Weaveworld
Clive Barker

Rating:
Publisher: Pocket Books
Publish Date: 1987

            Clive Barker has transcended the term fantasy with this epic novel.  Absent are the stale reminders that Tolkien has set the bar unbelievably high for fantasy authors.  Barker does not try to reprise the world that Tolkien created in any way, shape or form.  I do not even think I consciously realized why I liked this book so much until I finished it and stopped to consider that this world that Barker had created was new in every sense of word.  A friend asked me the other day what I thought about the "failure of imagination" that is so pervasive in Fantasy writing these days and I was happy to be able to point to this novel as a glimmer of hope. I only hope the wannabes take the time to read this one and realize that there are no limits to where our imaginations can travel.  I suggest you read this book as soon as you are able to, you won't regret it.

         Calhoun Mooney is almost as dull as his Liverpool surroundings.  His work as a clerk, marginal girlfriend and apathetic father do little to add excitement to his life.   However, all of this is about to change as Calhoun (Cal) is introduced to the reality that beneath the city's drab urban veneer, there is an undercurrent of fearful power and a struggle between forces that boggle the imagination.  The fight is for a prize which is the namesake of the novel, Weaveworld.  The Seerkind are revealed as a thread in Barker's tapestry as both the brothers and sisters of humanity's best hopes and the embodiment of our most foul imaginings.  This story combines elements of fantasy, as well as moments of real horror.   We follow Cal and Suzanna through the twists and turns of the Fugue, a world within a world, and experience the frivolity of magic used for magic's sake as well as the brutality of magic used for dominion.

        Just when your mind begins to get a tenuous grip on the skewed reality presented in Weaveworld, get ready to have the world remade once again on a grander scale.  There are gods and demons waiting their turn to dazzle your eyes and bewilder your senses.  Barker produces prose that evoke colors, textures and a feeling of inclusion in the story.  Weaveworld earns the five sword rating, the first novel to achieve this distinction from FantasyReviews.

Reviewed by Chris Hart