[AFM]⋙ [PDF] The Scarlet Gospels Clive Barker 9781250055804 Books

The Scarlet Gospels Clive Barker 9781250055804 Books

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The Scarlet Gospels Clive Barker 9781250055804 Books

I'm going to preface by saying this: if this novel was at all intended to be as much of a joke as it felt like it did (a farce/parody of a Hollywood movie), then there's egg on my face for writing all these words, and I should re-rate the novel. Not knowing Barker's full intentions, I can't say for sure.

Moving on: as with other reviewers, I have to say that it honestly pains me to write this.

I, like many others, have been waiting for the Scarlet Gospels for quite some time. I was drawn into the Hellraiser series at a young age, immediately grabbed all of Barker's books, and have read, and re-read them since that time. Twenty years later, I'll pick up one of his books to peruse through, and still see his influence in my own writing. It's always been good, always been incredibly vivid, and I can't say enough about his command of the language.

That said, this is... not good. I hesitate to give it a two-star rating, because there were parts that I legitimately enjoyed, but, well. Straight out of the gate, I knew that I was in for some let-downs.

There's been a mix of praise, and contention, over the opening scene. Let's be frank: it's an outright torture scene. Normally, Barker manages to work this sort of thing into his writing in such a way that I don't feel like it's-- how do I put this? I don't end up feeling like it's exploitative, or mean-spirited, or pointless. In this case, it felt like it was, at the very least, two out of three. Pointless stands out. That it felt weirdly tone-deaf in regards to The Hellbound Heart was just confounding.

And "pointless" is why it's the first time I've ever found myself going 'that's really going overboard, isn't it?' Mean-spirited is a natural consequence of pointlessness. It, like a great deal of cinematic torture porn, exists simply to exist, and remind us that Barker is still more than capable of writing sequences like these, regardless of his sojourn into Abarat, and other, "lighter" titles. Though, throughout the scene, the prose is as exquisite as ever, in most places, capable of evoking all the imagery it intends to, it feels scattershot. Attention is paid to select characters that we barely get to know, and the most egregious - and, notably, absurd - scenarios is conducted in the background, as though Barker knew that it was going a step too far, but didn't really have the energy, or interest, in making it gel with the overall scene.

If I take the time to divorce it from the character that's at the root of all these splatterpunk 'atrocities,' saying nothing of the involvement of D'Amour, and his ties to Everville (as well as its compelling cast) had some legs, I'm left scratching my head.

With all that source material to draw from, how is this the novel that actually happened? And what of the actual, legitimate tie-in to another series that, apparently, is still yet to be completed?

I'm starting to get concerned about the third Book of the Art.

On a base level, the Scarlet Gospels read - with all due respect to the author, he's still one of my favorites - like it came straight out of the office of a Hollywood executive. From the over-the-top gore, to the 'race you to the plot,' to the convenient resolution of oh-so-many threads that could have gone somewhere, it's like it got written in full, distilled down into a script format, and then *re*-written in prose. There is, for instance, an agonizingly prolonged fight scene that feels like it came straight from the pages of a bad anime, and it's embarrassing to read. That it comes straight off the heels of some legitimately captivating scenery, and yet more great set pieces, just made it feel even more like a parody of a blockbuster.

Then there's a notable cameo [read: "butterball" cenobite]. It's forced, it isn't earned, and plays out like... Damn. I hate saying this: it plays out like a kid smashing their old toys out of spite, which... I guess, is fine. It just doesn't make for gripping literature. Pinhead's story arc(??) plays out in this fashion, with the characters going so far as to react to him in much the same way I, and most film-goers, do: not taking him seriously anymore. The allusions to the nickname, while cute at the beginning, had a similar dash of spite to them that made me cringe. Then there came the problem of the times he actually got serious: I wasn't sure what he was doing. One moment, it was clear I was supposed to hate him. The next, find him pitiful, I suppose. His apparent desperation to do [something] had some hooks [yes, i know, very funny], but that seemed to vanish, and turn into... something else. Every time I thought I had a handle on what was going on, his demeanor would switch, or the thread would be dropped.

I wasn't sure what *anyone* was doing, quite frankly. The motivations for the characters, their complete lack of reaction to everything going on around them, saying nothing of the *profundity* of what's going on around them, stands in stark contrast to the events in 'The Great and Secret Show,' where even the absurd scenes just managed to work with the overall narrative. There was a 'creeping eldritch horror' feeling to it that was far more effective than starting a book with blatant torture that was better executed in some of the comics that were put out in the Hellraiser compilations.

