Days of Magic, Nights of War In the realm of fantasy and imagination, there exist tales of epic battles and enchanting enchantments - a world where magic and war collide. These tales often transport us to distant lands where heroes embark on perilous quests, facing wicked sorcerers and monstrous creatures. In these realms, the days of magic are characterized by the presence of mystical beings and awe-inspiring spells. Wizards and sorcerers harness their powers to manipulate the very fabric of reality, conjuring fireballs, levitating objects, and enchanting ordinary items with extraordinary abilities. Their mastery over the arcane arts fills the air with an unmistakable aura of wonder and possibility. But as the sun sets and darkness envelopes the land, the nights of war unfurl amidst the moonlit shadows.
Once Upon A World.
And I mean to show you, in the time we have together - whether it s an hour or a day or whatever it is - I mean to show you that you just have to open your heart and look - you hear me, look. In some ways, writing the second book has been more fun than writing the first book, because in the first book I was finding a style and finding a rhythm and now with the second one, I m going back to this world, back to these characters and it s just - this is not an exaggeration - this is my 20th book, I don t think I ve ever had so much fun writing a book as I have writing Abarat 2.
But as the sun sets and darkness envelopes the land, the nights of war unfurl amidst the moonlit shadows. Battle cries echo through the forests, as armies clash in fierce confrontations. Warriors armed with swords, bows, and shields face off against each other, their valor pitted against the forces of evil.
Clive on Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War
. "We're at the very edge of things, Henry. Nothing's certain after this." She caught hold of his hand. "Except love."
"Are you afraid?" he said
"For us? No. But for these people - these poor, confused people who don't believe that their lives have the least meaning - yes, I'm afraid for them."
"Afraid they're going to die?"
"Worse than that. Afraid the end will come and they'll be in terror, because they won't believe they have a heaven to go to."
"Maybe they're right," Henry said bluntly. "I mean, this a cruel world. And I doubt the Abarat's much better. What is there to believe in, when you come down to it?".
"Henry Murkitt," she said. "Listen to yourself, you damn fool! Anybody can shrug and say life is just some accident of mud and lightning. But Henry, it isn't . And I mean to show you, in the time we have together - whether it's an hour or a day or whatever it is - I mean to show you that you just have to open your heart and look - you hear me, look! - and you'll see every minute a hundred reasons to believe. Don't you see we're born into a pattern so huge and beautiful and so full of meaning we can only hope to understand a tiny part of it in the seventy or eighty years we live with breath in our bodies? But one day, it will all come clear. And on that day I'd like to be standing right beside you and saying - "
They spoke the rest together:
" I told you so! ".
"I'm writing [book 2] right now, and it's incredible fun. In some ways, writing the second book has been more fun than writing the first book, because in the first book I was finding a style and finding a rhythm and now with the second one, I'm going back to this world, back to these characters and it's just - this is not an exaggeration - this is my 20th book, I don't think I've ever had so much fun writing a book as I have writing Abarat 2. and I'm also laying out the plot for Abarat 3 as I'm finishing up the second book."
Once Upon A World.
By Amy Cox Williams, Children's Advance, October 2002.
"I wrote the book, finished the book in November [2003], read the book and didn't like it and threw it all away, the whole thing, and began again - which I've never done before. So there's nothing in the second volume of Abarat as it now stands which faintly resembles that first version.
"It is a 600 page manuscript, the first book, and there's nothing - there's names in common, but the islands that are visited are different, everything is pretty different. And it came from a profound desire, on my part, not to. I realised the book was teasing people, my first version was teasing people too much. There wasn't enough delivery as I saw it and I wanted the second book to give you a genuine sense of fulfilment. After all, you will have been through almost a quarter of a million words and 250 illustrations. You should have a sense of. emotional payback. There should be a sense that some of the storylines have reached some genuine conclusion and I felt that the story wasn't taking the readers far enough, it wasn't giving us enough of a journey to enough of a conclusion to something big enough. And so I thought I don't think this is right or fair. I need to go back and I need to start again and I need to configure this. I want it to go to a much bigger place in terms of narrative, in terms of emotion and in terms of fulfilment of the narrative promises in the first book.
"I don't want this to be a three-book tease with a one-book pay-off, I want each of the books to pay off some of the narratives and present other strands which are going to grow in complexity and richness and obviously go on. But I think at the end of the second book, and this is certainly what I'm getting back from people who have read it, there's a real sense of, 'oh we went somewhere, we got somewhere, we were delivered somewhere, we got closure.' There are significant deaths in this book, there are significant changes in this book, there are significant revelations in this book. So. and I'm not saying that there wouldn't have been some of those in the first version, but they wouldn't have been as satisfying, I think. I'm much, much happier with the second book. And so, it was worth it! But that was the other reason why it's taken longer to get here and there have been certain times when I've regretted it. but now, having got there, I don't regret it at all - I think it was the right thing to do."
