Customer Reviews

Books of Blood Volume 2

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This second volume of Clive Barker's Books of Blood pales in comparison to the first volume, four of its five stories coming up short in my estimation. The book does get off to a rousing start with Dread, a somewhat sadistic tale of one man's obsession with death and the fear of it. According to the mysterious grad student Quaid, true philosophy, not what passes for philosophy in the universities, is a beast; everything really comes down to one thing only, which is fear. So begins Quaid's personal instruction course of Dread 101. His is a hands-on endeavor, as he seeks to look the beast directly in the eye by studying the effects of dread and the realization of imminent death in the eyes of his fellow man, the closest two representatives of which are two of his "students." Dread is a psychologically disturbing read, one which succeeds quite well indeed in spite of a rather pat ending. From this point, the book is all downhill.

Hell's Event tells the story of a charity race, only this is no ordinary race. Once every century, this particular race pits a minion of the underworld against human runners, with the state and control of the whole government hinging upon the outcome. Much like Stephen King's The Long Walk, it does not pay to finish behind the winner, for truly to the victor go the spoils. Next up is Jacqueline Ess: Her Last Will and Testament, a story in which the main character's very special abilities for controlling her environment and those in it winds up wasted with little to show for the effort. The Skins of the Fathers is not a bad story, but it is quite on the weird side. A sometimes almost comical group of inhuman, bizarre creatures comes to a small desert town to reclaim one of their own, born five years earlier to its human mother. A puffed up sheriff and belligerent posse of townsfolk lend comic relief as much as tension to the story's plot of borderline absurdity. The final story here is New Murders in the Rue Morgue, and it is almost surely the worst piece of fiction Clive Barker ever wrote. The protagonist is a retired artist and, so we are told, descendant of M. Dupin. Yes, we are led to believe, Edgar Allan Poe's classic story The Murders in the Rue Morgue was based on fact and not fancy, and now the modern representative of the Dupin blood finds himself mired in an extraordinary, eerily similar, and exceedingly ludicrous case of his own.

Obviously, I don't consider Volume 2 of the Books of Blood to represent Clive Barker at anything near his best; this is not to say these stories (excluding New Murders in the Rue Morgue) are not worth reading, though. Dread is a fine piece of work, and the next three stories will hold your attention throughout, although they may well leave you feeling indifferent and more than a tad disappointed.

Clive Barker is one of my favorite authors. He is may be the best in the business when it comes to short horror fiction. Just as good as volume 1. He pushes the limit of horror with each sick and twisted story. Dread was by far my fav of this volume. "There is no delight the equal of dread".

Dread
I read Dread ages ago in its graphic art format and really can't remember much about it besides the fact that it made my skin crawl a little.

Stephen Grace is a university student who catches the eye of a teacher named Quaid. Stephen is afraid of public speaking but Quaid instructs him not only to give voice to his fears but to analyze them. Quaid is fascinated with dread in all its facets and revels in learning more about it.

I have to admit this short story took some work getting into. Seven tries to be exact. It didn't hook me right away and was a bit boring and dry. Stephen meets Quaid in a local bar and they have a really tedious conversation about the "beast" of philosophy and how the school doesn't really teach it, eventually leading into a discussion about dread. This begins their tenuous friendship. After some checking around, Stephen learns that strangely enough no one on campus knows much at all about Quaid. When a bright beautiful student named Cheryl begins spending time with Quaid, Stephen is initially jealous because she's hogging so much of his time. Before long Stephen realizes Quaid is only interested in Cheryl because she is a vegetarian who fears meat. And you just know this isn't going to end well . . .

Quaid, you see, has been "experimenting" with all facets of dread, trying to learn all he can to expand his intelligentia. Before Stephen realizes what is going on with the not-so-sane Quaid, he has already exposed his fears to him. But things don't end quite as Quaid expects as he experiences the ultimate lesson in dread.

Though this story was a slow starter once it got moving it didn't let up. Barker usually does an amazing job building dread so this story suits his talent well. It's a slow build but once you can get through the first few dull pages you get a decent payoff.

Hell's Event
Hell's come up to visit the streets of London in order to gather up some souls. Hell enjoys a good wager and intends to win a big race but a nosy competitor catches on to his plan.

This story mostly bored me. There was a lot of talk about racing and winning, blah, blah, freaking blah. Finally, things take a turn for the creepy midway through when the runners realize they're running for more than a prize, they're running for their lives and . . . democracy!

Though things finally picked up overall I didn't care much for this story.

Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament

Jacqueline's life is one boring day followed by another. She can't take it anymore and decides to put an end to her misery but fails in the attempt and is brought back from the brink of death with a grisly talent and a new lust for life. It's horribly humorous.

Then we switch gears and read Oliver Vassi's testimony where he explains how he first met Jacqueline and was instantly under her spell. Enamored by her but knowing she's been lying to him he starts to snoop into her past and gets a small taste of her power and then wants more . . . Foolish man.

This was a great story; so far my favorite possibly because of the twisted love story and creative goriness Barker delights in as he details his dark tale of lust, power and love.

