Lumeric's Six

[vovat]

LiveJournal just logged out on me. That's weird.

I had a dream the other day that I was at an International Wizard of Oz Club auction, which was being held in my mom's bedroom (or a place that corresponded with it as far as its location in the building, anyway). The was a book up for auction called Error in Oz. It was credited to Marcus Mebes, and had an ostrich-like bird on the cover. I assume the bird was Error, although it's possible that there was a guest appearance by this guy. (Actually, I wonder if the word "error" came to my mind because it's used so often at my work.) The bidding started at $10,000, so I didn't bid on it, but I was curious about it. There were also a few other books I hadn't read on a table, so I tried paging through them, but knew I wouldn't actually get the chance to read them. This was how I felt at the actual auctions I attended, really. I remember looking at a copy of The Blue Emperor of Oz and even bidding on it, but not winning. I passed up the chance to buy it a few other times after that, when I probably should have just gone ahead and gotten it. Actually, I've heard some people say it's not very good, but other people really like it.

Perhaps the bird on the cover of the book was prophetic, because I did later ride a four-wheeler around an emu farm. It was the first time I'd ridden one, and it was pretty cool. Also, bethje brought me some Olive Garden food for dinner, which was sweet of her. I was jealous of her for going to the Olive Garden without me.

I finished reading Clive Barker's first Abarat book today. It was interesting, and pretty inventive. I found the idea of one island for each hour of the day to be a clever idea. There's some precedent for places where it's always the same time (the March Hare's house and Douglas Adams' Ursa Minor Beta come to mind), but a collection of them might be original with Clive. I do have to wonder how the people on the islands know when it's time to eat, sleep, go to work, and such. {g} The book ends rather abruptly, and since it touches on a lot of characters and plot threads that beg for further exploration, I'm hoping the second book picks up on them. I borrowed it from Beth, and I'll probably start it on my first break tonight.

Comments

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

I've only read the first Abarat book (about a year ago). I liked it, but apparently not enough to immediately dive into the second one. It's pretty cool though. I thought Shape and Carrion were pretty freaky villains.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

If it had taken any effort to find the second one, I probably wouldn't have started it right away either. Since Beth had it, though, no effort was required. And it's probably better that I started reading it before forgetting what happened in the first one.

I thought Shape and Carrion were pretty freaky villains.

Clive definitely shows a talent for coming up with characters who are totally out of the ordinary, even for a fantasy book. I guess it sort of reminded me of the Oz books in that respect, albeit with a creepier kind of vibe (which isn't surprising, as Clive's background is in horror).

[pixielust.livejournal.com]

It does. I think you'll like it. I think he needs to hurry up and complete the series myself.

You know it's funny...I read through the first book one time and thought, "Meh," but the re-read it when I was bored and loved it.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

From what Beth (who's read both of the first two books) told me, the second one has more of a real ending, but still leaves the door open for another sequel. Is there any indication as to whether a third book is in the works?

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

You're lucky that you didn't read Abarat until after the sequel was written! It wasn't even in the "coming soon/or even not very soon but this general far-off date at least" stages when I read it, and I was SO frustrated with that ending! And yet I still haven't read the second book yet. Maybe I'll get them both out when I go to the library this afternoon.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's one advantage to starting a series later than everybody else.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

Congrats on starting Abarat! I always think of it as Air-ah-bat instead for some reason. I guess the r-b switch is more pleasant to the human ear than b-r. Cuz the real name sounds like a rodent fan of a Swedish four-member Europop band. I read the first book when there was no mention of a second one. I kinda found it by chance, though I suspect I had read another Clive Barker book (or several) before picking up Abarat. I was just lucky that I noticed the second one when my library bought it. I'm not really a fan of Barker's art, but his imagination is wonderful. It's definitely the style of a Baum book, but coming from the hard-edged realist view of the universe rather than Baum's idealist view. I love the idea of 24 hour islands and a timeless island. I suspect people sleep and work whenever they feel the time is right. Perhaps they travel through geography in the way we travel through time? Carrion's first name (Christopher) annoys me since that's my name. I wish it was a different name. Carrion gets even stranger in the second book, and you get to meet his awful mother. The bookjacket of Abarat was the first time I found out Barker was gay and had a life partner. I was sort of surprised he could mention that in a book destined for the older child/young adult section.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I always think of it as Air-ah-bat instead for some reason. I guess the r-b switch is more pleasant to the human ear than b-r.

But that might not have been as easy to write so that it looks the same upside-down. {g}

I haven't read anything else by Clive, but Beth has. I've seen the Hellraiser and Candyman films, but I think he only had anything to do with the first of each. He just made money from the others. {g} And I actually do like the pictures in Abarat.

The bookjacket of Abarat was the first time I found out Barker was gay and had a life partner. I was sort of surprised he could mention that in a book destined for the older child/young adult section.

Yeah, that's a little unusual, but a good sign of progress, I would say. Really, I don't see that much difference between that and mentioning that someone is married. It isn't like either one implies to the kids that the couple is having a lot of dirty sex.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

After you read as many Barker novels as I have, you start to see the pattern in his writing. Most of his books have a world or worlds connected to this one which are fantasies but far more troubled than a typical fantasy realm. Quite a few mention God vs. the Devil in some form. Other than The Thief of Always, his books run on for ages, at least as long as the Harry Potter books or more. There was only one book of his I couldn't finish (Sacrament I believe) and that was because the main character did all sorts of stupid things for no conceivable reason, such as falling in love with a strange couple he had never met before when they didn't even treat him nicely. Just about the only book where I couldn't identify with the main character in any way.