There were plenty of ways to add layers to this, incorporating character history, and expounding on the characters that were introduced in the novels that do actually tie in (Kirsty, Rory, etc from THH, Tesla, etc from GaSS), but all of it was lost.

And the characters are, ultimately, the real disappointment in all of this. They were figurines being moved through intricately created dioramas, and not much else. Every set-piece, save the weirdly fantasy-like demons (which you don't really get a good sense of unless you've read Mr. B. Gone, in which case, spoiler alert: they're typical demons that contrast horribly with the cenobites), was wonderfully crafted, but the people that reacted to it were saying the kinds of lines you'd expect from a Sci-Fi Original Movie. Now, all right, I can't say that I'm a huge fan of Barker's dialogue in general - it's pretty hit or miss - but it was never this bad, and never this stereotypical. The meeting with the reverend near the end of the book so horribly exemplified this point at the end that I felt like someone was having a laugh at my expense.

I have never felt so disconnected from characters in a Barker novel, or so second-hand embarrassed at some of the choices made in terms of how they behaved.

And then, oh, then, there's a scene at the end (not a major spoiler) that seems so blatantly spiteful towards the Hellraiser films that it a) cribs from their overused motifs, and b) literally kicks it out the door, with all the characters involved saying pithy things, and patting themselves on the back for a job well done.

In summary (aren't you glad there's a summary?): I want to see the unabridged version of this novel. I want to see the liner notes. I want to see the brainstorming. I want to see if brainstorming notes overtake what was actually written, because, all in all, this novel feels like it was as grueling to write as it was to read. There's no sense of enjoyment, except in random excerpts (the Big Bad who gets to the surface, for example: that was a nice touch), and after reading novels that it was clear he *did* enjoy writing, it's hard not to notice that this felt like a trial that he wanted to be done with. I think that's why people are assuming this was finished by a ghostwriter, but I'm pretty sure it's not.

I'm pretty sure it's just someone who wanted to tie up some loose ends, realized that they weren't that interested, and forced themselves to do it anyway.


Tags : The Scarlet Gospels [Clive Barker] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>The New York Times</i> bestseller from Clive Barker, who brings his extraordinary universes of Hellraiser</i> and Lord of Illusions</i> together in a masterpiece of dark fantastic horror.</b> </i> The Scarlet Gospels</i> takes readers back many years to the early days of two of Barker's most iconic characters in a battle of good and evil as old as time: The long-beleaguered detective Harry D'Amour,Clive Barker,The Scarlet Gospels,St. Martin's Press,1250055806,Short Stories (single author),Demonology,Good and evil,Horror fiction,Horror fiction.,Priests,Private investigators,060101 St Martins Trade Fiction,ENGLISH HORROR FICTION,FICTION Horror,FICTION Short Stories (single author),Fiction,Fiction - Horror,Fiction-Horror,GENERAL,General Adult,Great BritainBritish Isles,Horror,Horror & ghost stories,Horror - General,Occult & Supernatural,ReadingsAnthologiesCollected Works,United States,horror books; horror stories; best horror books; best of horror; horror fiction; best horror novels; supernatural horror in literature; horror genre; horror novels; demons; cenobites; good vs evil; supernatural novels; magicians; new orleans; pinhead; hellraiser; hell; science fiction and fantasy; dark fantasy; dark fiction; fantasy novels; new york times bestselling authors

The Scarlet Gospels Clive Barker 9781250055804 Books Reviews

Remember when Pinhead spoke with the voice of a child, and there were jewels on the nails embedded in his face and head? Clive Barker seems to have forsaken his own creations in this eulogy for the Hellraiser series. This Pinhead is no elegant servant of Hell, this Pinhead is pure Hollywood. This is the Pinhead of one good movie and a string of horrible ones. He's vain, he's easily frustrated, he lets his temper and ambitions rule him, he bumbles. And the storyline bumbles along behind him and Harry D'Amour. Unlike the majority of Barker's other books, The Scarlet Gospels lacked beauty and eloquence, and doubled down on crudity, gross-outs and showed more than it told.
Well I have to join the chorus of dissension that other reviewers have raised here. If you have read Imajica, The Great and Secret Show and Weaveworld and are expecting anything resembling those excellent books, be prepared for a let down. It seems Barker's horror hiatus left him without the imagination he once wove throughout his works. The characters here are so thinly written and the scenery so blandly described that when reading the book you will eventually give up trying to actually visualize the story and just read it to finish it and be done with the thing. My impression of the quality of writing is that a seventeen year old aspiring author stole Barker's characters and attempted to finish this strand of his story. It reads absolutely nothing like the old Barker we all loved so much. The over the top gore and guts are still there but you don’t cringe anymore because the tension is missing in this gospel.

