Rating: 
Summary: a dissapointment
Review: and here's why:I've been a huge fan of his movies,starting with the hellraiser and finishing with lord of illusions,however the only book I've ever read of his was a thief of always and it left me with an unformed opinion of the author,so I've decided to check out some more of his books.Cabal was the one I was interested in the most,because two of the stories have been turned into movies it seemed like an easier introduction to the author as an writer and not a film maker.Was I wrong,first of,it seems that the movies,especially "lord of illusions" were not based but merely suggested by the story "the last illusion",which would be fine,except that the story was so tragically inferior to the movie,that it's hard to believe it was written by the same man.And that one was the best short story in the book,so hopefully it says something about the rest.Cabal is overall the most interesting and well developed story,however it somehow appears as a middle of something bigger and better.That and strangely poor developed and not highly likable characters,in my opinion,were the strong minuses of Cabal.
As far as the writing itself goes,the author seems to have an uncanny ability to go from highly eloquent to plainly crude and vulgar within the same page.It's fairly transparent that the author is british and that his favorite words seem to be spittle and innards,his favorite subjects are monsters and creatures of darkness,whom he writes of so creatively and vividly,one can only wish he would pass on some of that passion to his human subjects.
In short,this was not an enjoable read and I can only hope that the author got better with time,because I managed to aquire quite a few of his books and I would hate to think them a waste.Stick to the movies.
Rating: 
Summary: Loving the Hateful
Review: Barker is strong with making hateful characters romantically appealing, and turning them aside from evil. Surely his early short stories are rife with the injustice caused by the unloved, and the unloved being punished for their helpless causation; but Barker has expressed his feeling that no one deserves spite and hate is always entirely biased and only justifiable from a selfish point of view.Anyone who would think Barker's novels weaker than the movies made of these books and stories is really saying they cannot gather the subtelty and beauty of his novels. (The one exception to this is the short novel The Hellbound Heart, truly weakly wrought, not very astounding as an analysis of human interaction, and just a blatant statement of Barker's individual style of horror. As such, it is useful; otherwise, it is foul.) Cabal among all mature works of Clive expresses love for the terrorized, and sympathy, compassion for those marginalized and weakened by society. Even the serial killers can be loved, even the perverts are people and worth compassion and are adorable; not only in Clive's fiction, but to an extent in the real world... to a very large extent, in the real world too.
Rating:
Summary: Loving the Hateful
Review: Barker is strong with making hateful characters romantically appealing, and turning them aside from evil. Surely his early short stories are rife with the injustice caused by the unloved, and the unloved being punished for their helpless causation; but Barker has expressed his feeling that no one deserves spite and hate is always entirely biased and only justifiable from a selfish point of view. Anyone who would think Barker's novels weaker than the movies made of these books and stories is really saying they cannot gather the subtelty and beauty of his novels. (The one exception to this is the short novel The Hellbound Heart, truly weakly wrought, not very astounding as an analysis of human interaction, and just a blatant statement of Barker's individual style of horror. As such, it is useful; otherwise, it is foul.) Cabal among all mature works of Clive expresses love for the terrorized, and sympathy, compassion for those marginalized and weakened by society. Even the serial killers can be loved, even the perverts are people and worth compassion and are adorable; not only in Clive's fiction, but to an extent in the real world... to a very large extent, in the real world too.
Rating: 
Summary: Far from his best, but Barker always satisfies...
Review: Cabal is one of Clive Barker's earlier books, and while It does not have the depth or captivating imagery of his previous book "The Damanation Game", it is still a fine read. Canadian readers will enjoy the fact the story is set in Northern Alberta. While another reviewer preferred the movie, I think it paled in comparison to the book... Barker is one of the truly great Horror-Fantasy writers of all time and one needs to condition themselves to his style... He weaves not only horror and fantasy... he spins equal amounts of black comedy and erotosism into his work... A real balancing act. Start with his books of blood (a series of short stories) and then read Damnation game (his first full-length novel) and you will soon find yourself suspended in his worlds.... There are wondefully wicked and horrifying places... You'll love you stay! Weezer
Rating:
Summary: Good. But not awesome. Clive's written better ones.
Review: Cabal was the first Clive Barker novel I've read, but it didn't struck me as something amazing. I thought it was good, but nothing to get all crazy about. Just recently I've decided to give it another shot and I've picked up Weaveworld -- and WOW. So much better! Cabal is worth a read, but if you want a seriously good and intensely imaginative story, pick up Weaveworld. I will definitely keep on reading Barker's novels - what a talent!
