Wow!
It was in the horror section so it had to be horror, right? Right?
Wrong.
This book is an epic (in both depth and length) and begins in a little Victorian house in the heart of Liverpool, backing onto a railway with the soft cooing of racing pigeons in their loft and takes you on one hell of a journey to the secluded vales of the Scottish highlands, through African deserts, the rolling hills of the West Country via the fantastic and magical depths of the Fugue - a land of such wonders and delights, such beauty, that it has been hidden in the weave of a carpet these last hundred years for safekeeping.
When Cal accidently chances upon the carpet as it is being removed from its dead guardian's (Mimi) house and gazes briefly into its depth, he is hooked, addicted, and so it begins.
Shadwell, the charming salesman who's been searching for the Weave, along with the incantatrix Immacolata, for quite some time, soon arrive on the scene - Immacolata is from the Fugue and can sense its presence but has never quite been able to find it whilst Mimi was alive - and with his jacket of wonders (the shimmering inner-lining mesmerises all who gaze upon it when they see their hearts desires) Shadwell and the incantatrix have the advantage.
Mimi had little family and no friends, so when she felt the end was nigh, she summonsed her grand-daughter, Suzanna, but she's too late. Mimi is too far gone and the secret of the carpet and what it houses is lost, or so we think.
With Cal on its trail, he and Suzanna soon cross paths but there is a confrontation and Immacolata and Shadwell take the carpet. During the tussle a small piece is torn off and some of the Seerkind - people who live in the Fugue/Weave - are freed.
With so much magic flying around and general destruction - Cal is lucky to escape his own garden when Immacolata attacks - it's Hobart, a dodgy cop (who likes nothing more than to beat a confession from people) who is assigned to the case, and with Cal on the run and Susanna arrested, there seems little hope; but what's this? What's happening? What can she feel, how can she . . .?
With Susanna escaping custody - in rather spectacular fashion I might add - she and Cal track the Weave to an auction in a stately home, and from there, where Susanna cuts the Weave at its heart and it begins to unravel, to the vales of Scotland, where we experience the Fugue in all its amazing depth, meet the Seerkind and the myriad creatures that live in its folds, through the cold dark nights and searing days of the African desert - where Shadwell has gone in search of the Scourge (an Angel he hopes will destroy the Seerkind, once and for all) to the knee deep snow of the frozen West Country, this book never ceases to amaze, thrill and entertain.
Barker's writing throughout is a triumph, from character believability to the world he creates in the fabric of the Weave, and although slightly dated in some aspects, the book is simply superb. There is horror and destruction, death and pain but there is love and hope, too and in the cold snow blanketed hills and vales at the end, when good faces evil, you get the feeling that only a truly excellent book can give . . . the feeling that you just don't want it to end.
It's been near on thirty years since I first read this book (which I always remembered liking) but now, having reread it, I love it. Four and half stars. Pure escapism and highly recommended.
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