One of the first (and unwitting) works
of steampunk, James P. Blaylock's Homunculus was an
idiosyncratic story equals parts Dickens, Conan Doyle, Robert Louis
Stevenson, and P.G. Wodehouse. Blaylock making the combination his
own, he enhanced his version of gaslit London by publishing a handful
of short stories and another novel, Lord Kelvin's Machine, in
the surrounding years. There followed a long break, almost two
decades in fact, before Blaylock returned to the British gentleman
Langdon St. Ives and his rowdy, venturesome friends, however. But
return he did, a fresh round of short novels and stories starting to
appear in 2009. The first round collected in The Adventures of
Langdon St. Ives in 2008 by Subterranean Press, in 2016 they
return with a second omnibus, The Further Adventures of Langdon
St. Ives.
Containing the novellas “The
Ebb Tide,” “The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs,” and “The
Adventure of the Ring of Stones,” as well as the previously
unpublished short stories “The Here-and-Thereians” and
“Earthbound Things,” The Further Adventures of Langdon
St. Ives carries on the series
in the same style as the first omnibus. Subterranean putting effort
into the presentation, the lettering and format are beautiful, and
the stories are complemented by dozens and dozens of illustrations by
J.K. Potter. While I personally believe minimalist ink/pencil
sketches with more emphasis on action than character would better
capture the feel of the St. Ives stories, for sure there are others
who will fully appreciate Potter's style of pop art and its moody
darkness. It’s a rarity these days that any book contains
illustrations, so at a minimum we should be grateful to have
something to comment on. But on to the stories.
Despite the near two decades respite,
Blaylock wastes no time getting his characters back into the thick of
adventures. Three chapters into “The
Ebb Tide,” the first
story appearing in Further Adventures, and St. Ives,
Owlesby and Hasbro are at the helm of a never-before-seen underwater
vessel, rifle shots chasing them out of the underground cavern they’d
been lured into. St. Ives learning how to operate the bizarre craft
with every twist of a knob and fiddle of a lever, it isn’t long
before a certain map, a map that has fallen between themselves and
the malign Hilario Frostico, becomes all important, the race on to
the treasure. Though in Blaylock’s London, treasure doesn’t
quite sum it up…
In “The
Affair of the Chalk Cliffs” an innocent trip to assist a
friend in Scotland quickly turns into a bait-and-trap scheme by the
nefarious Dr. Ignacio Narbondo. Narbondo getting hold of a reckless
inventor’s madness ray, even St. Ives’ wife, the fiery Alice,
gets dragged into the scene. Hallucinations and shenanigans abound,
Owlseby, Tubby, Hasbro and others must be on their toes trying to
catch to the elusive Narbondo before he drives all of Scotland mad.
In perhaps the most enjoyable, if not
most bombastic piece in the omnibus, “The Adventure of the Ring of
Stones” finds St. Ives and his chums at sea, involved in a treasure
hunt, getting in over their heads with powers of the deep. A sort of
King Kong (sans gorilla)
meets Treasure Island, Blaylock unleashes hell on
London in a story that continually ratchets the tension meter higher
and higher into an exciting conclusion.
Previously unpublished, the two
novelettes closing the omnibus find St. Ives involved in schemes and
scenarios as vastly different as the first three. In “The
Here-and-Thereians,” a vacation to London for St. Ives sees him
caught up in street corner religion, and a peculiar drug being
peddled by a salesman. In “Earthbound Things,” a waterfall
opening from the sky pushes St. Ives and company on a balloon
adventure with a wacky Polish scientist, other dimensions seemingly
just around the corner.
Classic to the bone, the stories
collected in The Further Adventures of Langdon St. Ives feel
as though they could have been published at the beginning of the 20th
century—only those with a contemporary knowledge of steampunk the
wiser. The characters colorful stereotypes and the mode of
storytelling dynamically familiar, for readers looking for a retro
romp with a modern sensibility, it's difficult to go wrong. If there
is anything lacking, it would be the idiosyncrasy of the first St.
Ives stories. Homunculus for
example, has a certain quirky, off-kilter rhythm that defines
a significant part of its style, whereas the stories in Further
Adventures are staid, more paced. Perhaps simply due to
Blaylock’s finding of voice at the start of his career, it
nevertheless lent those stories an additional degree of originality,
whereas the later stories, stories like “The Ebb Tide” or “The
Affair of Chalk Cliffs” would have been enhanced by having a
similar vigor to their undercurrent.
Like The Adventures of Langdon St.
Ives, the Further Adventures is an omnibus that can easily
be picked up and put down when finishing a story. Containing short
novels and long short stories, each is individual, even episodic, and
is to be enjoyed as light fare. St. Ives is not the classic
left-hook-swinging, thinking-on-his-toes hero many such characters
from the era are. More an unwitting scientist whose curiosity often
gets him in over his head and in need of rescue from his friends, St.
Ives nevertheless fits in marvelously. Subterranean choosing not to
include Blaylock’s two most recent St. Ives’ novels (The
Aylesford Skull and Beneath London) in Further
Adventures, perhaps a third omnibus (The Last Adventures of
Langdon St. Ives?) with a few yet-published shorts is in the
works?
The following are the contents of
Further Adventures:
Introduction (by James Blaylock)
“The Ebb Tide”
“The Affair of
the Chalk Cliffs”
“The Adventure of the Ring of Stones”
“The Here-and-Thereians” (original
to the omnibus)
“Earthbound Things” (original to
the omnibus)
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