Customer Reviews

Hellbound Hearts

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
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What a creepy fun filled read and just at the right time of the year. This book is full of great short stories by wonderful authors. Stories full of Cenobites and creatures made from your worst nightmares. Neil Gaiman's graphic piece was just awesome and Kelly Armstrong's The Collector gave me chills.

I really enjoyed this collection of tales inspires by Clive Barker's novella The Hellbound Heart. The stories were so good that halfway through the book I got the urge to re-watch the Hellraiser movies and have since put them on my Netflix queue.

If you are looking for a scare this Halloween season, I would highly recommend this book.

When I first read that infamous short on "the box," "cenibites," and all those little horros, I was shaken by it. I was really young at the time and reading things I was "allowed to read" - today it seems strange to thing of a bad thing as reading material you aren't supposed to considering what it inappropriate behavior now.
I recall seeing the movies after that and thinking that the story had a life of its own and that more should be done. Well, more has been done.

In a book with wording from Peter Atkins, Conrad Wiliams, Sarah Pinborough, Mick Garris, Tim Lebbon (I consider Lebbon a plus in any addition(, Richard Matheson, Nency Holder, Simon Clark, Steve niles, Sarah Langan, Nick Vince, Yvonne Navarro, Mark Morris, Barbie Wilde, Jeff Mariote, and a few others - not to mention Clive barker. This means you have a dieverse scope when it comes to the style of telling you see, and you have such a different taste when it comes to plot, character handling, horrible things, and so much else.
The group; I like it alot.
Also here is work from Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden when illustrations are needed, and these are sexy beasts. I also love Mignola's work - he has been a favorite of mine for way too long now. So, this is the perfect arrangement to find and to read like a madman.

If you liked the way the bo has been thusfar, read this. You will like other people's ideas on what the beast should be, not to mention the fact that you get so many different flavors of pain and suffering here.
I would have bought it simply because of the idea, but it had talent backing it up. Even the pictures are done by masters!

Hell has many faces. In this anthology we see some of them. For anyone who is familiar with the Hellraiser mythology (the great novella by Clive Barker and the 8 movies), there is surely some wavering about this book. I know I was on the fence on whether to buy it or not. I did, and I am glad that I made the choice. 90% of these stories are very good. The other 10% weren't bad, but not as strong in my opinion. Some of my favorites are the story that lead off the book, "The Dark Materials Project," "Santos Del Infierno," and "The Promise." "The Promise" sent chills down my spine.

The one thing I will say is that we meet Cenobites that are new and unfamiliar to us. There are appearances by one or two of the demons that were developed in the films, but for the most part they are new and nasty. The descriptions of some of the creatures is truly terrifying. I found these characters more disturbing than some of the cenobites created in the films.

This was a great hold over until Cliver Barker finally finishes the long awaited final Pinhead story. If you are a fan of the movies or his novella, read this book. I was not disappointed. It is a book that will have a place on my bookshelf for a long time.

Pleasure and pain. That is the foundation in many ways of Barker's Cenobite mythos, and this anthology had both, which I will explain in a moment. First, this book is a collection of new works based on Clive Barker's original short story, The Hellbound Heart, which in turn, inspired Hellraiser. You will NOT see any of the original characters in these stories, including `Pinhead' but you will see a vast collection of wonderful stories by some of the greatest authors of horror.

A complete list of authors and stories follows:
* Prisioners of the Inferno by Peter Atkins
* The Cold by Conrad Williams
* The Confessor's Tale by Sarah Pinbrough
* Hellbound Hollywood by Mick Garris
* Mechanisms by Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola
* Every Wrong Turn by Tim Lebbon
* The Collector by Kelly Armstrong
* Bulemia by Richard Christian Matheson
* Our Lord of Quarters by Simon Clark
* Orfeo the Damned by Nancy Holder
* Wordsworth by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
* A Little Piece of Hell by Steve Niles
* The Dark Materials Project by Sarah Langan
* Demon's Design by Nicholas Vince
* Only the Blind Survive by Yvonne Navarro
* Mother's Ruin by Mark Morris
* Sister Cilice by Barbie Wilde
* Santos Del Inferno by Jeffery J. Mariotte
* The Promise by Nancy Kilpatrick
* However by Gary A Bauneck and Lucy A Snyder
* `Tis a Pity He's Ashore by Chaz Brechley

... and an afterword by Doug Bradley who played the Cenobite who is commonly known as Pinhead.

