![]() After Kaufman kills Mahogany in self-defense, the train arrives at a secret station where ancient, withered humans board and consume the bodies. A man named Mahogany is killing people in subway trains, identifying as a "Butcher" in pursuit of "fresh meat." Kaufman falls asleep on a late-night subway train to Far Rockaway, Queens and awakens to discover Mahogany has killed people in the neighboring car and the train conductor is cooperating with him. Since arriving he has become disillusioned, seeing the dirt and depravity in a city like any other. Office worker Leon Kaufman has recently moved to New York City, a place that he long idolized as "The Palace of Delights". First for the film Book of Blood by John Harrison and then for the 2020 Brannon Braga film Books of Blood. This prologue, along with closing story "On Jerusalem Street" from Volume 6, was adapted and directed twice. Florescu nurses the young man and begins transcribing his tales, thinking of him as a "Book of Blood" and her as his only translator. They carve names and "minute words" into his flesh, leaving him his body covered in stories – the stories of this anthology series. ![]() He fakes visions as he has done many times before, pretending to hear names and stories told to him from beyond the mortal world but this time ghosts attack him. ![]() Unknown to Florescu, who is attracted to him, McNeal is a fraud. A psychic researcher, Mary Florescu, has employed a young medium named Simon McNeal to investigate a haunted house. The story mentions that the afterlife involves "highways of the dead" that sometimes intersect with the living world. The first story of Volume 1 acts as a frame story to the Books of Blood anthology series (along with "On Jerusalem Street", the closing story presented in UK editions of Volume 6). Story list and synopses Volume One "The Book of Blood" And Volume VI is sold as "Cabal", which either includes four or five additional short stories, depending on the edition.įor some editions, Clive Barker illustrated the book covers. Volume IV is sold as "The Inhuman Condition". Volumes I-III are sold as "The Books of Blood". Instead, the stories could range wildly in genre and tone, from the humorous to the truly horrific. Barker has stated in Faces of Fear that an inspiration for the Books of Blood came when he read Dark Forces in the early 1980s and realised that a horror story anthology didn't need to have narrow themes, consistent tone or restrictions to be considered a proper collection. A common thread is that most of the stories feature everyday people in contemporary settings who become involved in violent, mysterious, and/or supernatural events. Some are traditional horror, some are described by Barker as " dark fantasy," some are comical, and "The Last Illusion" is notable for being a mixture of horror and noir while also introducing the occult detective Harry D'Amour. Thus, a framing story is created around the anthologies. The UK editions of Volume 6 close with a story, "On Jerusalem Street", that features a man who pursues the fake psychic in order to skin him and take his Book of Blood. This makes him a "Book of Blood" and the narration then invites the reader to read these stories. The detective went on to appear in more of Barker's writings, the Hellraiser comic book series from Boom! Studios, and the 1995 movie Lord of Illusions (based on "The Last Illusion" and adapted by Barker himself).Ĭlive Barker's tagline for Books of Blood was: "Everybody is a book of blood wherever we're opened, we're red." The opening story, "The Book of Blood", introduces the premise of the anthology series by revealing that a fake psychic is attacked one night by genuine ghosts and spirits who decide to make him a true messenger by writing stories into his flesh. Author Stephen King praised Books of Blood, leading to a quote from him appearing on the first US edition of the book: "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker."īooks of Blood Volume 6 is significant for its story "The Last Illusion" which introduced Barker's occult detective character Harry D'Amour. The Volume 1–3 omnibus contained a foreword by Barker's fellow Liverpudlian horror writer Ramsey Campbell. Each volume contains four, five or six stories. Originally presented as six volumes, the anthologies were subsequently re-published in two omnibus editions containing three volumes each. Known primarily for writing stage plays beforehand, Barker gained a wider audience and fanbase through this anthology series, leading to a successful career as a novelist. Books of Blood is a series of six horror fiction anthologies collecting original stories written by British author, playwright, and filmmaker Clive Barker in 19.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |