Product Description

From master storyteller Clive Barker comes an epic tale of myth, magic, and forbidden passion—complete with new illustrations and a new Appendix.

Imajica is an epic beyond compare: vast in conception, obsessively detailed in execution, and apocalyptic in its resolution. At its heart lies the sensualist and master art forger, Gentle, whose life unravels when he encounters Judith Odell, whose power to influence the destinies of men is vaster than she knows, and Pie 'oh' pah, an alien assassin who comes from a hidden dimension.

That dimension is one of five in the great system called Imajica. They are worlds that are utterly unlike our own, but are ruled, peopled, and haunted by species whose lives are intricately connected with ours. As Gentle, Judith, and Pie 'oh' pah travel the Imajica, they uncover a trail of crimes and intimate betrayals, leading them to a revelation so startling that it changes reality forever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21137 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 896 pages

From Kirkus Reviews
Dazzling metaphysical epic-adventure as Barker surpasses his previous ground-breaking work (The Great and Secret Show, 1989, etc.) to reconfigure the Fall and to imagine a modern-day attempt to reverse it. A complex cosmology underpins the vigorous, at times horrific, action here: ``Imajica'' is the known universe of five ``Dominions,'' or parallel worlds, four ``reconciled'' but the fifth, Earth, ``unreconciled''--unaware of the other four, of the tyrannical ``Autarch'' who rules them, and of the ``God Hapeximendios,'' who oversees all five (and who wrested ``His'' power from the ``Goddesses'' of old). Periodically, Hapeximendios has sent His ``sons''--including Christ--to attempt to unite, by magical rites, the Fifth Dominion to the others. The last attempted ``Reconciliation'' ended in catastrophe--an invasion of Earth by hellish powers--and today magic has been nearly eradicated from Earth by a ``Society'' that alone knows of the Imajica and of the catastrophe. The densely woven story here opens with a jealous man venturing into London's dankest slum to hire an assassin to kill his estranged wife, Judith; the assassin turns out to be a ``mystif,'' a fabulous creature from the Second Dominion, capable of appearing as the erotic ideal of any who behold it. As the mystif hunts Judith, it in turn is hunted by Judith's former lover, ``Gentle,'' who in time learns that he is the new ``Reconciler''- -and the mystif his long-forgotten servant. Undertaking dangerous, splendor-filled journeys through the other Dominions, Gentle and the mystif fall in love, marry, and encounter numerous fantastic creatures and, finally, death; later, Gentle helps dethrone the Autarch, learns the chilling secret of his and Judith's origin, helps free the Goddesses and slay God, and, back on Earth, inspires the destruction of the Society and undertakes Reconciliation--with hell-borne, then heaven-sent, results. An astonishing feat of the imagination, immensely engrossing despite its demanding--at times indulgent--length, running riot with ideas, fantastical inventions, graphic sex and violence, soul- terrors, and emotional and intellectual resonances. Barker's best yet. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly
"Mesmerizing invention."

Kirkus Review
"[A] dazzling metaphysical epic-adventure...An astonishing feat of the imagination...Barker's best yet."

Customer Reviews

Overlong. Boring.
What a disappointment. Barker's work has gone seriously downhill since the masterwork of Weaveworld. Now he seems more interested in filling up lots of pages with lots of words, and lots of phoney New Age pseudo-mysticism.

Can the author of this bloated monstrosity be the author of Weaveworld, and the Books of Blood?

Alas, yes.

Hands Down, My favorite book of all time
I had never read Clive Barker when I picked up this book at my local library. It made such an impact on me, that I have read nearly all his other novels and have reread Imagica twice in the last 5 years and I am sure that I will read it again.

Barkers writing is like prose; poetic and beautiful to read. Something very different in a horror/science fiction novel. His story is absolutely stunning. Amazingly wonderful charectors, spectacular scenery, fabulous dialogue. I have never read a novel that I became so immersed in. As a whole in a one book set (rather then the seperate books) it is a big read and worth every minute. Impossible to put down. It is science fiction/fantasy/horror and will pull fans of all three under its spell. I highly reccomend it.

A Monumental Metaphysical Marvel
When I decided to reread this mammoth novel after thirteen years this is the edition that I chose. I picked it for the illustrations, for the badly needed explanatory appendix, and because it has been tightened up into a single volume instead of two 500+ page halves. This will no doubt be the definative edition in the years to come.

This isn't a casual read. It represents a considerable investment in time. There are also so many characters, settings, plot lines, specialized vocabulary and underlying principles to keep straight.... Yet, it is worth the investment in time and effort.

The basic framework, like so many of Barker's other novels, is that of a hidden world behind the superficial façade of our mundane world. Barker is such a master at interweaving mundane, and profane, details into the greater fabric of his realities that you find yourself totally drawn in. I found myself totally immersed in this hidden reality. For this is a story of five worlds, or dimensions, or Dominions. These make up the whole of Imajica. That is, they should. Two hundred years ago there was an attempt to reconcile our own fifth Dominion with the other four. This ended in a metaphysical catastrophe so great that that nearly all of the Dominions great theurgists, shamans, and theologians were killed. The result was that almost all magical knowledge passed from our world and for two centuries science and materialism held grim sway.

Now, conditions are once again ripe for an attempt to reconcile the Dominions. The great magus', or Maestros, know that this may very well be the last attempt to heal the rift in creation. To fail this time will undoubtedly mean two more centuries of isolation- plenty of time for the Fifth Dominion to destroy itself in nuclear or ecological suicide.

Yet, to heal the rift will require a Master of such power and confidence that he will try to succeed where all those that have gone before him (even the Christos) have failed....