Coldheart Canyon [Mass Market Paperback]

Clive Barker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2002

Film's most popular action hero needs a place to heal after surgery that has gone terribly wrong. His fiercely loyal agent finds him just such a place in a luxurious, forgotten mansion high in the Hollywood Hills. But the original owner of the mansion was a beautiful woman devoted to pleasure at any cost, and the terrible legacy of her deed has not yet died. There are ghosts and monsters haunting Coldheart Canyon, where nothing is forbidden.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Those with the determination to commit to nearly an entire day of listening will be glad they put forth the effort, because this is one impressive production. Barker's 19th book is an epic saga of Hollywood's underbelly, a dazzling commentary on the world of glitz and glamour. With nods to vintage stars and today's hotties, listeners won't have trouble linking the book's characters to their real-life counterparts (e.g., who on earth could Keifer Smutherland be?). The story's darling is one Todd Pickett, an actor who's approaching a certain age and, seeking escape from the limelight, heads to an estate in the remote Coldheart Canyon neighborhood of Hollywood, where he becomes entangled in a fantastical web of ghosts of early movie stars. This mammoth tale is really best for celluloid fanatics and Barker diehards; so-so fans may want to space out the 22 hours of audio over some time. Audiobook veteran Muller rises to the occasion, and his stalwart performance should please Barker. His accents run the gamut, from an old Romanian priest to a pushy film agent. Not for the straitlaced listener, this audiobook hits hard and will stay with listeners for a while. Simultaneous release with the HarperCollins hardcover (Forecasts, July 23, 2001).

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From Library Journal

Talk about coldhearted. The mansion in Coldheart Canyon where glamorous movie star Todd Pickett has retired to recover from botched plastic surgery has a door leading straight to a dreadful new world called The Devil's Country.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (November 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006103018X
• ISBN-13: 978-0061030185
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (144 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,324,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clive Barker was born in Liverpool in 1952. He is the worldwide bestselling author of the Books of Blood, and numerous novels including Imajica, The Great and Secret Show, Sacrament and Galilee. In addition to his work as a novelist and short story writer he also illustrates, writes, directs and produces for the stage and screen. His films include Hellraiser, Hellbound, Nightbreed and Candyman. Clive lives in Beverly Hills, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Over-the-top, lurid, long...and absolutely UNFORGETTABLE!, May 21, 2004

By 

RMurray847 "afilmcritic.com" (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Coldheart Canyon (Mass Market Paperback)

Clive Barker is a writer who never takes the subtle way out. It's a cliche that sometimes the scariest things are those things which are only hinted it or suggested (shower scene in PSYCHO is often trotted out as an example). Barker seems to believe that he can induce fear by pounding us with graphic details...not for the faint of heart. And he's such an adept writer, that he often succeeds, mostly because his imagination dares to go where no one has gone before.

COLDHEART CANYON deals with the movie business. A '20s era silent-movie siren has a room installed in her house made entirely of tile taken from a monestery in Romania. This tile, some 30,000 pieces, may actually have been built by Lilith, the wife of Satan, and it seems to have...shall we say...remarkable qualities. The '20s era movie star and all her friends and fellow stars are transfixed and transformed by the power of this room, known as "The Devil's Country." Nothing subtle here. Then we skip forward to present day Hollywood, where star Todd Pickett makes the mistake of getting plastic surgery and suffers severe damage. He takes refuge from the press at the long abandoned "pleasure palace" of the '20s era star, Katya, that he has never heard of. No one seems to live in the house, but we soon find out otherwise.

I've only scratched the surface of this wildy imaginative, almost bloated, novel. It's grand to read a book that takes on, with great humor, the foibles of the movie industry, and turns that satire into a horror novel of massive proportions. The house has one mystery after another, and the fates of the people who cross paths with the house, its grounds, its "residents" and especially The Devil's Country are drawn out in exquisite detail.

Many have criticised the book for being too long, but I find Barker to be a writer of such power that you get swept along with long passages that don't seem important, but compel you anyway. Some have criticized an early passage, for example, in which Todd deals with taking his very sick dog to the vet's and the aftermath of this rather mundane situation. But he's a huge movie star, so we're interested in seeing how those around him react to him. And it helps to establish Todd as a real person...not just a generic star. We sympathize with him then, which is good, because it's hard to hold that sympathy later on. And just when the dog seems forgotten...

Like Barker's other novels, such as Weaveworld and the startlingly beautiful Imajica, he mixes intense, believable feelings like those we might have in a love story (Barker conveys how love can grow in unlikely places VERY well) with some of the most graphic horror anywhere. We are thus given characters who seem very real and palbable to us, and they are thrust into the most outlandish situations anywhere.

