Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War audiobook

I didn’t think it was possible to get better than the first book in the series but this one beats it by so much that it’s hard to believe. What Barker had created with the Abarat is beyond spectacular. I want to immerse myself in it forever and never leave it’s pages, just basking in the glory that this story is. It’s magical and gruesome and scary and funny and just EVERYTHING. This book brings you deeper into the magic and I couldn’t get enough of it, I devoured it until I felt sick and then cried because there was none left and I wanted more. I am a GLUTTON for this world! At this point I feel like I’m rambling but that’s just how this book and this series have left me, unable to get my thoughts straight and giddy with discovery and the need to share it with the world.

Scary, exciting, weird, adventurous, awesome and so many things that describe just how brilliant and horrifying this book really is! After I had finished reading Clive Barker’s first “Abarat” book, I was just dying to read more of this fantastic and scary world that our heroine, Candy Quackenbush has gotten herself into! So, I finally got around to reading the sequel “Abarat: Days of Magic Nights of War” and I was just so impressed with what I have just finished reading! “Abarat: Days of Magic Nights of War” is definitely one sequel that you just have to check out!Candy Quackenbush still continues her adventures at Abarat along with her new friend, a geshrat named Malingo and they traveled among the islands of Abarat together. Unfortunately, the Lord of Midnight, Christopher Carrion wanted to capture Candy for he senses something unusual about Candy’s presence in the Abarat and he sends the Criss-Cross Man, Houlihan after them. Now Candy and Malingo are on the run from the Criss-Cross Man but further in the story, Candy soon discovers that Abarat feels familiar to her since she could call out magic spells that she has never learned before and seems to escape danger wherever she is. The more Candy starts to discover more about herself and her connections with Abarat, the more that she starts to realize the intentions of Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight and those realizations could change Candy’s life forever.Can I just say that I think that this sequel of the classic “Abarat” series is WAY better than the first book? I loved the first “Abarat” book just as much, but the second book in the series “Abarat: Days of Magic Nights of War” really got me hanging on the edge of my seat as it was full of action and pure shock value that really got me invested in this book. Clive Barker has done a fantastic job at making this story extremely exciting and scary at the same time and I really enjoyed the adventures that Candy had when she was on the run from Christopher Carrion and meets new people on her journeys. Candy Quackenbush has always been a great heroine to me as she is shown to be kind-hearted and brave and I loved the way that she cares so much for her friends and is willing to put her own life on the line in order to save the people she cares about. I also loved the way that Clive Barker started to unfold Candy’s backstory and how she is connected to the wonderful and strange world of Abarat since I was curious in the first book about how Candy suddenly felt like she belonged in Abarat. I was pleasantly surprised when the mystery of Candy’s backstory was revealed and now I am more determined than ever to see how Candy handles the new revelations she discovers about herself. I have mentioned so many times now that this book was a bit scary and that is all thanks to one of the big villains in this story, Christopher Carrion! I loved the way that Clive Barker really made the readers feel frightened whenever Christopher Carrion comes up in the story and in this book, Christopher Carrion was beyond scary as he tortured many innocent people and the whole idea about living nightmares swimming around his face and eating off of people’s fears whenever they are free was just as disturbing. I was also interested in learning more about Mater Motley, Christopher Carrion’s grandmother, who seems to be more evil than Christopher Carrion himself, which is saying something because in the first book, she seemed more like a background character, but Clive Barker further developed her character in this book and the results were amazing! Clive Barker’s illustrations are just as wonderful and surreal in this book as they were in the first book and I loved how all the characters look like from the Abarat as you have images of some characters being a mixture of animals and human beings and the illustrations are wonderfully colorful. I especially loved the images of Christopher Carrion himself as he looks truly frightening as his face looks like a skeleton and he has worm like creatures swimming in a container he has attached to his face.This book might be a tad bit more disturbing than the first book since there is more nightmarish imagery and many characters are killed off in this book. The images of Christopher Carrion are a bit too disturbing especially the images of Christopher Carrion getting angry and his skeletal face is a bit scary for anyone who does not like seeing skeletons in books. Also, the biggest shock factor for me in this book was the fact that many characters are killed off and that might be unsettling for people who do not like reading about death.Overall, “Abarat: Days of Magic Nights of War” is easily one of the best sequels I have read from any book and now I am definitely looking forward to reading the third book,Absolute Midnight just to see how everything goes for Candy after all this!Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