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly Bad
Review: Clive Barker is a terrible writer. For some unknown reason, I've read several of his books over the years, most likely because they're sold at the airport bookstore, and I need something new to read on a long flight. His books are uniformly badly written, with plots that go nowhere, and full of ridiculous metaphors (the sun rose like a stripper...) and bizarre sex (invariably, someone is aroused by killing someone/being killed/seeing a monster/being a monster/etc). I personally don't understand how his books even get published, let alone sell, and THEN also get turned into movies! How does this happen? Fight the insanity, and just say no to Clive Barker.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Clive Barker is the greatest author in the Horror genre simply because of his technique. He weaves and creates a complete world for the reader to step into and experience the words he writes. I felt like I was standing in that seemingly abandoned town of Midian, waiting for those "monsters" to come take us where Boone felt he belonged. I felt every emotion on those pages. Thank you, again, Clive Barker, for a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: Yeccch. Drearily repetitive violence and purple prose.
Review: Clive Barker's Cabal contains a novella by the same name, plus a few extra short stories to fill out the page length. I read the novella ("Cabal") and the first of the short stories ("The Life of Death") and didn't bother to finish the rest of the book; you'll see why shortly. By the way, this was my first (and probably last) experience with Clive Barker.
I enjoy creepy stories (I'm a fan of Stephen King and Peter Straub, for example) and fantasies (e.g. Ursula K. Le Guin, Neil Gaiman) -- including those with a Gothic sensibility, such the Anne Rice novels -- so I was looking forward to reading Clive Barker, who has a reputation of being a master of gothic horror. But judging by "Cabal," I haven't been missing anything.
Yechhh. The novella is a long, pointless exercise in mutilation: a tale of hacked bodies told in hacked prose. I kept hoping that all of the gratuitous descriptions of faces hacked apart with butcher's knives were there to just spice up a story, but it turned out that there wasn't really much of a story to spice up.
Although I can't go into detail without spoiling one of the very few plot points of the book, I'll say that the underground city was an intriguing invention, but never really explored. We get only vague descriptions of the Breed (with a few notable but ultimately disappointing exceptions), whereas we get page after page of loving detail every time Barker wants to describe someone being mutilated.
The characters are shallowly sketched, and rarely rise above being cardboard cut-outs. We never really learn the nature of Boone's character -- his mental problems are alluded to frequently so that we expect that they will hold some key to the meaning of the story, but this promise is never fulfilled. Who is Lori, Boone's former lover? Although she is a central character, we never understand why she loves Boone so much that she is willing risk her life for him. Instead of investing time on the nature of their strange relationship, Barker decides to treat us to an entirely gratuitous (and completely unerotic) scene of Lori masturbating in a hotel room. Yawn. What about Decker? Although Barker's made a small effort to make his villain memorable, we never gain any insight into Decker's history or his personality. Like all the other characters, he acts without motivation or goal, and thus his actions are boring and repetitive.
And while we're on the subject of characters: there's just no excuse for the redneck police chief -- a completely cliched character taken right out of a made-for-TV movie.
Did I mention how awful his writing is? Here's a bit of the character Lori's interior monologue as she meditates on her former lover Boone:
"There were those among her peers who said she'd never have been courted by a man like Boone if he'd been sane, meaning not that his illness made him choose blindly but that a face like his, which inspired such fawning in those susceptible to faces, would have been in the company of like beauty had the mind behind it not been unbalanced."
And after wading through a couple hundred pages of tortured prose like that, the ending turned out to be completely unrewarding, a trite bit of fakery tacked on the end to round out a barely-considered plot full of loose ends.
I know Barker has his die-hard fans, but I'll never count myself among them if "Cabal" is typical of his work. It will probably be a long time -- if ever -- that I give this writer another chance. There are too many other great books out there to waste time on garbage like this.
Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: Good, violent, creepy stuff. Barker has done better, but not much. I enjoyed it alot.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Stars isn't enough - it is a 10!
Review: I had seen the movie first and then read the book. Of course the book was infinately better. This was the first book of Clive Barker's that I had ever read and it prompted me to read everything else of Clive's that I could get my hands on. Cabal is a look into a beautiful yet monsterous world where the good guy isn't your typical hero. Clive has an amazing imagination that will leave you awe. I not only recommend this book, but all of Clive's books.
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