Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War
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| Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War | |
| Author | Clive Barker |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Clive Barker |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | Abarat |
| Genre(s) | fantasy |
| Publisher | Harper-Collins |
| Publication date | 2004 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Preceded by | Abarat |
| Followed by | Absolute Midnight |
Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War is the second book in a series of five by author Clive Barker, called The Books of Abarat. Published in 2004, this volume contains the adventures of Candy Quackenbush an ordinary girl from Minnesota, in the strange fantasy world of Abarat.Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War will be followed by three more books, Absolute Midnight and the Eternal, along with an as yet unnamed fifth book.
[edit] Plot summary
The entire book is spread out over eight weeks of time, compared to the two or three in Book 1, titled simply Abarat. The book picks up several weeks after the original had left off, wherein Candy Quackenbush and Malingo the Geshrat traveled from Hour to Hour to evade the bounty hunter Otto Houlihan. Christopher Carrion's whereabouts are a mystery until about the second quarter of the book, wherein he plots with the Sacbrood in the Pyramids of Xuxux. Sacbrood are terrifying insects of all shapes and sizes who Christopher Carrion has been breeding in order to help him create Absolute Midnight. Under this cover, he expects, the destroyers called the Requiax will emerge from under the Sea of Izabella (which surrounds the Abarat) and annihilate everything they see, giving Carrion the opportunity to re-organize the world according to his will.
Candy begins to develop powers of great magic, with which she frees the mysterious beings called Totemix from their imprisonment in the Twilight Palace. Malingo, separated from her on the carnival island of Babilonium, joins with others of Candy's acquaintance to form a force of resistance against the armies of Midnight.
The enchantress Diamanda, having died of an encounter with a monster, travels as a ghost to the human world, where she finds her also ghostly husband Henry and with him works to prepare Candy's home town for the flood that will result from its imminent meeting with the Abarat. When this meeting occurs, Henry's opening of the factory farm which is the town's only industrial outlet is used as a comment on the variety-deprived lives of chickens raised in such factories.
This book introduces readers to several new major characters, including Finnegan Hob, the would-be husband of Princess Boa, and Letheo, the lizard-boy servant of Christopher Carrion. Finnegan is discovered by a group of his friends, who had been in search of him. Having persuaded him to give up his blind vendetta against the race of Abaratian dragons, whom he blames for his fianceé's death, the seekers travel to the island Efreet, where Candy is held prisoner by Christopher Carrion. They rescue Candy and at her request return her to the human world, where she intends to hide from the Abarat's perils. The two worlds meet in a dramatic climax, wherein it is revealed by the magician Kaspar Wolfswinkel that Princess Boa's soul is contained within Candy's body, having been placed there by the Fantomaya in obedience to the belief that Princess Boa, or her reincarnation, could halt the Abarat's progressive degradation and revitalize the Abarat as a whole. Christopher Carrion clashes with his grandmother Mater Motley, having learned that she had concealed Candy's dual nature from him, and dies of his wounds.
Candy and most of the major characters return to the Abarat when it is pulled away from the human world. Mater Motley assumes control of Gorgossium island, where she executes all of Christopher Carrion's living supporters.
[edit] Similarity to other Fantasy
Finnegan Hob's vendetta against "worms" (Abaratian dragons), wrought in revenge for the death of Princess Boa, is very similar to Prince Rilian's vendetta against snakes in C. S. Lewis' novel The Silver Chair, in which prince Rilian pursues the snake that had killed his mother.
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