Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780006178057
Edition: New edition
ISBN: 0006178057
Label: HarperVoyager
Manufacturer: HarperVoyager
Number Of Pages: 816
Publication Date: September 20, 1999
Publisher: HarperVoyager
Studio: HarperVoyager

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
Over many years and through many books Clive Barker has earned a reputation as the thinking person's horror writer. His novels have mixed fantasy, psychology and sheer creepiness in almost equal quantities, and while the gore quotient remains relatively low the tension always runs high. However, in Galilee Barker tones down the ghoulish in favour of the gothic. His novel (or as the author would have it, "romance") tells the tale of two warring families caught up in a disastrous web of corruption, illicit sexuality and star-crossed love, with a soupçon of the supernatural thrown in as well. On one side are the wealthy Gearys--a fictional stand-in for the Kennedys--and on the other are the Barbarossas, a mysterious black clan that has been around--quite literally--since the time of Adam. Galilee chronicles the twisted course of this centuries- old family feud which centres around the magical Barbarossa matriarch Cesaria and her son Galilee. Indeed, it's the latter figure--one part Heathcliff to one part Christ--whose relationship with the Geary women sets a match to the entire powder keg of hostility and resentment. Mixing standard clichés of romance with his own peculiarly deep-fried version of the Southern gothic, Baker has come up with an intelligent and shamelessly amusing potboiler.




Rating: - Not the best
One reviewer remarks that this is a departure for Barker, yep, you're not kidding. His other works are fantastic in all senses. I read this mammoth tome to see if anything was going to happen - it didnt. The build up at the beginning sets a tone that is usual with Barker - magic, myth, strange histories entwrining, however he doesn't do enough with it.
This is essentially a love story and was a huge turn off. Beautifully written but lacking in story.

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Rating: - Different, but well worth your time
This book is a big departure for Barker, and not for those who go to his books hoping for another Damnation Game or Books of Blood. This is a much more subtle book, much more lyrical. This poetic element is something that has been present in even the most viceral of Barker's work, but here he gives it much more room. The characters are as complex and interesting as ever. They are always highly intelligent, which only makes the motivations of the corrupt ones all the more fascinating as we explore ... Read More

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Rating: - Could be much better
I had picked up this book on the strength of two things: having read Imajica and the synopsis on the dust cover.

Unfortunately, neither expectation lived up to the potential that Barker has in his work.

I had expected something of the yuckiness that unfolded between Rachel and Galilee, but the goop that concluded this part of the story was, to be honest, quite sickening.

I don't think i'll be going out of my way to get the second volume unless i'm stuck for something ... Read More

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Rating: - Yuck
I've enjoyed several of Clive Barker's novels, including Weave World, Imajima and Sacrament, so I had at least moderate expectations approaching this book, particularly in light of the reviews (I should know better by now).

The Kirkus reviewer likened this to an amalgam of John O'Hara, Faulkner and Cartland. I don't know about O'Hara, having never been interested in reading him, and the only thing I know about Barbara Cartland is what I gleaned from a 60 Minutes episode. But I have read everything ... Read More

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Rating: - This ain't no costume drama
Two powerful families, rivals for well over a century, are drawn into closer conflict when a son of the Barbarossa clan, and daughter-in-law of the Gearys meet and fall in love. On the face of it, a standard romantic saga plot, but when emerging from the pen of Clive Barker, you know that there will be more to it that that. And indeed, more there is. The Barbarossas are no less than demigods, and the Gearys a thinly veiled mirror of the Kennedys, which from the outset suggests that we'll be in for rather more ... Read More

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