The Inhuman Condition [Paperback]

Clive Barker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2001

A master storyteller and unrivaled visionary, Clive Barker has mixed the real and unreal with the horrible and wonderful in more than twenty years of fantastic fiction. The Inhuman Condition is a masterwork of surrealistic terror, recounting tragedy with pragmatism, inspiring panic more than dread and evoking equal parts revulsion and delight.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this collection of five tales of horror, the author uses various devices such as a piece of string, a pair of ghosts, an experimental aphrodisiac, and a pair of hands to lead his characters into a world of nightmarish experiences. Four of the tales are well done, each beginning with a seemingly normal situation: an encounter between a vagrant and a group of young thugs; a traveling evangelist and his companions; a laboratory experiment; and a husband and wife in bed. But with a bizarre twist the element of terror is introduced. The fifth story, about a planned encounter with Satan, is too brief, however. Reader Dillinger Steele's low, even tone sets the mood of this collection. Recommended where Barker (Everville, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/1/95) is popular or wherever horror circulates.?Catherine Swenson, Norwich Univ. Lib., Northfield, Vt.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Review

Time Ever since the heyday of horror fiction...aficionados have been awaiting a writer to transcend the genre and give it new legitimacy. Clive Barker may be the man...witty, unpredictable, and concise....Each story involves an uncanny mix of eroticism and terror.

The New York Times Barker create[s] an atmosphere of dread and foreboding...He makes a bad dream seem not only creepily disturbing but plausible....The Inhuman Condition is Clive Barker at his most effective.

The Washington Post The most provacative tales of terror ever published.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; 1st Pocket Bk TrPpbk Pr, March 2001 edition (February 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743417348
• ISBN-13: 978-0743417341
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #555,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clive Barker Take Us On The Nightmare Journey Of A Lifetime, March 21, 2006

By 

Mr. Sinister (El Cajon, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Inhuman Condition (Paperback)

God, just talking about The Inhuman Condition makes me itch to read it all over again for the tenth time. Clive Barker, especially early Barker like In The Flesh, The Inhuman Condition & The Books Of Blood are so righteously killer, I can't help but re-reading them whenever I get the chance. Talk about visionary horror, Clive Barker turned the entire Horror Genre upside down with his fiction. Inventive, clever, well-written & above all, original, he was like the new incarnation of H.P. Lovecraft. Genius.

The Inhuman Condition consists of five novellas:

The Inhuman Condition: Some hoods roll a drunk and steal something very precious. A piece of rope with three knots in it. Nothing special, right? Well...once you untie the knots, something comes into being. Something terrible. Great story.

The Body Politic: Charlie has the strangest thoughts. He thinks his hands are planning a revolt, plotting against him and the whole human race. Crazy, right? Well...when he wakes up to find that his hands have strangled his wife, he's not so sure any more. Another great, original story.

Revelations!: A modern day ghost story with a small twist. An evangelsit and his troupe check into a motel where a murder most foul had taken place...so do the deceased couple, for they're there to recreate the murder or try and reconcile, who can tell. Witty and strange. Clive keeps us enthralled.

Down, Satan: The only detraction from the book's brilliance. A rather short story about a man who wants to hang with Satan so he builds Hell on earth just for that very purpose. Bizare and dark, never really takes off as a full story.

The Age Of Desire: Weird. That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think about this story. A group of scientists are doing experiments with hallucinogenic love drugs. The results are very interestng. Probably the most pornographic of all the stories. This one will make you wonder what really churns through Clive Barker's brain.

Overall, an excellent incarnation of horror. Buy it, read it, love it.

Dig it!

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clive Barker--nothing more needs to be said., July 7, 1999

By 

William Errickson Jr. (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Inhuman Condition (Paperback)

This is probably the second or third Barker collection I came across, way back in 1987. I was a high school kid, immersed in King, Straub, Lovecraft, Koontz, but Barker was a writer I had to think about, someone whose writing style aimed above the usual 6th grade average. His images were unsettling and confusing--I remember coming to the end of the title story and thinking, "Wwwhaaat?" but that was so long ago. I credit Barker with making me a more discerning, sophisticated reader. Horror could be sharp with wit, laced with the blackest comedy, and subversive like the punk rock music I loved. He approached topics like sexuality and psychology unlike any other writer I had ever read. This book, Volume 5 of "The Books of Blood," is one of the very strongest. He toys with religious fanaticism and fundamentalism in "Revelations," with the Devil in the modern world in the fable "Down, Satan!" and with eros and extreme arousal in "The Age of Desire," one of my favorite stories by him. This was one that I would retell to my shocked friends at lunch. They wanted to be weird, to be outcast, but Ha! they weren't willing to go all the way. Barker, he goes all the way. He is, along with Harlan Ellison and Lovecraft himself, the only writer of any type of fiction, that I can reread now, over a decade later, with satisfaction and awe and respect. Clive Barker. Make no mistake.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection of twisted fiction, December 1, 2002

By 

Quentin Xavier "QX" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Inhuman Condition (Paperback)

Again, I love Clive Barker. His work is just awe-inspiring. This collection borders on classic in the likes of H.P. Lovecraft and Poe. Shoot, it doesn't just border, it crosses over. These stories will be remembered years to come, mark my words. Clive Barker is genius. His work is the real deal, he cannot be immitated. His craft is so incredible. The stories are horrifying, gruesome, and beautiful. The Body politic is terrifying as is the title story about a knot and the demons that hell unleashes when the knot is undone. This is great stuff. Why can't all authors have this ambition?