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Darkmans | 
 enlarge | Author: Nicola Barker
Publisher: HarperPerennial
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £3.26
You Save: £5.73 (64%)
New (28) Used (11) from £1.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 8884
Media: Paperback
Pages: 848
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 2.1
ISBN: 0007193637
EAN: 9780007193639
ASIN: 0007193637
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Like New, never read, may have small remainder mark - Ships from Canada by Air Mail, Delivery within 2 to 3 weeks, 100% Satisfaction Guarantee! Over 150,000 Amazon.co.uk orders filled
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Stunning August 29, 2008
There is a huge amount that is exceptionally good in here, as some other reviewers have stated. However, it certainly is not just humour and history: the book is very poetic and has an extraordinarily poignant and, I think, topical ending. A truly brilliant achievement that is way up there with "Wide Open".
 Big, but not clever... August 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Prior to reading Darkmans, I knew of Barker by reputation - and by the awards she has recieved and/or been nominated for - but was not familiar with her actual works. If Darkmans is anything to go by, I'd been lucky until now, and certainly won't be seeking to get any better acquainted with this particular author. By its rear-cover blurb, intriguing cover design and faintly irritating title, Darkmans looked and sounded intriguing - and the sheer level of critical praise that's apparantly been heaped upon it made it a must-read...
...But both the blurb and the acclaim must be for a different book. Darkmans is appalling. The plot is virtually non-existent, and what little of it is in evidence is unravelled sporadically and nonsensically via a neverending slew of dull, lifeless exchanges between some of the most laughably implausible and unlikeable characters ever committed to print. Which would be forgivable if Barker's prose and dialogue was anywhere near as clever as she thinks it is - but it's not. The dialogue is clumsy and inept (and bears precisely zero resemblance to actual human interaction) and the writing on the whole is crippled by a comically pointless reliance on parenthesis, equally inane use of spacing - mostly in order to interject monosyllabic thought processes - and a general misuse of grammar, punctuation and meaning that makes reading this book an experience of unparralleled frustration. It's odd that the author has gone to such lengths to remove any entertainment value from this novel, or indeed anything that would make this a pleasurable reading experience. The only use I can see for this book, is of a prime example of how not to write.
I must confess, I gave up on it about halfway through (making this one of only three or four books I have ever given up on), so maybe I'm missing some grand revelation or point that would have made sense of it all. Frankly, I don't care; this book has rendered me numb and disheartened...and perhaps a little bit angry.
 A large dose of life July 18, 2008
I was, not uniquely, I suspect, left a little miffed upon finishing this novel - don't worry, I'm not going to spill plot points all over this review though. This is why I have knocked one star off my rating - I am quite traditional in the sense that I like novels to have some overarcing development across their length, and this seems, essentially, plotless. At least not in the 800+ pages present; Darkmans runs in a different timeframe - like evolution, or continental drift.
Not that it feels slow, however. I found myself caught up in the intersecting lives of the vibrant characters, and Barker's elegant writing. It plays as a social drama, with a twist that many of the main characters may or may not be possessed by a 500 year old jester, and those who aren't often have their own mysterious agenda.
You will finish this novel with more questions than answers, but that, I hope, is the intention!
There's a good book in there somewhere July 16, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
A strange book - really a jumble that creates the illusion of being clever. The dialogue, where everyone's an expert and interested in any aspect of history, just doesn't ring true - try to picture watching it in a film and it becomes laughably unbelievable and the whole "overwritten" feel of it deliver a book that takes forever to get started, introduces far too many shallow characters (what on earth did the chap with the lost daughter and the girl cutting the ties off trees add to anything?). I did find it a page turner, however, because I wanted to find out more about John but ultimately Darkmans just left me with a load of loose ends. This really needed a decent editor getting to grips with it!
 What a waste of time! July 3, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
First of all, the author's writing style has to be one of the most annoying styles I've ever encountered. Despite being a voracious reader (and I've read quite a few odd books, so I'm not opposed to something a bit different), I almost gave up after a few pages because the style is so frustrating. She uses all these parentheses to explain metaphors as if we're too dumb to figure out what she's saying. And every time a character is confused she leaves big empty spaces and writes "EH!?" or "WHA!?" It's just obnoxious. I persevered and the book does pick up steam, especially towards the end, but there's no point to it all. The plot seemed interesting and I was looking forward to the conclusion, except that there is no conclusion. It's a total cop-out. It's like she came up with some pretty cool ideas but didn't have the talent to pull it all together into something coherent. There's basically a Scooby-dooish bit towards the end where one character thinks he knows what's going on and the other character tries to just explain it all away by saying it's just all a coincidence. Was THAT supposed to be the explanation? Give me a break. That might cut it if there wasn't a bunch of supernatural stuff going on with a ghost or spirit possessing different characters. Or is the author just trying desperately to be "deep"? To me, this book is akin to one of those modern art exhibitions by Damien Hirst or Tracy Emin - so-called "artists" with little talent who've conned people into thinking their trite junk is worth something. If you like that kind of thing, maybe you'd like this book. But all in all it left me feeling like I'd just wasted my time.
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