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Overview
A master storyteller and unrivaled visionary, Clive Barker has mixed the real and unreal with the horrible and wonderful in more than twenty years of fantastic fiction. The Inhuman Condition is a masterwork of surrealistic terror, recounting tragedy with pragmatism, inspiring panic more than dread and evoking equal parts revulsion and delight.Synopsis
A master storyteller and unrivaled visionary, Clive Barker has mixed the real and unreal with the horrible and wonderful in more than twenty years of fantastic fiction. The Inhuman Condition is a masterwork of surrealistic terror, recounting tragedy with pragmatism, inspiring panic more than dread and evoking equal parts revulsion and delight.
Library Journal
In this collection of five tales of horror, the author uses various devices such as a piece of string, a pair of ghosts, an experimental aphrodisiac, and a pair of hands to lead his characters into a world of nightmarish experiences. Four of the tales are well done, each beginning with a seemingly normal situation: an encounter between a vagrant and a group of young thugs; a traveling evangelist and his companions; a laboratory experiment; and a husband and wife in bed. But with a bizarre twist the element of terror is introduced. The fifth story, about a planned encounter with Satan, is too brief, however. Reader Dillinger Steele's low, even tone sets the mood of this collection. Recommended where Barker (Everville, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/1/95) is popular or wherever horror circulates.Catherine Swenson, Norwich Univ. Lib., Northfield, Vt.