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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Flaming London, March 7, 2006
This review is from: Flaming London (Hardcover)
When you want full-bore weirdness, Joe Lansdale is the go-to guy. Flaming London is the sequel to Zeppelins West (and also to Joe's novella "The Steam Man of the Prairie"). If you haven't read Zeppelins West, you should probably do that before you read any further here because I'm going to tell you that Ned the Seal was about the only survior of the earlier book, although a couple of others put in a brief appearance. In this one Ned teams up with Mark Twain and Jules Verne as they try to save an alternate Victorian earth from the Martian invasion described by H. G. Wells in The War of the Worlds.
Flaming London is a very short novel, but there's a lot going on. It has Martians with tentacles and two anuses, a giant ape, the Steam Man, trips by balloon (and several other gadgets), pirates, the Flying Dutchman, and, well, a lot of other stuff. If you're looking for tight plotting, look somewhere else. What you've got here is action, scatalogical (and other) humor that provides plenty of laughs, and some commentary on the human condition courtesy of a literate seal. You also have one of the most blatant set-ups for a sequel since the heyday of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Mark Twain may the one of the major characters, but it's Ned the Seal who gets all the best lines. Tim Truman's artwork is a fine complement to the text. You know you need this book, so what are you waiting for? Go get it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mojo Men: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Gone Raw and Flammable, July 8, 2008
Where Joe R. Lansdale's Zeppelins West was a wild and glorious romp, its sequel, Flaming London, is a much more controlled and philosophical novel. That being said, it's got more scatological material (poop jokes, hole jokes, colon references, lots of flatulence, tons of doo, etc.,) than any other work in literature than, perhaps Ben Jonson's "On the Famous Voyage" (Poem CXXXIII from Epigrams). Though less highfalutin, Lansdale's a lot more fun than Jonson. So there. The only surviving characters from Zeppelins West are Ned the Seal (whose diary relates approximately half the story), Sitting Bull, and Cat. The new characters added to this tale of Martians and vicious pirates invading earth through time rips (somehow this mixture actually works, believe it or not) are tremendous: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain, drunk and down and out and not selling a thing in the Casbah [Tangiers]); H. G. Wells (an idealistic divorcee who's lost in his own world that ultimately is the only hope for them all); Rikwalk (a giant Martian / Extraterrestrial ape hero that's as pitiable and powerful as King Kong); the unforgettable Steam Man of the Prairie (ten thousand tons of Martian-stomping steel); and Jules Verne (who, in the end, may or may not have saved the day; we just don't know). The book's winning virtue is Ned's humor, self-deprecation, and good-willed sarcasm. Lansdale's prose wins its reader over with its down-to-earth take on all things heroic (Rikwalk's desire to help humanity in spite of his nihilistic loneliness) and things all too human (Mark Twain's explanation to John Feather that good cursing makes all language universal). All in all, this is an excellent off-kilter but (at the same time) finely polished adventure. As to art work, Tim Truman's painted cover is magnificent, his interior illustrations are pretty good (though his Martian machines were awesome, I wasn't taken with his pterodactyls). As to editions: Even if you're a die-hard Lansdale fan, the only thing the limited edition boxed set (ranging from $55 - $200) gets you is a four-page sketchbook section and a yellow faux snakeskin slipcase. There is, however, one rather cool picture of an octopus-inspired Martian with a Giger-type head that's got teeth that would make a shark tearful with jealousy. This is replaced on the cover with a picture of Twain?! I don't understand it, but it's true. I don't know if this one picture makes it worth the extra price. All the other sketches are of variations of the Martian machines and not all that good, to be frank. All in all, if you're new to Lansdale, this is an excellent place to start as long as you realize this is Lansdale, the raw version. If you're a reader of Southern fiction (especially modern Southern Gothic), rip-roaring humor, or the other side of genre fiction, you'll like it. If you're a Lansdale fan, you simply can't afford to miss it. I read it non-stop from start to finish in spite of myself and loved every single minute of it. I mean, how can you go wrong with a book whose first chapter is entitled "Huck Bites It and Mark Twain Moves Out"?! Lansdale's London is as flammable and flamboyant as it gets.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Lansdale does it again, July 13, 2011
This review is from: Flaming London (Hardcover)
How can Lansdale possibly top ZEPPELINS WEST? By making sure Ned the Seal survived the end and by throwing him in with the likes of Jules Verne and Mark Twain, that's how! Throw in the martians from WAR OF THE WORLDS, and everything is just as insane as in the first book. Did I mention the Steam Man of the Prairie? No? Well, there's that, too. Not familiar with why you should care about Ned the Seal? Then you should probably read the ZW before this one, because he's a fella you want to know. What are you waiting for?! Get on it!
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