Abarat: 2B (Or Not 2A).
By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 22 July 2003 (note - full text here)
"Well I turned in the text of Abarat 2 to a wonderfully enthusiastic reception. the strongest happiest response I've had to any book I've ever written. Which is incredibly pleasing of course, and also kind of startling because it's the second book in the series. I couldn't have anticipated the level of just happiness that people have got in response to the book. That's great and a huge relief!
"I was very determined that the second book be more of a complete experience. Sort of finish, I don't want to give to much away obviously, but to finish off some more of the narratives. There are two more books to come, so there is much more to unfold. But I want the second book to be a more fulfilling experience as a narrative than the first one could be because, by it's very nature, I'm introducing a world, I'm introducing a lot of characters. It's a very complicated world with its own quite elaborate rules, and all that had to be set up. By the time I got to the second book, that was done, that is done. So now I can roll. And I can get to the stuff which is really fun, which is the plot stuff, and the character stuff, and the primal battles which is the heart of the story, and something apocalyptic as well, because I wanted to make sure that having set up this world, I could then do something pretty dramatic to it as early as the second book. There wouldn't be a sense that you had to wait for the fourth book before anything of great scale happened. I wanted something pretty big to happen in every book. And something huge happens, well actually two or three huge things happen in this book."
By Craig Fohr, Lost Souls, 1 August 2003 (note - full text online at Lost Souls - see links page)
"One of things you get to do when you become a sub-creator like a writer of fantasies like this is you get to make your own laws. Abarat is a place where I get to be law-giver and God - how great can this be!
"The idea that you get to create a world is wonderful and one of the things you can do is to give over to a sub-creator within that world the business of then creating. The thing you allow is the chance of inverting what the laws are. We live in a world in which the Christian mythology makes the creator male, and I get to play with that idea and, you know, many of the most powerful people in my life have been women. Starting with my mother who is an Italian lady of great fierceness, my editors have always been women, my agents have very often been women. My grandmother, who died at 101 two years ago, was again an Italian lady who was the model for a character called Mater Motley in the Abarat books, who's basically a very bad lady.
"She's all over the second book. And, this is a completely true story, I was taught as a child a prayer my mother had created to keep my grandmother at bay. That makes a profound mark on a young psyche! So, when it came to creating some forceful power of negation that would stand as a yin to this yang, as it were, it seemed inevitable that I should choose another female so that if it really comes down to the fight (Quentin Tarantino thinks he did this first but he didn't, you know!) Mater Motley versus this lady, Princess Breath, is going to be quite the thing. I mean, the idea of a woman breathing out life seems such a sweetly effortless idea; that breathing is so simple an activity and that with every breath she makes new life and the wind that passes through the islands carries the life into the sea and piece by piece, island by island, the islands are populated. I want to haunt the audience a little. I very much want to have people come away with haunting images in their heads - the idea of a goddess breathing out life seemed to be a good idea."
Barnes and Noble Stage Presentation
By Brein Lopez, LA Festival of Books, 25 April 2004
"It was definitely my active intention to bring a number of narrative lines full-circle and end some of the stories in the second book so that we could then begin new, fun things for the third book and so that people wouldn't have that sense that really nothing was going to get resolved until they'd read the Quartet. I wanted to really give readers a sense that some things get resolved; new problems arise but there is resolution in the second book.
"It is [a high body count in Book Two] - and that was a very active decision. You know, I've got to clear the table a little bit because I know there's a bunch of other people coming in here - waiting in the wings saying, 'Get off the fucking stage!' to the people who are already there. And you're right, the body count is substantial, and that, as I say, was a very active decision on my part. I was very excited to be able to do it. You can't do it in movies very often; in movies you very often have the sense of, 'Oh well. ', certainly in a monster movie, '. oh, they're going to come back.' Nobody's really dead and nobody really changes - you know, Pinhead looks the same from movie to movie, Freddy Kreuger looks the same from movie to movie. I want physical change in the characters I am showing to the audience, I want to watch Candy change as she moves through the islands and experiences things and buys new kinds of clothes to wear, and the same with Malingo and other characters who appear on the page. I really tried to develop their journeys a little bit."
In Anticipation Of The Deluge: A Moment At The River's Edge
By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 1 and 12 July 2004 (note - full text here)
"The second book of Abarat was, without question, the hardest book I have ever written. I threw away a whole version of the book, in fact. and what's interesting is that almost nothing, nothing from that first version appears in the second, the definitive, second book of Abarat which I am absolutely delighted by. I mean, I'm so pleased that I did make that choice; the second book is actually now one of my favourite things that I've done - I'm really proud of it.
