Horror master Clive Barker is back with the brand new Library of the Dead project, which almost immediately smashed through its goal over on Kickstarter last month. Billed as a spiritual successor to his iconic Books of Blood, Barker’s Library of the Dead will feature three books full of brand new terror tales, along with out-of-print gems curated for the first time.
Clive Barker’s Library of the Dead has managed to crowd-fund an incredible $1.5 million at the time of this article being written, with over 6,000 backers donating to the upcoming project.
One of the existing stories included in the Library of the Dead trilogy will be a Clive Barker tale titled Chiliad, and Barker reveals in a new chat that it’s his personal best horror short story.
Barker tells Rue Morgue, “There’s a bunch of things which got limited exposure when they were originally published. But we also include stories like Chiliad, which is a much longer story, and we’re including it because I feel that it is probably the best short story I’ve ever written. There are others as well, but it’s a real joy to bring these stories to an audience across the different books in the Library of the Dead to discover for the first time or to enjoy again.”
The two-part novella Chiliad: A Meditation was originally released by Clive Barker back in 2014, and it’s described as both “hugely expansive” and “deeply personal” to Clive Barker.
Barker once noted that Chiliad was “an immense challenge to write, and easily one of the darkest pieces of fiction I’ve ever written.”
Here’s the synopsis: “Welcome to the world of Chiliad, an astonishing two-part novella by the incomparable Clive Barker. A brilliantly composed narrative filled with unforgettable images, this visionary meditation on time, history, and human suffering is surely one of Barker’s most distinctive – and distinguished – creations.
“Chiliad consists of two interrelated stories, stories filtered through the melancholy imagination of a narrator perched on the banks of a river that flows backward and forward through time. The first movement, Men and Sin, takes place in the millennial year of 1000 AD. The second, A Moment at the River’s Heart, occurs exactly 1000 years – the length of a “chiliad” – later, as the new millennium approaches.
“At the heart of these stories are two savage, seemingly inexplicable atrocities, each of which reaches across the centuries to reflect and connect with the other. As the narratives unfold and time becomes increasingly permeable, Barker creates a dark, sorrowful portrait of the ancient human capacity for cruelty and destruction. Writing always with lucidity and grace, he addresses a host of universal concerns, among them the power of guilt and grief, and the need to find signs of meaning in the chaos that surrounds us. In the process, he examines the endless chain of consequences that inevitably proceed from a single act of violence.”
From Clive Barker Ink and Ensata Press, Library of the Dead is a year-long celebration of Clive Barker’s new work and extraordinary legacy. Across brand new stories and out-of-print gems curated for the first time, Barker revisits the themes that have captivated readers for generations: obsession, mythology, beauty, and unimaginable horror. Each volume is further enriched with haunting black-and-white illustrations and poetry created by Barker himself and wrapped in breathtaking new cover artwork that bring Barker’s newest nightmares vividly to life.
These new works from Clive Barker are expected to begin shipping in 2027.
