Rating: 
Summary: Terrific plot, great read!
Review: I liked this book. Having read Mr. Barker's works before, I found this one somewhat different, but no less intreresting and entertaining. The great thing about Clive Barker's writing is that it opens up your mind and let's you dare to believe that dreams are made of more matter than we generally take them for. Galilee did not fail to explore the importance of our dreams, although his other books get further involved with them. I think that's fine, and so is the story of Galilee. I recommend it to anyone. Definitely a good book with an amusing plot that wraps you up into it (especially with the way Maddox relays the story to us), with some very sexy imagery. I hope Mr. Barker writes a sequel only because I'm curious about the fate of the Barbarossas and of the remaining Geary's. And, quite honestly, because the story was just too good to end where it did.
Rating: 
Summary: From Wow! to Ho-hum
Review: Barker's attempt to spin a tale combining his already well-known visions of sexual magic and magical sex was very ambitious. In my estimation, this novel's premise is perhaps his best, but ultimately he flounders after one of the most marvelous start-ups in the genre. Indeed, Barker pulls out all of his great, evocative weapons and tantalizes, at first, with dead-on character development which makes Thomas Jefferson's infatuation with a bazillion-year old black goddess (who happens to take up residence in the Carolinas) quite plausible. He hurls a host of yummy people at you--Zabrina, Rachel, Margie, Cadmus, Loretta and cloaks most of them in such a teasing veil of mystery that you just KNOW he's going to give you the REAL skinny on them all toward the end of this ample tale. He reserves his greatest build-up of mystery for the title character. Alas, Galilee turns out to be the millstone which makes this book sink faster than anybody who's ever REALLY ticked off a mafia don. Galilee is vapid--an absolute bore of a character who dog-paddles in his own vast ocean of ho-hum, desperately clinging to some chance, some hope that he might be given the literary equivalent of CPR. As he sinks deeper into the darkling waters of BLAH-ZAY he manages to reach up from the depths and snatch his mother, Cesaria, who was a fascinating character BG(before Galilee).Indeed, she veritably rises like steam off of the pages. Toward the end of this book, however, she turns into someone you might see if Lola Falana and a porcupine started doing guest-star villain roles on the Power Rangers--you know,a mad-but-gorgeous-black-telekinetic-lady. And what about the goody-scarfing Zabrina? At the start of this book you are dying to know her intimate secrets, but she, too, goes down with Galilee's non-character assassination. The myriad Gearys, who are very entertaining at first, end up as wooden and as mysterious as clothespins. I did read this book to the end, although it was a chore. All in all, I'm perturbed at Barker. If a book is going to rot, I'd rather it rotted on pages 1-100 as well as 500-600 and everywhere in between. At least then you can opt out. "Galilee" grips with some of the most well-crafted prose and a truly magnificent premise and then nosedives, knocking the wind out of your sails. I'm sure it'll be a movie starring a whole host of amazing underwear models. Better luck next time, Clive.
Rating:
Summary: Not Barker's best, but still a fine book
Review: Barker fans who are expecting BOOKS OF BLOOD style surrealstic nightmares and bloodbaths will be very disappointed with this book. People who enjoy Barker's eloquent prose and unique storytelling will find much to appreciate here.The plotline is much tighter and easier to follow than books such as IMAJICA and the Books of the Art. However, Barker does not sacrifice any of his customary depth and complexity for a more simplified narrative, as he deftly weaves a story that takes us in and out from the most primal origens of earth to medevial Central Asia, to Jeffersonian and Civil War America to modern times. At the center is his relationship between two great families...the demented, capricious semi-divine and immortal Barbarossas, and the Gearys, which exemplify all the wealth, power, intigue and ruthlessness of modern American royalty. In their relationship is an interesting commentary on the relationship between the supernatural and the worldly, and how both spheres are at the same time antagonistic and dependent upon one another. In this feud and partnership is the makings of great, epic fiction. The book's main weakness is unfortunetly a central one. The relationship between the Galilee Barbarossa and Rachel Pannenburg is at best facile and unconvincing, and at worst nears the excesses of the worst of Ann Rice pseudo-porn. These two characters are the weakest in the book. Galilee appears as nothing more than a blissfully romantic, halfwitted sex machine that would conjur images of Fabio if he were white. Rachel is so callow and self-centered that it is hard to understand why she would have left the Geary's jet-setting sphere. Their supposably epic love seems to be based on nothing more than animal attraction. Their relationship is so subpar by Barker's standards that I wonder if their is a hidden subtext that I am missing. Is Barker, a gay man, creating a satirical caricture of heterosexual passion? In any case, it doesn't work for me. The ending is not completely satifying, but it is obvious that Barker is setting us up for a sequal, and we'll have to wait for our questions to be answered. I for one look forward to the next installment, but I hope that Rachel and Galilee get killed off in the early pages so Barker can focus on the real strengths and power of this story.