The final war is about to begin. In this second book of the Arabat series, Candy Quackenbush, with the help of the forces of Day, must use all their special powers to stop Christopher Carrion and the Army of Night's plot to establish a Permanent Midnight throughout the 25 islands that make up Abarat. Barker lends a dark shadow to what would otherwise be a kind of Dr. Seuss book. The bad guys, Christopher Carrion and Mater Motley are incredibly deep. I found myself wondering is Christopher was really evil or was he like Jessica in Roger Rabbit, “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way?” Was he thrust into the role of “bad guy” by still stronger forces? I liked this one better than the first, the story seemed to flow smoother, perhaps because I already had some level of familiarity with many of the large cast of characters developed and brought into to this second book. The ending left many threads dangling in the air like leaves on a tree in late fall. I will no doubt begin the third book in the series to learn where those leaves might fall.

Sinceramente, ¿qué puedo decir? ¿Qué. Puedo. Decir?Primero que nada: que esa pregunta está muy mal redactada. Segundo: ¡¡Que me encanta esta serie!! Volvemos al punto en donde nos quedamos en el primero de los libros. Candy y su nuevo mejor amigo, Malingo, han decidido recorrer juntos las islas para conocer lo más que puedan de ellas. La magia que Candy descubrió en sí misma aparece una y otra vez mientras que el asesino a sueldo conocido como "The Criss-Cross Man" continua la cacería de la chica. Ante cada aventura, Candy se da cuenta que ella no es lo que parece y que un secreto se encierra en su persona desde el mero día de su nacimiento. Pero, mientras que las islas por las que pasa van cambiando de poco a poco y mil acontecimientos se desatan con su sola presencia, ¿será Candy capaz de descifrar su propio acertijo antes de que Lord Carrion la atrape -o, pero aún, la horrible hechicera que es la abuela de él, Mater Motley? Tuve que esperar meses para poder leer este libro (y aún así no tuve que soportar tanto como los primeros fans del libro, aparentemente), pero cada momento valió la pena. Fue exactamente por este libro, el segundo, que me enteré de la existencia de la saga, y de inmediato quise conocer la historia entera: acababa de terminar de leer Labyrinth: A Novel Based on the Jim Henson Film y, encantada como estaba, me puse a explorar las recomendaciones que Goodreads y sus usuarios daban sobre libros similares. (view spoiler)[Ahí me enteré del amor no correspondido de Carrion por Boa y del asesinato de ella y su futura "reencarnación" en Candy". Y aunque me spoileé una de las mejores partes de las intrigas del libro (si no es que la más grande), me di cuenta que esta saga de fantasía tenía todas las de ganar para convertirse en una de mis favoritas. (hide spoiler)] Y es así como, unos meses más tarde, puedo afirmar que a cada página que avanzo, mi amor por Abarat crece.Comienzo por decir que los personajes son entrañables. Tanto los buenos como los malos. Candy es una de las mejores protagonistas que he leído. Toda una "action