Some of the simple energies that made these words flow through my pen–that made the phrases felicitous and the ideas sing–have gone. Reading these stories over, I feel a little of both. If we’re healthy, every day is a celebration, a Day of the Dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived and if we are neurotic we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present. We are all our own graveyards I believe we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. I look at these pieces and I don’t think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore…. Reflecting back after 14 years, Barker writes:
For those who already know these tales, the poignant introduction is a window on the creator’s mind. “Everybody is a book of blood wherever we’re opened, we’re red.” For those who only know Clive Barker through his long multigenre novels, this one-volume edition of the Books of Blood is a welcome chance to acquire the 16 remarkable horror short stories with which he kicked off his career. But it all started here, with this tour de force collection that rivals the dark masterpieces of Edgar Allan Poe. Now, with his numerous bestsellers, graphic novels, and hit movies like the Hellraiser films, Clive Barker has become an industry unto himself. He was hailed by Stephen King as “the future of horror,” and won both the British and World Fantasy Awards. Was Ambrose scouse? I hope so.With the 1984 publication of Books of Blood, Clive Barker became an overnight literary sensation. If that's sounds like something you might enjoy, you'll find Undying satisfying enough.įrustratingly, I can't remember Barker's voiceover for Ambrose, one of the sibling bosses. Memory suggests I was stuck for ages on a bit where I had to shoot loads of undead monks. It isn't a particularly remarkable game in any way but the shooting is solid and the setting is sufficiently unusual, in FPS terms, to carry the action through the rough patches. There are spells as well as guns, loads of daft enemies, creepy bosses in the shape of the deceased Covenant siblings, and just enough chills among the hokiness to make the whole thing hang together. It's a good game about shooting dead things. Actually, scratch the latter - this is definitely a game about killing dead things rather than imagining that you're killing dead things. There are plenty of things to kill on the Covenant Estate, although I'm still not entirely sure if they're already dead (some definitely are), cannot die at all (as the title implies) or exist only as figments of my character's imagination. Despite some tremendously effective scenes that lay on the tension thicker than the spread at a colonel's retirement buffet, Undying is all about shooting monsters. It feels like Barker's take on Lovecraft and Poe, a weird tale of a dynasty gone to seed, a family home infiltrated by lunatic forces, and a smattering of culty goings-on to ensure there are plenty of things to shoot. I have a high tolerance for schlock and gore, and Undying delivers both in spades. Or Undying, a first-person horror game for which Barker acted as both consultant and voice actor. If you want to see the extent of his talents, you're best off looking at the Books of Blood short story collections though. Liverpudlian author Clive Barker is probably best known as the creator of good old Pinhead and the Hellraiser series. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations.