Imajica

Gentle, born John Furie Zacharias, forges paintings in London and cares about little beyond his own comfort. That changes when his former lover Judith Odell turns up, followed by Pie'oh'pah, a shape-shifting assassin who has been sent to kill her. Together they drag him into a conflict far larger than England.

The world they enter is the Imajica, a system of five Dominions. Earth is the Fifth, and it has long been cut off from the other four. Each Dominion has its own cities, customs and powers, and the trio's route runs through all of them.

At the end of that route lies the Reconciliation, a ceremony with a narrow window: it can be tried just once in two hundred years. If it succeeds, the severed worlds could be joined again. Hapexamendios, the god who rules the First Dominion, has worked to keep them apart and stands in the way.

Imajica is a dark fantasy from 1991, and a long one, at roughly 800 to 900 pages depending on the printing. It stands alone, and was a 1992 Locus Award finalist.

Barker pairs large-scale mythic invention with the sexual and physical horror he is known for. Whether the worlds can be rejoined depends on a forger who has never cared about anything this much.