Just finished Imajica by Clive Barker, enjoyable and not too surprising in equal measures, at 800+ pages it demands some time of you.
It starts with a scorned man hiring the services of an assassin, the woman, Judith, a made woman by a Magician as a copy of Quaisoir, who rules the other 4 dominions with the Autarch/Sartori, who is a copy of 'Gentle', the magician who made Judith and who fell asleep at the circle of copy-creation... Judith and Gentle have their memories swiped off their heads, so that they can only remember back 10 years at any given time, and Gentle does therefore not recognise Pie 'Oh' Pah, the Mystif assassin, who used to be his companion before the enduced amnesia.
I love this.
Earth is divided from the other 4 dominions and has been sought reconciled in times past, unsuccessfully. The assassination misfires and Gentle catches up with Pie and together they travel the 4 Dominions, along the way a revolution is brewing because the Autarch has been ruling with a firm hand, and Gentle accidentally/unknowingly and through fate jumpstarts the resistance, while also freeing the imprisoned goddesse that Hapexamendius the God had trapped through his voyage for power, and has spawned Gentle/Autarch Sartori with Celestia. Judith learns of the existence of the 4 other dominions and aches for the place, finally getting the ok from Godolphin who is the brother of Estabrook, the man who hired Pie in the beginning. Unknown to her, she was made as a copy to be the keepsake of the male Godolphin family members through the ages, seemingly immortal. Godolphin belongs to the Tabula Rasa, that is a secret society devoted to killing any magickal resurgence, founded on the ruins of a failed reconciliation by Gentle, unbeknonwst to him thwarted by the Autarch Sartori, which claimed lives on the 5 dominions and the reason for Gentles amnesia. The Tabula Rasa tower hides Celestia in the cellar, 'bride' and victim of Hapexamendius' need for procreation. Godolphin's servant, an actor from the 3rd Dominion, and who brought Celestia to Hapexamendius in the past, thwarts the crossing of dominions by Judith and Godolphin, leaving his master behind on earth. Dowd is also the one who directed Estabrook, the scorned man, to Pie. Dowd is a nastie, but he seemingly dies when Quaisoir throws him down a well, while Pie and Gentle, now married, reunite on the palace of the Autarch, with whom Gentle has a meeting and disagreement, Sartori is a nastie too, and it ends with the death of Pie, who had been sent to assassinate the Autarch. Gentle grieves, Judith and Quaisoir bond but the latter dies when Gentle returns to the palace, which Sartori had left for earth, and they both return while the revolution is complete throughout the 4 domains. Gentle remembers his past, while Judith only has pieces, that is why she is seduced by Sartori, who she mistakes for Gentle. She bears child, frees Celestia, they all return to Gentle's housing for the nearing reconciliation, which nearly foes awry because they learn that it is Hapexamendius' intent to destroy the dominions, but it is made right and the dominions joined, Hapexamendius dead, along with Sartori and Celestia, and Judith left for the dominions where she bears child amongst the goddesses, and Gentle returns to the first dominion of his late father, where an opening to the soulworld has been opened and he rejoins Pie in death.
Whew. Not at all confusing, is it? I also left some minor players here and there but who cares? |