The Pinhead character who fills the antagonist role talks like a bored off duty policeman and wields godly powers such that he can kill with origami swans and fart gas - not a joke people, you may want to read it just to laugh at the absurd plot gaffs. You get no sense of dread or fear from old nail face as he feels like a cardboard tiger 100% of the time even as he turns people and demons into chop suey. I will not get into the plot but suffice it to say, his motivations and reasoning fall short of anything remotely meaningful. It's like Barker took Joe Schmo off the street and said act like you can kill anyone and here wear all these nails on your face and this freaky leather sex outfit and don’t forget your favorite pet chain his name is Fishhook.

Harry D'Amour barely shows up to the party in his role as The Guy Who Inexplicably Wins Everything and he brings with him a dreadfully boring self loathing like before, but apparently he lost any interesting qualities in the time since we last saw him. He comes off as a whiny wuss bag who spends more time complaining about his itchy tattoos then he does being concerned with oh I don’t know say an impending apocalypse? Then there are the other Avengers who include Tall Young Tattoo Guy whose sole power is he can produce a carpet full of assorted knives in addition to also having itchy tattoos (so he is one up on Harry). He frequently travels with his sidekick Angry Young Tattoo Chick whose power is being forgotten about by the reader. Don’t forget Short Old Guy who has prophetic dreams about important tasks he must fulfill like loitering in certain areas and stabbing Young Tattoo Chick. Finally Old Blind Woman who can talk to dead people and predict phone calls fills out the team.

The story itself is actually not that bad though it’s a ghost of Barker’s former achievements, once you get over the weak and non existent characters you can see glimpses of what makes him a brilliant author. However, these are few and far between so if you have read all his books and liked most of them you probably should read this because it closes a major story line for Barker fans. Just expect to be let down somewhat if you are looking for the same from this book as you got in the past from him.
I'm going to preface by saying this if this novel was at all intended to be as much of a joke as it felt like it did (a farce/parody of a Hollywood movie), then there's egg on my face for writing all these words, and I should re-rate the novel. Not knowing Barker's full intentions, I can't say for sure.

Moving on as with other reviewers, I have to say that it honestly pains me to write this.

I, like many others, have been waiting for the Scarlet Gospels for quite some time. I was drawn into the Hellraiser series at a young age, immediately grabbed all of Barker's books, and have read, and re-read them since that time. Twenty years later, I'll pick up one of his books to peruse through, and still see his influence in my own writing. It's always been good, always been incredibly vivid, and I can't say enough about his command of the language.

That said, this is... not good. I hesitate to give it a two-star rating, because there were parts that I legitimately enjoyed, but, well. Straight out of the gate, I knew that I was in for some let-downs.

There's been a mix of praise, and contention, over the opening scene. Let's be frank it's an outright torture scene. Normally, Barker manages to work this sort of thing into his writing in such a way that I don't feel like it's-- how do I put this? I don't end up feeling like it's exploitative, or mean-spirited, or pointless. In this case, it felt like it was, at the very least, two out of three. Pointless stands out. That it felt weirdly tone-deaf in regards to The Hellbound Heart was just confounding.

And "pointless" is why it's the first time I've ever found myself going 'that's really going overboard, isn't it?' Mean-spirited is a natural consequence of pointlessness. It, like a great deal of cinematic torture porn, exists simply to exist, and remind us that Barker is still more than capable of writing sequences like these, regardless of his sojourn into Abarat, and other, "lighter" titles. Though, throughout the scene, the prose is as exquisite as ever, in most places, capable of evoking all the imagery it intends to, it feels scattershot. Attention is paid to select characters that we barely get to know, and the most egregious - and, notably, absurd - scenarios is conducted in the background, as though Barker knew that it was going a step too far, but didn't really have the energy, or interest, in making it gel with the overall scene.

