I finished Imajica. That was... a lot. My favourite aspect was probably the concept of The City as Man and the Man as The City. It led to some amazing images, like Yzordderrex (both versions), The City of God, that other place with the pillar whose name I can't remember, which was also connected to the mythology/theology of Imajica, which left me a bit ambivalent. I enjoyed the mix of typical Christian stuff with the unexpected pseudo-Buddhist elements and the odd Great Goddess theory, but at one point I felt it was too on the nose, if that makes sense.
The characters themselves were generally all right. I didn't really care about Gentle besides his devotion to Pie and frankly he did seem to fall in love rather abruptly. I thought it might be explained later, but no, it just happened, pretty much how Jude fell for Sartori. Speaking of which, I felt the latter was more interesting than the original, while Jude herself had a terrible arc. I got that it was a part of her character, but it still felt frustrating to read. Also her sex scenes were weird, but I guess that's Barker. The biggest surprise was Pie, whom I liked a lot, but killing him off halfway through was criminal. I understand why this happened, but it was still disappointing. The rest of the characters were more or less set pieces, except Oscar, Dowd, maybe Celestine.
It was rather amusing and somewhat fitting how the writing oscillated between dreamy and poetic and downright mundane. Again, beautiful descriptions of cities, feelings, prophecies or memories. I also appreciated the foreshadowing, which made most revelations less shocking and more satisfying.
One scene I found memorable is towards the end when Gentle encounters that lone Nullianac on the deserted street in the holy city. It felt surreal in an already surreal world.