Over 1800 Pages

[Abaratian]

Wow. I can't believe this. According to Wikipedia, Clive Barker said in an interview that Absolute Midnight is over 1,800 pages long. Not very many books top 1000 pages.

I'm sort of relieved. I feel bad for being so bitter, but I think we definitely deserve over 1000 pages of material for waiting so very long for this book. It's been YEARS. I've been reading the series since the very first one came out; I remember going out to a toy store to buy the sequel the day it came out after getting a 15% off coupon for that particular store in the newspaper. The wait from the first to the second book was two long, hard years. So I'm going crazy after being told a release date and then let down like... what... six times?

I'm assuming the long wait has been because of the page count. I'm also thinking that there will be a lot more pictures, which thrills me. I'm just feeling so impatient and sick of waiting!

[malingomango]

WHOA....AWESOME!! I cant wait until it comes out!! *bounces up and down with excitement*

That is officially longer than the bible AND War and Peace. (i should know, i read that darn novel)

[NoxLight]

Ah! He is also very determined to get it out by Spring! *tears of joy*
And he also says this curious thing:
Clive Barker : "Yeah, well it's fascinating to me too because, you know, I've always said this is not five books but one huge book in five pieces, and in that sense it's much closer to The Lord Of The Rings or to Pullman's books than it is to Harry Potter or Narnia. When these five books are finished it will be possible to read this as one massive narrative about a girl becoming a shaman and, through her shamanic powers, stepping beyond the state of shamanship."
What could this mean?

[THE LADY OF MIDNIGHT]

Woah that is sooooo awesome! I will seriously die of joy once the next book comes out.

[bleu]

The thing about the proposed "1,808 pages" of the final draft is that... well, it's a draft. We don't know what may or may not get cut by the editor. Nothing is definite. There's also the paintings themselves--we don't know how many pages they take up, nor if they even factor into the no. of pages in the draft at all.

I don't mean to be Captain Nego here. It's just that, with the exception of J.K. Rowling, there aren't many YA books that are over 400pgs.

[Abaratian]

I can think of plenty of YA books over 400 pages long - all of the Twilight series is, all of the Pendragon series, all of the Inkheart trilogy is.... and those are 3 of the most popular YA series.

I know it sounds like I'm attacking your post, but I promise that's not my intentions. I don't doubt that they'll edit the tar out of it. But I'd be surprised if they edited out 1000 pages of it. I'm just saying, there are idiot kids who've never read a book before in their life eating up the Twilight series, even though the latest book is over 700 pages long. Same goes for Harry Potter - kids who never thought about reading as a hobby didn't complain about the 870 page Order of the Phoenix. So I think editors are starting to realize that longer books are no longer off-limits to YA genre. I doubt they'd look at Clive's Work and refuse to publish parts of it (he's published many long novels before, just off the top of my head Imajica is like 900 pages long I think).

Which reminds me.... Lordy Lou. I thought Imajica was a pain to carry arround, I can't imagine bringing a book twice that size to school with me!

[bleu]

There are literally tears in my eyes as I write this. Why are you attacking me like this?

...just kidding. Ha ha.

No, of course you aren't attacking my post but even if you were... well, that'd be O.K. We're allowed to disagree. Though now that I think about it, you're right. When I said that about YA books I was remembering an interview with another fantasy writer (Tamora Pierce) where she talked about how hard it was for her to write books because she's had to fight with publishers about the length; she's often been forced to cut them into several volumes rather than one novel. She said that the sucess of Harry Potter has helped publishers realize that "kids" can and will read "long" books. That was in 2003. She was right, too, because her next series after that was released in two novels instead of the quartet form she'd been forced to favor.

I'm not familiar with the Pendragon books and it's been a long time since I read Inkheart. I'd forgotten how long it was. (Can you believe the movie's already out? It seems like ages ago when I first heard about it being planned.) I've never read Twilight but I'm surprised to hear that the newest one is 700pgs. The Internet has given me the impression that they're not worth the paper they're printed on, so... yeah.

And, you know, I take back what I said about the editing, too, because I've read snippets from his agents/publishers and they all seem extremely keen on Abarat. I don't see them cutting anything that Barker doesn't cut himself. Let's not forget that Abarat was once thought of as a hot ticket, with plans of not just a series of films but an entire amusement park based on the novels. The only problem is that Barker seems to be his own enemy; all that buzz has died down in the years it's taking him to write the books.

You can't rush genius, I know. But still. After all this time, it had better be 1,000+ pgs!

(Speaking of Imajica, btw: how is that book? I've only read Abarat I, Abarat II, Weaveworld, and The Thief of Always. Is Imajica worth picking up?

[Abaratian]

The only problem is that Barker seems to be his own enemy; all that buzz has died down in the years it's taking him to write the books.

^ I completely agree with you here. Waiting this many years to write the next book has definitely lost him some money and lost us lots of potential fellow Abarat fans.

I liked Imajica, but there are very, very graphic sex scenes in the book... so it depends on how comfortable you are with that. Some of the sex scenes in the book are male/male, though. They're a lot more tastefully done and not as graphic, but it depends on how you feel reading about two guys getting married and doing the horizontal tango.

[caitycat66]

A... Shaman? This suddenly got more interesting. (Who am I kidding? This was Way beyond interesting even before the 2nd book.) (Does that even make sense?)