Books of Blood
Books of Blood is a series of six horror fiction anthologies collecting original stories written by English author, playwright, and filmmaker Clive Barker in 1984 and 1985. Known primarily for writing stage plays beforehand, Barker gained a wider audience and fanbase through this anthology series, leading to a successful career as a novelist. Originally presented as six volumes, the anthologies were subsequently re-published in two omnibus editions containing three volumes each. Each volume contains four, five or six stories. The Volume 1–3 omnibus contained a foreword by Barker's fellow Liverpudlian horror writer Ramsey Campbell. Author Stephen King praised Books of Blood, leading to a quote from him appearing on the first US edition of the book: "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker."
Books of Blood Volume 6 is significant for its story "The Last Illusion" which introduced Barker's occult detective character Harry D'Amour. The detective went on to appear in more of Barker's writings, the Hellraiser comic book series from Boom! Studios, and the 1995 film Lord of Illusions.
Overview
Clive Barker's tagline for Books of Blood was: "Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we're opened, we're red." The opening story, "The Book of Blood", introduces the premise of the anthology series by revealing that a fake psychic is attacked one night by genuine ghosts and spirits who decide to make him a true messenger by writing stories into his flesh. This makes him a "Book of Blood" and the narration then invites the reader to read these stories. The UK editions of Volume 6 close with a story, "On Jerusalem Street", that features a man who pursues the fake psychic in order to skin him and take his Book of Blood. Thus, a framing story is created around the anthologies.The stories range in genres. Some are traditional horror, some are described by Barker as "dark fantasy," some are comical, and "The Last Illusion" is notable for being a mixture of horror and noir while also introducing the occult detective Harry D'Amour. A common thread is that most of the stories feature everyday people in contemporary settings who become involved in violent, mysterious, and/or supernatural events. Barker has stated in Faces of Fear that an inspiration for the Books of Blood came when he read Dark Forces in the early 1980s and realised that a horror story anthology didn't need to have narrow themes, consistent tone or restrictions to be considered a proper collection. Instead, the stories could range wildly in genre and tone, from the humorous to the truly horrific.
Volumes I-III are sold as "The Books of Blood", Volume IV is sold as "The Inhuman Condition", Volume V is sold as "In the Flesh", and Volume VI is sold as "Cabal", which includes four or five additional short stories, depending on the edition.
For some editions, Clive Barker illustrated the book covers.
Stories
Volume One
"The Book of Blood"
The first story of Volume 1 acts as a frame story to the Books of Blood anthology series.The story mentions that the afterlife involves "highways of the dead" that sometimes intersect with the living world. A psychic researcher, Mary Florescu, has employed a young medium named Simon McNeal to investigate a haunted house. Unknown to Florescu, who is attracted to McNeal, the man is a fraud. He fakes visions as he has done many times before, pretending to hear names and stories told to him from beyond the mortal world; but this time ghosts assault him, carving names and "minute words" into his flesh, leaving him his body covered in stories the stories of this anthology series. Florescu nurses the young man and begins transcribing his tales, thinking of him as a "Book of Blood" and her as his only translator.
This prologue, along with closing story "On Jerusalem Street" from Volume 6, was adapted and directed twice. First for the film Book of Blood by John Harrison and then for the 2020 Brannon Braga film Books of Blood.
"The Midnight Meat Train"
Office worker Leon Kaufman has recently moved to New York City, a place that he has long idolised as "The Palace of Delights." Since arriving, he has become disillusioned, seeing the dirt and depravity in a city like any other. Meanwhile, a man named Mahogany is killing people in subway trains, identifying as a "Butcher" in pursuit of "fresh meat." Kaufman falls asleep on a late-night subway train to Far Rockaway, Queens, and awakens to discover that Mahogany has killed four passengers in the neighbouring car and the train conductor is cooperating with him. After Kaufman kills Mahogany in self-defense, the train arrives at a secret station where ancient, withered humans board and consume the bodies. The creatures, the "City Fathers," have been the secret rulers of New York for centuries, the people who founded and initially built the city. They eventually present Kaufman to the incomprehensible "Father of Fathers," who has lived there since before the arrival of the first humans in America. One of them pulls out Kaufman's tongue, stating that he will "serve in silence," and recruits him as their new Butcher tasked with bringing them fresh meat. Kaufman passes out as the conductor announces the next destination as "home." Kaufman is later awakened by the conductor in a secret, pristine subway station and helped off the train as cleaning crews come on to cover up the previous night's events. The conductor states that he has much to learn before he begins his job that evening and presents him to the cleaners, who look at him with reverence. He exits the station and goes onto the streets in the early morning as the city wakes up and comes alive. He falls to his knees, kisses the ground, and swears his loyalty to the city.A film of the same name starring Bradley Cooper and Vinnie Jones was released on 1 August 2008. The film dramatically expands the book in many ways, most notably by introducing additional characters such as Maya, Leon's girlfriend, and further events outside the main plot.
