Books of Blood, Volumes 1-3 » (Special Collector's Edition)

A diversely talented and always chilling writer-artist, Clive Barker creates worlds that turn humanity's baser qualities inside out, hold them in front of a funhouse mirror, and transform them into the stuff of nightmares.

With the 1984 publication of Books of Blood, Clive Barker became an overnight literary sensation. He was hailed by Stephen King as "the future of horror," and won both the British and World Fantasy Awards. Now, with his numerous bestsellers, graphic novels, and hit movies like the Hellraiser films, Clive Barker has become an industry unto himself. But it all started here, with this tour de force collection that rivals the dark masterpieces of Edgar Allan Poe. Read him. And rediscover the true meaning of fear.

Publishers Weekly

Published last year in Britain as three paperback originals, these short narratives garnered impressive reviews. This edition, Barker's first hardcover appearance in America, gathers together 16 stories in one volume as the author originally intended and contains eerily effective illustrations by fantasy artists J. K. Potter and Harry O. Morris. The tales are of varying quality and will please mostly readers who like their horror bloody and graphic. An occasional reliance on hokey set-ups and deus ex machinas, and the frequent shifting of intention in mid-story are jarring qualities, however. Further, a pervasive misanthropy colors the narratives and makes them unpleasant in a way the author probably didn't intend. The best entry, ``Human Remains,'' about a male hustler and his doppelganger, isthe only one in which the author actually seems to like his protagonist.Also good are the almost dreamlike``New Murders in the Rue Morgue,'' ``Scape-goats,'' about an island that is an altar to the drowned, and ``Son of Celluloid,'' which generates a full complement of chills. Ramsey Campbell has contributed a lavishly praiseful introduction. November 15