girl", y una de las chicas más sensatas y valientes que he conocido en la literatura juvenil. Piensa antes de actuar y cuando actúa sin antes pensar en cómo podrían las consecuencias ser letales, es porque está ya desesperada.A ella la acompañan amigos como Malingo (que es un amor y solamente quieres agarrarlo, abrazarlo y dormirte con él en brazos) y los hermanos Jhon (que, cada uno a su manera, son reminiscencias de los muchachos con los que pudiste haberte topado en tus años de escuela). Inclusivo Finnegan (el hombre con el que la Princesa Boa iba a casarse), que muchos fans me transmitieron la idea de que lo odiaron un poco en este libro, me pareció muy agradable. Pero los villanos... ¡Oh, los villanos!Y no me refiero a cómo Carrion de nuevo hizo que mi corazón se achicopalara. No. Me refiero a las escenas que Letheo compartía con Candy o en los momentos en que el autor nos permitía conocer más de sus circunstancias. (view spoiler)[E, increíblemente, me sentí muy mal al leer la muerte de Kaspar Wolfswinkle :( (hide spoiler)]Hablando de los sentimientos fuertes, algo que sí quisiera dejar en claro es la muerte. Muchos tienen la idea de que en las historias enfocadas a un público infantil/adolescente, la muerte es un tema que no debería tratarse crudamente. Pero si Harry Potter nos enseñó algo es que fuck that. La gente puede leerlo. Personajes a los que amas, mueren. Personajes a los que odias, mueren. Y tienes que aceptarlo. Como en la vida. PERO si este es un tema que no te guste mucho (o que prefieras pasar de alto), es mi deber informarte que, como el título del libro lo indica: una guerra se aproxima, y la muerte es inevitable.En este segundo libro mueren más personajes de los que creí que fuera a suceder.Pero si eres fan de lecturas sobre aventuras, sobre insectos gigantes (yo no lo soy, pero aquí me tienen) y sobre la tragicomedia que rodea a las familias reales prominentes, esta es una historia para ti.Tengo entendido que en la tercera parte, conocemos más la historia de Boa (view spoiler)[(a quien comienzo a no tragarme gracias a leer TANTAS veces que era hermosa, que era la luz del mundo, que podía hacer sonreír al alma más triste, que era capaz de obrar los milagros más grandes que ninguna Mary Sue es capaz de imaginar, ETC) (hide spoiler)] mientras que el mapa de posibilidades en la vida de Candy se amplía más y más. De momento no he leído los capítulos de regalo de Absolute Midnight que trae mi ejemplar, porque tengo muchos otros pendientes. Pero si de algo estoy segura es que quisiera que fuera uno de los primeros libros que compre en 2015......aunque, claro... luego de ver cuánto se ha tomado el autor entre libro y libro, creo que me gustaría tomarme un respiro antes de hacer berrinche porque no se sabe casi nada del cuarto y menos del quinto (el supuesto final).Puede que luego vuelva a leerlo, porque hay partes en las que quisiera hundirme más.Aparte de que me hizo recordar la primera vez que jugué The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker y ese es un sentimiento asombroso que no cualquier libro logra.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>

