Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Imajica, by Clive Barker

2 stars

Earth as we know it is only one of five parallel worlds, or Dominions, and is the only one that remains unaware of the others’ existence. Attempts made in the past to Reconcile these Dominions have been disastrous, leading to a secret society being founded to keep the traces of magic from our world. But the time has come for the Reconciliation to be attempted once more…


With some books, timing can be everything. Imajica, a huge book full of extraordinary worlds and beings, an epic plot, and sensuous prose with a leaning towards the philosophical and mystical, should have been read in long stretches where there was little else demanding my time. Instead I read it in 10 minute snatches wherever I could grab them, usually with constant interruptions, over the course of a fortnight. Due to this, each time I picked it up it would then take me a while to get back into it again, only to find my attention wandering as I waded through the detailed writing and heavy themes (and I wasn’t always helped by the vague confusion and instinct that most of the characters seemed to operate under).


Now that I’ve finished the book I can look back and admire the scope of what I’ve read, but the benefit of hindsight hasn’t quite managed to cancel out my actual reading experience. This, and a smidge too much mysticism for my tastes, has dragged its score down from a potential 4 to a distracted 2.




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