I know, I know, I’m a bit behind on the times, but I finally got around to reading Abarat and Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War by Clive Barker.

Abarat is extremely vivid, but not particularly cohesive. It’s a good read, but it reads like Clive Barker had a bunch of disparate ideas that were really cool and then had to find a plot to somehow connect them all. Although most of the characters have fascinating descriptions, they by and large don’t have much depth.

Still, well worth reading if you like fantasy, and particularly if you’re in the mood for some vividly imagined environments and creatures.