The Great and Secret Show
by Clive Barker

List Price: $18.99
Our Price: $9.44
You Save: $9.55 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.96 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of The Great and Secret Show

Book Review: Very enjoyable read of a fantastic landscape of the mind
Summary: 5 Stars

The overall story uses fantastical elements (the dream-sea, called Quiddity; loops in time; a mysterious cult that worships something called the Art) but in doing so what the story is really highlighting is the secret lives that people lead and how ephemeral those lives can be, particularly when those lives are based on the superficial and fleeting pleasures (whether that be fame, money, or sex). The events in the book speak to people's deepest fears and their secret desires and how those fuel an odd melange of dreams and nightmares and how those dreams and those nightmares can define who we are and who we become. The ideas in this book flow pretty fast and furious and yet all are logically connected in my opinion. While the concepts are fantastical, the mundane setting they are placed in serves as a wonderful contrast to the events that eventually take place. The ideas behind the Quiddity and the Art that allows access to it may not satisfy fans of more science-fiction novels but, on the other hand, the elements of an odd cult, an ancient enemy and the means by which tears in the fabric of reality can bring those things together are not really in the true horror genre either. So the book sort of straddles a few elements from various literary genres and weaves what I think is a very compelling story.

If you decide to give this book a try, understand that you are getting into what is (at the time of writing this review) a two-book series. (The second book is "Everville" and a third book is ostensibly planned, although there is some debate on that, most notably from the author.) However, do not let that daunt you. The current book actually can stand on its own quite well if you decide to venture no further into Clive Barker's portrait of humanity and what might lie at right angles to reality and just beyond the veil of our dreams.

Summary of The Great and Secret Show

In the little town of Palomo Grove, two great armies are amassing; forces shaped from the hearts and souls of America. In this New York Times bestseller, Barker unveils one of the most ambitious imaginative landscapes in modern fiction, creating a new vocabulary for the age-old battle between good and evil. Carrying its readers from the first stirring of consciousness to a vision of the end of the world, The Great and Secret Show is a breathtaking journey in the company of a master storyteller.

Horror Books

• Books > Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction
• Literary