Cabal

..and his name, of course, is Clive Barker. My five-star rating is for the entire book, which consists of both the novella "Cabal", and four short stories which make up volume 6 of the "Book's of Blood".
For the actual story "Cabal" itself-a man who is tricked into thinking that he's commited a series of brutal murders by his psychiatrist tries to kill himself, fails, ends up in a mental institution where another patient claims he belongs in a place called "Midian". The main character escapes the mental hospital and runs off to find this place. Midian is of course, the land of the dead. 4 out of 5 for this story, only because the point of view for the last two-thirds swicthes to the main character's ex girlfriend who is still in love with him. The first half is great, the second half still good. Overall, any fan of Barker will not be disappointed with "Cabal".

As for the short stories. After reading these, I have now read five out of six volumes of "The Books of Blood", so I was fully expecting a "bloody" good time (pardon the pun).
These stories, while overall not quite as great as the first three volumes, still pack a punch and are as enjoyable as they are sadistic.
"The Life of Death"-about a women who finds fascination with a church being demolished. She meets a man who tells her there is a crypt underneath. A decent story with a horrific and rather sick ending--even for Barker. 4 out of 5

"How Spoliers Bleed"-a group of men who have purchased an island come to find that a tribe still lives there. One of the men shoots a child of the tribe, and becomes inflicted with a deadly disease. Again, typical Barker, with a truly stomach-turning scene of a terrible death described in gross detail. Second best story in this volume for me, with a great creepy setting in a jungle. 5 out of 5.

"Twilight at the Towers"- two men on the run from each other's, and their own, agencies. It is soon obvious neither of them are exactly human...This story had me partly confused for a while but turned out to be another worthy short story by Barker. My least favorite, though still decent. 3.5 out of 5

"The Last Illusion"-perhaps the saying "save the best for last" is actually true. A magician is killed by one of his own props (in a pretty imaginative way). Then, a man named Harry is asked to watch over the magicians body until it is cremated by his now-widowed wife. Things then get out of this world-literally-in a hurry. After blowing my mind through the first 80% of the book, Barker goes a level further in this story. It's not as outright violent as some of his other work, but manages to contain the scariest scene in this whole book. I won't spoil it for you, but this story is everything a horror fan could want. Barker mixes horror and fantasy in this story, and he's top-notch in both of these genres. 6 out of 5, and probably on my top 3 out of the 25 or so stories of "The Books of Blood" that I've read.

This book is worthy of any horror fans time. You get a whole lot more than usual out of one book, five stories, all trademark Clive Barker. One very good novella, and four pretty lengthy short stories, all of which make an impact, makes up this collection that is well worth the money.

