Abarat

[Snow]

I was in Salt Lake last week and at the airport on the way back I bought a copy of one of Clive Barker's new books - Abarat.

I got hooked on Barker back when he used to write horror. The movie Hellraiser was taken from his novella The Books of Blood. Then he kind of morphed into fantasy, then into whimsical fantasy and that's kind of what Abarat is - A blend of Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardobe according to one reviewer.

It reads very fast, I was on page 200 by the time I arrived in California but I have to say I was disappointed. I came away feeling that it was mostly an exercise in Barker showing us how clever his imagination is. Then, I get to the end of 430 pages and find that there is no conclusion, it's is just the end of a series of books on the world of Abarat.

You know how you find a new author, get enthralled, read everything they write, then after a while you get diminshing returns on your time investment and become disenchanted. I was tight with Stephen King through his first 7 books or so before the magic was gone. With John Grisham it only took 4 books.

Anyway, for you fantasy types, it might be worth a look. One day soon it will be a big motion picture, cool website at the very least:

http://www.thebooksofabarat.com/content4/xbarat99.html

[john doe]

I don't know anything about Abarat, but I know what you mean by diminishing returns. Grisham used to be one of my favorites, but he burned out fast. His last couple have been uninspired and ended poorly.

Clancy is still good for me, but his series with other writers actually doing most of the writing are noticeably on a lower level of writing. His last novel also seemed to be a little forced, I think he may be getting low on fresh ideas.

Crichton is hit-or-miss with me, sometimes I like him, sometimes not. Martini is the same way.

I grew up reading L'Amour and enjoyed his style, he seemed to make it easy to get involved on a story. Of course, after a while they all seemed to blend in to the same basic story line without much new.

I don't much care for most of the other authors out there, I tend to get bored easily if I'm not sucked in to a story early on.


I enjoy reading an author who can educate me, entertain me, and stick to a plausible story (within their own self-built reality) all at the same time, and I find it hard to get two of those elements together at the same time, let alone all three.