British Author Challenge April 2022: Kamila Shamsie & Clive Barker

Kamila Shamsie was born in 1973 in Karachi, Pakistan, where she grew up. She attended university in the United States, earning an MFA from Amherst.

Shamsie's first novel, In the City by the Sea, was published in 1998 and was nominated for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. She moved to London in 2007 and has dual nationality in the UK and Pakistan.

And for those participating in the Asian Book Challenge, she counts for May.

In the City by the Sea
Salt and Saffron
Kartography
Broken Verses
Offence: the Muslim case
Burnt Shadows
A God in Every Stone
Home Fire
Duckling: A Fairy Tale Revolution

Clive Barker was born in Liverpool in 1952. He studied English and philosophy at the University of Liverpool. He became interested in theatre at a young age, and co-founded the Dog Company theatrical troupe in 1978. His theatrical involvement waned as he began to focus more on writing.

Barker's first collections of short stories, Books of Blood, earned him a well-deserved reputation as a horror writer, but many of his works would be better classified as fantasies. He has written a number of novels for adults, a young adult fantasy series, over a dozen plays, and a children's novel. In addition to being a writer, Barker is also a filmmaker and visual artist.

Selected works
Books of Abarat series
The Thief of Always
Next Testament comic
Books of Blood series
The Hellbound Heart
The Damnation Game
Cabal
The Great and Secret Show
Weaveworld
Imajica
Sacrament
History of the Devil
Hunters in the Snow
The Painter, the Creature and the Father of Lies
Tonight, Again

For anyone interested in Clive Barker's plays, the collections Incarnations and Forms of Heaven can usually be found most places used at reasonable prices, but I recommend going to the Clive Barker Archive for his other plays: even including the international shipping charges, I was able to buy two plays from them for significantly less than the Amazon listing for just one.

I am planning to read Broken Verses in April.

Not sure where I'm going to start yet, but I'm considering A God in Every Stone and The Thief of Always.

Rated Kartography at 3 stars - best part was the actual cartography.

I've selected Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie for the April challenge. Horror is definitely not my genre, so Barker wasn't an option.

>7 ChrisG1: Barker's Abarat is a YA fantasy series and The Thief of Always is a children's book so it's more spooky than horror.

ETA: Not that you have to read any of his books if you don't want to! I just think Barker is a bit unfairly pigeonholed as only a horror writer and many people miss out on some wonderful fantasies because of that.

>8 amanda4242: I’m a fan of both horror and fantasy so I’m looking forward to making Barker’s acquaintance. I have only known of him as a horror writer because my brother is a horror aficionado and I know he has the Books of Blood.

>9 PawsforThought: Glad to hear you'll be joining for Barker! Books of Blood is an amazing collection of horror stories.

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive. Here he was, buried in the belly of that smothering month, wondering if he would ever find his way out through the cold coils that lay between here and Easter.

When terminally bored Harvey Swick receives a strange invitation to Holiday House he finds a wonderland for children: games to be played; delicious food to be eaten; and all of the seasons occurring in a single day, every day. But Harvey soon begins to suspect something sinister is happening, and leaving Holiday House may be far more difficult than entering it.

The Thief of Always captivated me from the first sentence. Barker does an excellent job of creating a mounting sense of danger that reminded me of the best kind of Twilight Zone episodes. He also writes realistic child characters, which is always a plus.

If you enjoyed Neil Gaiman's Coraline, be sure to check out The Thief of Always.

There are a few US & UK Audible codes for some Clive Barker titles available for free at https://freeaudiobookcodes.com/?q=clive+barker&page=1. This isn't an illegal download site: it's a legitimate website where publishers and authors give out Audible codes hoping to get reviews out of it.

With permission Amanda, I will spill Shamsie into May to suit my Asian Book challenge and considering my weighed-down-ness this month.

For Barker it will finally be Weaveworld

>13 PaulCranswick: Howdy, stranger! Haven't seen you around these parts in a while!

And you know very well there's no need to ask permission; read what you like when you like.

I do have a Shamsie as yet unread, but not sure I can book-horn into April, maybe May.

I finished Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie and do recommend it. She's a fine storyteller & her technique of shifting the point of view character at each shift of the narrative was effective.

>16 ChrisG1: I thought it an excellent book Chris.

A God In Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie

This is one of those books that's hard to talk about because there's nothing either good or bad to make it stand out. It's a historical novel that starts at the beginning of World War One and then skips over to about a dozen years after the war. An English female archaeologist, a South Asian soldier, and the soldier's younger brother become entangled with historical events and drift through the narrative on a sea of inevitability. I enjoyed it enough while reading it, but it wasn't a hardship to set it down when I had errands to run.

>18 amanda4242: Hmm, that's the one I have as yet unread Amanda. I may give. It a pass.

I'm a big fan of classic horror and actually read Hellbound Heart earlier this year. Great introduction to what he can do as a horror writer, pretty grizzly. I think I have one of his waiting in my To Read pile from the library so maybe I can pick that up for April.

>19 Caroline_McElwee: It's not a bad read, I just didn't find anything exceptional about it.

>20 Ravenwoodwitch: Welcome to LT! I think The Hellbound Heart is probably Barker's finest horror writing: it manages to be tightly focused and still create a larger fantastical world in under 200 pages.

>22 amanda4242: Thanks, and yeah. I noticed he saves his descriptions for the horror and not the characters. Strangely works.

Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium and Infernal Parade by Clive Barker

These two novellas are actually stitched together from vignettes originally written to be included in the packaging of a line of McFarlane figurines. Infernal Parade has some vivid imagery, but I don't think it really comes together enough to be more than a curiosity. Tortured Souls, on the other hand, is a tantalizing glimpse into a world begging to be explored in more depth; I would love to see a full-length novel set in the world, or perhaps a mini-series to bring all of the horrible wonders to life.

The May thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/341418

I read just a few out of Books of Blood which I will carry into May and I also am going to read Kamila Shamsie in May.

Clive Barker's The Damnation Game is currently $0.99 from various retailers.