Product Description

A dazzling fantasy adventure for all ages, the first of a quartet. Abarat: an archipelago of amazement and wonder. A land made up of twenty-five islands, each one representing one hour of the day, each one a unique place of adventure and danger (and one mysterious place out of time), all ruled over by the evil Christopher Carrion, Lord of Midnight, and his monstrous grandmother, Mater Motley. Candy Quackenbush, a 16-year old from Chickentown, Minnesota, crosses by accident from our world into Abarat, and discovers she has been there many, many times before. She has friends there and she has enemies. As Candy makes her journey between all the islands of the archipelago, she will discover a plot by Christopher Carrion to block out the Sun, Moon and stars to achieve a condition of Permanent Midnight. In order to prevent this disaster, Candy must find the courage to confront the Lord of Midnight; and in doing so come to know who she really is: a revelation which will transform her own understanding of her place in the epic events. The first book of Abarat is a spellbinding adventure for all ages, combining the heartstopping tension of a thriller with the powerful charm of the most enduring fable. And beneath all, it possesses the quicksilver imagination of one of the finest writers at work today. The four books of Abarat have been rightly called Clive Barker's Narnia, his Wonderland. A sumptuous treat that will capture the imaginations of adults and children alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140589 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
With Abarat, Clive Barker begins an ambitious sequence of fantastic novels aimed at a young audience as well as his adult fans. There is as much sense of threat to the world here as there was in the horror novels with which he made his name. But the worst almost never happens here--and there is whimsy and charm along with a carefully judged and measured sense of the nightmarish. Young Cindy Quackenbush finds herself transported from the boredom of a Mid-Western chicken-packing town to the 25 islands of the Abarat--islands torn between the evil magician Christopher Carrion and the equally power-hungry rational capitalist Pixler. Each of the islands has a nature determined by an hour of the day--part of the pleasure of the book is seeing how Barker works this conceit out as Cindy travels from peril to peril. The book is literally a book of hours--in the Medieval sense; it's lavishly illustrated with over a hundred of Barker's striking paintings--much of its imagery was conceived of pictorially and then reinvented as story. This is a fine book--it is also a beautiful and charming object. --Roz Kaveney

Review
Praise for the illustrated hardback edition: "ABARAT is more than just a new and major contender. It is (like his earlier book, THE THIEF OF ALWAYS) full of a level of beautiful terror that children are still just able to bear" Independent "Always creating and always pushing into the furthest reaches of the human mind, he is an artist in every sense of the word. He is the great imaginer of our time" Quentin Tarantino "You're eager to love this beautiful, heavy, richly coloured slab of a book. And thankfully it's easy to love!Abarat is a sumptuous and lovely thing. With beautiful pictures of monsters." The Guardian "A blend of Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" Entertainment Weekly "Embraces the lands of Oz, Wonderland and Narnia" Booklist

From the Publisher
Once upon a world where time is place...
A journey beyond imagination is about to unfold...
Rich, wild and unpredictable - by turns tragic and comical - Barker's Abarat is a story that will capture the imagination of all readers, adult and children alike, offering a limitless landscape to visit and revisit.

Abarat is the first installment of The Four Books of Abarat, a four-book series.

Customer Reviews

The beginning of something wonderful?
Before reading this book, the only other Clive Barker book I had read was "Weaveworld" (highly recommended). As I read "Abarat", I was struck by the similarities and the differences between the two books.
"Abarat" is actually classed as a book for young adults and I think it is bacause of this that the horror is significantly different to Barker's books for adults. Barker could be said to have toned down the horror, however there are the usual weird characters which you would expect from a horror / fantasy book. And as usual, some of these are evil and some are not. The characters of this book are perhaps not quite so twisted as some of Barker's others (those in Hellraiser for example).

The idea behind "Abarat" echoes (as a few other reviewers have pointed out) some of Barker's other works. The young heroine of the book, Candy, finds a way into another world; although throughout the book, she feels as though she has been there before. The world she has now become involved in is called the Abarat; it is an archipelago of islands, each one representing a different hour of the day (although this world has 25 hours). This world is ruled by the Prince of Midnight, Christopher Carrion. Once he discovers that Candy is within the Abarat, with a possession he wants, it seems only inevitable that she will fall into his hands. This is a very brief outline of the story. I don't want to give too much away.

As you can expect, Candy makes friends and enemies along the way. Although this book can be read by yoiung adults, there are many layers to this story. For example, Barker tries to explore how good and evil figure when love or desire may also become involved.

I have to agree that Barker's main accomplishment with this book is the creation of Carrion. He is a complex dark character. I also think the artwork adds to this book (it played a big part in me buying the book). I do think this book has suffered in regards to reviews because it is the first of four. This is in a sense an introduction to this new world that Barker has created. If you read this book expecting the story to be completely resolved by the last page, you will be disappointed. Personally, I can't wait to read the others. It should be a colourful ride at least.

Excellent!
It's a strange hybrid. Alice in Wonderland meets The Neverending Story.

Only more visceral.

Take your classic Clive Barker storytelling from say, Weaveworld or The Great and Secret Show. Cut down the length (Nowhere near the length of Imajica), take out any ultra-gorey-barker-touches, adapt slightly for children, add usual colourful and wonderful characters and there you have Abarat. Fundamentally, it feels like a children's book for adults. It's cheery, much less dark and serious than many other of his books, and essentially works very well.

Starting with the premise of a bored heroine in a boring town, who wanders out of the city and helps a many-headed master criminal (albeit a very pleasant and polite one) escape from an evil assassin. From there she discovers the Abarat, where things are far from boring...

It's an excellently written novel, and the first in a small series (the next of which is published in September). Fantastic!

Barker creates brand new children's classic
This could turn out to be a milestone in children's/young adult's litrature... Barker (previously acclaimed for his gore-filled "Books of Blood" and classic cinematic horror fests such as "Hellraiser" and "Candyman") turns his hand once again to the more fantastic, and delivers a bizarre world that could well be remembered by generations to come...

Clive Barker has succeeded in creating a universe, which although reminiscent of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Wizard of Oz and (most definately) Alice in Wonderland, manages to bring something new to the table. The story is packed with characters stranger and sometimes darker than we've ever really encountered before. Barker's dark and mischievous edge really lends the fable a suspenseful tone, while his usual magically inspired imagination takes us into a world full of wonder, mystery, magic and danger.

This is a beautiful book, in all respects, richly illustrated in full colour by Clive's own unique paintings. Get the hardback version while you can - not only is it pure joy to hold in your hand, it could well turn out to be worth something in years to come!

A really good, gripping, traditional fantasy tale... with something to drag those of ALL ages along on a truly fantastical journey. Let's just hope that Disney can really do this justice - the rights have already been snapped up in a record breaking deal (More than enough to knock the glasses from a certain smug little school-going wizard's face!)

I'm already looking forward to the next installment in what is already shaping up to be a quartet of stunning and beautiful books...