Rating: 
Summary: Sexy, but not very special
Review: To be fair, I don't think anything could live up to IMAJICA, one of the best fantastic novels ever. It's got great sex, but there's no grand passion. It has magical beings, but no real magic. I finished it, but it left me lukewarm.
Rating:
Summary: Looking for something different - No one does it better.
Review: An excellent effort for an author who continues to defy the limitations of imagination. What a pleasure it is to see an writer take such care with every sentence. Perhaps, it's once again the bizarre paths Barker takes us on, that deprives him of the acclaim he so richly deserves. While most authors churn out another rehashed "the devil did it" or court drama, Barker weaves another creative gem. I thought it was much stonger than Sacrament and perhaps his best since The Great and Secret Show. I didn't mind the different direction this book took, because it was done well and still ala Barker. I do however long for him to once again reach back into his horror cook book, such as the chilling short story books he earlier released. The only negative to book was the fact that that the story ended with still unfinished business. Hopefully, Galilee will sail again!
Rating: 
Summary: MAGNIFICENT, A MASTERPIECE!
Review: This is a book in the manner of Weaveworld. Its awe-inspiring. It's like gossamer, silk.It's so beautiful you wonder where Clive Barker gets his imagination from. It's the best book I've read in years. Now I'm waiting for the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: magical realism meets the southern gothic
Review: Yet another testament to this man's genius. Mr. Barker should once again be applauded for his continuing evoulution as an artist. He has taken the gothic romance into new forays of surrealism and decadence that blend together in a sugary darkness that is all his own. Clive Barker should be listed with the ranks of Rushdie and Pynchon not the other hacks he's continuously lumped in with. For all those whiners concerned about this not being horror enough stick to heavy metal and Koontz and leave the "literature" for adults.
Rating:
Summary: Galilee is a very good read.
Review: Galilee is very different from Clive Barker's other works. This story is a very smooth and quick read. The characters are very real and yet have a very surreal quality about them. I reccomend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, but at times a little disappointing
Review: I have enjoyed many of Clive Barkers Books in the past and I think he is an extremely skilled writer. I thought Galilee was written exceptionally well, but I believe the ending was a little dispointing, and was a bit of an anti climax. i enjoyed the style of the writing and it was exciting to read. But I felt that the ending did let it down.
Rating:
Summary: Inconsistencies mar this otherwise excellent book
Review: Galilee is only the second book by Clive Barker that I have read, the other being Imajica. Both have a similar, brooding intensity. Both are well-written, with realistic, engaging dialogue and characters that sweep the reader up in their problems. This book, however, seemed a bit sketchy. For instance, the degeneration of Rachel's relationship with Mitchell Geary was told rather than shown. We never quite see what the problem is, other than Rachel's having difficulty with the fact that people are rarely so perfect as their dreams would have them. Galilee was sketchily drawn. It is stated near the end that his only obligation to the Geary's was to be the solacing (and servicing) of their women. Why then, does he kill Mitchell's father? It is implied that he is somehow compelled by a promise to Cadmus' ancestor, but why should such a promise induce him to do what he finds to be revoltingly wrong? There is no reason to think that he is bound, as Pie-Oh-Pah was bound in Imajica, to the service of an unwise master. And what of the fact that he has been released from the promise by the first Geary woman that he has loved? And why the sado-masochistic nature of his further relationships with the Geary women? All-in-all, I found the narrator, Maddox, and his sisters to be the most engrossing characters in the book, far more complex than the eponymous Galilee. I do look forward to the sequel, and I hope that the loose ends are tied up.
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