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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
An expanded version of the original story., 11 Oct 2000
By A Customer
In Clive Barker's 'Books of Blood' Volume 6 the final story before the summary of all the books was called 'The Last Illusion'. It was of moderate length, and introduced us to Harry D'Amour. It is clear that Barker always had great things planned for D'Amour, because he featured breifly in 'The Great and Secret Show' and more promiently in its sequel, 'Everville'. However, in this first story he was less sketched out as he became, merely a pawn headed for greater things. The story was good but when I heard a film was being made out of it I failed to see how they could expand the story any futher without making it boring. The film 'Lord of Illusions' came out in 1995 and I enjoyed the film, not as much as 'Hellraiser' though, and saw what Barker had done - he had written a completly different story. There were the same charectors, but they were doing different things to what they had done in the story and, ultimatly, had different fates. Then this book came out. It is a faithful adaptation of the film, contemprary and economically written, focussing more on D'Amour than the story did and expanding the roles of Swann and Butterfield. It invovles Harry getting invovled in a cult when master majicion Swann fakes his death so acoloites of a demon that he killed will not come after him. As the demon is resercted in the desert, Harry journeys out there to prevent futher deaths, with disastorous consequences. The plot unfolds backwards as we journey with D'Amour to find out what is going on. Barker know's his plot inside out and has enthusiasm for it. Gore is eminent on every page though, some of the worst that I have read, and is not for the faint of heart. The conclusion is a bit of a light-and-sound show though, so watch out for that. While it does not work as well as it does on the screen, and has one or two plot holes (why, for example, does Swann, after faking his death, go to the desert shack with Harry when he knows what danger lurks there?), and while it is nowhere near as good as some of his other work, it is well worth a look for Harry D'Amour affindos and people interested in Barkers screen-to-print work, and worth a breif look for anyone who has seen the film for a more in-depth plot and more charector motivation. A classic of mind and plot over mindless killings.
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