"It's very interesting this series - the problem of the series, the challenges of the series. One of the challenges is you have not only to keep an audience up to speed with what's happened but you also have to lay plans for what's going to happen. One of the things I like to be able to do is really give readers a chance to be able to make their own suppositions about the way the plot's going to go; I try not to cheat readers. If readers were to look very closely at Books One and Two of The Abarat Quartet there would be all kinds of clues they would be able to find as to how Books Three and Four will develop. So part of the challenge, really, is being true to your audience's expectation and of course in the end you want each book that you do in the series to be a little better than the one before, so, Book Two of the Abarat series is one hundred pages longer than Book One and we I think have something like twenty-five or twenty-six oil paintings more than we had in the first book - so we have 125 oil paintings which is a massive number of oil pictures, oil paintings for a single book. So it's really been quite an interesting challenge to put together this book.
"The climax is not a scene, it's a collection of scenes - I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say Days of Magic, Nights of War contains a collision of worlds. The world in which Candy was brought up - Chickentown, (which is this boring little town in Minnesota where nobody seems to care very much about anything), and the Abarat, (which of course is a world of magic and transformation) - they're going to collide in the last hundred pages of the book. And the scenes that are connected with that collision - the spectacle, the epic size of it! The first book was an introduction. well, in Book Two everything imaginable starts to take place and everything gets much more spectacular , as I say, much more epic and I like writing that kind of stuff. I like writing the apocalyptic stuff, so I'd have to say the last quarter of the book was a complete. I had a smile from ear to ear all the time I was writing it!"
Audio interview by Anthony DiBlasi (i) Abarat 2 promotional CD ROM sampler, Joanna Cotler Books, June 2004 (ii) online at www.harpercollins.com
"I felt I had to go back and start again. There is nothing in the new version of book two which was contained in the old version of the book. So maybe that suggests that I did have more difficulty in entering into the world; maybe that was the problem. I was writing the second book on the heels of the first book. I didn't go off and write a screenplay; I ended book one and started book two. The third book will be an enormous book, and I know what's going to happen, or at least I know in broad strokes, and I know that's going to contain a lot of stuff which, in a weird way, I've been learning in the time since I finished the other book."
The Clive Barker Interview
By Brett Alexander Savory, IROSF.com, Vol I No 8, 21 August 2004 (note - full text at www.irosf.com)
These nights are filled with tension and danger, where life and death hang in the balance. However, in this world of magic and war, the lines between good and evil blur. Heroes wrestle with their own inner demons, facing difficult choices and moral dilemmas. Even the most virtuous characters find themselves tempted by power or consumed by vengeance. The complexity of these tales reminds us that even in the realm of fantasy, the human experience is not so easily defined. Days of magic and nights of war also hold profound symbolism. They represent the eternal struggle between light and darkness, good and evil. Each hero's journey becomes a metaphorical battle within ourselves, as we confront our own fears, doubts, and temptations. In these stories, the triumph of good over evil gives us hope that we too can overcome our own internal battles. Ultimately, the tales of days of magic and nights of war tap into our primal desire for adventure and escapism. They allow us to witness extraordinary feats and experience the thrill of victory, all from the safety of our own imagination. They remind us of the power of storytelling and the enduring allure of the fantastical. So, let us immerse ourselves in these fantastical worlds, where sorcery and warfare intertwine. Let us witness the days of magic and nights of war, and be transported to a realm where anything is possible. In these stories, we may find not only entertainment but also inspiration, courage, and a reminder of the boundless potential that lies within each of us..
Reviews for "The Battle of Souls: The Importance of Spirituality in Magical Practices"
1. John - ★★☆☆☆
"Days of Magic Nights of War" was a disappointment for me. While the premise of the book seemed intriguing, I found it lacking in execution. The plot was convoluted and confusing, and the characters felt underdeveloped. I struggled to connect with any of them and found myself disinterested in their journeys. The writing style also left much to be desired, as it felt repetitive and overly descriptive. Overall, I was expecting more from this book and was left unsatisfied.
2. Sarah - ★☆☆☆☆
I did not enjoy "Days of Magic Nights of War" at all. The story felt disjointed and poorly constructed. The pacing was uneven, with long stretches of boring narrative interspersed with rushed action scenes that didn't make much sense. The characters lacked depth and the dialogue felt forced and unnatural. I struggled to stay engaged with the story and ultimately gave up halfway through. It's unfortunate, as I had high hopes for this book, but it simply didn't deliver.
3. Alex - ★★☆☆☆
"Days of Magic Nights of War" failed to capture my interest. The world-building was weak and the magical elements felt cliché and unoriginal. The plot meandered without a clear direction, making it hard for me to care about what was happening. I also found the romance subplot to be contrived and unnecessary. The writing itself was average, nothing stood out as particularly remarkable. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone looking for a truly captivating fantasy read.