 First edition cover | |
| Author | Clive Barker |
|---|---|
| Genre | Horror |
| Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
Publication date | 1985 |
The Damnation Game is a 1985 horror novel by English writer Clive Barker. It was Barker's first novel.
| First edition cover | |
| Author | Clive Barker |
|---|---|
| Genre | Horror |
| Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
Publication date | 1985 |
The Damnation Game is a 1985 horror novel by English writer Clive Barker. It was Barker's first novel.
Marty Strauss is a gambling addict recently released from prison. He is hired as the personal bodyguard of Joseph Whitehead, one of the wealthiest men in the world. The job is more complicated and dangerous than he thought. He gets caught up in a series of supernatural events involving Whitehead, and a devilish man, Mamoulian, through whom Whitehead made a deal with the Devil during World War II. Whitehead is haunted by Mamoulian's supernatural powers (like raising the dead) to urge him to satisfy Mamoulian's pact. Whitehead decides to escape after several encounters with Mamoulian and after having his wife, his former bodyguard, and his daughter, Carys, taken away from him. With hope left to save Carys, Marty Strauss believes that Whitehead deserves his punishment after all and also decides to save the heroin addict from being another victim of the damnation game.
Algis Budrys praised The Damnation Game as "a masterly novel," saying that "it doesn't fail to deliver what a good horror story should," that "it delivers it elegantly," and that "come(s) to grip with the classic themes." [1]
Neil Gaiman reviewed The Damnation Game for Imagine magazine, and stated that "Quite simply the most literate and disturbing horror novel I have ever read. This is the place that nightmares are spawned - read it at your peril, but read it you must." [2]
Dave Langford reviewed The Damnation Game for White Dwarf #85, and stated that "Barker wrenches it with flamboyance and effective video-nasty imagery – but so violently that he strips the thread long before the book's over." [3]
On 13 May 2001 Barker planned to produce a film adaption of the novel with John Heffernan writing the screenplay for Warner Bros. and Phoenix Pictures. [4]
The Sandman is a comic book written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics. Its artists include Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jill Thompson, Shawn McManus, Marc Hempel, Bryan Talbot, and Michael Zulli, with lettering by Todd Klein and covers by Dave McKean. The original series ran for 75 issues from January 1989 to March 1996. Beginning with issue No. 47, it was placed under DC's Vertigo imprint, and following Vertigo's retirement in 2020, reprints have been published under DC's Black Label imprint.
The Light Fantastic is a comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, the second of the Discworld series. It was published on 2 June 1986, the first printing being of 1,034 copies. The title is taken from L'Allegro, a poem by John Milton, and refers to dancing lightly with extravagance, although in the novel it is explained as "the light that lies on the far side of darkness, the light fantastic. It was a rather disappointing purple colour."
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Night Hunter is a novel series by Robert P Faulcon published beginning in 1983.
A Nest of Nightmares is a collection of horror stories by Lisa Tuttle published in 1986.
Bagdad is a novel by Ian Dennis published in 1986.
The Twilight Realm is a novel by Christopher Carpenter published in 1985.
