Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67327 in Books
• Published on: 1988-08-25
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

Synopsis
Originally published in 1988. Set in contemporary England, two friends discover a secret magical world and are drawn into a battle between good and evil. From the author of EVERVILLE.

Customer Reviews

Flawed but worth a read
An ex bought this for me when it first came out and it has taken 20 years for me to get round to finishing it. 20 yearsd ago I gave up after a couple of chapters - I had better things to do than read a 720 page novel - e.g. change nappies, find a job, read to the kids at night.
This time, with no nappies and no kids and nothing else to do, I still almost gave up - page 288 - the main protagonists were non-engaging and the world discovered was just too insipid. I'm glad I continued so have to give 4 stars as any 720 book that kept me reading to the end.
This, to me, is fantasy with more than the hint of Science fiction about it - I don't get any horror out of it all - nothing gory or worrying enough to make me keep the light. There wasn't enough sensory information (no smells, no touch) that I remember that took me into the places - just the story (which was good and I enjoyed) and the ideas.
This is a pre-kids or post-kids book - not good or involving enough to distract from the grind of bringing up a family - but a decent bedtime book.

A unique talent
To be honest I was attracted to to this book, my first Clive Barker, by the design of its cover. I picked it up and thought "Clive Barker? Oh I'm not sure, isn't he a horror writer? Doesn't he write and produce those Hellraiser films?" But I read the precis and a couple of pages and I was hooked and have been a fan ever since. Clive Barker is a writer who blends epic original storytelling with old fashioned morality tales and battles between good and evil. Sometimes his prose reads like poetry and more than once the sensitivity of his writing has reduced me to tears. Start your Barker collection with Weaveworld - you won't be disappointed.

Fantasy Comes of Age
This was the first Clive Barker book I ever read and is still my favourite Barker.

The premise behind the book is that a magical world has been mystically woven into an intricate carpet to be kept safe in our world under the guardianship of a trusted keeper. The problem is that said guardian ages and becomes stale and senile in our wonderless world of tedium and the carpet is forgotten. Enter Cal, an unlikely and unwilling hero who grudgingly assumes responsibility for the forgotten world and is hurled headlong into a wild chase of terrifying magic and creatures of great power who will stop at nothing to destroy the carpet and anyone who gets in their way.

The juxtaposition of a very grey and dully described modern-day Liverpool and a blindingly bright world of enchantment and wonders is cleverly handled. New characters drop in one-by-one and jockey for position of importance with each chapter, and you can never be sure whose side they're on! Each person is written with depth and real motive, and sympathy for the Devil is opposed by frustration at the occasional selfishness of those who should know better!

The book does, however, go to sleep a little in the middle and the pace slackens off almost to a standstill. It is almost as if Barker felt he needed to pause for breath after the headlong sprint of the first few chapters and some people I have spoken to lost patience and gave up at this point. Big mistake. This is not a hack 'n' slash or a high fantasy story, it is an intelligent and adult work of a wild and sometimes disturbing imagination that can dazzle, delight, sicken and arouse in equal measure. Do not buy this if you prefer your novels to be mental chewing-gum or spoon-fed cliches, Weaveworld will challenge you and take your grown-up imagination to places it hasn't visited since childhood.