Published in 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers, this is the second installation to the ‘Books Of Abarat’ quartet of novels. Following on from the imaginative and beautifully magical first book of the Abarat, Barker has delivered a longer and just as inspiring novel running for a total of 491 pages. Within these pages are literally hundreds of oil paintings done by Barker himself, to illustrate the novel as the story unfolds. These illustrations are again printed in full colour on thick, glossy pages for the hardback version. With such beautifully painted illustrations it is very advisable to purchase this hardback version, rather than waiting for the release of the cheaper paperback. Barker’s impressive imagination shows no bounds as you are taken on a journey through the wonderful world of his limitless mind. His characterization is superb, delivering such vivid and well-presented characters in the ever-unfolding twists and turns of the novel’s plot. The storyline is layered with many depths to each character involved, bringing out an overall richness to the book as a whole. The novel is suitable for adults and a younger audience who will both take a lot from the story in their own unique ways. It is advisable to read the first book of the quartet before undertaking this adventure, but it is still possible to enjoy the book as a novel in its own right.

This is book number 2 of the Abarat booksWhen I read the first book, I had the non illustrated version and its text was filled with imagery. The second however I managed to get a copy of the one illustrated with Clive Barker's paintings. It was amazing to see the characters come to life on each page, it was such a treat to have such a sensory mix of words and images in this strange world known as Abarat. The characters have very distinguished characteristics and colourful personalities, even the much darker ones. The plot is rich and full of very interesting surprises. You get to meet alot of species of things in the world of Abarat. It reminds me of when I was reading Dr. Seuss books, except you get a thorough image of what it looks like in your head even if it wasn't painted on the page. I also enjoy the little bit of poetry at the beginning of every section.It was an amazingly fast and enjoyable read and I can't wait til the third book comes out next winter!!!

Woah! The second installment in the Abarat series. Candy is still in the Abarat, running from villains left and right. The most notable (and scariest) are Christopher Carrion and his grandmother Mather Motley. We meet some new characters, and some of our favorites come back together again, to fight dragons, and rescue Candy from life-threatening situations. We also travel back to Chickentown, to check in with her family. There are a few secrets revealed in this book that were nice to know. I think I liked this one better than the first, probably because I know the characters. It didn't fall into the "sequel slump" that many books do! I believe it carried the story really well! Clive Barker doesn't disappoint with the artwork! It is absolutely amazing!! His imagination is a crazy place!! And boy, can this guy write a suspenseful ending! I can't wait to read the next one.

I love the sequel as much as the first book :) It's full of adventures, very intense.. even though I can guest the twist since the beginning of this book XD Candy is a cool heroine and her character is developed more in this sequel. I can finally read the last book now!

I love Clive Barker's "Abarat" series. A young girl named Candy Quackenbush (a name you have to love) from Chickentown, Minnesota is the heroine and the books detail her adventures in another world. The book is a fun read and has extraordinary art work done by Mr. Barker himself.

I read this in high school, and I’ve reread it multiple times because I just can’t get enough. It’s adventurous, funny, sad... everything you want in a great read! Barker’s imagination in endless and I am so glad he has brought life to Abarat the way he has.

Again, an amazingly clever fantasy.We listened as a family.

