Abarat

Rating:
Summary: and now for something COMPLETELY different.......
Review: I picked this book up for the illustrations, (which are quite amazing - I had seen one of his drawings before and wasn't too terribly impressed) but the story just blew me away. I won't tell you about it here, since you can read about it above. I was luke warm about it during the first two chapters or so, but then suddenly it took the first of many total changes in directions. I, literally, had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. (A luxury for someone who has read thousands of books) This is one of my new favorites - definately a work of art in more ways than one.

Rating:
Summary: good art, so-so book
Review: i love Clive Barker's Thief of Always. It is one of my fav readings several years ago. when i saw Abarat, I had to give it a try. It is the first book of 4. On first read you may be disappointed (like i was) if you don't realize that. Barker isn't as good as Stanek in setting up a series take a look at kingdoms and elves of the reaches if you don't believe me. he does though have a story to tell. you can tell the next book should be better.

Overall, this isn't interesting but not uninteresting, just average. The main character, Candy, is a bored girl who stumbles onto a magical world. i couldn't really tell what the purpose of the adventure was though, what it was for or about. this is mostly a neat concept. i'd rather recommend stanek's book mentioned before. There at least we know what the bored main character, Adrina, wants to do and what her journey is about.

Rating:
Summary: Did what Harry Potter Could Not Do .....
Review: and used thouroughly original ideas......the only cliché in this book was the beginning with Candy being bored with her home and wanting an adventure...gimme a break...amyways almost every single thing in this book is creative and fun to read, however, it is darker than the Harry Potter books. The fabulous pictures only enhance the experiance of reading abarat.

the sequel to this book came out it is called Abarat: Days of Magic. Nights of war. I am glad there is a sequal, if there wasn't, well, Abarat drops off abrubtly with out an ending, but so did the Fellowship of the Ring, so read it, it will be good!

Rating:
Summary: This book is Fantastic
Review: Once you start reading this book you cant turn it down, literally!
It has gone where no book has gone before, and Clive Barkers imagination must be amazing for him to write a story as good as this,
It starts out in Chickentown and takes you to the amazing world of the Abarat, where Candy is swept up in the adventure of her life.

this book is so good that I have read it 6 times. If you do not like this book you must be seriously messed up.

Rating:
Summary: A unique vision.
Review: Clive Barker, known as a master of fantastical horror stories, has ventured again into children's literature. Yet, his new novel ABARAT, is quite different from his earlier children's work THE THIEF OF ALWAYS, which was a simple and spooky tale. ABARAT is a vast and colorful fantasy in the tradition of the Oz and Narnia stories. The world of Abarat grew out of a series of paintings the multi-talented Barker created. Inspired by his own imagination, he wrote the story of the paintings and the characters and places they portray. The book itself (the first in a projected 4-part series) is full of these vivid paintings helping to transport the reader to the new universe Barker has created.

The journey to Abarat is undertaken by the unassuming Candy Quakenbush, a 16-year-old girl from Chickentown, Minnesota. Driven to boredom, anger and frustration by her cruel teacher, alcoholic father and distracted mother, she becomes intrigued by the mysterious story of Henry Murkitt while writing a paper about the history of Chickentown (previously named Murkitt) for school. Henry died in a room of the Comfort Tree Hotel and left behind his sextant, used to navigate the seas. When her mean-spirited teacher rejects her school report, Candy flees the classroom and finds herself in a field outside of town mesmerized by a cloud and in front of a dilapidated lighthouse. Before she can solve the mystery of what a lighthouse is doing in the middle of Minnesota, she finds herself face to faces with a seven headed man. He/they tell her the lighthouse, amazingly, once sat on the coast of the sea of Izabella, a sea Candy, with some help from her new friends (yes, each head is a distinct personality) is able to summon after a dramatic battle with another monstrous creature. This sea carries Candy far from her home, her school, and all that is familiar. Yet, it draws her closer to Henry Murkitt.

And so begins Candy's journey to Abarat, a land of 25 islands; one for each hour of the day and one for the time in-between time. The isles of Abarat are as diverse as their populations. Candy is enthralled by Abarat and its citizens, but those she meets think she, as a visitor from the Hereafter, as our world is known, is most exotic. But Candy hardly has time to take in the wondrous sites around her. Her presence is immediately known by several sinister men who realize the threat she poses to their evil plans for domination. It seems Candy was destined to make this journey (ah! now the prologue is beginning to make sense) and besides that she is a scrappy fighter! Soon she is teamed up with a gentle character named Malingo whom she has freed from slavery and together the flee the dark and powerful forces around them. This duo is surely destined for great things, narrow escapes and amazing adventures!

What usually makes a fantasy novel successful is enough of the familiar to make the New World easier to visualize and understand, to make it somehow more plausible. This element of familiarity is what has made other Barker novels, most notably WEAVEWORLD so wonderful and engaging. With ABARAT he discards this formula and presents many new creatures inhabiting a truly original landscape. While in many ways this works, it is a bit overwhelming and distracting. It is unbelievable that Candy would not be paralyzed with shock at the spectacular newness she encounters: she seems to so seamlessly make the transition between worlds. And, I can only hope that Barker comes back to sew up all the loose ends he has left dangling in this first installment.

