‘Books of Blood: Volume 1’ – Clive Barker (Little, Brown & Co)
I haven’t read an awful lot by Clive Barker (‘The Hellbound Heart’, ‘The Scarlet Gospels’ and ‘Sacrament’ but that was close on thirty years ago now, damn…) so when I saw a copy of the first ‘Books of Blood’ omnibus in the British Heart Foundation shop, I had to pick it up. For me, the best way to get to know an author is through their short stories so this was a no-brainer ;o) This edition collects the first three volumes of the ‘Books of Blood’ but I’ll only be covering the first volume today as I haven’t had the time, or focus, to delve into the book any further than that. How did I get on with Volume 1 then? Well, lets just say that I’m still looking for the holy grail of anthologies (book, TV or film) where every single entry is a winner. That didn’t make this volume a bad read though, far from it. Not all the stories were hits but all of them had something to recommend it and that’s what will have me coming back to read the other two volumes in this edition. What follows then are...