotic.Fantasmagoria at its most extreme.Barker rules!!
Rating:
Summary: Galilee is Strange and Beautiful
Review: This book is at once strange and beautiful. It was hard readng in the beginning, especially if you are a hardcore Clive horror fan. However, once you push past that idea in your head and read on the world in this book changes completely. I had to sit down and read through the middle section instead of working because I got so caught up in this love story between Galilee and Rachel. Its amazing how the "narrative" inside the story keeps pulsing with this relationship out of the gate, and all that it encompasses. I've never seen a writer turn a page in his own writing style, so eloquently. Read it, but remember, its not horror.
Rating:
Summary: Galilee: Manhattan Gothic. Oh, and those beautiful women!
Review: Dear me, I've lost touch with Barker for a while. Then I run into this and I read the flap. when it happened with Sacrament I hesitated and went "Nah!" and with Everville I waited for the paperback. Not so here. I got swept off my feet and enthralled with the book, which I finished in 2 days. Oh, Rachel Pallenberg! Of thee I sing! And how about Marietta, Zabrina and "Mama"? Hey, I'll bet Clive watched his prime time soaps fine in the 80s; Loretta is a wonderful sendup for Angela Channing (Never Miss Ellie Ewing!) and Margie shines on, to the very last drop. I think that is the secret. After all, Barker women are unforgettable and come to haunt you by... remember Helen Buchanan?(The Forbidden) Just one question, though. There's mention of Karen Geary, who we see in passing... and of Alexia Geary (whom we don't see?) I was intrigued by this little girl, the sole heir to this horror and maddeningly Gothic fortune. Will we see Alexia Geary (Garrison and Margie's offspring) anytime if ever? After all, she is a Geary woman... Come back to Wuthering Heights! You most certainly won't regret it!
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