Customer Reviews

The Stone Giant

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This early James Blaylock novel introduces the world of Theophile Escargot, Twombly Town and the evil dwarf, Abner Helstrom, all of whom then show up later in Blaylock's The Elfin Ship and The Disappearing Dwarf. Escargot chases off after a beautiful serving girl he barely knows, but when she is threatened by the evil dwarf Escargot manages to steal a magic submarine and the race is on. The dwarf's intention to use her as a sacrifice to arouse sleeping giants for his evil purposes. In his effort to save her Escargot falls in with an a group of elves in a flying three masted galleon and about 10,000 little men who are 2 inches tall. It all comes to a G. Smithers' style conclusion. (You'll find out who G. Smithers is when you read the book.) Like other Blaylock fantasy it is full of elves, goblins and mystery and stars an unlikely hero. A very good read for everyone and for Blaylock fans it's an absolute must.

This novel is without a doubt the best fantasy novel I've ever read. Read it and you'll find yourself re-reading it and enjoying it many times! Mr. Blaylock, If you're out there, PLEASE give us more Balumnia books. They make my world a better place.

"The Stone Giant" turns James Blaylock's other stories about the notorious rogue Theophile Escargot and the nefarious wizard Selznak (aka Sikorsky, aka Abner Helstrom) into a trilogy. In the process some earlier information gets reinvented, and explanations are provided for things that really didn't need much explanation. It's a bit of pleasant nonsense set in a vaguely steampunk fantasy world.

Theophile, a lazy rogue, loses his wife and family after stealing his own pie. Infatuated with a sympathetic barmaid he becomes a small part of the giant plot of the fiendish balding dwarf, uncle Abner. A series of absurd misadventures follows as Escargot stumbles through the machinations of evil innkeepers, murderous merrymakers, pompous pirates, eccentric elves, and other assorted oddities.

The tale is fun and whimsical but I prefer Blaylock's two previous fantasies, "The Elfin Ship" and "The Disappearing Dwarf."

Set in the same fantasy world as The Elfin Ship and The Disappearing Dwarf, this light fantasy novel features elements of "Rip Van Winkle," "The Hobbit," "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," and probably any number of other classics. Theophile Escargot of Twombly Town is a good-hearted enough fellow, but not industrious: his favorite pastimes are eating, swapping, fishing, rambling the riverbanks by night, and reading the books of G. Smithers, who seems to specialize in fantasy-adventure set in a world very similar to his own, the parallel realm of Balumnia. He loves his baby daughter Annie, but neither he nor his wife seem able to understand each other, and when she locks him out of the house for stealing a pie he considers his, Escargot sets off in search of adventure--and of a dwarf, Abner Helstrom, who has not only swindled him but was introduced to him by the barmaid Leta on whom he apparently had something of a crush. Both Helstrom and Leta (who claimed he was her uncle) have now vanished, and Escargot resolves to find them. A series of adventures follows, in which Escargot is pursued by a hue and cry in Seaside, shanghaied to sea, then jumps overboard to avoid "deep-sea pirates" and taken aboard their submarine craft, which he manages to steal, putting them ashore on a desert island. He then blunders through a gateway into what he presumes to be Balumnia, and discovers that Leta and Helstrom are there ahead of him--and that here, Smithers's works (like Shakespeare's in A Midsummer Tempest) are not fiction but history. Meeting the challenges of haunted villages, goblins, witches, and unsympathetic elves, he comes away with, at least, Leta and his submarine intact and sets off once again in search of new experiences.

Escargot has been called a rogue, but he seems more like Frodo Baggins, an unwilling hero who's out of his depth--and indeed doesn't fully understand the scope of the events moving about him until he finally discovers, about three-quarters of the way through the book, who and what Helstrom really is. Like most of us, he blunders along intent on his own business, only to find that he has a part to play in a much greater scheme--and finds the depths within himself to play it.

It's not clear exactly what world the story takes place in: steamboats, single-shot pistols, and heavy Elizabethan cannon exist side by side with magical submarines and flying elfin galleons, tobacco and chocolate are known, and the inhabiting races include elves (who create fantastic magical devices), goblins (who haunt the dark woods, gabbling unintelligibly and making trouble for unwary travellers), dwarves (known for their skill as miners and bakers), trolls (large, stupid, and powerful), and "henny-penny men," miniature people (they can ride on leaves or owls) who function as readily under the sea as in the open air, as well as humans. Yet there are dark elements too, as when Escargot finds himself in the haunted village, which make the book best suited to adults and teens. And in the end, as it should in fantasy, good triumphs and the plots of evil are foiled. An enjoyable tale for those looking for a light read.

Wonderful quirky book full of Blaylockian humor, amazing characters, octopuses, submarines, underwater grotoes and just a pinch of magic. Demand that your bookstores finds you a copy. Demand that Del Rey brings back this great series in print.