Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels...A Book Review...

"All is death, woman. All is pain. Love breeds loss. Isolation breeds resentment. No matter which way we turn, we are beaten. Our only true inheritance is death. And our only legacy, dust."

And so begins the end...





Obvious Spoilers ensue...

First a bit of backstory - this novel was first teased as far back as the 1990s. Intended as a short story, the project eventually swelled to a reported 200,000+ words. During this whole process, Barker suffered the loss of loved ones, broken relationships, and finally a coma brought on by blood poisoning. But now, nearly two decades in the making, we have it. It is bloody, surreal, and kinetic. The main focus here is to tell the final Hell Priest (Pinhead) story, but it is also very much the story of Harry D'Amour, the magician and last of his kind, as he faces off with the gridded demon.

Right out of the gates, we are treated to a triple evisceration as Pinhead hunts down the last of the world's great magicians. He tortures them in unimaginable ways leaving behind a trail of death and adopting one of them as his own personal assistant. It seems Pinhead has acquired a taste for all of the world's magic. As he kills, he absorbs...storing the incantations for some unknown endgame. Barker has never suffered for descriptive terms, and here we get our first, plain view of the monster:

"He looked like a creature that had lived too long, his eyes set in bruised pools, his gait steady but slow. But the tools that hung from his belt...were, like the abattoir worker's chain-mail apron he wore, wet with blood: confirmation that his weariness did not apparently keep him from taking a personal hand in the practicalities of agony."



D'Amour engages the Priest at various intervals, gaining insight into his quest and gathering friends along the way, the most important being a blind black woman named Norma who consults with the recently deceased. We discover that Pinhead actually hates his nickname, even maiming in retaliation for its usage (a point no doubt driven home by Barker as that name was never officially chosen by the author.) As the descent into hell itself unfolds, so do the motivations for Pinhead's (oops) modus operandi. He methodically eliminates the obstacles in his way, much like the dark surgeon he is known for being. He aims to have it all - apparently ending with him on the throne of the underworld itself. A particular gruesome opening volley occurs when he unleashes a horde of magical paper cranes, each a folded written curse of tangible annihilation. Some familiar faces appear here, ones that Hellraiser film fans will recognize and ultimately, feel remorse for.

Barker's hell is a wasteland populated with mutant monsters, deformed humans and immense gothic architecture. He takes us to the literal "ends of earth" while in this demonic place. As Harry and company track down the Priest, who has kidnapped Norma as bait, they encounter all sorts of lesser and greater demons. Some are soldiers of high importance - adorned with battle armor and sadistic weaponry, others merely commoners who live out their pitiful lives in the mud of hell. One of my favorite "characters" is a giant slumbering beast, known only as The Quo'oto, which Harry sees as they cross a river on frail, wooden boats. It is the size of Dune sandworm, an immense thing, and its face has the features of a devil and a bat. Barker delights in scaring the shit out of us with his imagination.

The final act is a truly macabre confrontation. The Priest waltzes through foggy fields of ancient machines en route to the Devil's Tower. Yes, Lucifer himself. Never to be one to shy away from self immolation, The Priest (and Barker himself) literally takes blade to flesh and bone as he cuts away extraneous parts of himself. He does this in order to fit Lucifer's Armor upon his scarred body and assume the ultimate prize. It is literally one of the bloodiest scenes in any novel I've ever read. Without giving it all away, Lucifer's Armor doesn't go without a fight as Harry and his friends literally watch as Hell itself cracks and falls down on their heads. The Priest is given his final, poignant farewell as things unfold - or should I say unravel - as they should. Barker changes the game as a result of this story, and nothing - including Harry D'Amour - will be the same after this. I wonder where Barker will take us after this purging of everything known and unknown in the world of demons and devils.

Of special note is Barker's characterization of the Hell Priest. Being only a casual mention in the original novel, and with only film incarnations since then to round out his persona, Barker adopts the recognizable into the current literary form of his monster. Several times I could hear Doug Bradley's voice deliver those eloquent lines of mockery and malice. It reads like a film and could serve as a fascinating screenplay if a movie should ever see the light of day (or the dark of night.) Barker succeeds in giving us what we want while at the same time, producing his final vision of his most popular creation. Not many artists are afforded that luxury.

In many ways, we the readers are along for the ride with Harry and his company as they track down the demon in a fantastical landscape. Just as Harry is fascinated with the evil things he dare not seek out, so too are we unable to look away from the final ultimate battle for Hell's future. It's messy and disturbing. And while I would have loved to have heard a bit more about how not only the Priest came to this crusade against the Order that brought him into being but also of Hell's denizens...I can't deny Barker gave us just enough in every case to give us an idea of the whole in which his story permeates. He has never written about every minute detail in a given setting anyway, opting more for suggestion when the main plot permits. This allows the reader to breathe and create the world in their mind, using his finely tuned descriptive guides.

All in all, a fantastic read. It's no minor miracle that we have it to digest in the first place. Combine that with the expectations that legions of fans bring with them magnified by nearly twenty years of waiting and it's Barker's latest major accomplishment. I can't wait to dissect it again very soon.

Farewell, Priest.

5 out of 5 Hooks.