Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED] (Audio CD)

~ (Author), Richard Ferrone (Reader)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The eagerly anticipated second volume of Clive Barker’s four part fantasy series, Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War, picks up right where the highly praised first novel leaves off. Candy Quakenbush is still on the run from the Lord of Midnight, Christopher Carrion, who plans to establish a Permanent Midnight throughout the 25 islanads that make up Abarat. Candy, aided and abetted by a host of colorful new characters, including Malingo (the affable geshrat she rescued in Book One), continues to dodge Carrion’s hired assassins, as forces gather on both sides of Day and Night to prepare for the inevitable war between the Hours.

Days of Magic, Nights of War is a true series book--those who have not traveled to Abarat before will have a difficult time picking up the threads of Barker’s complex mythical opus without having read the first installment. But teen readers who have been waiting breathlessly for Candy’s return are rewarded with a stunning sequel that reveals her true identity at the novel’s smashing climax. As in Abarat, Clive Barker's full-colored, organic illustrations of Abarat’s inhabitants stalk and swim across the pages like a Stephen King-meets-Dr. Seuss circus. There seems to be no end to Barker’s ever-expanding idiosyncratic vision, and for that, fantasy fans of all ages can be grateful. --Jennifer Hubert --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10–Candy Quakenbush and her chum, Malingo, who first came to our attention in Clive Barker's Abarat(HarperCollins, 2002), have surfaced again in this sequel (Joanna Cotler Books, 2004). Candy is on the run from the Lord of Midnight, Christopher Carrion. Carrion and his evil grandmother, Mater Motley, are determined to begin a war that will bring absolute darkness to the Abarat forever. Believing that Candy has the power to prevent their wicked plot, they decide that she must die and Carrion relentlessly pursues her. Candy slowly begins to understand what is going on as she performs magic she hasn't learned and recalls memories of things she never experienced. Along the way, she encounters a succession of both helpful and unsympathetic characters. Candy and the dragon slayer, Finnigan Hobb, are drawn to each other and the shocking reason is revealed toward the end of the tale. The raspy voice of narrator Richard Ferrone serves the novel well. His interpretation of Carrion, in particular, is chilling. The book doesn't stand on its own–listeners should read or listen to the first book before tackling this one to fully understand the sometimes complicated plot. There are two additional titles planned for the series. The series has the potential to become hugely popular as Disney has optioned the story for both movie and theme park rights.–Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Bixby, OK
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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Audio CD
• Publisher: HarperChildrensAudio; Unabridged edition (September 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060735899
• ISBN-13: 978-0060735890
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 5.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,362,735 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Series That Keeps Getting Better!, October 11, 2004

By	Nicole Maronn (Enfield, CT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War (Bram Stoker Award for Young Readers) (Hardcover)

After falling in love with the first book, I immedeately pre-ordered the second volume of this wonderful series. Now, after I read this volume, I can't wait to revisit Clive Barker's amazing Abarat!

Picking up right where the first book left off, our heroine Candy continues her journey in Abarat and in her journey of self-discovery. After finding out that she has been to Abarat before in Book One, this volume reveals to the reader (and to Candy) the answer she has been seeking and introduces us to the begining of the war between the forces of Night and Day. Along the way, we are introduced to several new characters, including the famed Dragon slayer Finnigan Hob and Letheo the beast-boy.

Once again, Barker's colorful and lively paintings take center stage. This is no truer than in several chapters that deal with Candy and Malingo as they explore the island of Babilonium (aka The Carnival Island). Taking a cue from such fantasies as Little Nemo in Slumberland and Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials triology, Barker creates paintings that showcase his description about the island, from a gallery of freaks to the crowds of people from just about every corner of the Abarat! This is my favorite part of book; it makes me want to explore the world Barker has created for myself and take in all the sites, sounds, and smells!

Once again, if you have not read the Abarat series, what are you waiting for? If you love fantasy series that are orginal and descriptive like The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, or His Dark Materials, then read this series! Once you've been to Abarat, you'll want to go back for more!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An (Unnecessary) Failure of Greatness, June 30, 2008

By	JordanJasper - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War (rack) (Paperback)

On the one hand, I would have given Barker's 'Days of Magic, Nights of War' the 4 and 1/2 or maybe 5 stars it deserved back in 2004, when it emerged in hardcover glory. The second installment in his Abarat "series" brought greater excitement (as one would hope) to the adventures of Candy Quackenbush & friends in the wild, weird world she entered. In this 2004 segment, Barker regales with a nearly over-burdened plot, but manages to create a compelling world teeming with amazements. His paintings/illustrations are utterly exquisite and make this entire idea a thing that ought to be forever treasured.

