A mysterious airship orbits through the foggy skies above Victorian London.
It’s terrible secrets are sought by many, including: The Royal Society, a
fraudulent evangelist, a fiendish vivisectionist, an evil millionaire and an assorted
group led by the scientist and explorer Professor Langdon St. Ives. Can St.
Ives keep the alien homunculus out of the claws of the villainous Ignacio
Narbondo?
Titan Books released the newest addition to the Narbondo Series early in
January this year called The
Aylesford Skull, which I read with a certain gusto. Titan Books had planned
to release two more books in the Narbondo series. I initially thought that that
The Aylesford Skull would make up a new series but after a few pages in it says
April 4 of the year of 1875. I quickly recalled the date of the Aylesford Skull
which is 1883. Then I found out that Homunculus was the second book in the
series, and that James P. Blaylock won the Philip K. Dick award in 1988 for
this book. Homunculus was first published in 1986.
Similarly to The Aylesford Skull, or I should say the Aylesford Skull is
like Homunculus, is the way that James P. Blaylock writes. It is written with a
definite flair. Forget a bit of the fast pacing, full tilt action and steam
hissing kind of steampunk. Instead think of a more classic way, his use of
words really make you feel like you’re in the 1900’s, it adds – taken together
with the characters – a definite flair to the book, styling it all in a
gentlemanly Victorian setting.
Here I could have said, again you follow the adventures of
Professor/explorer Langdon St. Ives, but actually it is just starting in this
series. The events that happen in Homunculus take place a few years earlier
than The Aylesford Skull. Just have to throw away the things that happened in
The Aylesford Skull. I was actually expecting for a follow-up but this proved a
false assumption. So let’s rewind.
St. Ives does show his eccentricity early on. He has other plans that he
would like to carry out in Homunculus. He is planning on completing his
spaceship. Yes, a spaceship in 1875! Homunculus shows some over the top bizarre
ideas that, in my opinion, were perhaps not thought off in 1986. Featuring
zombie ghouls and aliens. For its time I do think that this book must have run
way ahead of its competitors. And even now in 2013, it still delivers a very
unique story. But back to the book again. There are several key players in
Homunculus, both from the perspectives of the good guys and that off the bad
guys. And both parties have an interest in a specific items. Langdon St. Ives
is one of the good guys, though his plans are completely different when the
book starts, he is drawn in by his society and one other event into the fray
and now also has some interest in what is soaring above London.
Next to him you
have other similarly eccentric members of the Trismegistus Club who St. Ives
helps in their cause but you also got the bad guys. For starters the
hunchbacked Ignacio Narbondo. Man I love this guy. But his character is more or
less made by the way that Blaylock writes up his persona. This actually counts
for every other character as well that Blaylock uses to tell the story. All the
characters are shown in a bit of an over the top romp kind of way. Where they
display stereotypical traits that you associate with either the bad guys and
good guys. Just a highlight. When a reanimation is carried out by Ignacio, he
just leaves the curtains open for bystanders to look through or the good guys
watch through a nearby window what the bad guys are plotting, it is by going in
this direction that Homunculus stands out above many other books that have been
published in the recent years.
Homunculus is a smart and witty book that takes place in an unique Victorian
London. Some readers might find the pacing of this book a bit odd, and this is
agreeable. It is not that the writing is out of date or anything it is just
that you do not encounter this writing that often. Even looking at The
Aylesford Skull I must admit that it reads a bit easier than Homunculus. But
the reduced pacing does not take away that Homunculus was way ahead of its time
with combining so bizarre fantasy elements in a great steampunk blend. It is
completely deserved that Homunculus won the Philip K. Dick award. The universe
is marvellous, the characters even greater. Just a small stress again: Langdon
St. Ives and Ignacio Narbondo’s character are just so grand in the way they
display the gentlemanly English fashion and the stereotypical good guy / bad
guy behaviour. This series is great stuff.