Monsters have always played a large part in our collective subconscious. They lurk in shadows, under beds, at the ends of dark alleys. Monsters are always with us, in one form or another. Clive Barker realizes this. And Barker also realizes that sometimes, the monster we don't know is far more preferable than the ones we do.
CABAL is Barker's ode to the monster, not as a fearsome predator that only lives to destroy, but as a misunderstood creature that is alternatively loathed and envied. We despise the monster, because we wish to be one ourselves.
Boone is a young man who is teetering on the brink of insanity. While he has been getting treatment under the watchful guise of Dr. Decker, he is still far from unsure that he is well. And when Decker declaims Boone as a subconscious serial killer, with eleven confirmed victims under his belt, Boone decides that his only option is to find Midian, the place where the monsters play. What Boone discovers is an underworld of loneliness and despair, as the monsters of the world attempt to live their lives in peace, uninterrupted by the insanity of humankind.
Barker has always had a, shall we say, fondness for the darker impulses of man. In his BOOKS OF BLOOD series, and his novels THE HELLBOUND HEART and THE DAMNATION GAME, he presents the readers with individuals who truly live their lives on the edge, daring life, limb, and soul to satisfy their primal yearnings. In Boone, Barker has created another unsatisfied loner who craves acceptance, believing he cannot function in normal society. Barker understands the human heart, and isn't afraid to admit that not all desires are the same. But just because one person's desires may differ from another's, does not necessarily make that person wrong. It's all a matter of persepctive.
Barker plays this need of Boone for a family off his other two main characters, Lori and Decker. Lori, like Boone, also cries out for her desires to be sated. She desires Boone. And in a very touching love story, Lori proceeds to travel the paths of Hell in order to be with him.
Dr. Decker's needs are also front and centre, but his needs are admittedly not of the same vein as Boone and Lori's. Without giving too much away, Decker's needs are far more primal than Boone's, and more insidious in their rationality. Boone wants a family. Decker wants no more families, ever. Decker, rather than the monster-lover Boone, is the real evil, the calm that masks the storm.
But monsters are monsters, first and foremost. Barker is one of the more unusually vivid purveyors of the human condition, and his tale leaps from one grotesque to the next. CABAL contains some truly stomach-turning scenes, which is to Barker's credit. While he sympathizes with the monster, he knows that the monster must be true to itself in order to be complete. Like humankind, a monster must accept what it is in order to survive. And what a monster is, is a monster. And Barker does not shy away from the blood, gore, and vivisections that invariably follow such a creature.
Part of what has always made Barker such an interesting writer is his mixing of the profane with the sacred, his ability to juxtapose the horrible with the holy. In his stories, men find redemption as monsters. The evil are rarely punished, and the innocent cannot be allowed to survive. And somtimes, love can cross the boundary between life and death. CABAL is possibly the closest Barker could ever get to writing a flat-out romance novel. Boone and Lori go through the pits of Hell to be with each other. They travel the battlefield of the final confrontation between man and his demons. In the end, it doesn't matter who the monsters are; we are all monsters. How we come to accept it is what makes us human.

Boone is fully aware that something is seriously wrong with his mental health. Because his memory seems to be full of holes, he decides to consult a psychiatrist named Decker. It does not take long for Decker to link Boone to the brutal mutilation murders of eleven people, murders that recently have terrorized the city of Calgary, Canada. Shocked by this dreadful news, Boone decides to flee. He awakes in de middle of a horrific murder scene and sees only one way out: suicide. But then he hears of the mythical place of Midian, a sanctuary to the monsters of this world. He actually does not have to go look for it, because in a way it has already found him. Although he is not yet aware it, Midian will offer him a very important role.

Cabal is one of Clive Barker's early novella's and is distinctive for its rather straightforward plotting. Compared to the story of Imajica, Cabal can even be called `simple'. But that simplicity does not compromises its narrative power. To the contrary: it is very powerful in luring the reader into a fantastic world. It does very well compare to The Damnation Game for its rawness and impact. Although Cabal offers an extremely enjoyable and horrific ride, it somewhat leaves the reader with a feeling of dissatisfaction. Indeed, it reads as part one of a trilogy. A trilogy that was never completed. It introduces a very interesting mythology and puts everything in readiness for the big story... but sadly that still needs to be written.

Cabal was made into a quite enjoyable movie adaptation Night Breed and did start a comic book series with that same title.

A young man named Boone, who is suffering from an unspecified mental illness. Although this is not serious enough to institutionalize him, he is nonetheless seeing a psychiatrist named Decker.

To his horror, Boone is informed by Decker during one session that he, Boone, is responsible for the brutal mutilation murders of eleven people that have terrorized the city recently. Boone is informed that he does not recall these horrors because his mind has blanked them out of his consciousness. Before he loses all hope, Boone begins to believe salvation may lie in a place called Midian, a semi-mythical city that offers sanctuary to monsters -- both the human kind and otherwise. He hurridly sets off to seek Midian without realizing the full truth of the insidious events that lead him to such a decision

A very exciting read,I would definitely recommend it...enjoy...Nigel.

I paid for that specific cover instead I was sent a really worn 1989 print with torn pages and a thousand stickers on the back or sticker ressidue. Its a great book I love all of Clive Barker books at this point I was just trying to fill up my book shelves and collect all my favorites, unfortantly this one wont make it quality is just not good enough. Very upset!

