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Abarat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Cover of Abarat |
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| Author | Clive Barker |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Clive Barker |
| Cover artist | Clive Barker |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Books of Abarat |
| Subject(s) | I. Title. II. Series |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Harper-Collins |
| Released | September 1, 2002 |
| Pages | 388 pgs |
| ISBN | 0-06-028092-1 |
| Followed by | Days of Magic, Nights of War |
Abarat is a 2002 young adult's fiction book both written and illustrated by Clive Barker. Abarat is the setting where the book is based. There are four planned sequels to Abarat, the first of which was published in 2004: Days of Magic, Nights of War. Absolute Midnight, The Eternal, and a yet-unnamed fifth book are yet to be released. Also, in March 2006, Clive Barker announced on his site that there would be five books in the Abarat series, making it a quintet, which is rarely seen in fantasy series. He believes this necessary to introduce all of the plot elements needed for a climactic ending. The Walt Disney Company has also purchased amusement ride rights to the series.
As of September 2006, however, Disney will no longer take part in the production of the Abarat movies. Barker was quoted in an interview by Phil and Sarah Stokes on September 4 as having said, "We are no longer making Abarat with Disney, that is now official, the work is back in my hands and my ownership, I owe them nothing." [1]
The title image contains an ambigram.
The book Abarat centered on the strange world of the Abarat, the location of twenty-five islands, called Hours, on each of which it is always the same time. For example, on the island of Pyon, it is always 3:00 in the morning. The only exception is the mysterious 25th Hour. The arrival of Candy Quackenbush from Chickentown, Minnesota sparks remarkable events around the Abarat as Candy journeys about the islands, which are detailed below.
- 1:00 a.m. The Pyramids of Xuxux
- 2:00 a.m. Idjit
- 3:00 a.m. Pyon
- 4:00 a.m. Isle of the Black Egg
- 5:00 a.m. Speckle Frew
- 6:00 a.m. Efreet
- 7:00 a.m. Autland
- 8:00 a.m. Obadiah
- 9:00 a.m. Qualm Hah
- 10:00 a.m. Spake
- 11:00 a.m. Nully
The island of Yzil is a lush and temperate forest. The Princess Breath makes her home on the island; it is here where she is said to breathe out powerful magic breezes that flow to other islands and create new life and vegetation.
Hobarookus is a small rocky and swampy island that happens to be swarming with pirates and buccaneers. The food there is astounding. Kalukwa birds, a curious species of bird which hatches downy human babies every ninth year, are common throughout the swampy areas, called sinks. These babies are commonly taken and raised by the pirates.
Orlando's Cap is a small, ill favored island at 2:00 pm. It is here that an insane asylum is located, because many believe that the 2:00 hour promotes healing in the soul.
The Nonce is a beautiful, drowsy island. Most people who visit fall asleep quickly, and do not have ordinary dreams. They dream of creation, specifically, The Creation, the beginning of the world. It is here that the Johns are taken to dig and look for Finnegan Hob.
This island is riddled with the runes of temples and Oracles. On many parts of the island, the air is filled with thousands of whispering voices, all sounding at once. There are many roads on the island that lead to nowhere, thus leading to the theory that Gnomon was once part of Soma Plume.
Soma Plume is a large island, twice the size of Gnomon. It houses the Great Noahic Ziggurat, a place that has been used for burial since when time began.
This is an island of fun and pleasure. It is really one big carnival- a place of rides, comedic plays, freak shows, and all other manners of entertainment ever devised.
Scoriae is the meeting place of night and day, also know as The Island of Lengthening Shadows. It has on it a volcano, known as Galigali, and the Twilight Palace, the once-castle of King Claus of the Day. Galigali has destroyed 3 great cities in its time: Gosh, Divinium, and Mycassius. Not one person survived the eruption, however, stark ruins of the cities still remain.
This island, also known as The Great Head, is a sort of informal capital for the islands. It is, in fact, fashioned in the shape of a giant head- in fact the likeness of its old owner Gorki Doodat. It is a labyrinth of tunnels on the inside, and the outside is mostly shabby, save for the half-dozen high towers on top of Gorki's skull. Some of these towers are said to contain individuals of immeasurable age. This is Candy's first destination in the Abarat.
Huffaker is a large island, peppered with huge rock formations resembling natural caverns and cathedrals, the largest being Hap's Vault. This vault contains The Skein, a thread of light that appears momentarily running through the cavern. Lydia Hap, the discoverer of this cavern, suggests that this is in fact a thread which connects literally everything in every world to everything else.
This island has almost no noteworthy characteristics, save for a small town known as High Sladder, which has been taken over by a tribe of feral tarrie-cats. On the northeast side of the island is the wizard Kasper Wolfswinkel's house, which some have mistaken for a giant eye.
Though most of this Island is bare rock, if one looks away from the rock for but a moment, the rock will have changed and flowed to resemble some other shape. Rock is fluid, fire is cold, water is iron, and the air is a power in its own right- transforming any spoken word into complete gibberish,hence the name. Jibarish is a place of paradoxes and confusion. The island is occupied by a tribe of unfriendly-at-best women. Men are definitely not welcome here.
