Continuing on the theme of works of art beginning with the letter “A” (for two hundred, Alex), I cannot highly enough recommend Clive Barker’s Abarat. I’ll have to wait for the next three books in the series before I’m sure, but Abarat is a masterpiece.
It’s a young adult novel but not in the alliterative silly-names genre of young adult novels like the early Harry Potter books; Abarat is a great story that happens to be written with young adults in mind like Alice In Wonderland or, dare I say, the later Harry Potter books.
Abarat was, as I mentioned, written by Clive Barker who is perhaps best known as an author in the horror genre. Abarat, though, like Barker’s own Imajica is not a work of horror but is instead a journey through a wholey unique world that Barker created hundreds of abstract-ish paintings in order to illustrate (and to facilitate the novel’s (novels’?) own creation).
I said a “wholey unique world” and I imagine that some of you scoffed but, really, I’ve never encountered anything like this before. While fantasy worlds tend to be built around preexisting mythologies (e.g., Tolkien’s Middlearth, J.K. Rowling’s Hogwarts and sundries, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and so forth) Abarat seems to have been constructed from previously untapped images and ideas.
The story, so far, follows a fairly standard Alice In Wonderland-esque journey with a young girl, Candy, being transported from our world into a bizarre and magic other world. It’s the world that astounds, but I have to say that the thing that most sealed the book for me was the way that the characters were well-developed and realistic. From Candy herself, who has real-life problems (an alcoholic father as compared to, say, living under the stairs) and behaves in a real way. She’s smart, resourceful, and I think would make a wonderful role-model for girls because she’s anything but a passive airhead who stumbles around until some man comes along to save her.
The supporting characters are equally well-drawn. There’s John Mischief, a man whose seven brothers live on the tines of his antlers. Each of those brothers has a distinct personality, as does John Mischief, and yet their symbiosis even on an emotional level is unmistakable. There’s Mendelson Shape, the fully fleshed-out dark servant that so many stories try for and fail to create (and I have to say that I think Mendelson Shape is one of the greatest names I’ve ever encountered). Then there’s Christopher Carrion, a great female ship captain, a sorcerer with seven hats, and the greedy overlord of 3 A.M.
Ahem… I think I’m finished gushing, now. Suffice to say, I very highly recommend purchasing a copy of Abarat and giving it a chance. The only thing I regret about the book is that fewer boys will read it because its main character is a girl..
character gender be damned! as a male who wholly enjoyed the Alice stories, I look forward to giving this a shot.
a bit of entirely uninteresting to anyone else brain processing:
American McGee’s Alice (the computer game based on a grim interpretation of Lewis Carol’s work) was published with a CD attached promo movie for Clive Barker’s Undying (also a great computer game) who is, appearantly, the author of a young adult’s novel that seems to lie somewhere in line with the tradition Carol set down.
and Kevin Bacon bears an uncanny similarity to the Dormouse. my synapes fire weird.
still, sounds interesting, Amp. I think I’ll pick up a copy tomarrow
Yeah, bean, great post. ;-)
I’ve already added it to my wishlist, which is totally accessible to anyone at all through my blog. Why, shameless begging for stuff? Of course not, just making an observation. A perfectly innocent observation.
And could I go on the record as saying I’ve not once, not once misattributed a single post on this site. So there.
I love Abarat. The artwork is amazing and his storytelling is stellar, like always. One of the things I love best about Clive is he frequently writes terrific female protagonists.
May I add a link?
http://www.thebooksofabarat.com/
Thanks for the recommendation, PDP. I am always looking for a new book to read. While I won’t be personally increasing the number of males who read it, I will certainly tell my male friends. They would probably like it as well.
Sounds good, I’ve ordered it. Some other fantasy worlds that are pretty unique are Glenn Cook’s Black Company, George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones, and Gaimen’s Neverwhere. Don’t know if they are unique enough for you, but they were all damn good.
PDP, everyone at my house has been walking about singing the Hamster Tree song for two weeks now. I couldn’t agree with your comments more. It’s an excellent book and promises to be an excellent series. . .now let’s just hope Mr Barker doesn’t develop GRRMPS (George R. R. Martin publishing syndrome) before the other books are done.
—JRC
Oooh, oooh, somebody brought up one of my favorite series (through book 4 or 5 at any rate – the last few are a waste).
Anyhow, the “Black Company” series is not so much a unique fantasy world as a unique angle from which to see a fantasy world. The protaganist is a mercenary working (initially) for the side of Evil. Evil which bears a striking resemblance to LOTR evil. The south of the world (later novels) has strong Hindu mythology related stuff. That said, there is a lot of good original stuff in there & I recommend it highly.
As to the “Game of Thrones” trilogy. I don’t see that as a unique world either. Dragons, magic, sword fighting, royalty & disputes over succession, rebellion. Granted, it takes place on a VERY COLD planet. And the characters are a kajillion times more ruthless and cruel than you’re apt to find in other fantasy. And the characters are well developed. But unique? But it is some of the best fantasy I’ve ever read.
I guess I’m just quibbling w/ the word “unique”. But dammit – I’m getting old and crotchety.
I agree with Jake. A Song of Ice and Fire, while good, isn’t exactly unique. No comment on Black Company as I’ve not read it.
Again, though, Abarat is truely unique.
That’s why I only said ‘pretty unique.’ Both the Black Company and the Game of Thrones draw upon other fantasy – but I think both series do it in a way that is unique. The fact that The Game of Thrones includes dozens of first person perspectives in a world stretching from endless winter to sun baked desert during a time when magic, previously only a myth, is being reborn in a kingdom torn apart by a succession dispute and invasion – none of that individually is unique, but all together – nothing comes close.
The Black Company is set in the bleakest most god-forsaken world you could ever imagine with characters so deformed and twisted, both spiritually and physically, that they transcend ‘evil.’ That was certainly unique to me – but stories about mercenaries are centuries old and evil mercenaries probably only slightly less so.
In totality – both series are unique – but they both borrow from older works.
The only thing I’ve ever read that was wholely unique was China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station – amazingly well written – although so powerful that at times it felt like I was reading pins and needles. I look forward to reading Abarat.
an extract from The Scar, also by Mieville.
http://www.panmacmillan.com/Features/China/exclusive.htm
Okay, having read “Abarat” I want to agree w/ PDP about it being an excellent read. I still disagree about the uniqueness angle, but that is largely irrelevant to the reading goodness that is “Abarat”
If anybody wants to discuss the ideas of uniqueness in “Abarat” you know where to find me, but do go and read it.
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The movie abarat? no, please no! disney will almost certainly screw this up! I would love to see a movie based on the books but it would be near immpossible to do it right. Ive heard that theyre planning a theme park ride too! why abarat?
Yarg! Can anyone tell me where to find a map of Abarat? I worship the books and need (rather, would like) to do a project on them for my English class, but cannot find a map of Abarat, except for the one in my book, and the one in my book, I can’t get a picture of the part close to the binding. Yarg! Does anyone have any news of the movie Abarat? I’ve read all I can…they’re promising to be very close to the book (can’t be as great, though. Look at Voldemort in HP)…but nothing has been updated for months! Lordy Lou!
Please, I was told this was a trilogy, however I can find no info on the 3 titles.
Could someone please help me?
Thank you thank you!
Abarat is a five book series, not a trilogy. The last book “Days Of Magic, Nights Of War” was released in 2004 and we’re waiting … for a while … for the final three books to come out.
… and the third Book of Art …
… and the next Galilee book …
… and the Scarlet Gospels …
Clive, you’ve got a lot of work to do!