Chiliad: A Meditation by Clive Barker

Sadly, this isn't a new piece by Barker, but it's one many might not have read before, myself included. It was originally published in Douglas E. Winter's Millennium anthology in 1997 (Revelations in the US).

This is written in a more dense literary--almost poetical--style than much of Barker's work. It also has meta-fictional elements that worked here, more or less. I usually strongly dislike works of meta-fiction. They always strike me as cutesy and too clever by half.

One of the 'surprises' revealed at the end of the second part was quite predictable, but the pleasure in this one is in the telling.

Oh, and don't get the wrong impression by anything written above. This story does contain many of the elements we've come to expect from a Barker story: uniquely described supernatural encounters and unflinching displays of sex and violence.

It's good.

Read this book!