Clive Barker had established a name for himself in the horror genre already when he set out on this, his first novel, but his fourth published book. He’d kicked off his career with three short story collections, Books of Blood, Volumes 1, 2 and, of course, 3. In this book, he introduces us to Marty Strauss, a thuggish kind of criminal who, upon being released from jail, is hired by mysterious millionaire Mr. Whitehead as a bodyguard. Soon enough, the pragmatic Strauss discovers that a few decades previously, Mr. Whitehead played a game of chance with a mysterious figure named Mamoulian. And now, as Mr. Whitehead begins to approach death, he’s afraid Mamoulian may just show up to finally collect.
I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. It has the flaws of a typical first novel and I can’t help but feel that Barker’s experience in the form of the short story maybe amplified some of those effects. In Books of Blood, Barker really is a master at short-form fiction and, as a first-time novelist, he’s also a master of short form fiction, if you get my drift. Even at a relatively brief 250 pages or so, this book is very padded and there are several moments when you feel that the story is being artificially extended by having scenes that could function as climaxes just kind of peter out when the villain is just like, “Well, maybe I’ll wreak my horrible vengeance . . . later.” The book starts strong, with a flashback to post World War II Europe, when the original game of chance took place, but by the time I was two-thirds done with it, I was just really over it.
There are good things here. The character work is good. Marty Strauss is a compelling protagonist of a type we don’t often see in horror novels: utterly pragmatic, hard-nosed, a guy who approaches the supernatural from the perspective of a thug. Whitehead’s drug addicted daughter Carys is also very well written. And, while this one isn’t ever particularly scary, it is definitely a disturbing and horrific novel. Barker, as usual, knows how to write gore at its most transcendently beautiful and the villain’s penchant for re-animating dead flesh gives us plenty of opportunity to marvel at the horrors that can be visited on the human body. Albert Breer, the villain’s right hand man, is a horrifying creation, a serial child-killer that Mamoulian brings back to life after he commits suicide, a shambling psychopath with a body that is literally rotting while he inhabits it. And the final fate of the villain is . . . downright ****** up, like truly nasty. So this isn’t a bad book, but it’s too flawed for me to really say it’s one you should read. Others disagree; Neil Gaiman has called The Damnation Game “a perfect horror novel.” Well, we disagree, I guess. 2 ½ stars.
tl;dr – debut novel from horror icon has all the flaws of a typical first novel and loses steam well before the end; still, the prose is disturbing and the character work is solid. 2 ½ stars.