weaveworld

clive barker is without a doubt one of my favourite authors of all time. his style is unlike anything else you can read: the pure descriptive detail is simply amazing, and the sureal and imaginative characters, events and scenarios he conjours up are unbelievabel. yet he does not write in one particular genre: his works are humorous, sexual, often violent, always magical, and often touch on deep aspects of the human psyche and mentality.

weaveworld is one of clive barkers earlier works, released in 1987. it tells the story of a world called the fugue, that was sealed inside a rug decades ago so that its people, the seerkind, could escape destruction from a power known only as the scourge. the seerkind are related to humans, yet can wield magic and cast "raptures", or spells that mess with peoples senses.

the rug is found by a man called Cal Mooney and a woman he meets called Suzanna Parish. however, the rug is also sought out by a witch called Immacolata, one of the seerkind who was exhiled from her people for her witchcraft and who seeks to bring the fugue to an end. she is accompanied by the hag and the magdolene, her two deceased sisters who exist as ghosts, and a salesman called shadwell, who posses a magic jacket capable of giving a person what they truly desire.

the police of this world, led by a cruel and saddistic man called Hobart, are also on the hunt for the fugue, if only to bring the people after it to justice for their many crimes. on top of that, 5 of the seerkind manage to escape the fugue, including a man called jerichau, and a shapeshifter named nimrod.

with all these seperate groups after the rug, each for their own purposes, the human world watches on as raptures are cast, battles are faught, worlds unfold, and the last pieces of magic that humans may hold are put in peril.

this book is classic barker: the whole story is as imaginative and breathe taking as they come, you can see that the author really puts a part of himself into his work. the descriptions range from bizare, to ghastly, to beautiful, but always in amazing detail and with the utmost care taken to make each description unique. weaveworld is a great read, and it will truly inspire anyone with half an imagination. its powerful, its moving, its inspirational, its one of the best books iv read in a long time, and above all else, its different.