Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium

Tortured Souls is one
of the most vividly imagined, tightly compressed novellas ever written
by the incomparable Clive Barker. At once violent and erotic, brutal and
strangely beautiful, it takes us into the heart of the legendary “first
city” known as Primordium, the site of political upheaval, passionate
encounters, and astonishing acts of transformation.
Lurking at
the edges of this extravagant tale is the ancient entity known as
“Agonistes,” who accepts the pleas of selected “Supplicants,”
transforming them, through a combination of art, magic, and pain, into
avatars of violence and revenge.
The story begins when a
freelance assassin named Zarles Krieger commits a routine
murder-for-hire. This act will lead him to two life-altering encounters,
one with the daughter of his victim, the other with Agonistes himself.
This conjunction of the human and the inhuman stands at the center of
this instantly absorbing creation.
With great authority and
equally great economy, Tortured Souls expands to become a portrait of
Primordium itself, with its hierarchies, its hidden mysteries, its
shifting power structure, and—most significantly—its indelible cast of
characters. A perfectly controlled example of what Barker calls “the
fantastique,” Tortured Souls is something truly special, a story whose
imaginative reach and sheer narrative power are evident on every page.