Clive Barker's production seems to take on different colors and shades depending on whether he tries his hand at the short form of the short story or the longer form of the novel. Thus, if in the celebrated "Books of Blood" dark atmospheres dominate and blood abounds on every page, works such as "Imagica," or again "Apocalypse" and its sequel "Everville," are instead characterized by evocative, heavenly, often even pacifying visions. And it is perhaps in this lack of excesses of violence and despair that the reason for the coldness with which the latter were mostly received by the public must be sought. In all sincerity, I cannot explain otherwise the hostile attitude of many readers and of a part of the critics toward these books, qualitatively certainly not inferior to the "Books of blood" and in which, on the contrary, Barker's boundless and hallucinating imagination seems to express itself at its best, finally free to create marvelous worlds whose consistency is dreamlike, pure magic.
"Imagica" is the story of Gentle, a fine copyist, and his epic attempt to reconcile the five parallel "domains" that make up the cosmos, the Imajica precisely, among which only Earth, where all forms of magic are banned, is unaware of the existence of the others. Barker thus initiates us on an incredible journey through places where certainty yields before doubt and amazement, places populated by bizarre and "Lovecraftian" creatures, some times repugnant, others even fascinating and exciting. This is the case, for example, with Pie' oh' Pah', a "mystiff" capable of shaping his own likeness according to the desire of the observer, a tireless traveling companion as well as a lover of Gentle himself. Note how this circumstance reintroduces one of the themes undoubtedly dear to the Liverpool genius, namely the love between what is human and what is not.
Imagica is a wonderful and incredibly complex novel, impossible to summarize in a few words. One can "only" read it and, in reading it, love it.
Not recommended for lovers of more traditional horror, recommended, and highly recommended, for everyone else.
edit. by Sonzogno - pp. 1006 - Price (1997 cover) 20,000 lira
Review by Editor
