Great writer, especially his earlier stuff (I suppose that goes for most writers). My favorite books are the Books of Blood-collections, Weaveworld, Imajica, The Great and Secret Show and Everville.
Speaking of early stuff there's seems to be a new collection coming out with stories Barker wrote some forty years ago.
Here's a review:
THE ADVENTURES OF MR. MAXMILLAN BACCHUS AND HIS TRAVELING CIRCUS by Clive Barker
Review by Dave Sims
The Wedding of Indigo Murphy To The Duke Lorenzo De Medici and how Angelo was discovered in an orchard. The Face Of The Flying Lion Fish And Why Doctor Jozabiah Bentham’s Theatre of Tears sailed north. How The Clown Domingo De Ybarrondo Fell Over the edge of the world. How Mr. Maxmillan Bacchus’ Traveling Circus Reached Cathay And Entertained The Court of the Khan Called Kublai in Xanadu, How They Sought The Bearded Bird, and how, at last, Angelo was lost.
No, the lines above aren’t culled from supermarket tabloids and if so, aren’t the entire article. If each wacky, way long line doesn’t spin your head faster than Linda Blair’s, you’ll realize they’re simply the titles of Clive Barker’s stories in his latest, but earliest collection of a complete mind-screw literary fest. Written over forty years ago, these interlocking stories chronicle a circus that trivializes the imagination of P.T. Barnum. Maxmillan Bacchus has assembled a traveling troupe led by a giant bird, populated by such odd characters as a crocodile, orangutan, apple thief, and trapeze girl, they find themselves on a quartet of adventures onto the road to perform for the Kublai Khan. Strange creatures abound, such as the horrific trolls which live on the flip side of the earth (of course it’s flat in Barker’s mind) and those in Bacchus’ rival circus.
Those familiar with the author’s work will notice that even this earliest collection contains visions of a mind most beautifully disturbed, displaying flickers of images that will find their way into Imagica, The Great And Secret Show, and Everville. The illustrations fill the mind’s eye with whatever the imagination doesn’t. Comparisons to other authors would only fall short here, but for those uninitiated, try to picture if Barnum’s show mixed with Roald Dahl with a soundtrack by Pink Floyd but performed by Alice Cooper.
And you can buy it here:
http://www.badmoonbooks.com/product.php?productid=1094&cat=12&page=1