Cabal: The titular novel/novella takes up about half of the book, but sadly is the weakest work here. It certainly isn't bad, with some rather cool violence and a great villain in Dekker, but it all seems a little under written. I here that this was originally intended to be part of a trilogy, which perhaps points to the problem: The story seems to have only just set itself up completely when it ends. Still, it's a pretty interesting read with a fairly unusual, original central mythology, even if it doesn't make that much of an impression in the end. And yeah, Barker does occasionally over do it with the emotional, convoluted language here, but I think that's more than made up for by his generally more artful style. Occasionally it does backfire on him, but it's more good than bad.

The Short Stories: The short stories are definitely better than 'Cabal', just with cooler ideas and w/o any of the occasional stylistic excesses that marred that novella. I probably like 'Twilight at the Towers' best, a bizarre espionage/lycanthropy tale. It takes place in cold-war Berlin, and generates a real sense of place and just a generally mysterious, dark mood. 'How Spoilers Bleed' is my second favorite story, which is about a curse placed on a pack of Europeans moving in a native controlled land, after one of them hastily and pointlessly killed a native child. The curse is, in short, that they will be repelled by that which they desire, meaning the land and the jungle itself, and this is taken to gruesome extremes. A very grim, nasty story. 'The Last Illusion' is the weirdest story here, a combination of occult horror and the hard-boiled detective genre, all done in a relatively lighthearted, humorous manner. Not quite like anything else I've read, but very effective. 'The Life of Death' is probably the weakest of the stories, but I still like it a lot. It's largely a character study, about a woman who has a hysterectomy and whose life shortly thereafter takes a strange, horrific turn as a deathly plague is unleashed on the city. (London? I think so, can't quite recall.) I don't want to give away any more specifics, suffice to say it's an effective tale.

Yeah, I'm done. This is a good collection.

Barker is strong with making hateful characters romantically appealing, and turning them aside from evil. Surely his early short stories are rife with the injustice caused by the unloved, and the unloved being punished for their helpless causation; but Barker has expressed his feeling that no one deserves spite and hate is always entirely biased and only justifiable from a selfish point of view.
Anyone who would think Barker's novels weaker than the movies made of these books and stories is really saying they cannot gather the subtelty and beauty of his novels. (The one exception to this is the short novel The Hellbound Heart, truly weakly wrought, not very astounding as an analysis of human interaction, and just a blatant statement of Barker's individual style of horror. As such, it is useful; otherwise, it is foul.)
Cabal among all mature works of Clive expresses love for the terrorized, and sympathy, compassion for those marginalized and weakened by society. Even the serial killers can be loved, even the perverts are people and worth compassion and are adorable; not only in Clive's fiction, but to an extent in the real world... to a very large extent, in the real world too.

Cabal is a book that delves deep into the imagination of the reader. The varied depths of the Nightbreed force your mind to search its crevices for the images that capture the very essence of the world's hidden beasts. When I read Cabal, I did so in one sitting, anxiously turning the pages as I explored the world before me. This is a fantastic book to read on a rainy/stormy day with a nice cup of tea by your side, I strongly recommend it to anyone that loves good horror.

It seems that many of the reviews praising this book are written by die-hard Clive Barker fans urging everyone "if you like Barker, read this book". Well, this is my first novel by Barker, and I have mixed feelings about the book. First of all, I bought this book off the shelf and paid retail for it, and only because it passed the first-page test. I think it is the height of arrogance for publishers to market novels based solely on editorial reviews with NO description of the plot on the back cover (as if readers should trust in the author's name that the story will be good). Any well-read person knows that even great authors sometimes write duds. I'm not saying Cabal is a dud, but it is deceiving given that only the first 195 pages of a 358-page book are devoted to the actual story. The latter half of the book is a series of short stories that have no connection to or similarity with the novel itself (other than the horror element).

The writing (to begin with) was fast-paced and vivid, but the pacing felt rushed (understandably so after I discovered how short the novel was). While the characters are vivid they are not well-developed. For example: we never learn what it is about Boone that inspires such devotion in Lori. We learn almost nothing of Boone other than that he is suffering from an unnamed mental psychosis. Decker is the Jeckyll & Hyde bad guy trying to convince Boone that he is guilty of murdering 11 people. We get the story from each of their perspectives: first Boone, then Lori, then Decker and minor characters near the end (a stereotypical southern sheriff: "For Eigerman bright ideas and excretion were inextricably linked").

