Imajica by Clive Barker

This ambitious project must be considered Barker’s grand magnum opus.   It’s insanely good and as wild as a story can get.   The main character is John Furie Zacharias also known as “Gentle”.   He’s basically a wizard (or Maestro) that doesn’t realize it because his mind has been wiped.   During the course of the story he learns who he is and it’s his destiny to bring about the Reconciliation of Earth.   Earth is the Fifth dominion of five Dominions or parallel worlds making up the Imajica.   Earth long ago was separated from the others.   Gentle hopes to reconnect Earth and in essence return magic and wonder to its people.  The book is jammed with explorations on Gender, Sex, God, Resurrection and so much more.  It’s fantasy of the highest order.   It’s world building brilliance.  And like most of Barker’s work, it contains fantastic characters with many of the same issues.  The love story is complex and at times you’re not quite sure if even the characters know what they want.   If you like Clive Barker and his brand of storytelling then this is a must read.   If you want your epics to contain lots of battles and you want the worlds to be populated with typical monsters than this might not be for you.   It’s a constantly evolving work of imagination and a rewarding read.   I loved it and would love to see HBO or Netflix bring it to life as a series for adults.   Probably won’t happen but it would be cool.   Grade: A-