The island of Midnight is a dark mountain, cloaked in red mists. On top is the fortress Iniquisit, a palace of thirteen towers. The Carrion clan has occupied this Hour since before written record, and anything on the island was constructed by them. Rumored features on the island include a forest of gallows and a garden of flesh eating plants.
The 25th hour, commonly referred to as the Time Out of Time, also goes by the name of Odom's Spire. Odom's Spire is the home of the Fantomaya, which includes three women: Diamanda, Mespa and Joephi, as well as Abraham, the keeper of Odom's Spire, and the Fugit Brothers (Tempus and Julius), his assistants.
There are other small landmasses in Abarat, but are not big enough to count as hours.
Candy, the heroine of the series, is a young misfit from Chickentown, Minnesota who seeks a more exciting life. Her teachers and peers mock her, and her verbally and physically abusive father doesn't understand her. After walking out on school after a particularly harsh chastising by her teacher Miss Schwartz, Candy finds herself in a wheat field on the edge of town. In this wheat field stands a mysterious lighthouse. Her arrival at the lighthouse is the catalyst to bring her to the land of the Abarat. She has unexplained memories of Abarat, as well as strong magical powers that have only begun to show now.
John Mischief and his Seven Brothers are a single body, that of John Mischief, who has antlers on his head, on which grow his seven brothers. Their names are John Fillet, John Sallow, John Moot, John Drowze, John Pluckitt, John Serpent, and John Slop. They are a master thief and are wanted for grand larceny on several Hours. They volunteer for a digging job on the Nonce, searching for a man called Finnegan Hob.
The Fantomaya are three magic women who dwell on Odom's Spire. They are Diamanda, an old wise-woman, Joephi, who appears feral and wild, and Mespa, who is dark-skinned with eyes the color of the night sky. They are very mysterious, and little is known about them, other than it being implied that they can help Candy save the Abarat from Christopher Carrion and his grandmother. They reside on the Twenty-Fifth Hour, Odom's Spire.
Also known as the Prince of Midnight, he is described as being "As evil as evil comes." His grandmother once sewed his lips shut for saying the word "love". Although he once believed he could love and be good, he was crushed by the only woman he wanted to be with, Princess Boa, whom he is suspected to have had assassinated. His nightmares take physical shape as creatures residing in a fishbowl-like tank which attaches to the back of his skull. He seems to have taken an unexplained interest in Candy; specifically, taking her alive when he could have had her killed.
Commonly known as "Mater Motley," or merely "The Hag," Thant is Christopher Carrion's grandmother. It is hinted that she has been alive for an extraordinarily long amount of time. She spends all of her time sewing stitchlings, animated beings made out of leather, cloth, and filled with mud, to help with her plan to lay siege on the Islands of Day. She and Christopher were the only members of the Carrion clan to have survived the fire that destroyed their mansion (it killed Carrion's 27 siblings as well as his parents). She says that she chose to save Christopher; and she wants to have extreme control over him.
Malingo is a Geshrat, an orange-skinned humanoid creature with four small horns on the top of his head and fin-shaped ears coming out of the sides of his head. He was a slave to Kaspar Wolfswinkle, before Candy arrives on Ninnyhammer and frees him. They flee from Wolfswinkle together and set off for freedom and adventures which are chronicled in the following books.
Barker, Clive- Appendix (or "Klepp's Almanac") found in the back of Abarat, HarperCollins publishers, 2002
Barker, Clive- Abarat, HarperCollins publishers, 2002
The Official Clive Barker Resource
The Official HarperCollins Abarat site
- Official Site of the Books of Abarat
- Revelations - The Official Clive Barker Resource Constantly updated news and archive of fascinating comment.
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| Novels, novellas, and Short story collections |
|---|
| Stand-alone: The Damnation Game | The Hellbound Heart | Weaveworld | Imajica | Books of Blood | The Thief of Always | Sacrament | Galilee | Coldheart Canyon |
| Books of the Art: The Great and Secret Show | Everville |
| The Abarat Quintet: Abarat | Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War | Abarat: Absolute Midnight | Abarat: The Eternal | [untitled fifth book] |
| Short story collections: Books of Blood | Cabal | In the Flesh | The Inhuman Condition | The Scarlet Gospels |
| Films |
| Directed by Clive Barker: Salome | The Forbidden | Hellraiser | Nightbreed | Lord of Illusions | Tortured Souls: Animae Damnatae |
| Directed by others: Rawhead Rex | Underworld | Candyman | Saint Sinner |
| Other |
| Art collections: Clive Barker, Illustrator | Illustrator II: The Art of Clive Barker | Clive Barker Visions of Heaven and Hell |
| Plays: Incarnations: Three Plays | Forms of Heaven: Three Plays |
| Video games: Clive Barker's Undying | Demonik | Clive Barker's Jericho |
| Recurring characters |
| Cenobites | Pinhead | Harry D'Amour |