However, Barker has succeeded in bringing a unique vision to his readers. Perhaps the pace of ABARAT is so frantic is because it is so clear in Barkers mind: it is obvious he has a whole new mythology he would like to share and he can't get it onto the page fast enough. As a novel, ABARAT is dense, detailed and sometimes confusing. As a landscape and fairy tale it is enticing, dark and beautiful. Most likely the young readers this book is intended for will not be critical of the occasional sloppiness in the text and most likely their attention will not be lost through the mental and physical obstacle course Candy finds herself in when she journeys to Abarat.

--- (...)

Rating:
Summary: Abarat
Review: This book took me on a wonderful adventure that defied imagination. Clive Barker creates a wonderful world full of mystery magic and a exiting adventures. Imagine that your boring life gets ripped away in a split second and into the wonderful island of the Abarat. That is what happened to the protagonist Candy Quakenbush, and it changed her life forever.



Abarat starts out with a young school girl named Candy Quackenbush who was having a bad day at school, when one of her doodles shaped as perpetual waves inspired her to ditch school and wander out into the field of Chickentown. Her body was moving on its own as she drifts towards the Johns brother in the outskirts of Chickentown. The Johns brothers are a group of brothers looking for a key. After acknowledging Candy as "the chosen one" they ask her to light up a lighthouse in the fields. After a almost fatal encounter with another minion after the key, Candy lights up the lighthouse and to her immense surprise a ocean appeared in the middle of Minnesota! She learned that the sea is called the Sea of Isabella and it could carry you to the 25 islands of The Abarat.

The Johns brothers are a major help in her adventure, also the Greshgrat Malingo plays a part in her life in Abarat. In Abarat Candy is constantly being perused by the Lord of Midnight, Christopher Carrion. For some reason the lord of terror wants to meet her. As Candy continues her adventure she notices that she can perform magic. She starts to think that she had been to the Abarat before, in another life. After an encounter in the 25 hour, the time out of time, she was showed strange memories of when she was not born. She is introduced to an array of antagonists such as Wolfinsincal, a short shrewd magician who captured candy and threatened to sell Candy to the lord of Midnight. Also the criss cross man, one of Christopher Carrions minions out to capture Candy. This novel combines mystery adventure comedy and alot of imagination. I recommend this book for anyone who loves a good adventure novel. It was a pleasure to read the book Abarat.


Rating:
Summary: Abarat
Review: This book took me on a wonderful adventure that defied imagination. Abarat starts out with a young school girl named Candy Quackenbush who was having a bad day at school when she met the JOhns brother. After meeting them she found out that she is "the one" who can light up a lighthouse leading her to a world of 25 islands, the world of Abarat. The Johns brothers ae a major help in her adventure, also the Greshgrat Malingo plays a part in her life in Abarat. In Abarat Candy is constantly being persued by the Lord of Midnight, Christapher Carrion. For some reason the lord of terror wants to meet her. As Candy contunues her adventure she notices that she can perform magic. She starts to think that she had been to the Abarat before, in another life. It combines mystery adventure comedy and alot of imagination. I recomend this book for anyone who loves a good adventure novel. It was a pleasure to read the book Abarat.

sincerely

errol

Rating:
Summary: Welcome back, Clive!
Review: Clive Barker, Abarat (Joanna Cotler Books, 2002)

Clive Barker can't be said to have hit a slump after Sacrament, because his books are usually (The Damnation Game excepted) a cut above anything else anyone's releasing, but is two post-Sacrament books, Galilee and Coldheart Canyon, didn't seem up to the standard Barker had set for himself in such fantastic journeys as Sacrament, Imajica, and the books of the Art. With Abarat, however, Barker has returned to the fantasy milieu in which he is the strongest, and has turned in quite a fine piece of work.

Candy Quackenbush lives in Chickentown, Minnesota, a place that really defines "nowhere special." She feels, however, that she should be somewhere else, and very soon after the book starts, she finds that somewhere else-- the Abarat, an archipelago in a sea somewhere not of this earth. Abarat, the first book in a projected series, introduces the main players, sets up (we assume) the events of the forthcoming books, and introduces us to the Abarat itself.

Barker's strength has always been the creation of dense, detailed mythologies in which to set his stories. He doesn't reveal everything, so the reader doesn't feel the need to sit with copies of a Biblical concordance and various creation myths in attendance while reading one of Barker's novels, but he gives the reader enough that there's an understanding that there's a whole complex scenario working behind the scenes. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings series operates in the same way, as do Herge's Tintin graphic novels. Barker's worlds often feel as if they have that same level of detail, which is one of the things that separates him from other writers of books like this, and make his work such a pleasure to read. Abarat may well be the most detailed of the lot to date, surpassing even the attention to detail paid to Imajica. Though it's obvious that Abarat is mostly setting up things to come, it's a joy to have one of the modern masters of high fantasy back on form and writing stuff this lovely. ****

Rating:
Summary: The best book ever!
Review: Live in the magical and mysterical world of Abarat, where things are beyond your imagination. Go through Candy Quakenbush's adventure, and live it like your own.

I really enjoyed reading this exciting book. This is about a girl named Candy Quakenbush and when life in Chickentown couldn't be more boring, Candy finds the land Abarat. There is excitment everywhere and everything is way different than her Chickentown life. Candy meets friends and foes and life couldn't get more exciting.

Read it or you lose a great adventure!

Rating:
Summary: a phenomenal adventure for all ages!
Review: Barker creates an adventure filled with action, suspense, and emotion; all with hidden spiritual messages. Creatively written, Abarat is guaranteed to lift up each reader and take them on their own personal journey. This book presents easy, uplifting reading for all ages!