- Hardcover: 512 pages
- Publisher: Voyager; New edition edition (4 Oct 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007100450
- ISBN-13: 978-0007100453
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 15.4 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 303,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Clive Barker's inventiveness reaches new heights in Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War. What might have been just another portal fantasy in which a girl from our mundane world becomes crucial to the affairs of a fantastic one next door becomes something rich and strange because of the book's strong visual imagery. Barker spent many months painting at random and then used those paintings to create, and illustrate, the world of Abarat, where each island of an archipelago lives in the perpetual light or darkness of a single eternal day.
Abarat is a world of the monstrous, the bizarre and the beautiful--this is the book which most totally embodies Barker's strange talent since the short stories of The Books of Blood. There is power and suspense to this book's buildup to a final confrontation between the monstrous, treacherous and pathetic Christopher Carrion and the ingénue Cindy Quackenbush, but in a sense its point is all the decorations along the way; this second volume of Barker's quartet delivers on the promises of the first.--Roz Kaveney
Review
Praise for ABARAT I 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
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Reading about the journey of Candy Quackenbush within the Abarat is a far more enjoyable experience in book two. The author expands his imagination as he introduces more unusual intelligent mythical creatures. It is a pleasure discovering the eccentricities of each new creature as Candy encounters the cultural differences within this archipelago. The reader is now familiar with the territory and eagerly turns the pages anticipating each new thrill, knowing at any point ... with a twist and turn of events ... there maybe an ambush by Christopher Carrion, Lord of Midnight or one of his subordinates. By now the reader knows he has an obsession with meeting Candy to discover the source of her magic. He is convinced she possesses special powers for having survived the many obstacles placed in her path and having vanquished highly formidable foes sent by him to capture her. The fact she has managed to evade him is an endless source of irritation which goads him further on his mission. One unexpected source of pleasure is reading how his grandmother Mother Motley has insight into his devious plans and even sees within his heart what his true desires are. She sews day and night helping to create an army of fiends to aide him during the anticipated battle to win control of the Abarat. More surprises await the reader as Christopher Carrion and his grandmother clash on personal levels when she hurls insults and hateful epitaphs at him. While one is rooting for Candy to overcome their evil intentions ... the reader can not but laugh at some of the clashes between these two villains. There is truth to the old adage 'divide and conquer'...
The friendly and unique creatures from book one, such as John Mischief, the other Johns and Malingo, become old pals as the reader is taken down meandering pathways exploring the islands and experiencing new adventures. New challenges await Candy and one of the most gratifying discoveries within the book is when Candy *finally* meets the dragon slayer ... Finnegan Hob who had been engaged to Princess Boa, who was killed by a dragon. This reader is very pleased the author did not cop out and create a romantic interlude betweeen these characters. Romance would diminish the natural appeal of the books which is reading about imaginary creatures, magical mythical islands where the heroine experiences excitement and adventure.
The author does a superb job of weaving together a common thread which ties the Abarat and Chickentown. It is heart warming to read how Candy, at last, communicates with her mom, dad and brothers. The mysterious connection between the three wise ladies from the Abarat who sailed on the Sea of Izabella and Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown Minnesota is revealed. The reader learns how and why Candy Quackenbush came to possess unique powers of magic ... This story is complete in all of its myriad of details and magic. It fully deserves 5 stars. Thanks to Allison for lending me book two. Erika Borsos (bakonyvilla)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The second book from Clive Barker's Abarat charts much the same course as with the first. The images and dazzling magical visions are once again there to enrapture and enchant and enthrall. It is also good to see that once again Clive Barker does not shirk from treating his younger readers with the intelligence and respect they deserve. The characters are all very well rounded (for a story aimed at younger readers) and though the base of the story is a struggle of good and evil the depth of the characters adds a good deal more to it than that. Perhaps this second book does suffer a bit however in being too much like the first. The story does, perhaps, flag for a time being too caught up in its own colourful magic, although it does build up to a very impressively gripping ending. It will be interesting to see if Clive Barker can fully carry the story through into the next book of the series, since there are signs here that perhaps the ideas are running thin and such a series cannot rely entirely on the wonders of its universe forever without injecting something new into the story. This still is though a very high quality tale for the younger reader and, fingers crossed, it will remain so as the story is continued.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There are good things about this recent Clive Barker escapade: it is an extremely beautiful object, with rich illustrations (which seem lavish, but are very simple once you look at them closely) and Clive's inimitable abilty to draw bizarre and extraordinary creatures and make them more believable than human ones. However, there are also the usual failings: completely flat human characters that lack motivation and seemingly take otherwordly happenings with a pinch of salt, and a rambling narrative. The books ends as if it needs another three parts; and whilst I appreciate it does have them to come, it really should have had some completion within itself.
Clive is always heralded as a great shapeshifter of the literary world, but I am truly getting a little tired of the continuance of the, "ordinary person, finds doorway into another world - or worlds - and finds themselves to be the saviour of the world - or worlds" theme, as we saw in 'Imagica', 'Weaveworld', 'The Great and Secret Show', 'The Thief of Always', not to mention in subtler ways in 'Cabal' and 'The Hellbound Heart'. I suppose it would frustrate me less if he simply admitted that this previously mined vein of storyline - from Tolkien to C.S Lewis is what motivates his work primarily, instead of continually heralding himself as such an original with diversity in approach and premise with every novel. It's the same old same old, I'm disappointed to say.
I also would have liked to have seen this 'Book of Hours' Actually have something to do with time. Maybe this is something he explores further in the later volumes. And I would have preferred it if the islands actually had more coherent familiarities with the hours they were named after.
That said, the good things about it are the feel and smell of the book (It's like holding one big lush painting) and the finely drawn creatures and landscapes Clive can muster from his illustrious imagination.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Magical and fantastical
This is the second book in Clive Barker's Abarat series and I think he has created a wonderful and fantastical world in these stories. Read more
Published 14 months ago by H. M. Holt
Amongst my favourite books
This is one of my favourite books ever. There are characters from the first book, and new ones, but they are all great, and each more fantastical then before. Read more
Published on 17 April 2007 by Rubbah
Bring on volume 3!! "ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT"
Bring on volume 3!! "ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT", August 12, 2006
This book (along with book one, ABARAT) is surely going to go down in history as a "classic series" of books. Read more
This book (along with book one, ABARAT) is surely going to go down in history as a "classic series" of books. Read more
Published on 19 April 2006 by Jakabok Botch
0
Published in 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers, this is the second installation to the ‘Books Of Abarat’ quartet of novels. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2006 by Chris Hall
Wow!
It's not often I can honestly say I loved to read a story, but this is one of those times. Having thoroughly enjoyed the first book, I couldn't wait to get into the second (had to... Read more
Published on 26 Nov 2004 by little/big sis
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