*Pertama kali dipost di thread Pembahasan Berbagai Novel di forum Role Playing Cyber Novel Video Games Indonesia tanggal 12 Mei 2008*SinopsisCandy dan Malingo melanjutkan petualangan mereka di Abarat sebagai sepasang turis yang santai. Sudah banyak pulau yang mereka kunjungi dan banyak orang yang mereka temui. Sayangnya, antek-antek Christopher Carrion tak kenal lelah mengejar mereka berdua.Tak hanya itu, situasi di dunia kepulauan itu mulai memanas. Rumor-rumor yang tak enak didengar mulai berembus. Beberapa pihak mulai menyiapkan rencana dan kekuatan masing-masing. Candy sendiri terjebak di tengah-tengahnya, tanpa tahu apa penyebabnya. Perlahan tapi pasti semua mulai terkuak, begitu pula jati diri gadis asal Chickentown tersebut.SampulSecara umum tema sampulnya sama persis dengan buku pertamanya. Ilustrasi-ilustrasi unik dan keren, kali ini dengan latar belakang merah, menjadi nilai lebih tersendiri. Sayangnya, kelemahan sampul buku pertama yang tak menyertakan sinopsis dalam bentuk apa pun (kecuali di sampul bagian dalam yang mustahil dibaca jika bukunya disegel plastik) berlanjut di Days of Magic, Nights of War.PenulisanMasih sama baik dengan sebelumnya. Detail yang jelas, tak bertele-tele dan jelas. Penerjemahannya pun baik. Beberapa istilah yang dibiarkan bentuk aslinya dalam bahasa Inggris di buku pertamanya kini diterjemahkan ke bahasa Indonesia. Secara keseluruhan, penulisan dan penerjemahannya patut diacungi jempol, sama seperti buku pertamanya.CeritaSama seperti Abarat, beberapa aspek cerita Days of Magic, Nights of War sangat mudah ditebak. Pembaca gak bakal kesulitan untuk tahu siapa sebenarnya Candy Quackenbush. Meski demikian, ada beberapa plot twist dan perkembangan cerita yang cukup mengejutkan dan boleh dibilang sangat memuaskan. Hal inilah yang membuatnya menarik. Clive Barker seolah mengumbar satu rahasia demi menutupi rahasia (plot twist) yang lain.Selain itu jika buku pertama hanya merupakan pengenalan dunia dan tokoh, maka Days of Magic, Nights of War langsung terjun bebas ke dalam (bagian awal) cerita intinya sembari memperkenalkan banyak tokoh, setting dan hal-hal baru. Latar belakang beberapa tokoh dikupas habis lengkap dengan berbagai petualangan seru dan gila-gilaan. Semua itu ditutup dengan grand finale yang layak dibayangkan sendiri hebohnya jika cerita ini dijadiin film.Satu hal kecil yang cukup disayangkan adalah ada bagian dari buku pertamanya, seperti karakter Rojo Pixler, yang tak disentuh sama sekali. Meski gw sangat yakin bagian-bagian tersebut disimpan untuk buku ketiga, rasanya bener-bener ada yang kurang.Meski demikian, secara keseluruhan Days of Magic, Nights of War berhasil menyajikan cerita yang lebih menggigit dan dahsyat dibandingkan buku pertamanya.Lain-LainIlustrasi-ilustrasi indah masih merupakan elemen penyokong kuat dalam kisah kedua Abarat. Di beberapa bagian, mereka justru menjadi cerita itu sendiri. Salah satu contoh yang jelas adalah ilustrasi kehampaan yang digambarkan melalui seekor ayam yang mengapung di tengah lautan luas dan langit biru. Hal-hal seperti inilah yang membuat ilustrasi menjadi bagian tak terpisahkan dari Abarat dan bahkan menjadi salah satu nilai lebihnya.KesimpulanAbarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War adalah sebuah kisah yang lebih dalam dari pendahulunya. Perkembangan ceritanya kini makin tak terduga. Sayangnya, buku ini hanya bisa direkomendasikan pada mereka yang sudah baca Abarat karena ada elemen-elemen cerita yang akan hilang sama sekali jika tak membaca buku pertama tersebut. Bagi yang sudah baca buku pertamanya, silakan menikmati cerita yang jauh lebih dahsyat di novel ini, dijamin memuaskan!

We catch up with Candy and Malingo a few weeks after the first book has ended. They've been traveling from hour to hour trying to evade being caught by the criss cross man, who Carrion has sent to capture Candy. While running, Candy and Malingo are separated and they spend a good bit of the book attempting to be reunited.In this book, we learn a lot more about what Carrion and his grandmother have been up to and the plans that they have for the Abarat. Unfortunately, none of them are good plans. Bringing permanent midnight to the islands sounds like a fantastic idea to the Carrion family unit. When Candy makes the decision to go back to Chickentown for good because she is under the impression that all she does is cause problems, this brings to conflict to a head and now not only is the Abarat in danger, but Chickentown is as well.This is also the point where Candy learns a lot about herself and why she has such love for the Abarat, and why she is able to do magic that she has never learned before. Candy is slowly piecing it together, but even as the second book ends, it all is not solved.Once again, I loved the imagery in this book and I really wish I had a copy with Barker's paintings inside. To see everything come to life would have been pretty fantastic. The characterization in this book was also expanded quite a bit, especially in the case of the villain, which I really loved. You got more of a sense of who Carrion was and you almost got to feel sorry for him. And in this book we also meet up with some of the cast of characters that made an appearance in Book 1.There were so many quotes from this book that resonated with me as well. So much so, that once again, I flooded Tumblr with some of them, but just to give you an example:“I’ve learned only two things in my life. One, that love is the beginning and end of all meaning. And two, that it is the same thing whatever shape our souls have taken on this journey. Love is love. Is love.”Basically, what it comes down to is that I really enjoyed this book, even more than the first one. I can't wait to get to the third! 4 out of 5 stars!

