Rating: 
Summary: Involving, good suspense, magical, epic, a little slow.
Review: I didn't meet Clive Barker as an author of the "horror" genre. I read Imajica first, and then The Great and Secret Show, and Everville. None of these were "horror" books the way I have ever considered the genre, although I've seen some people call these books "gorefests" (which I don't quite get - I thought horror was gratuitous violence, not meaningful blood). My point is that I was not disappointed that this book fell short of "horror" (as so many people have mentioned). I wasn't expecting horror, I was expecting magical realism, epic-style. And I got just that.This book reminds me a little of 'The Prince of Tides' (don't laugh - I'm serious!). It's epic length, follows a family closely, looks inside of them and then *features* their dysfunction. That's what fascinates the reader. And in this book, magic, not just politics, saturates the family history. Don't go into this book expecting gross/horror/sex/blood. It's not that kind of book. It's a detailed novel of magical realism with a long, stylized, constructed plot. And Clive Barker has something to say while he entertains you. His message, which I won't give away, is probably the most frightening part of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fame and fortune make writer not very hungry, methinks
Review: Where to begin with this epic? Perhaps to say the quote on the back cover is misleading; it is not a 'war of the worlds,' but a love story with plenty of magic, gods and goddesses and political intrigue thrown in. Barker is very good at chronicling the high life and the fast lane, something he also does well in Coldheart Canyon. He's also quite adept at spinning magic and wonder, at making interesting characters with interesting quirks; Garrison Geary for instance is a necrophile, and pays for women to chill their bodies and play dead while he- well, you can guess the rest.
This story doesn't set out to have conflict followed by resolution, but rather present a portion of time and demonstrate the patterns of events that occur around the characters. This could either be deliberate or indicate an inability to write a novel in the traditional way- I'm not sure which. This is not, then, a conventional novel, and Barker's narrator in this story, Maddox Barbarossa, says as much when he writes it. There's a little too much of the narrator in the story, talking about the story, about how he wants to wow us and so on; it grated me just a tad. It struck me as pretentious.
As is Barker's trademark, this novel is saturated in graphic sex, and as usual it's not conventional rutting. (It is interesting to read from a gay perspective, but I'll endeavour to avoid sounding like a literature student writing a paper.)
I did enjoy reading this, but like Barker's other novels, it's not territory I will revisit. I will read more of his works, but his, like much of Stephen King's, are one-off affairs, and I must admit if it came down to choosing between those two gentlemen I would say this: Barker has more natural talent, but Stephen King writes better stories. Maybe the two men put in different amounts of work and honest self-appraisal.
If I could compare the two, I'd say reading Barker is like being taken on a candlelit dinner in an expensive restaurant, with violins playing and truffles for dinner, with dreamy philosophical conversation; followed, of course, by some kinky sex in a giant canopy bed. It's classy but a little pretentious, and occasionally you want to snot your host in the mouth to shut him up. Stephen King is like a date with simple pleasures and pure fun the order of the day; a good movie, hearty steak, some necking on Lookout Point and plenty of chuckles.
Neither writer is a genius, and King strikes me as entirely comfortable with this fact. Barker though, I am not so sure; I think he would like to be considered a genius, and would like to be one, but he is not. He tries to be, and when it comes to short stories he may be (see Books of Blood) but novels? No. You do not need genius, of course, to write well; he is a quality writer and his short stories show glimpses of brilliance which his novels cannot match. He has a vast vocabulary which fits together seamlessly and unstrained, he sees no harm in using extremes of imagination, and his prose is easy to read and smoothly crafted.
I'd say this book was worth the money if you could get it half price. Barker doesn't need to be that good to sell books any more, which is a sad thing. He has nothing to prove, and that's demonstrated in this effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: Clive Barker has written a masterpiece. This book is so well written that it is almost painfull to read. Two families, the Barbarossa and the Geary are at each others throats for generations. They share a dark secret that has threatened to tear each apart. The story is about when one of the wives of a Geary learns about the favorite son of the Barbarossa's, Galillee. Rachael meets Galillee and the motions of the trouble between the two familles start once again, which lead to a final confrotation between them.
Clive Barker has written an incredibly conplex work, but it is still accessable. All of the characters are flawed, which make them all the more believable. The story reminds you of Hamlet from the point of the two warring families and forbidden love. This story is a must read and is highly recommended
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: not THAT bad
Review: I just finished reading this book and came to the site wanting to see what people thought about it. I'm kind of shocked that so many people didn't like it. I admit that this is the only Clive Barker novel I've finished, so maybe its just that my opinion is not based on my liking his more graphic horror-fantasy stuff. I loved how this novel plays with the idea of divinites being more human than usually thought. As for the characterization, I got a very clear picture of who Rachel and Galilee were. She was the "woman with a dream who thinks she finds it, is sadly mistaken, but then moves on." Her "characterization" is clear enough in the context of what Mr. Barker was trying to get at. She finds Galilee, the human-diety, and together they represent the conflict of human versus diety. Anyway, I just felt obligated to defend this book from what I think are hyper-critical horror fans being a little too harsh.
Rating: 
Summary: This book stinks!
Review: I was somewhat interested in the first few chapters of the book. I soon realized, however, that the book was going absolutely nowhere, fast. None of the characters were developed at all, I saw all of them as predictible and boring. Rachel and Galilee the worst! I was not convinced of the Geery evil in the least...
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: This was a great book. I love the narration, and just everything about it. It's like being on a mental roller coaster as you try to put things together about what's going on, and then something else completely out of the blue happens when you least expect it that explains everything. This is a seriously good book. :)
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