Abarat: Absolute Midnight

Seven years. I first read Abarat in sixth grade. I found myself mesmerized by the beautiful, outlandish paintings and by the writing and the characters. The world of Abarat sucked me in as if I were floating on Mama Izabella right beside Candy. I read Days of Magic, Nights of War as soon as it came out. As with the first, the visual representations of the Abarat and its peoples left me hungry for more. Absolute Midnight was announced and delayed for what seemed like an eternity, but only felt like moments once I had my hands on the book. Absolute Midnight is also a bit different from the previous two novels. Unlike them, Absolute Midnight did not immediately leave me hungering for more upon the conclusion. No, for several days I was simply satisfied. I had an unbreakable good mood, and when it faded, I read the book again and got the same effect the second time. After a few months, now, yes, I hunger for more. Clive Barker's paintings in this installment are no less, and perhaps more, hypnotically beautiful and striking, jarring and terrifying, than in his previous Abarat novels. And it's not just the paintings - Barker has made it clear that Candy's character is one that can infinitely learn and grow, so much that I can see the events unfold in my mind's eye from the writing alone. Of all the characters in this novel, the ones that strike me the most are Candy and Zephario. Candy has come such a long way since she and I left Chickentown behind all those years ago, and Zephario's character is as real and natural as any I've ever read. This book deserves only two things: everlasting commendation and an equally satisfying sequel. As long as Mr. Barker keeps the standard as high as he's raised it here, he has a fan in me.

I've loved this book since it came out and now I own the series and I couldn't be happier! Great story, great value, and it was in perfect condition

The Abarat series focuses on the adventures of Candy Quakenbush, a girl from our Chickentown, Minnesota. Through a series of strange circumstances, she manages to cross over into the magical archipelago of the Abarat, where monsters can become your best friend and each island is a different hour of the day or night. (For example, say you love taking a nap at 3 o'clock in the afternoon , well then you'd love to visit the Nonce, where it is always three in the afternoon. Plus, the thick foliage and shade will provide the perfect natural bed and the once an Hour storms will make sure you never oversleep.) With every new discovery, Candy not only learns more about this incredible, and sometimes dangerous, world, but also more about herself. And that she is destined to not only change the Abarat, but also Chickentown forever. It is hard to pick any one thing about these books that make them fantastic. The plot boiled down is a standard coming of age story. However, the way it is done and the settings make it so much more that other fantasy of it's ilk. The reader's expectations are often turned on their head. Characters and places that one would expect to be good are often not, and the same goes for the bad. This keeps the reader wondering whose side everyone's really on? If someone came to me and forced me to choose one aspect of the this series that keeps me coming back for more, I would have to say the characters. Well, one character especially. I am a big fan of Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight. Sure, he looks like Death and the embodiment of nightmares float in a glass collar around his head. But don't hold that against him; he's one of the most complex and compelling characters of the series. Sometimes he's the villain and other times the hero. He's an abused child and the abuser. When he falls in love, he'll move heaven and earth in the cause of love. How could one not love a character like that? Plus, you can't keep this guy down. Literally. For my complete review, come to my blog. Here's a link: [...] Trust me, it's far too detailled to put all here. Happy Reading!

This is the third book in a five book series. It did lay down some of the story, but it did take some time getting to the point. It’s a must read if you are a fan of this series.

Love this series.

My apologies, as this review will not be helpful to most people. I have literally just recieved this book, and I couldn't believe the heft of the package when I picked it up. I was expecting a pretty scrawny book, based upon the $13.98 pre-order price from amazon, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it easily surpasses the first two volumes of this series in size, and is once again chock full of Mr. Barker's original artwork (125 plates...worth the book price alone!) I buy the majority of my books for the Kindle nowadays, but since I am anal about my book collections being all in the same format, I of course had to buy this in hardcover since I have the first two volumes of the series in hardcover (plus the horror and the color would be lost on the artwork for the Kindle). In this day and age of ever increasing e-book prices (example: Stephen King's 11/22/63, which sells for $16.99 for the un-enhanced version!), -which from what I've read is largely due to Apple somehow able to apply pressure to the book publishers so the i-pad could be a more competitive e-reader- it is incredibly refreshing to know you can still get your money's worth once in a while, and in this case, even more. If anything, Clive Barker has a right to charge MORE for a book such as this, since he also puts so much of his original artwork in it as well. So, Thank you so much Mr. Barker, Harper publishing and amazon.com for this tremendous value!!!