This is the second Abarat book by Clive Barker and starts shortly after where the last one left off. I listened to this book on audio book and, like audio book of Abarat, the audio book was very well done.Once again we follow Candy on her efforts to elude Christopher Carrion. Candy bumps into a cast of great new quirky characters as she tries to flee Carrion’s minions. John Mischief and crew are still trying to find Fennigan Hob. Will Christopher Carrion be able to bring about Permanent Midnight? What is Candy Quackenbush’s real identity? These are all things that are visited in this book.This is a great book, it is very creative, and still reminds me a bit of Alice in Wonderland. This book is definitely written by a horror author; there is a sort of cloud of evil or despair over the story as you read it. While this is a great book, really young children would probably find it too scary and some of the ending fight scenes are pretty-darn gory.I really love Barker’s bad guys. I just can’t emphasize enough how much depth the bad guys have. Especially with Christopher Carrion; you can never figure out if he is really bad to the core or if maybe he was just born into a bad family. The ending surprised me a bit, as the whole mystery surrounding Candy didn’t end up exactly how I thought it would.There were a couple things that really disappointed me; this book still had a very open ending. There is a lot in Abarat that needs to be resolved at the close of the book. That was very disappointing to me since I haven’t seen (or heard of plans for) another Abarat book. I didn’t like how it ended for Candy’s mother either. I guess I just have to live with that since Barker seems more about realism than happy endings. I was also curious as to why Rojo Pixler and the Commexo kid weren’t mentioned much in this book. In the last book Rojo looked like a big contender for a parallel bad guy; that was dropped in this book.All the above being said; this was still a very good book and a great follow-up to Abarat.

Ummm...apa saya saja ya, yang merasa kalau nama Christopher Carrion itu keren, *eh. Puisi yang dia buat untuk Puteri Boa juga bagus-bagus, (tiba-tiba merasakan simpati kepada Carrion gara-gara ending-nya). Sayang, aura jahatnya sampai sebegitunya, sampai-sampai orang yang pertama kali melihat, akan langsung tahu kalau dia jahat, (abaikan kalau tampangnya memang jelek).Sepertinya saya gagal paham, sebenarnya, tokoh Carrion itu mau digambarkan seperti apa sih sama penulisnya. Jahat banget sampai ga bisa ditolong lagi, atau masih bisa baik asalkan ada yang mencintainya. Ngomong-ngomong, foto Clive Barker di buku kedua ini cakep yak, *eeeehhhhhh.So, Days of Magic, Nights of Wars, masih menceritakan tentang petualangan Candy di Abarat. Kali ini petualangannya lebih seru. Dimanapun Candy berada, sepertinya dia tidak bisa berdiam diri lama-lama. Maklumlah, ada "penggemar rahasia" yang selalu mengejar-ngejar.Meskipun Candy tampaknya semakin baik hati dan semakin hebat, tapi somehow, saya merasa Candy jadi plin-plan. Tapi wajar sih, soalnya di dalam tubuh Candy kan ada .... errr .... dia. Di sini, banyak tokoh baru yang muncul. Kita akan berkenalan dengan Finnegan Hob, yang berkebalikan dengan Carrion, begitu kita melihat Finnegan, kita akan langsung tahu kalau dia orang baik (abaikan kalau tampangnya memang cakep).Oh ya, dan kita akan lebih mengenal nenek Carrion di sini. Sang ibu suri, Mater Motley, yang gemar menjahit, haha. Tapi sayang, yang nenek jahit bukan baju, tapi makhluk mengerikan yang dikenal dengan nama pasukan tambal sulam. Haduh, si nenek, kayak di Abarat masih kekurangan makhluk mengerikan saja.And finally, karena saya belum punya buku tiganya, terpaksa saya harus menghentikan "petualangan" saya di Abarat, (bukunya mahal bingit, nunggu tabungan cukup dulu). Untung akhir buku kedua ini tidak terlalu membuat penasaran. So, 4 dari 5 bintang lagi untuk buku kedua Abarat. I really liked it ('▽'ʃƪ) ♥