The Skins of the Fathers

When Davidson's Mustang breaks down on the side of the highway in the desert he immediately hears a song and thinks he sees a line of dancers. So the fool gets it into his head to chase them down, hollering like an idiot. A few actually stop, only to reveal themselves as monsters. He poops his panties and attempts to flee and the beast reduces his beautiful car to pieces of shredded metal and skedaddles in a glorious burst of flames. After this weird encounter Davidson is picked up, stinky pants and all, by another driver. He got off easy but he's too dumb to leave town.

"Once every generation or so, the desert spat out its demons and let them loose awhile."

This is what cocky sheriff Packard's dad told him as a young `un but he never believed that crap until the gooey remains of a Bar-B-Q'd demon show up in his town. Nasty fun and gore ensue but then the true horror begins when Barker introduces a wife beating, child abusing man. And when the reason he's so damn mean is revealed, well, I'll just say that the monsters have something to do with it.

A hick sheriff, small minded red-necks and some silly women fill out the story and there wasn't a likable one in the whole lot. The "demons", determined to fix a cataclysmic error made eons ago, may be the only decent characters here but they're not all that bright either.

I liked the idea behind this story but in the end some of the actions of the monsters just didn't make a whole lot of sense.

New Murder in the Rue Morgue

Lewis returns to Paris at the request of life long friend Catherine. Their old friend Philip, a randy old coot who at 69 years of age is still going at it with beautiful 19 year olds, is accused of brutally murdering his latest lovely young thing. Philip has no interest in being saved and only wants to die but Catherine begs Lewis to stay, to investigate. So investigate he does and what he uncovers is downright bizarre and if I say anything else I'll no doubt ruin the story for you.

This one was weird and that's all I'm saying.

I could give this book five stars,but I guess that would be pushing it a bit too much.After all this book deserves three stars!I am only giving four because of two reasons 1)I am a Clive Barker fan 2)These books of blood are his debut books.And I wouldn't expect more from debut books.

But overall this book was simple to read.It was highly violent.And at times,dirty.
I am going to give you my opinion of each of the stories and a brief "sneak peek".

1)Dread............................................(not too bad)
2)Hell's event.....................................(good)
3)Jacqueline Ess:her will and testimony............(good)
4)The skins of the fathers.........................(okay)
5)New murders in the rue morgue....................(stupid,dumb)

1)In "Dread",a college student becomes horrified by his own fears.And sets out to experiment on other people's fears.Trying to make them trip.He basically used other people's fears to torcher them hoping that his own fears would leave him alone.
But in the end,his own fears kill him.(his fear was that one day a guy would hack him to death).And one of his "experiments",a college studient,driven mad,kills him!
A very cool story,just good enough to start the book with.

2)In hell's event,things get a little better that the previous story.
Once every century a race takes place.Humankind against Hell!If humankind wins the race,life goes on.But if hell wins the race,then the world would end!
This race I am talking about is sort of like a marathon.
And in the race described in the book,hell decides to play the game a bit unfair,and things start to turn messy!

3)Jaqueline Ess,not too bad but from here the book starts too lose its touch.This story is simply about a woman who has the power to destroy someone with her mind!There is a great detailed description of how she uses her mind to turn her husband to dead meat.She can also will someone to do whatever she wants them to do.(believe me,this woman is no woman you would like to mess with).

4)This skins of the fathers.(again the book is on its way to getting stupid).
In this story,there is some strange race of monsters.They,and women(human women)have existed long before human men!Human men came as a result of the monsters reproducing with human women!(I know this sounds dumb,but the story fails too impress me).
Now,after one of the monsters in the present time mates with a woman,she has a son.
Now,all these monsters want is their son back from the humans.(yes,there son,the boy has more that one fathers!monster fathers)...The humans start to fight back,thereby killing the son just as he was beginning to transform into a monster and things get a little mess.(not a very facinating read,but short a fast paced though)

5)Now,this story "new murders in the rue morgue" is dumb,it spoils the end of the book.Losing my trust in the books of blood.
It is simply with a man who has trained a gorilla to act like a human.And this gorilla turns into a pervert after the man goes to prison.
...This story is too stupid and confusing to understand and read.I literally forced myself to read it.It is just a waste of paper...

Anyway,the book overall is not too bad.The first one is way better though.
But then again,in every book of short stories,there are some good ones,some stupid ones and some dumb ones.
There are very few exeptionally good short stories because a short story is normally too short to develop a momentum of length that would reveal a lot of information and greatness.And a good plot to follow.
These short stories are so simply written that you can close your eyes and read them...enjoy...Nigel

Having read the first Volume of 'Books of blood' I was eager to find stories as good as 'The Yattering and Jack'. This book provides such stories. Apart from 'Dread' these are all first class. Dread is good, but the subject matter is a bit sadistic for my liking and the plot lacks Barker's usual imagination.

I think that this book is more consistent than the first volume of 'Books of Blood' and fully deserves five stars.

This is possibly the best collection of horror stories I have read.

It just goes to show you that everyone's tastes are different! I had to type a review because I thought that "Dread" was the best, albeit short, horror story that I have ever read. I read the book when it originally came out... it says 1987, I thought it was a year or two earlier than that. The Books of Blood were my introduction to Clive Barker. I have read other works by him, but I feel that the blood books were his best.

Clive Barker's 'Books of Blood' contain some of the best horror-short-stories ever written. Barker's talent to scare and impress you both with his literary genius is at his best here.

This second book is not as good as the rest, but especially the first one is really good. Still very good horror.