This review of ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT will serve double duty to review the Abarat series: three books in a nine year time span. First things first: buy the Abarat books in hardback because they are the only editions containing Clive's paintings except for one early paperback printing long out of print; the 'revised' paperbacks have no illustrations either. The artwork is half the story, ugly as it, more intended for horror than fantasy. All the paintings are cartoony but Bosch-like and may frighten or put off children. Interested parties should source the first two hardbacks "Abarat" and "Days of Magic, Nights of War" if they want Barker's paintings. Those editions are now scarce, expensive, secondhand and seldom have dustjackets. No matter, all the pictures on the dustcovers are reproduced inside. The hardback editions weigh a ton because of the paper stock used for the paintings. Heroine Candy Quackenbush's outlandish adventures are not YA the way Harry Potter is not YA, after the Goblet of Fire anyway. Barker's prose in the Abarat books is far above that sad benchmark of newspapers everywhere with verbiage dumbed-down to an eighth grade level. Ultimately it's all for naught, a tempest in a teapot. Barker's talent for building worlds on paper is tangible, but his backdrops depict more imagination than his characters and the paces he puts them through. Each Abarat book finds Candy in new lands making new friends and enemies. ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT is no different, barely advancing the saga of Miss Quackenbush and enlarging the number of viewpoints even more (not a plus). I'd venture to say ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT and its two prior companion volumes are more of a magnum opus than either "Imajica" or "Weaveworld." All of them have the same plot---oddball human characters enter an horrific Barker universe. It doesn't matter if it's the Fugue, the Five Dominions or the Islands of the Abarat, all of them are bizarre places teeming with bizarre people, creatures and customs; these warped netherworlds are Kafkaesque, part-Dali, part-Ditko, part-Jack Vance. Abaratic highpoints are the lighthouse sequence in the first book, the carnival island where it's always six in the evening in the second, and the seagoing scenes in ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT and when Mater Motley 'reconstructs' the absolute midnight island. I must emphasize those highpoints comprise less than 100 of the 1537 pages published so far in hardback, with hundreds of other pages devoted to Barker's paintings. The Abarat series is uneven, it could've been a contender, but isn't. I rank ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT and the series as a whole only three stars because it's occasionally thought-provoking, though populated with characters I really don't care about. Barker has clearly run out of gas on this project. But what can you expect of the guy? From the start he's been a writer whose fiction contains uniformly strong beginnings with invariable weak endings. The jury is still out on Abarat because Barker has yet to finish it, there are supposed to be two more books in the series. In all honesty I doubt Clive Barker will ever get around to writing them. And I won't read them if he does.

Clive is a rarity. His compassion for creating other worlds is stunning. I have read all his books and this series is just amazing. This book kept my going ang going until I finished it in a few days. This is dark and thoughtful and has created a world of wonder, good and evil. The wicked are so wicked its awful, but they draw you in with their nature. I cant wait to see what happens in the future volumes. OH! And the paintings are just great! Clive actually has these (and they are very large) in his house. He works tirelessly putting these out while conjuring up his story. Well done Clive!

Eagerly awaiting Kry Rising!

...von einem tollen Autor. Liest sich sehr gut, bin sehr zufrieden. Hab den nächsten Teil auch bestellt. Clive Barker kann ich wirklich empfehlen.

Fast shipping, great deal

Reçu dans les temps; le livre est relié, les illustrations sont d'une qualité impressionnante. Aucune traduction française est annoncée à ce jour, mais si vous êtes fans et que vous hésitez à vous attaquer à ce pavé en anglais, je vous conseille vraiment de le prendre, ça vous permettra d'apprécier le style de Clive Barker sans aucunes modifications dues à la traduction!

Clive Barker is a genius and his imagination is a world of its own. Candy is a great antagonist with the added bonus of Malingo who adds the slightly awkward adorable aspect of innocence. In the future theis books and other Clive Barker books will be part of history and kids and adults alike will be reading them for generations to come. Thank you Mr Barker for putting pen to paper and creating such wonderful worlds for us to become lost in and to inspire us all.