My biggest two problems with the book (and why I took off 2 stars) are: (1) I don't think Barker pens believable female characters, and (2) the crude writing style when it comes to sexual content(which is a noticable departure from the almost lyrical writing style of the rest of the book). If Barker had been crude throughout, I wouldn't have been bothered so much by the unjustified use of crudity. The pointless scene in the motel room with Lori masturbating is gratuitous and serves absolutely no purpose to the story other than a Hustler-style confessional. Considering how short the story is, I would think the pages devoted to this voyeurism would be better served furthering the plot. Women don't use the c-word when describing themselves naked. That is a man's idea of how women think. I notice no men in the story masturbating or staring at themselves naked in the mirror.

The scene with Lori and traveling companion Sheryl arriving to a burned-out warehouse in a bad neighborhood at night reads like a like a bad B-movie where the girl in lingerie walks out to see if there's anyone hiding in the dark. The women arrive to the address given them by Sheryl's new boyfriend where they are supposed to meet for dinner. Lori (understanably) thinks to herself what kind of sicko would play such a practical joke as Shyrl enters the fire-trap. She hears Sheryl laugh from inside and, what does she do, goes ahead and FOLLOWS SHERYL INTO THE BUILDING! No woman would ever do this, and especially not for such a dumb reason "suspecting now [Sheryl's] compliance in this fiasco, Lori stepped through the door in search of the tricksters." This would have been more believable if Lori had entered the building because she was afraid to linger by herself on the street.

The plot was engaging up to the point of the Nightbreed, and then there were too many cuts to different characters' points of view. We got more than enough of maniac Decker's cartoonish evil thoughts as the Mask. I skimmed the latter half of the story around the time of the sheriff's introduction. At that point, I didn't have the patience to read through yet another cliched character's thoughts merely to find out whether Boone triumphs from the dead and Decker gets his in the end.

Bottom line: if you have to read it, borrow it or get it from the library. Don't pay full price -- or even the store price. $10 is too much for this short novel.

I read this in the Fontana/Collins edition, where Cabal was published on its own, without the short stories that accompanied the US release.

I have read most of the early Barker novels, and I wanted to circle around to pick up what I have missed. Cabal was one of those.

It isn't *bad*, I don't think. It still has much of Barker's feel for atmosphere, and his skill with the concept. I really liked the Nightbreed, and the manner in which their story was developed and both explained/unexplained by the book. Some of the plot points were kind of predictable.

The main problem is that it just doesn't have the size that allows Barker to do his best work at world-building. I'd probably say this isn't the place to begin, but you shouldn't be disappointed if you're already a fan.

Cabal was my first venture into the world of Clive Barker, and I can say it will not be my last. Dark and driven with fully developed characters thes, I enjoyed these short stories emensely. It wasn't until I had finished Cabal, that I found out he is not writing a sequel..iIt seems a little unfair doesn't it? You can't just write a story and end it with a cliff hanger and then say, "oh by the way, I'm never going to finish that." For shame Clive, for shame..at any rate I did enjoy it, it made me watch the movie Cabal (which is in no way like the book).
Also included are a couple other short stories that I enjoyed as well, especially The Lord of Illusions at the end. I couldn't really get into the second to last one but that's not so bad as a whole..Highly recommend..even if you'll never know the end of the story..

I picked up this book expecting much better from Barker who, even with his less serious work is still a very effective writer. Unfortunately, this book was pure fluff. Basically, Boone, the main character, is convinced by his psychologist that he is a serial killer (guess who really is) and winds up having the law after him. He runs, his girlfriend follows him, his psychologist follows her, he becomes the messiah of a cult made up of monsters living in hiding under a graveyard in Canada after he is bitten by one of them, and there are battles with local villagers and the psychologist. This book can be read quickly in one afternoon and strikes me more as being one of Stephen King's weaker novellas or a movie treatment than a Barker novel (it WAS made into the movie Nightbreed). Even Barker's shorter works are more suspenseful and interesting. Still, it is fun, light reading, but if I wanted to experience a B-movie plot I would have rented a movie instead of spending the afternoon reading a book from someone I expected much better from.

