Weaveworld
#1974.13 adjusted 4.12 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 1987 Reading commitment Low Clive Barker Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Overview
Clive Barker's Weaveworld (1987) is a standalone dark-fantasy novel in which an entire magical world, the Fugue, has been woven into a carpet generations earlier to hide it from a monstrous supernatural predator, the Scourge, and must be found and rewoven before the carpet's guardians lose it, or the Scourge finds it first. The novel follows Cal Mooney, an ordinary young man who stumbles into the conflict when the carpet briefly unravels near him, and Suzanna Parrish, granddaughter of one of the carpet's original weavers, as both are drawn into a war between the carpet's human protectors and the human agents working, wittingly or not, on the Scourge's behalf. Barker, already established primarily as a horror writer through works like the Books of Blood, used Weaveworld to move more fully into imaginative secondary-world fantasy while retaining his horror sensibility in the Scourge itself and in several of the novel's human villains. It remains one of Barker's most acclaimed novels outside his horror-specific output.
Dark fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
Weaveworld Clive Barker
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Weaveworld | 1987 | core | 4.13 (18,082 ratings) |
Standalone dark-fantasy novel; a magical world (the Fugue) woven into a carpet to hide it from a supernatural predator.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Weaveworld? Weaveworld's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is Weaveworld finished? Complete (1987).
- How much reading does Weaveworld take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~752 pages).
- How is Weaveworld ranked? #197 in this site's official ranking, based on 18,082 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #197?
Ranked #197 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.13 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (18,082 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- 0.01 behind #196, Tales from the Flat Earth.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 1 book · Complete · 18k ratings · Ranks #197 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment dark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- World Fantasy Award (Best Novel), 1988: nominated: Weaveworld
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.13 across 18,082 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Weaveworld admitted accepted 2026-08-21
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-21
Rule: Core Canon is the single 1987 novel.