But it's hard to do so. The first book arrived six years ago in 2002. The second four years ago in 2004...ominously along with hype about a film, a theme-park deal, etc. With the complexity, incoherence, and surrealism of his Abarat plotline, this is a series that Barker needed to keep coming at a viable pace (at *least* one book every other year).

But with the sad and apparent neglect given to finishing this extended work, it has been all too easy for initially enthralled readers (and buyers!) to lose complete track of the basics of this story. Moreover, it has been all too easy to lose interest altogether in its outcome. The unfolding of this series has been so ruined by whatever strange delays have taken place, that one is hard-pressed to imagine how Harper Collins is really going to salvage the project in terms of contemporary viability.

It's apparent that the film is OUT (and understandably so, after such sloth in Barker publishing the whole thing). I can't help but feel that Barker has really short-changed his audience and his great Abarat (once so full of potential) by failing to complete the installments in a remotely reasonable fashion. Again, one wonders how excited the publisher is going to be to promote the future 3 volumes(3 more?!? I don't see it happening).

That's a shame--if Barker had stuck to his work ethic and vision, forgoing the lure of hasty, premature movie-studio deals and theme-park rights, this series could well have been one of the great multi-part sagas of our time for young adults (and those who "think" young). But as it is, the audience of 13 year-olds he targeted in 2002 is now getting ready for college and interest for the project as a continuum has been fatally lost.

I was moved to write this review because I was recently reorganizing my library and happened upon my 2004 hardcover copy of "Days of Magic, Nights of War" and nearly flipped. "Wow! I just about forgot this series existed!" I said to myself. "The rest of the books must have come out ages ago and I happened to miss them in the bookstore." Wrong. I was very disappointed to learn of the serious discrepancies in the publishing history of this series. Not only because I paid hardcover prices 6 and 4 years ago, expecting to have the whole set in reasonably timely fashion (every other year, perhaps), but also in a bit of sadness for a magnificently complex tale I expected to savor and unravel during my actual *lifetime.*

I'm glad to know that these books have a second life in paperback, and may win some new fans in that form, but even the paperback edition of this portion came out 2 years hence, and this only underscores how terribly this once-vibrant project has been derailed. At such a rate, I will indeed be ninety before the last one comes out--which I won't be waiting for.

The interest, once-piqued, has dimmed. The reader's faith (once-earned) has been breached. The best we can hope for is that Barker will even finish this tale one day, and that, after we are all long dead or aged, the whole series will be able to be purchased at once by future-folks. But Barker has even jeopardized that hope. Why should publishers be eager to manufacture & market five expensive illustrated volumes in the distant future if the project couldn't even get off the ground properly in its own day(s)? The entire project needed one cohesive decade, at least, to build up its classic status, its legend, and its mystique for posterity. Instead, it has been left in the proverbial lurch. A failure, especially given the greatness of Barker's artwork--which really is as crucial as the narrative, in this case.

And, to reiterate, had this series been given its due diligence by the author himself, it would have been a collection worthy of all-time greatness. Now, I'm sure some die-hards may still care, but there can't be enough. After six, seven years, I'm a former die-hard who's not going to go back and read them the first two again, especially with no real guarantee that an ending will ever come! If you happen to read this, Mr. Barker, please know that you have disappointed an admirer of what ~could~ have been something truly, truly monumental.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A feast!, September 22, 2004

By	Thalia (Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War (Bram Stoker Award for Young Readers) (Hardcover)

Let me begin with this caveat: if you did not read or did not like the first book of Abarat, do not bother with this book. You will be either lost or unmoved.

If you enjoyed the first book of Abarat, though, this one is well worth the wait (though I admit I could not wait, and spent an outrageous amount to get the advance reading copy). It ups the ante considerably, providing us with the thing most missing from the first book: interaction between our heroine, Candy, and Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight. These are the best chapters of the book; they took my breath away - Carrion is one of the greatest villains I've ever had the pleasure to read about.

The rest of the book, while not perfect, still managed to make me bite my nails and hold my breath and gasp at the many sights proferred to us by Clive Barker's pen and paintings. More than anything, this is a visual treat, not just because of the lovely paintings but because of the rich description that makes you see the story as if it is unfolding right in front of you.

But - this is definitely part of a story, not the whole. Do not go into Abarat thinking each book is a separate tale. I almost wish Clive Barker had waited to publish the series until it was complete. There are many questions left unresolved, and a variety of characters juggled in different parallel plot threads. Each person will probably have their favorite character and complain they're not in the book enough. I have to admit I rushed through some parts on my first read to get to more Carrion - what can I say, I have a soft spot for the bad guys. All I can say is wait for Abarat 3 & 4 - I'm counting on Clive for an amazing pay-off.