Homunculus (Paperback)

by James P. Blaylock (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Homonculus is a fascinating trip to a London that never existed ... but perhaps should have.

Darkly atmospheric, Homonculus weaves together the stories of Narbondo -- a mad hunchback who works tirelessly to bring the dead back to life, of the members of the Trismegistus Club -- a surly group of scientists and philosophers who meet at Captain Powers' Pipe Shop, and of the homonculus -- a tiny man whose powers can drive men to murder. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher
Few writers dare attempt a historical fantasy in an effort to best Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, and Robert Louis Stevenson at their own game, but back in 1986 - long before the current alternate history craze - James Blaylock not only tried, but succeeded brilliantly. Homunculus was awarded the Philip K. Dick Award. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ace (March 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441342582
• ISBN-13: 978-0441342587
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,756,644 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Homunculus is a Roller Coaster..., April 17, 2001

By	M. Schmidt (Watford, Herts, England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Homunculus (Paperback)

Homunculus is a roller coaster of excitement. I think Blaylock may have lived in 18th century London, and might actually know the secret of the carp bladder himself.

I have a theory, in fact that James P. Blaylock is none other than his own character Ignacio Narbondo, and these books are simply his own autobiography. Of course he threw us off his trail when he killed himself in the "Digging Leviathan".

This book, and series is excelent (I'm half way through Lord Kelvin's Machine). However, it's not as good as "The Elfin Ship", "Disappearing Dwarf" and "The Stone Giant". I don't know if these are available any longer, I may have the last copies on earth, but if you can find them, do read them...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So What !!!???, November 30, 2005

By	R. Benardes "www.maquinariodanoite.blogspot.com" (Bahia - Brazil) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Homunculus (Paperback)

Ok.It's not an easy read.
Ok.It's digressive.
Ok.The plot is convoluted and complex as hell.
Ok.The characters don't feel "realistic"or "believable"
Ok.He is not Tim Powers

So What !!!???

HOMUNCULUS is undiluted quintessencial Steampunk.Blaylock's prose is stylish, intricate and labyrinthine.Sometimes witty, sometimes dark and blackly humorous, and like Joe Lansdale
and Norman Partridge, he has a fine eye for vivid comic book imagery and absurd situations that sometimes verges on the surreal.
To give you a taste of Blaylock magic, here is some samples picked at random:

There was no room in the world of science for mediocrity, for half measures, for wet cigars.

And another:

I'm posessed by the most evil aching of the head - such that my eyes seem to press down to the size of screwholes, so that I see as if through a telescope turned wrong end to. Laudanum alone relieves it, but fills me with dreams even more evil than the pain in my forebrain. I'm certain that the pain is my due - that it is a taste of hell, and nothing less. And I can feel myself decay, feel my tissues drying and rotting like a beetle-eaten fungus on a stump, and my blood pounds across the top of my skull. I can see my own eyes, wide as half crowns and black with death and decay, and Narbondo ahead with that ghastly shears. I pushed him along! That is the truth of it. I railed at him. I hissed. I'd have that gland, is what I'd have, and before the night was gone. I'd hold in my hand my salvation ...

HOMUNCULUS is a celebration of the absurd and a triumph of the imagination, a little masterpiece of humour and atmosphere.

Here is a short list of authors, books, movies, Tv Shows and comic books that I think share the same Blaylockean (non) sense of invention and absurdity:

Authors and Books:

R. A. Lafferty (Nine Hundreds Grandmothers; Lafferty in Orbit).

Robert Sheckley (The Mask of Manana or another collection, Journey Beyond Tomorrow; Immotarlity Inc etc.).

Steven Millhauser (Some novellas and short stories in The Barnum Museum and The Knife Thrower)

Norman Partridge (The Man with the Barbed-Wire Fists; Bad Intentions; Mr Fox and Other Feral Tales)


Graphic Novels/Comic Books:

Ruse (Mark Waid)
Starman (James Robinson)
Sebastian O; Doom Patrol (Grant Morrison)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Alan Moore)
Top Ten (Alan Moore)
The Airtight Garage (Moebius)



Movies:

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Time After Time
That Magnificent Man and Their Flying Machines
Young Sherlock Holmes
Fearless Vampire Killers
Robur the Conqueror
Young Einstein




TV Shows:

Wild, Wild West
Bisko County Jr
The Avengers
The New Avengers

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Flaky, March 16, 2005

By	E. K. M. Busch "award-winning dork" (pittsburgh, pa United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Homunculus (Paperback)

I didn't particulary like this book. The characters are either indistinguishable from one another, or completely over the top (or some combination thereof). The villians are stereotypically ridiculous, and there's just way too much fish-gutting for my squeamish tastes. May I suggest The Anubis Gates instead?