Clive Barker, The Damnation Game

Clive Barker, The Damnation Game - Synopsis:

"Amid the gaming clubs and blasted back alleys of contemporary London, on vast country estates, fortresses armed against the invasion of an evil for which there is no human defense, in a nightworld where men and women make love with ghosts, and corpse-assassins walk among the living, stalking their prey even as they decompose. Sprung from prison to serve as bodyguard to a world-renowned reclusive industrialist, Londoner Marty Strauss knows the job isn't going to be easy. But what he finds surpasses his wildest nightmares - someone is coming to collect the soul of his employer as payment for an old and terrible debt; someone who can animate the dead and co-opt the spirit of the young girl Marty has come to love; someone who counts off the years of his existence in centuries and the evils he has done in infinities; someone who will not rest until all the love and goodness have been banished from the world".

The Damnation Game bleeds the dark, sensual eroticism and morbid imagination that has become the Barker signature. The novel offers out a feast of emotion to submerge yourself in, from bizarre and horrific scenes of brutal violence to moments of heart-wrenching literally romance. It was Barker's first full-length novel, published for the first time in 1985, after the release and cult success of the first three 'Books of Blood'. This first novel presents a theme which has reappeared in many of his later pieces of work for example 'The Great And Secret Show' and 'Galilee' with two powerful men fighting for a cause, both with different intentions and ultimately destroying themselves as a result. Barker has sown the seeds of a fantastical world within the pages of this book, where the reader is truly gripped by the imagination Clive has unleashed within. It is a masterpiece of a disturbing atmospheric darkness and the storyline's suspense and plot development are outstanding. It's very hard to put this book down and you will honestly find yourselves immersed within the novel within seconds of picking it up.

I strongly recommend this masterpiece of dark fantasy horror to anyone and everyone. Please buy yourself a copy.