Clive Barker
A genuine rarity now, and it’s not very often you get to say that when reviewing genre books. But here we have, thanks to Bad Moon Books, a very early example of Clive Barker’s work—written when he was in his teens, in fact. And, as such, this collection of novellas ably foreshadow the fantastic path he was about to set off on (just like Maximillian Bacchus and the circus itself). We’re introduced to the aforementioned band—including the eccentric owner himself, Hero the strongman, and a clown named Domingo de Ybarrondo—in The Wedding of Indigo Murphy to the Duke Lorenzo de Medici. The first of four parts, the title alone of this one should hint at the tone of this foray into the imagination. When one of the circus family, bird-girl Indigo, leaves to get married, they find a replacement in the form of an ordinary boy, Angelo, who is accused of stealing apples from an orchard. As per usual in a Barker tale, though, it is the ordinary that hides the extraordinary—and Angelo’s story is far from over by the closing of this part of the book. The next story deals with how an orangutan named Bathsheba becomes involved in the travelling circus, while the following one focuses on Domingo’s unfortunate accident when he falls over the edge of the world…. In the final installment, the group at last reach their destination of Xanadu (where else would they be heading?) and perform for the famous Khan called Kublai. There are too many wonders to relate here, in spite of the short length of just 100 pages. And I assure you, the book does not disappoint at all. It comes with a brand new, poignant introduction by Barker himself, in which he laments about the fact that he can’t fudge historical details about his life anymore because it’s too well documented; then there’s the wonderful artwork (not only for the gorgeous cover, but also internal black and whites) by Richard A. Kirk, who does a marvelous job of bringing these characters to life. As David Niall Watson says in his afterword, Clive Barker is one of the masters of fantasy that we only get a few of in each generation. This is your chance to see where it all began. Paul Kane
