Rediscover: Books of Blood

The name Clive Barker may be more familiar to movie watchers than book readers. His creations have appeared, and reappeared (and reappeared again) in multiple horror franchises, particularly Hellraiser. But British author Barker, despite his mastery of multiple media, is first and foremost a writer of horror novels and short stories. In 1984, Barker's debut story collection, Books of Blood, Volume 1, earned instant notoriety. By 1985, six volumes--30 stories in all--had cemented Barker as "the future of horror," according to Stephen King.

Barker has since published more than a dozen novels. His most famous, The Hellbound Heart (1986), was adapted into the perennial Hellraiser series. Weaveworld (1987), Imajica (1991) and Galilee (1998) showcase an increasing blend of lighter fantasy into an otherwise unrelentingly dark oeuvre. For those seeking the primordial abyss from which Barker evolved, there is nothing better than Books of Blood--the first three of which are available in a single volume from Berkley ($20, 9780425165584).

In "The Midnight Meat Train," a feeble New York City office worker takes the worst subway ride of his life. In "In the Hills, the Cities," an ancient rivalry between two cities takes on monumental--and literal--proportions, and "Dread" finds a college student conducting his own unethical psychology experiments. This Halloween, snuggle up with the sort of grim and darkly amusing horror exemplified by Blood of Blood's epigraph: "Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we're opened, we're red." --Tobias Mutter

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