Clive Barker "Mister B. Gone"
 

In stores now...and apparently this marks the return of Clive Barker...anyone concur?

http://www.fantasy.fr/news/upload/ac...ter-b-gone.jpg

I was thinking about picking that up soon.

I certainly hope so. I haven't been interested in Clive's fiction for roughly 15 years. But I was a huge fan in the late '80s and early '90s. I have somewhat high hopes for Mister B. Gone. It's in my to-read pile, but I don't think I'll get to it for a while. I look forward to reviews here...

BTW, my mom won't be happy to hear about "the return" of Clive Barker. Every time I talk to her about books, she asks me when the 3rd Abarat book is coming out. :lol:

Clive was on Craig Ferguson's show promoting this book and it sounds wild.

Clive's voice. :(

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What happened to his voice?

I read the first 20 pages. This book is a trip so far.

It's not really horror though. I don't know how it compares with Barker's other books, this is his only adult fiction book I've read, but it's like Super-Ultra-Dark Comedy/Fantasy. Some parts are kind of horrific I suppose, but the way it's written is not really suspenseful or edge-of-your-seat scary.

Cigars?
 

I remember hearing him interviewed in the UK in the late 80s or early 90s and don't remember him sounding at all like that. He had a mid-atlantic accent then, from which it was difficult to discern his Liverpudlian origins.

In this interview from 2001 the reporter writes of Barker having a voice "[....] as murky as the sea bottom" and in the same interview, his editor spoke of "that scratchy cigar-smoking voice" so I'm assuming that it has been like that for a while!

Compare & contrast:

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I've noticed his voice going downhill for awhile.

Just recently, watching 1986 footage of him being interviewed for Hellraiser, then listening to his 1995 commentary for the Laserdisc, and then his 2000-something commentary for the DVD, you could really hear a difference, specifically between 1995 and 2000. The difference from 1986 to 1995 could be chalked up to age.

I'm pretty sure it's because he smokes (cigars). I don't know if it's throat cancer yet, but sounds well on its way.

Wow,
 

saw him years ago at Dragon Con. The guy sounds like he's 85 years old now. It's sad, I hope he gets checked for cancer yearly at least.

in that first interview with craig ferguson, Clive mentioned the books of blood movie. Does anyone know if this is gonna be a miniseries or something? I've read all three volumes of the series and they're some of my favorite short stories.

Yikes! I hope he's okay. He aapears to be energetic and in good spirits on the Ferguson interview, but age couldn't have done that kind of damage. Not at 55. I'm a few Barker books behind, but this new one sounds worth skipping the others for.

Book Review
 

Mister B Gone is not one of Clive's best books.

It's incredibly sparse, particularly for the normally prolfiic Barker. This book feels like a filler that probably took him less than a month to write.

There is some playful cleverness, but it's overt and predictable. It seems that one of the overall themes of the book is an idictment against publishers. I wouldn't be surprised if his future books aren't from another company.

One aspect I did enjoy was his return to some visceral gore. There are some great descriptions of depravity that have been lacking in his most recent works. Perhaps that's where the whole "return of Clive Barker" is coming from.

Overall though, it's not a very fulfilling read. I finished it in about 3 or 4 hours of reading. Maybe it would have impressed me more if I didn't have an inflated expectation of Clive. I just expect more from him than this.

It wasn't a *bad* book, but it was extraordinarily mediocre. It relied on gimmic over content.

I liked the book a lot until the last third or so. Then the suspense is unfortunately going away. :(
But I still have to pick those Abarat books soon.

There is a version of his short story The Midnight Meat Train(if I remember the title right)coming out.I've seen the trailer for it.