Abarat

De: Clive Barker

Narrado por: Richard Ferrone

Clive Barker, author of The Thief of Always, delivers an epic battle filled with fantasy and adventure that readers won't want to put down!

A journey beyond imagination is about to unfold...

It begins in Chickentown, USA. There lives Candy Quackenbush, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future might hold.

When the answer comes, it’s not one she expects.

Welcome to the Abarat, a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day. Candy has a place in this extraordinary land: She is here to help save the Abarat from the dark forces that are stirring at its heart—forces older than Time itself, and more evil than anything Candy has ever encountered. She’s a strange heroine, she knows. But this is a strange world.

And in the Abarat, all things are possible.

Don't miss this first book in Clive Barker's New York Times bestselling Abarat series.

©2002 Clive Barker; (P)2002 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Weird for the sake of weirdity...

Great little book. Far out story line. Great detail. The narrator does an excellent job of telling the story of Candy Quackenbush and her amazingly weird adventure. Most writers borrow from other stories to create their own works... Clive breaks out of the mold every time he puts ink to paper.

Everthing about this book seems to be deliberately original in thought and different than anything I've ever read. He appears to be the type of author that likes to ask the unnusual "what if" questions about reality and then builds the fantastic on that "what if" until he has a story, making him similar to Ray Bradbury in a lot of ways...

In this story, the thought is: "What if there's an unknown and unremarkable town somewhere in the Midwest, we'll call it "Chicken Town", that was actually something completely different and fantastic in it's past. What if it's past is so completely out of sync with reality that nobody believes it or they have forgotten it as just another silly story because it doesn't fit with the mundane-ness of the town as it is now? What if a child is the only person with a mind open enough to truly discover the town's past?

This is the building block upon which rests "Abarat". Great story for adults and kids. It is calisthenics for the imaginations of children and adults alike.

There are some death scenes in the story and some of the characters may be too freaky or scary for the youngest of minds.

I think I will like it better next time

I think I will like it better next time now that I know what to expect. It is. YA book and clean. Think of it as a pagan Narnia on steroids. Yes, I like this more than I like Narnia .

With these praises in place, for this time through, it doesn't carry the Mythopoeic themes found in his adult books.

Well Done

I enjoyed listening to this audio book as much as I enjoyed reading Abarat the first time.

Exotic Unnatural Journey of Self Discovery

What did you love best about Abarat?

That every Island is a different time of day and all the interesting sometimes grotesque creatures running around.

What did you like best about this story?

Candy Quakenbush trying to deal with all the insane stuff going on around her and coming to realize that a horrible man wants her love.

What about Richard Ferrone’s performance did you like?

He did a great job with the character voices

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Carrion was on midnight and looking at the picture of Candy from the bug cam and remembering lost love and thinking of the princess who it turned out didn't really love him.

reminds me of the books of Alice in Wonderland

a girl from a boring time and an even more boring place falls into a magical world of strange sights, odd creatures of a the most imaginative people and villains I can only describe as schizophrenic aberrations come to life on the page.