I remember back in the day reading this story and really liking it. Then one night a year or so later going to the theater with a friend and deciding to see a movie called Nightbreed not knowing it was about Cabal. About 30 minutes into the movie I am sitting there thinking, "I've seen this before, this is so familiar." It wasn't until later that I connected the two. This is how I became a fan of Clive Barker.

This was my second time to read the book after 20 years and it was just as good today, if not better. The story line and the different characters will draw you in wanting to see more.

Now it is time for me to pick up the comics. I just recently found out they existed. It will be great to experience more of the Nightbreed.

Maybe it is time for Clive to revisit them and bring Cabal to 2012. A lot has changed in 20 years.

i bought just the book not with the additional tales...read it today. funny how refreshing a truly great book can be. imaginative.. gory..and out of the blue even when zombies(hate them) and vamps r so ho hum! the characters were defined and even tho the end was what u might have expected.. it was still palpable. good reading!

The strage thing is this: Nightbreed is one of my favorite films of all-time and definetly my favorite Clive Barker flick, but Cabal, which Nightbreed was based on, is nowhere near my favorite Barker novel. Why is that? Well...for one thing, it's too compacted, more novella than novel. Secondly, there seemed to be elements missing that the movie captured better. The movie better than the book? Are you mad? It's true, on that rare one in a hundred chance, the movie is far superior to the book. Still, Cabal is not bad, it's just not my favorite. Clive Barker knows how to freak us out with stuff we've never even imagined imagining, stuff that would turn us schitzo if we ever encountered it in reality. That's Clive's gift. Cabal just misses slightly. Four other stories accompany Cabal: The Life Of Death, How Spoilers Bleed, Twilight At The Towers & The Last Illusion. Of the four, I particularly enjoyed How Spoilers Bleed: The natives have a clever way of dealing with intruders bent on destroying their homeland. The Life Of Death: A woman, fascinated with death, becomes a regular Typhoid Mary as she spreads death wherever she goes. The Last Illusion is the basis for Lords Of Illusion. Interesting.

Dig it!

Cabal: The anthology starts off with this novel from Clive Barker. In the remote town of Midian, there is a race of the undead, similar to vampires, and yet different; the sun kills them, they feed on human meat. They also have strange powers, where they can metamorphose into flesh-hungry beats with astounding strength.

The min character, Boone, "thinks" he has committed an uncountable number of murders and goes to Midian, where he feels he will fit in. There he is set-up, the murders are blamed on his without question, and he is shot and killed. Except, for the trap fell, he was bitten by one of the Nightbreed, becoming one of them.

The time is now at hand. The Breed have been in hiding for too long, and Boone now knows where the Breed reside. En force they will come to wipe them out, but the Breed have other intentions in mind. Led by Boone, they will combat the humans and fight for their right to survive.

Cabal was made into a movie, under the title Nightbreed. The story is one of Barker's short novels, only 195 pages long, but like his other works, it is a masterpiece in itself, reaching out and titillating the human psyche with its supernatural hands.

"The Life of Death": A church from the seventeenth century is being demolished, while onlookers wish otherwise. In the church is a crypt, but within are not a collection of organized bodies, but piles of them, tossed in without concern, and they appear to have suffered from some disease. Now this disease has been released into the open; the problem is nobody knows it exists.

"How Spoilers Bleed": Locke has "bought" a piece of land in the jungle of Brazil, but the Indians who have lived on this land for centuries do not agree. What I the white man's greedy answer? To kill them all off with disease, but the Indians also have a disease of their own kind to give to the white man. It is a disease that causes the skin to split and bleed upon touching any surface. The death is most painful and unstoppable.

"Twilight at the Towers": A member of the KGB wishes to be one no longer. He wants to disappear into the democratic world, with the help of the British Security Service, in return for trade secrets. There are also the inhuman experiments the KGB has been performing, creating their very own beasts.