"The Yattering and Jack"
Jack Polo is a gherkin importer who is haunted by a minor demon called the Yattering. The demon is commanded to haunt Jack by Beelzebub, because one of Jack's ancestors reneged on a pact made with the demon lord. The Yattering is frustrated when its determined efforts to drive Jack insane are answered with good cheer and apparent obliviousness. Unknown to the Yattering, Jack is purposely ignoring the demon in order to simultaneously frustrate it and maintain his own sanity. The Yattering subjects him to increasingly severe torments, including killing his cats and terrorising his family, but these efforts all fail. Eventually Jack tricks the Yattering into violating its orders, allowing Jack to take advantage of a loophole and make the Yattering his slave.In contrast to the other stories, this one is presented as a comedic tale. Barker wrote a screenplay adapting this story for an episode of the horror TV series Tales from the Darkside.
"Pig Blood Blues"
Former policeman Redman starts working in a borstal, where he uncovers a deadly secret involving a boy named Lacey. Lacey claims that a missing boy named Henessey is not missing, but is present as a ghost. As Redman investigates, he finds that a giant sow in a sty on the grounds may be possessed by Hennesey's ghost. Lacey tells Redman that he fears he will be fed to the sow, and Redman discovers the borstal's other staff and students preparing a ritual sacrifice for the boy. Redman is able to rescue him when the sty accidentally burns, but is then captured and presented to the sow in turn, where he is eaten alive by a now-possessed Lacey at the sow's command – a dark reversal on the lustful feelings Redman was harbouring towards Lacey."Sex, Death and Starshine"
Terry Calloway is directing Twelfth Night in a run-down theatre. He is having an affair with his leading lady, Diane Duvall, and hopes her soap opera fame will bring in a big audience but also considers her a poor actress. A mysterious masked man, Mr. Lichfield, expresses dissatisfaction with Diane's casting as Viola. On the day of the final rehearsal, Lichfield states that his wife, Constantia, will play the role on opening night. Diane removes Lichfield's mask to reveal him as an animated corpse. Lichfield kisses Diane, and she slips into a coma. Constantia takes over the role of Viola. Following Diane's "recovery", Terry has sex with her and realises she is now undead, just before she kills him.The play opens to a packed house. After the performance, the actors realise the audience consists entirely of ghosts and reanimated dead. The theatre trustee, newly-dead Tallulah, burns down the theatre and every living player is killed. Several of the actors and Terry then join Mr. Lichfield and Constantia on the road, becoming a repertory company of the undead.
"In the Hills, the Cities"
In an isolated rural area of Yugoslavia, two entire cities, Popolac and Podujevo, create massive communal creatures by binding together the bodies of their citizens. Almost 40,000 people walk as the body of a single giant as tall as a skyscraper. This ritual occurs every ten years, but this time things go wrong and the Podujevo giant collapses, horribly killing tens of thousands of citizens. In shock, the entire population of Popolac goes mad and becomes the giant they are strapped into. Popolac wanders the hills aimlessly. By nightfall, many of the people who make up the giant die from exhaustion, but the giant continues walking.Mick and Judd, two gay men on honeymoon in the area, come upon the smashed bodies of the Podujevans in a ravine awash with blood. A local man tries to steal their car to catch up with Popolac and reason with it before it collapses and destroys the people who compose it. The man explains the truth of the situation to Mick and Judd, but they do not believe his story. They seek shelter at a remote farm, where Popolac blunders into the farmhouse, accidentally killing Judd. Mick and the elderly couple who own the farmhouse are driven mad with fear. Mick wants to join Popolac. He climbs up the tower of ropes and bodies, and is carried away as it walks into the hills.
A line from this story, "stale incense, old sweat, and lies," appears in the song "Sin" on the album Pretty Hate Machine by the American industrial band Nine Inch Nails.