Everville

Questo autore mi era stato consigliato un bel po’ di tempo fa, e finalmente l’ho letto. Anzi, per essere precisi, l’ho divorato! Avevo proprio voglia di uno di quei libri da cui non riesci a distoglierti, a cui pensi mentre non li leggi perché vuoi sapere che succederà, o vuoi capire qualcosa che è già successo!!!
Ci sono un sacco di personaggi, che vivono storie parallele che prima o poi però arrivano ad incrociarsi tra di loro, il Bene, il Male, e un sacco di gente che non si capisce da che parte sta, e poi la Quiddità, un luogo dove gli esseri umani possono andare solo 3 volte nella vita, e solo in sogno… ovviamente con le dovute eccezioni!
Inutile dire che adesso ho molta voglia di leggere anche altri libri di questo show more autore!

http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodileggere/127 show less

Everville is the sequel to The Great and Secret Show, and while I suppose you could read it without reading TGaSS first, I wouldn't recommend it. Many of the characters from TGaSS return, and Barker does a great job of juggling their stories with all the new people he introduces in Everville. True, some characters are given short thrift, but they have their parts to play in this novel and probably the planned Third Book of the Art as well.

The first hundred pages or so of Everville, however, deal not with the characters we know from TGaSS, but rather with some historical events that set the stage for not only the rest of the book but for the events of TGaSS as well. This beginning is slow going at first, but stick with it; the rest of show more the ride is well worth it.

What I really liked about Everville is that it explores the world of the Metacosm in much more detail, almost to the level of a fantasy novel, but keeps it grounded in our reality by having it always be seen through the eyes of mundane POV characters. In other words, fantastic things are happening to the characters, but it always feels like a story about the world you and I live in, not some alternate Earth in another dimension.

Everville had me racing to the end of the book to see how all our characters' lives intersect. Now I can't wait for more stories from this branch of the Clive Barker story tree. show less

Everville is less of a sequel to Barker's The Great And Secret Show than it is another story set in the same split-down-the-middle universe. The characters that survived the first book all make appearances, albeit in a confusingly randomized hierarchy. Tesla, the unlikely heroine is now the protagonist, while her partner Grillo and star-crossed lovers Howie and Jo-Beth are relegated to near walk-ons. This time, the dream-sea of Quiddity is not the destination, but a central scene, as new characters Phoebe and Joe criss-cross the dimensonal rift to find each other.Meanwhile, in the titular town, Owen Buddenbaum and Secret Show's Kissoon butt heads in pursuit of an icon buried underneath Everville's crossroads, where its been soaking up show more power like a ni-cad battery. Along the way, small-town secrets come to the fore, blood is squirted, guts flung about, and general hijinks ensue.The problem with most of Clive Barker's books is that they're too verbose; he could give Tad Williams a run for his money. One thinks that if Barker was a robot or didn't have to eat or sleep, his stories could potentially go on forever. As it is, Everville is resolved quite abruptly, as if Barker realized that he had gone about a hundred pages too far and decided to wrap things up before the reader got bored. show less

Somehow I missed the fact that this was a sequel when I picked up this book. I only gradually picked up on that as I read, when the text kept referring to characters as if I should already be familiar with their histories and with past events. That, the large cast of characters and the disjointed nature of the writing left me confused and frustrated as I delved deeper into the book.

I must confess that I as hooked by a strong, interesting beginning, but I was quickly lost in a muddy sea of characters and events, feeling I was on the outside without some secret knowledge that would allow me to fully enjoy the book. Barker should probably have done a better job of making this a standalone novel, and the book’s cover should have done a show more better job of making clear that this was a sequel (in which case, I probably would never have started reading it in the first place). As it was, I was left feeling dissatisfied and like I had wasted a huge chunk of my reading time, once again convinced to remove Barker’s works from my reading list. show less

Clive Barker's Everville is an absolute page turner. The first couple chapters start out slow, but the book quickly gains momentum, moving from the early 1800's to the 1990's in a quick fashion, with the 90's being where most of the story takes place. Barker joins and forges amazing links between vastly different people in his tale, pulling them all together in an effort to save humanity as we know it, supposedly, depending on how the reader interprets things, from out own nightmarish creations. Dreams are powerful things to us all, and even more so in Bakers amazingly detailed and robust Dream-Sea, Quiddity. With dozens of twists and turns along the way, Barkers style captivates the imagination, and goads you into wanting more, needing show more to KNOW above all else. show less

Meh…I kinda wish I reread the first book of the Art, the great and secret show again, before I read this one, to get a handle on things. I had some recollection as I read, but it was kind of vague. Although I do remember liking The Great and Secret Show more than I did this one. That’s not to say this was bad, but it was loooong and it dragged at points. I enjoyed it, but definitely not as much as TGandSS.

Maybe I feel this way as I have not read the book that came before, but I really just couldn't get hooked to this. My mum recommended it to me and I tried my best but I have just dropped it to read the Hunger Games instead. Again, this was my first time reading anything by Clive Barker and I only learnt after I began the book that it was a sequel.

It started off slowly and I was really interested in the beginning but as it went on I lost interest. I liked the idea of Quiddity but I felt there could of been more to it before they started to destroy it and the people.

I liked Tesla a lot, but having not read The Great and Secret Show I didn't understand a whole lot of what was going on with her and her past. I enjoyed the conversations with show more Raul and how they had built some weird sense of friendship in the space they shared. But again, I never quite understood how he came to be there.

As for Pheobe and Joe, I cared very little for their relationship and the way it was played out in the book. I disliked Joe going to Quiddity and trying to gain power only to end up rather trapped there. He seemed to forget all about Pheobe very quickly and only seemed to remember when they met again.

As for Kissoon he seemed like a brilliant villain along with his Lix. (Those were disgusting) But I never really gained a good sense of the motives behind his actions.

Overall, I had no idea what was really going on but I carried on anyway. I suppose that is my own fault for not realising it was a sequel. Maybe one day I'll try reading The Great and Secret Show. show less