Abarat

Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: a wonderfully illustrated, stirring tale that appeals to all ages. The design of this book is excellent. The pedigree of the author is astounding. The story is highly interesting and masterfully written.

It is fun to get into the works of a writer who is so multitalented and then discover one work that captures it all so well.

a sensible and fulfilling buy.

Rating:
Summary: Read a library copy
Review: Before you spend money on this book, get a copy from the library. See if you enjoy reading it for sixty or so pages. We have teens who read a lot, but they couldn't get into this book at all, and neither could I. The lead doesn't have a motive or a clue, the other characters are amazing but without personality, and the plot drifts from anecdote to anecdote, getting more confused the farther into the book. This may be a case of the author being too clever for the reader, and the reviewers wanting to embrace a hyper-clever book rather than an interesting one.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't want it to end.
Review: Just read "Abarat" and I was really impressed. In terms of the richness of characters, writing and settings, "Abarat" is right up there with "Imajica," which is probably Clive Barker's best book, next to "Weaveworld."

When I read "Coldheart Canyon" around this time last year, it seemed lacking, as if Barker's attention had been distracted by something. It's clear now that he was putting his energy into "Abarat."

This book is the beginning of a great adventure. I didn't want it to end. I put down the book and said, "Oh, it's over?," only to find that I'd gone thru 400 pages.

Can't wait till the next one.

Rating:
Summary: Buy it for the artwork
Review: which is amazing although I think it may be too scary for young children. Mr. Barker claims this to be a children's book and in writing style and characters it is, but much of the language will be beyond even well-read teenagers. I consider myself to have a better than average vocabulary and found several words I had to look up.As a story, this is a fascinating premise. Candy Quackenbush finds her life unsatisfying and is magically transported to an archepeligo where each island represents an hour of the day. Note to parents, there are scenes of emotional and physical abuse depicted in this book which may make it inappropriate reading for children under 12.As a book of pure fantasy, I enjoyed it but found the pace to be a bit uneven. As a first book in the series, I am looking forward to the upcomng books. I think now that the stage is set, our heroes explorations of the islands will become even more enjoyable. I am especially looking forward to finding out Candy's relationship to the 25th hour and the 3 women who begin this novel (I have an idea and I want to see how close I am).If you like Tolkein, I think you will enjoy this book. While Mr. Barker does not reach that grand scale, he has created an enjoyable retreat, peopled with well-drawn characters and lush scenery. And of course, you will not be able to help singing about The Hamster Tree.

Rating:
Summary: none
Review: From one of the most fertile minds of imaginative fiction, Barker has created a wonderland and timeless tale of the exotic and mysterious, of wonder and awe, terror and joy. 'Abarat' is a mesmerizing delight and adventure for readers of all ages... Gary S. Potter Author/Poet

Rating:
Summary: great book for everyone
Review: This book is pure magic. I couldn't put it down. The characters are wonderfully realized and their quirkiness is fully animated from page to page. the pages are bursting with colorful, gorgeous paintings by Barker himself. He has a great talent. He is hands down the greatest living author today. To be able to go from so many different mediums and topics for his material is just so astonishing. Abarat is an example of that talent.

Candy Quakenbush lives in Chickentown and she thinks it['s awful]. I'd agree with her. Her teachers are jerkweeds and her classmates are cruel little vipers that mock her poverty. So, she says adios and walks out the school doors into the great unknown of the town, where she lands herself in the comoany of John Mischief and his brothers. From there the adventure begins. It leaves you tearing through the pages like wrapping paper to a really wonderful gift. You'll be done with it and you'll be left panting and starved for more. I can't wait for the next installment. Clive Barker rocks!!!!

Rating:
Summary: DON'T MISS THIS BOOK![.]
Review: This is an amazing book. I went around singing the "Hamster Tree" song for days. Truthfully, I couldn't put it down (the only downside to this book is that you may not get any work done while you read it). Mr. Barker creates a strange and beautiful world, which is accented by his amazing paintings. You grow to love the characters (my personal favorite is Malingo) and the villian is anything but one-dimensional. Everthing about this book is wonderful. DON'T MISS IT! (And buying the hardcover edition is worth it. The pages are printed on high-quality paper for the paintings, which are as perfect as the words.)

Rating:
Summary: Surreal Wonders
Review: This has to be one of the best books in the world. It is imaginative, thoroughly original, and it is so living and vibrant you can feel the Abarat around you.

The story shifts form the drab and horrible reality, the life of Candy in Chickentown, Minnesota, but after only a shorth while you are whirled into the totaly new world of the Abarat, where place is time, and the normal rules just dont apply.

The Abbarat is a collection of islands, each island being also a particular hour of the day. The book is rich in its descriptions of the new world, full of colours and athmosphere. The lively Yebba Dim Day, the oppressive Gorgossium, and wonderfull mixture of comedy and horror on Ninnyhammer.

Rather than standard fantasy-creatures, the book is crammed with original wonders, all so beautifully surreal that you instantly believe it.

Another great thing about this book is that it is filled with the most beautiful illustrations, both childish and sophisticated at the same time. It is almost worth buying this book just for them.

The book is so effortlessly surreal that you are completely swept away by the sheer beauty of it. A worthy read, surely.

So, what are you waiting for! Call up the sea, and venture forth into the Abbarat. You will never want to return.

Rating:
Summary: abarat/perplexed
Review: Most of the reviews for this book are good, so maybe something is wrong with me, but I gave this book about 125 pages and it just wasn't clicking for me. I like to give a story a fair shake and I admit I paid my hard-earned cash because of the art work and the fact that this book was well put together. The quality is there, but the text. . .It seemed like Clive Barker was just writing whatever came to mind, like a stream of consciousness type deal. I'll try again, but I'll be honest it'll be when I'm good and bored and hard-up for a read.

Rating:
Summary: Barker's Forte
Review: Abarat marks something a of comeback from one time wunderkind Barker, who for a slew of books (The Books of Blood, The Damnation Game, Weaveworld, The Great & Secret Show, Imagica, The Thief of Always, and Everville) seemed to redefine fantasy & horror in popular fiction. Wildly imaginative and surprisingly literate, these leftfield blockbusters had little in common with what passed for genre publishing in the early nineties.

Then came trouble: the "personal" Sacrament, commendable but also, for the first time, dull in spots, the bizarro Galilee (stick with it for the first 400 pages and it gets interesting in the last 50), and finally the entirely unsalvagable Coldheart Canyon, a Barker novel of pure tedium.

Each of these titles was increasingly "realistic," and as Coldheart Canyon made abundantly clear, nothing bores Barker like the real. In seemingly reaching for the NYT Bestseller List, the master magician was starting to put his core audience to sleep.

Abarat does a reasonable job of rectifying the situation. J.K. Rowling has set free Barker's prodigious imagination with that suddenly common refrain "it's a children's book," and the conjurer is cooking again.

While Abarat doesn't immediately climb the heights of Weaveworld or Imagica it is cut from their fabulist cloth -- with stiches of Everville's Lewis Carroll influence worked in. The series won't challenge Harry Potter -- Barker has neither Rowling's quick wit nor narrative drive -- but its boldly colored new world teases and pleases with Barkerian monsters, eccentrics, and wacky place names, and if this first volume is more travelogue than tale, it promises much fun to come.

As to it being a children's book, well, the language is simpler and there's less disembowlment than usual, but Arabat will likely please mature fans of Barker's early work much more than the "adult" Coldheart Canyon.