The story starts out with a sinister atmosphere that increases as the plot develops, though the developments near the end of the story take it in new and weird directions. Said subway has been terrorized by a serial killer who butchers his victims, and as luck has it, Leon finds himself on the same train as the killer. “The Midnight Meat Train” follows down-and-out Leon Kaufman as he rides the New York subway. It lacks the later stories’ substance, but is a stylish introduction to the series.

A decent lead-in to Barker’s work, it is something of a gorier Illustrated Man, a well-written tale showing a rich imagination. After a while, the ghosts really do come for him almost in retribution, and carve their own stories onto his flesh-which, the narrator claims, make up the content of the Books of Blood. Said medium turns out to be faking his powers, sitting alone in a room whilst screaming and writing ghostly messages on the walls. “The Book of Blood” starts the series off and acts somewhat as a frame story, with a pyschic researcher employing a medium to study a haunted house. It’s surprising that such brutal things can be packed into such small packages.

I’m not kidding when I say they’re short each one contains four to six stories and is some 200 pages long.

The Books of Blood were his first mainstream success, short-fiction collections that caused Barker to skyrocket in popularity originally three short anthologies were planned, though by the end the series consisted of six volumes. Their freight, the wandering dead, can be glimpsed when the heart is close to bursting, and sights that should be hidden come plainly into view.Ĭlive Barker exploded onto the 1980s horror scene with force and vigor he quickly earned a reputation in the field and was heavily endorsed by popular authors, including Stephen King, who famously blurbed, “I have seen the future of horror, and it is named Clive Barker.” Things didn’t quite work out that way-most of Barker’s work in the last fifteen years has been fantasy, in particular his Abarat series for young adults-though he does return to horror and dark fantasy on occasion. Their thrum and throb can be heard in the broken places of the world, through cracks made by acts of cruelty, violence and depravity.

They run, unerring lines of ghost-trains, of dream-carriages, across the wasteland behind our lives, bearing an endless traffic of departed souls.

Books of blood books