Imajica by Clive Barker: June 2004 Book of the Month Discussion
 

Finally, I just got my book today. It looks as thick as a good dictionary, but then I got both volumes combined. (5 bucks plus about 2 or 3 for shipping at half.com).


I dig Clive Barker's work. I've read Weaveworld, and The Hellbound Heart. This last one is what the Hellraiser movie was based on.

I'm a fan of Hellraiser up to about the third movie. The Hellraiser comics are hit or miss, but they are good for any fan. I even have a lament configuration puzzle box (plastic), but its fallen apart on me and needs re-glueing. If I had room, I would put it in a spot somewhere under a glass dome. I wouldn't want someone to accidentally 'play' with it.

I actually read this back about 9 years ago. When Mrs. Dallas was in the hospital after our daughter was born, I ended up getting "Everville" at the hospital gift soft and read a couple other Clive Barkers.

But I don't remember it at all... soo.... I need to dig in.

I read Weaveworld a year or two ago. I wasn't terribly impressed as I recall.

I've started on Imajica, which I'm declaring to be "neat so far," with just enough of a hint of how the world is constructed to keep me going.

Imajica is real good! It feels very well thought out. This is not a 'shallow' book!

I've made it about halfway. I'm not certain that my interest is actually waning, or if I'm just suffering aftereffects of reaction to something Judith has done.

I'm digging the secret society stuff, though, on a couple of different levels. Let me know when I can be specific rather than vague about such things.

It is just as much as other well known books ( films ) a great fantasy....butt sometimes u just loose intrest...well i did. That caracters are stuck in a place to long, or that i really have to figure out who' s who again.... but that could be because off my wasted short-memory! Another good one : Nightsummer by Dan Simmons

Originally posted by wolf Previously, it was resolved that we could speak about specific things at the descretion of the poster.

I'm in big touble w/r to this book. I was able to get Ghost Soldiers on audio cassette and could listen to it in the car back and forth to work. I read Only Forward while on vacation. But now, no audio for Imajica, back at work and with a 3 and 4 yo to help look after, I'm only on page 10. And I don't see any relief in sight. This is bumming me out considerably.

But, I don't see any reason to hold off on the discussion for us slackers - we'll just have to tread carefully. I thought the **Spoiler Alert** warning at the beginning of a post was helpful in the Soldiers thread.

i didnt gave anything away bro!

Imajica by clive Barker
 

Been into Barker's work for years Imajica is one of his best along with The Great and Secret Show.
The guy can spin a tale..

Its almost the end of the month, and I am very surprised that I finished reading this monster so quickly.

The characters were very well though out, and their relationships interconnect in so many ways its amazing. Looking at the book as someone who aspires to write, I am baffled at how Clive Barker put it all together so well. (and, I just read it took 14 months of 14 hour work days- seven days a week- to write the whole book)

Clive Barker talks about Imajica:
http://www.clivebarker.dial.pipex.co...icabarker.html


***Spoilers***



Nisi Nirvana...
Okay, so the Imajica is a circle, and Nisi Nirvana is through a door under the first dominion that leads into the circle - which is where all the dead are supposed to go, and they finally stop being wandering ghosts when that door is opened. Am I understanding this right?

The five dominions felt a bit claustrophobic to me in that they seemed too small. Each is supposed to be a whole universe, but each fells like just one planet.

Hapexamendios was going to destroy the dominions soon after the reconciliation. Was there a reason given for this, or is it just a given that this is what insane gods like to do?

Barker has Hapex go out and destroy or capture all female goddesses. It seems gods are either male or female, and it is a significant part of what they are. But it is interesting that there is a third gender in the Imajica. The mystifs are male/female/both/neither. Why not a third gender or genderless god? Actually thinking it over, Hapexamendios would have probably just killed or captured that kind of god too. It also seems odd that people can worship one of many goddesses, or worship the one and only male god. Where are all the other male gods, did Hapex absorb them all into himself?
That seems to make sense because when Gentle seens Hapex's true form, it is made of bits and pieces of many 'people' patched together.

I'm interesting in seeing where it's going, but haven't decided if I'm interested enough to read part II ... Part I did read a lot faster than I had expected, though, but started getting tedious as our intrepid not-quite-heroes slogged their way through the dominions, attempting to define the undefined and having strange and amazing powers that should not be within their ken ... I've developed a minor theory, which I don't whether it will be bourne out, regarding some kind of fracture or rift of time and dimension, leading to bits of the person and personality of at least two of the characters becoming scattered and replicated across dimensions.

I tend to be wrong about this kind of thing, of course.

The description of improbabl creature after improbable creature was getting pretty old.

Clive, just put down the mushrooms and step back, man ...

euh, i guess Imagica here is the same book as in other country's? I have only one book, but its big! Altough its a good fantasy-book, i dont believe Mr Barker was writing for 14 hrs a day every day! Writers can tell what they want, but writing something for 14 months at 14 hrs a day....? No way! But never the less , it is a good book , if its the same one....But ive read better ones aswell...

I think the 14 hours a day applies to all the work that goes into writing a book - writing, rewriting, editing, proofreading. Oh, and he wrote it by hand, not typed.

Wolf, I found the middle to be the slowest part, the book picks up speed again after Pie and Gentle finish their wandering around the dominions.

Oh, and he wrote it by hand, not typed.

Christ, and I can barely write out a grocery list without my hand cramping... Guess I'm not cut out to be an esoteric fantasy writer.

maybe u write too fast than.....write it correct from the first time , but very slow...and in a year we might see ur roman! hahaha

Ok, so I know it's been awhile, but I finally got my copy in from the library and finished it. I originally read the book when I was maybe 12 or 13, but I remembered almost nothing about it. A few pieces of imagery here and there, but no plot at all (actually, there was one vague scene that I kept waiting for but it never happened, so that must have been in some other book I read around the same time.)

My biggest problem was that, like Slartibartfast, the Dominions felt really small to me. Not even full planets, to be honest; in my mind they were no bigger than a few towns and the surrounding areas. I mean hell, when they complete the circle of the Imajica, the openings into the First and the Fourth are mentioned as both being in London, just a few miles apart. I felt like the Imajica was really just five Englands. And they say Americans are self-centered. :) (Incidentally, none of the characters had a British accent in my mind, despite obvious evidence that they should.)

I had a very strong mental image of Gentle, because I knew a guy in college who was exactly like him. He wasn't a "player," he just loved all women, and was as helpless in their grasp as they were in his. The most chaste girls would have one-night stands with him (and no one else ever again,) and no one was ever bitter afterwards--we were all glad to share him. It was truly amazing. So anyway, I'm honored to say I've met the real-life Gentle. ;)

Overall, I enjoyed the book quite a lot (enough that I decided to re-read "The Great and Secret Show," which I also remember nothing about--maybe my mystery scene will show up there...) and the 850-odd pages just flew by. It never really lost speed for me.