The Pleasures: Most of the stories in this book are brilliant. The Confessor's Tale by Sarah Pinbrough and Sister Cilice by Barbie Wilde are both excellent and deal with a common theme. The Cenobites described in Hellbound Hollywood by Mick Garris and Our Lord of Quarters by Simon Clark were both quite disturbing, and the twist ending of The Collector by Kelly Armstrong had me clapping. I loved these stories and many others in this book. It is well worth the money. You can just sense the love that these authors have for the mythos and the pride they take in their stories.

The Pain: Well, Wordsworth by Gaiman and McKean is painful. As a comic book collector I am familiar with the depth and wonder of McKean's art. His complicated mixed media art is beautiful... when reproduced correctly. In black and white on newsprint renders his images flat, and some of the words impossible to follow. It's frustrating. Also, the Cold by Conrad Williams left me in the cold, and `Tis a Pity He's Ashore by Chaz Brechley seemed like the wrong story to end with because I kept waiting for the punch or the point, by I was still waiting by the beginning of Bradley's afterword.

All in all, this is one of the best horror anthologies to hit the market in years.

Highest Recommendations for Barker fans, for horror fans, for those who want to lose sleep at night.

I'm a huge Clive Barker and Hellraiser fan. In fact, I credit Mr. Barker for being the inspiration for me becoming an author. So I was thrilled to see this collection of short stories inspired by the Hellraiser mythos.

I am not a fan of giving away plots, characters, or such - I just want to simply say this:

Hellbound Hearts is not perfect. There are some short stories contained within that make you wonder how they were chosen. As for the rest - you know full well why they made the cut. Not only do they pay wonderful homage to Clive Barker's creation, they also serve as great stand-alone stories. Creepy, horrific, and very much believable as part of the mythos.

If you are a Hellraiser fan, do give this a try. Don't expect every story to be on the level of the original, but know you are in for a treat.

I'm a big Hellraiser fan and couldn't resist buying this book knowing that the stories would be based in some way around the Hellraiser mythology, even if the stories weren't written by Clive Barker. I was not disappointed and it was worth the money. These stories were well written and very imaginative. Incredibly well done!!

First off, what I love about this book is that it's based in the present sense that gives a fresher perspective instead of being nostalgic of times past or trying to imagine what it must of been like in the 80's if you was born in the early 90's.
Great stories by great authors and or should the credit go to the editors who must have worked tediously to present us this volume.
Clive Barker is one of my favorite author/directors and I think this reflects his work greatly.

twenty one tales inspired by the hellraiser series. the foreward written by clive barker, afterward by doug bradley (pinhead). neil gaiman/dave mckean offer a graphic short story. i like the book as it carries the lemarchand myth in various directions. i'm not going to list all the authors, but mick garris, christopher golden, and peter atkins offered stories. then there are two charcters from the movies (both cenobites), nicholas vince and barbie wilde. like any other anthology, there are some great stories and not-so-great ones, much like the movie series itself. if you are a fan of the hellraiser series, this definately is worth checking out.

As a huge Clive Barker fan, Hellraiser is one of my favorite films and this book is inspired by that film and his novella "The Hellbound Heart". This anthology is a mixed bag. Most of the stories are great. Especially Kelley Armstrong's "The Collector" with a good twist and Tim Lebbon's "Every Wrong Turn." But "Mechanisms" by Christopher Golden & Mike Mignola bored me since the end was obvious. All in all a good book for any horror fan especially if you love Clive Barker. And if you are a horror fan and don't love Clive, how can you call yourself a horror fan?

Gives you a more in-depth look into the cenobites world. Lets you find out more about the puzzlebox than you thought was possible. Enter into their world where pain & pleasure go hand in hand.......... forever!!!