Whereas Stephen King makes horror "believable" by sticking with mundane, everyday details (I like King very, very much...his approach is different but great as well), Barker hammers us with the power of his imagery. The thingst that happen are so shocking, so horrible, it almost takes your breath away.

COLDHEART CANYON is great because it takes place in a world we might recognize, not in another land altogether (such as in IMAJICA). It's heroine comes from the most unlikely sources, and she is an inspiration and a wonderful achievement for Barker.

Be warned: the graphic horror is just that...graphic in the EXTREME. And the scenes of sexuality are just about the most horrific, gruesome and twisted you'll see ANYWHERE. It takes a brave heart to venture into COLDHEART CANYON. If you've got that, I believe you'll be richly rewarded.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Barker (Almost) Returns, November 24, 2001

By 

Joseph Loria "J-Lo" (Carmel, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coldheart Canyon: A Hollywood Ghost Story (Hardcover)

Those dreading another limp, mushy delivery from Barker (think Galilee or Sacrament) can release that collectively held breath. Barker is back...sort of. While Coldheart Canyon is no Imajica or Weaveworld in scope of vision or imagination, the suspense, mythology, and characterizations herein certainly make up for the new-age, nice-guy deliveries of late. Here Barker offers Hollywood satire sandwiched between the opposing forces of spirituality. It doesn't have the bloodied edge of Cabal or his short fiction, and there are jaw-dropping discrepencies and flat-out mistakes in the plotting--why is the quality of editing always inversely proportional to the projected revenue? And yet there are scenes painted within that resonate with beauty and dread as only Barker can accomplish, and it's good to feel that chill again. It's also nice to have a decent horror novel releasd this year, with Dan Simmons doing suspense fiction and Dean Koontz doing what I can only describe as evangelical suspense fiction. Along with Black House, Coldheart Canyon has reaffirmed my belief in the genre. Stay tuned.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Clive Barker misses the mark this time, very disappointing., October 2, 2001

By 

M. Daneker (Spinnerstown, Pa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coldheart Canyon: A Hollywood Ghost Story (Hardcover)

What Clive Barker does best, what sets him apart from the likes of Stephen King and the Wannabes, is to write with a furious imagination that kindles the spark of fantasy and brings it to an adult level were it never lie before. His prior works, most notably Weaveworld allowed those of us who think the The Wizard of Oz is a great concept but wish it wasnt so, well childish to have our own OZ complete with Sex, Drugs, Violence and a real Menace that is not for the kids. What he does equally well is to establish living, soul-filled characters that transcend the carbon copy heros we are so used to (in every, single Stephen King Novell.) Add to that his brilliance as an artist, a director and his ability to visit the Oz concept with The Thief Of Always his book for younger readers and he becomes the most well rounded fantasy figures alive. It is then a great mystery how something as empty and unfulfilling as Coldheart Canyon came about.
This story of redemption, at a price, is filled with generic characters, forced plot lines and unoriginal narrative. Its Clive Barker on autopilot as it reads like something someone imitating Clive may write rather than a real work by the author himself.
A semi  aging movie star, Todd Picket, agrees to plastic surgery as a career facelift. This makes little sense when you consider the considerable power Middle aged men have in Hollywood right now, Todd is about Tom Cruises age and I dont think Tom needs a facelift anytime soon to get women. Also, when you consider that Middle aged men are now regularly staring with Twenty  something women as leads (think Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Sean Connery) the thought that a man would fear laugh lines in a time when maturity is in is preposterous. The Procedure has to go wrong for the plot to work; the actor needs a hideaway to lick his wounds and ends up in the pad of a 1920s screen vixen.
Below the house is a room constructed by the devils wife, Lillith, with Katya Lupi (the Screen Vixen) uses to stay young. Outside the house, the ghosts of dead stars roam having tasted the rooms power and wanting back. They also have orgies and breed with the local wildlife producing offspring so the Author has monsters to kill people off with violently.
Nothing really happens once the set up is in place, sure theres lots of sex, lots of terrible things, but nothing interesting, theres no plot, no point to it all. The background story of Katya and the film stars of the Twenties and thirties would have made for a better book. Todd is a boring self-serving idiot, Katya is supposed to be our Villain, but she does everything to be loved then kills what she loves without explanation of why shes like this. Tammy, the Todd Fanatic who saves the day, sort of, is an oaf whos made a shambles of her life in the pointless pursuit of a man who only exists to her through film.
The concept here is an exercise in Hollywood stereotypes with a horror fantasy twist but the result is tired and labored. Clive was here before producing the true story Gods and Monsters to Academy Award Winning effect. What Clive misses her is that beneath the stereotypes must exist real people, but he only allows that at the very end, by then we dont care any more. These clones cant carry a 600+ page novel as they have no depth and therefore we simply dont care what happens to them, or this book. Coldheart Canyon lacks heart and has no soul. Go rent Gods & Monsters on Video.