"The Last Illusion": The illusionist has had enough of the crowds and the life of trickery. He has staged his last illusion, one in which he will disappear forever. The wife of the illusionist hires a detective to find out what happened to him. The detective, Harry D'Amour, goes on a great adventure in trying to find the master illusionist. Along he way he will see sights that are not humanly possible, and feats that defy the wildest imagination. "The Last Illusion" was made into a movie, under the title Lord of Illusions, starring Scott Bakula.

Originally published on October 8th 2001 ©Alex C. Telander.

Originally published in the Long Beach Union.

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Cabal is one of Clive Barker's earlier books, and while It does not have the depth or captivating imagery of his previous book "The Damanation Game", it is still a fine read. Canadian readers will enjoy the fact the story is set in Northern Alberta. While another reviewer preferred the movie, I think it paled in comparison to the book... Barker is one of the truly great Horror-Fantasy writers of all time and one needs to condition themselves to his style... He weaves not only horror and fantasy... he spins equal amounts of black comedy and erotosism into his work... A real balancing act.
Start with his books of blood (a series of short stories) and then read Damnation game (his first full-length novel) and you will soon find yourself suspended in his worlds.... There are wondefully wicked and horrifying places... You'll love you stay!
Weezer

Clive Barker is the greatest author in the Horror genre simply because of his technique. He weaves and creates a complete world for the reader to step into and experience the words he writes. I felt like I was standing in that seemingly abandoned town of Midian, waiting for those "monsters" to come take us where Boone felt he belonged. I felt every emotion on those pages. Thank you, again, Clive Barker, for a wonderful read.

I loved Books of Blood, Weave world, and The Hell bound Heart. I don't know if I can get into another horror novel that starts out with a serial killer. Cliché. Very cliché.

I started out a Clive Barker fan, then I got my first taste of Lovecraft. The monsters are better, the insanity is more engaging, and it is not "goregy" horror. Without the S&M, and meat feast, authors have to try harder to stir the deepest wells of darkness in the haunted basement, which might be your tomb.

I bore easily with "shock value". If you are not a Clive Barker devotee save your money. Buy the classic horror. It's always better. Before authors started writing horror for a "movie trilogy" they caused soul shaking shivers. They dragged you into their madness with the scariest form of horror, the tale.

This is my favourite Clive Barker novel. Out of all Clive's novels I've read, Cabel or as the films title Night Breed is called is exciting to me. I truely was addicted to this novel while reading it. Maybe it's the mystical element to it,the characters, the dialogue, the whole description of these characters within this world and what is happening to them, the main characters feelings.

All Clive's fan should definitely read Cabel.

Man is monster, fitting in at home perhaps fatal.

A young bloke has the odd weird dream and experience, and decides to go on a trip. He discovers that all is not what it seems, especially him. It seems he is one of the prettier variety of an underground group of non-humans monsters, oddities and supernatural types called the Nightbreed, and acceptance is not automatic. Horror novel, so got to be some mayhem here and there.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. For me, Barker knows how to use just enough detail to keep the story interesting, while still giving the reader a sense of the disorientation of the characters. Sure, it's not great literature. But it's entertaining, and quite good as horror writing goes. I'd compare it more to the works of Poe and Lovecraft than King and more recent authors.

The scariest thing about this book is it's believability. I'm not talking about the idea of monsters that live in a hidden city, but the sheer inhumanity of the human characters.

Think about it. We had the Inquisition, World War Two and countless other examples of the destruction of anyone deemed different.

Well written and thoughtful in a chaotically poetic way that only the Master Clive can produce, this book gets the full treatment as far as I'm concerned.

This story NIGHTBREED is an odd one indeed.But the way Clive B. writes it is amazing!He weaves an intricate tale of a scarce undeground breed of monsters who live under a cemetary.I don't want to say much and give the plot away, so, get it !

Great ride. Very similar to the movie but still wanted more. All of the characters are interesting and needed more “screen time”, especially the Nightbreed. I also wanted to learn more about Decker!