Weaveworld [B2112]

2024 PB reprint of the 1987 original, in nice clean condition. Here is storytelling on a grand scale - the stuff of which a classic is made. Weaveworld begins with a rug - a wondrous, magnificent rug - into which a world has been woven. It is the world of the Seerkind, a people more ancient than man, who possesses raptures - the power to make magic. In the last century they were hunted down by an unspeakable horror known as the Scourge, and, threatened with annihilation, they worked their strongest raptures to weave themselves and their culture into a rug for safekeeping. Since then, the rug has been guarded by human caretakers - and the last of the caretakers has just died.

Vying for possession of the rug is a spectrum of unforgettable characters: Suzanna, granddaughter of the last caretaker, who feels the pull of the Weaveworld long before she knows the extent of her own powers; Calhoun Mooney, a pigeon-raising clerk who finds the world he's always dreamed of in a fleeting glimpse of the rug; Immacolata, an exiled Seerkind witch intent on destroying her race even if it means calling back the Scourge; and her sidekick, Shadwell, the Salesman, who will sell the Weaveworld to the highest bidder.

In the course of the novel the rug is unwoven, and we travel deep into the glorious raptures of the Weaveworld before we witness the final, cataclysmic struggle for its possession. Barker takes us to places where we have seldom been in fiction--places terrifying and miraculous, humorous, and profound. With keen psychological insight and prodigious invention, his trademark graphic vision balanced by a spirit of transcendent promise, Barker explores the darkness and the light, the magical and the monstrous, and celebrates the triumph of the imagination.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "This book defies categorization. It's a dark fantasy, a myth, a nightmare, and a psychological thriller all tangled up into one. The book is pure poetry. It's dark, evocative, and deeply moving. Weaveworld isn't just a story you read; it's an experience that alters your brain chemistry a little bit. If you want a book that will completely shatter your expectations of what fantasy can be, just get it."; "The prose is so beautiful and yet it brings such terrifying visions into my mind."; "A magical world within our own. The concept is imaginative and profound. The world building was top tier."; "Creative genius, loved it."; "Clive Barker's mind is incredible, I loved this book. truly one of a kind!"