I've looked through an interview and my first thought was that ILI is very likely. He sounds dynamic + process making him be on the D-A supervision chain which is ILI-LSE-SEI-EIE.
and this has sealed the deal heheCB: You don't want readers to feel you're hiding an insecurity about what you're describing behind a little firework display of language.
Probably Beta NF, or just NF. I read a book of his (Cabal), it was so hard follow and the events were so counter-intuitive... Otherwise I played Undying and it was awesome, really good horror game.
Yeah while Undying is somewhat "classic" (but then again, it is a computer game, not a book of his), in Cabal everything is strange and totally unfamiliar. You know, when you read about ghosts, specters, undeads, vampires, you know what they mean, but those creatures in Cabal are likw "wtf?" you don't know what it's all about, what their powers and intentions should be. I also could not identify with the decisions the main character was making, to me it was like he was looking for trouble and being caught in the most vulnerable position.
Damnation Game was good and could have been adapted into an excellent movie, but everything else I read by Barker 20,000,000 years ago was kinda lame.
Around 1997-98 I recall hearing Barker as a guest with Neil Gaiman on Mancow's radio show, and racial comedian D.L. Hughley, who was also booked to appear at the same time in the studio with these two openly homosexual horror/fantasy writers, could only keep nervously repeating "Y'all need some Jesus!"
That is all.