Abarat
#1694.14 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Ongoing 2002–present Reading commitment Medium Clive Barker Last reviewed 2026-10-08
Overview
Clive Barker's Books of Abarat are young-adult fantasy written around hundreds of oil paintings he made before writing a word, reproduced throughout the text. Candy Quackenbush, a teenager from Chickentown, Minnesota, is swept by a sea that should not exist into the Abarat, an archipelago of twenty-five islands, one for each hour of the day and night and one outside time, where Christopher Carrion, Lord of Midnight, and his grandmother Mater Motley plot the islands' conquest, and where Candy finds that the Abarat already knows her. Three of a planned five books have appeared (2002, 2004, 2011); Days of Magic, Nights of War won the Bram Stoker Award for young readers. A separate world from Barker's Weaveworld.
Portal fantasy, Dark fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
The Books of Abarat Clive Barker
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Abarat | 2002 | 1 | core | 4.10 (30,040 ratings) |
 | Days of Magic, Nights of War | 2004 | 2 | core | 4.23 (15,654 ratings) |
 | Absolute Midnight | 2011 | 3 | core | 4.12 (6,234 ratings) |
Clive Barker's illustrated young-adult fantasy of Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, and the Abarat, an archipelago of twenty-five islands, one for each hour of the day plus one out of time. Planned as five books, painted before they were written; three published, the fourth (Kry Rising) long announced.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Abarat? Abarat's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for Abarat? Publication order, starting with Abarat. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Abarat finished? Ongoing (2002–present).
- How much reading does Abarat take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~1,504 pages).
- How is Abarat ranked? #169 in this site's official ranking, based on 51,928 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #169?
Ranked #169 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.14 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (51,928 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 3 rated core books rate within 0.13 of each other.
- Less than 0.01 behind #168, The Shadow Campaigns (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 3 books · Ongoing · 52k ratings · Ranks #169 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length portal fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- Abarat (2002)
- Days of Magic, Nights of War (2004)
- Absolute Midnight (2011)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- Bram Stoker Award (Best Work for Young Readers), 2002: nominated: Abarat
- Bram Stoker Award (Best Work for Young Readers), 2004: won: Days of Magic, Nights of War; Tied with Steve Burt's Oddest Yet.
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what Abarat and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Old Kingdom Dark fantasy · Ongoing · Medium commitment · 4.20
- Ghost World Mythic fantasy / Dark fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.14
- Shades of Magic Portal fantasy / Epic fantasy · Ongoing · Medium commitment · 4.13
- Penryn & the End of Days Urban fantasy / Dark fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.10
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.14 across 51,928 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: Abarat (Clive Barker) accepted 2026-10-08
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-10-08
Rule: Core Canon = Abarat (2002), Days of Magic, Nights of War (2004) and Absolute Midnight (2011); Kry Rising and a fifth book join if published.