Some of Barker's best writing, and the first appearance of D'Amour. (Updated 7/7/01)

Although advertised as a collection of short stories, this book is really composed of one very long novella, and four actual short stories.

The prime story is "Cabal", which was later released as a less than stellar movie named "Nightbreed". The story involves a man, who is told by his psychotherapist, that while under hypnosis admitted to several gruesome killings. The man flees, fearing for his fiancé's safety, only to end up in a sprawling cemetery filled with half-human monsters. He is being chased by his fiancé, his psychiatrist, and of course the police. One of the reasons I didn't like the film, is that having read the book first, I remembered that most of the greatest moments occur in the thoughts of the characters. The movie, and film in general, can never translate these properly. One example is the story of how the necropolis (the city of the dead) came into being. Another is the hero being told about these horrible crimes he has committed and choosing to flee rather than face his fiancé he loves so dearly. And of course, listening to the killer's deadly alter ego threatening his conscious mind, while running away, was truly one of the greatest passages in a book I've ever read.

Of the other stories, two pale in comparison to some of Barker's other works, but both "How Spoilers Bleed" and "The Last Illusion" are masterpieces. Spoilers has Barker take us to yet another completely new location that involves an Amazonian curse where the living body rots quite fast. White settlers want to inhabit some lands owned by South American indigenous people. They don't have any firepower to stop them, but they do have a form of 'voodoo magic'. There are actually some interesting history lessons about the Americans and the Indians, and not just in South America.

"The Last Illusion" is the introduction to whom is probably one of Barker's favorite characters, Harry D'Amour. Harry is a Detective who has the unfortunate knack for specializing in the occult. Here he gets involved with the murder of a 'David Copperfield' type of magician whose illusions aren't exactly phony, because of a deal he had made with the dark forces. His soul is up for grabs, so his widow enlists the aid of D'Amour to try and save him before a deadline is met.

The other two short stories are lesser works of Barker's, but not necessarily bad. "The Life of Death" was originally publish in Penthouse magazine, and involves a woman who recently faced with the death of loved ones wants to meet Death in person. "Twilight at the Towers" has got to be one of the strangest takes on a werewolf story I've ever read. Apparently at the height of the cold war, both superpowers turned their spies into werewolves for reasons not made abundantly clear. The story is not necessarily a successful one, but it is not a boring one either. The other three stellar works are worth the price by themselves.

"Cabal" was later also released as "Nightbreed" because of the movie. Later Barker's "Books of Blood" was expanded and re-released to included three more collections of short stories, including this one. Here is a link to my review of that compendium:
http://www.epinions.com/content_30465691268




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