Chiliad: A Meditation by Clive Barker

Sadly, this isn't a new piece by Barker, but it's one many might not have read before, myself included. It was originally published in Douglas E. Winter's Millennium anthology in 1997 (Revelations in the US).

This is written in a more dense literary--almost poetical--style than much of Barker's work. It also has meta-fictional elements that worked here, more or less. I usually strongly dislike works of meta-fiction. They always strike me as cutesy and too clever by half.

One of the 'surprises...