If I take the time to divorce it from the character that's at the root of all these splatterpunk 'atrocities,' saying nothing of the involvement of D'Amour, and his ties to Everville (as well as its compelling cast) had some legs, I'm left scratching my head.

With all that source material to draw from, how is this the novel that actually happened? And what of the actual, legitimate tie-in to another series that, apparently, is still yet to be completed?

I'm starting to get concerned about the third Book of the Art.

On a base level, the Scarlet Gospels read - with all due respect to the author, he's still one of my favorites - like it came straight out of the office of a Hollywood executive. From the over-the-top gore, to the 'race you to the plot,' to the convenient resolution of oh-so-many threads that could have gone somewhere, it's like it got written in full, distilled down into a script format, and then *re*-written in prose. There is, for instance, an agonizingly prolonged fight scene that feels like it came straight from the pages of a bad anime, and it's embarrassing to read. That it comes straight off the heels of some legitimately captivating scenery, and yet more great set pieces, just made it feel even more like a parody of a blockbuster.

Then there's a notable cameo [read "butterball" cenobite]. It's forced, it isn't earned, and plays out like... Damn. I hate saying this it plays out like a kid smashing their old toys out of spite, which... I guess, is fine. It just doesn't make for gripping literature. Pinhead's story arc(??) plays out in this fashion, with the characters going so far as to react to him in much the same way I, and most film-goers, do not taking him seriously anymore. The allusions to the nickname, while cute at the beginning, had a similar dash of spite to them that made me cringe. Then there came the problem of the times he actually got serious I wasn't sure what he was doing. One moment, it was clear I was supposed to hate him. The next, find him pitiful, I suppose. His apparent desperation to do [something] had some hooks [yes, i know, very funny], but that seemed to vanish, and turn into... something else. Every time I thought I had a handle on what was going on, his demeanor would switch, or the thread would be dropped.

I wasn't sure what *anyone* was doing, quite frankly. The motivations for the characters, their complete lack of reaction to everything going on around them, saying nothing of the *profundity* of what's going on around them, stands in stark contrast to the events in 'The Great and Secret Show,' where even the absurd scenes just managed to work with the overall narrative. There was a 'creeping eldritch horror' feeling to it that was far more effective than starting a book with blatant torture that was better executed in some of the comics that were put out in the Hellraiser compilations.

There were plenty of ways to add layers to this, incorporating character history, and expounding on the characters that were introduced in the novels that do actually tie in (Kirsty, Rory, etc from THH, Tesla, etc from GaSS), but all of it was lost.

And the characters are, ultimately, the real disappointment in all of this. They were figurines being moved through intricately created dioramas, and not much else. Every set-piece, save the weirdly fantasy-like demons (which you don't really get a good sense of unless you've read Mr. B. Gone, in which case, spoiler alert they're typical demons that contrast horribly with the cenobites), was wonderfully crafted, but the people that reacted to it were saying the kinds of lines you'd expect from a Sci-Fi Original Movie. Now, all right, I can't say that I'm a huge fan of Barker's dialogue in general - it's pretty hit or miss - but it was never this bad, and never this stereotypical. The meeting with the reverend near the end of the book so horribly exemplified this point at the end that I felt like someone was having a laugh at my expense.

I have never felt so disconnected from characters in a Barker novel, or so second-hand embarrassed at some of the choices made in terms of how they behaved.

And then, oh, then, there's a scene at the end (not a major spoiler) that seems so blatantly spiteful towards the Hellraiser films that it a) cribs from their overused motifs, and b) literally kicks it out the door, with all the characters involved saying pithy things, and patting themselves on the back for a job well done.

In summary (aren't you glad there's a summary?) I want to see the unabridged version of this novel. I want to see the liner notes. I want to see the brainstorming. I want to see if brainstorming notes overtake what was actually written, because, all in all, this novel feels like it was as grueling to write as it was to read. There's no sense of enjoyment, except in random excerpts (the Big Bad who gets to the surface, for example that was a nice touch), and after reading novels that it was clear he *did* enjoy writing, it's hard not to notice that this felt like a trial that he wanted to be done with. I think that's why people are assuming this was finished by a ghostwriter, but I'm pretty sure it's not.

I'm pretty sure it's just someone who wanted to tie up some loose ends, realized that they weren't that interested, and forced themselves to do it anyway.