James Blaylock’s Langdon St. Ives has quietly become of one
the greatest fictional adventurers of all time.
Since 1978 his globe-trotting escapades featuring dirigibles and
nefarious clockwork devices, time travel and giant kraken, space rockets and
uncanny carp, have appeared in print in one form or another. From short story to novel, fourteen different
stories have appeared as of 2016, and likely more to come. Subterranean bringing together the first set
of adventures into an omnibus edition and adding a plethora of complementary
artwork from J.K. Potter, The Adventures
of Langdon St. Ives (2008) collects the stories that introduced the
gentleman scientist and his trusty comrades to the fictional world.
Collecting two novels and four short stories, The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives opens
with the first-ever story published featuring Langdon St Ives. “The Ape-Box Affair” (1978) has many of the trademarks
of Golden Age fantastika yet bears a modern sensibility—an awareness of of what
it’s doing. An eccentric gentleman
scientist, Langdon St. Ives, has built a rocket ship, and his test pilot is an
orangutan named Newton. Forgetting to
fill the food box before lighting the fuse, however, has dire circumstances, as
the ape, cheated of his vittles mid-flight, sets to pushing buttons, sending the
ship careening back to London. Emerging
from the wreckage a smoldering, alien visage, London may never be the same as
Newton wanders the city. Quite simple a
story that may define the word ‘uproarious’…
Told from the perspective of Jack Owlesby, “The Hole in
Space” begins with a ruse at Mr. Owlesby’s expense, but one coordinated by St.
Ives himself to throw hunters off the scent.
Hodgson’s House on the Borderland lingering
in the background even as the guys end up in a rocket ship cruising through
space, it is one of the funniest and best stylized pieces in the collection. An origins story, “The Idol’s Eye” tells of
how St. Ives’ greatest nemesis Narbando came to be. Starting innocently enough in the jungles of
Java, one wild umbrella stab later, and the world is a different place. St. Ives’ gang getting up to their typical
antics, this story has a dark fate for one of them even as one evil genius
comes to life.
A careening, capering affair, the first novel in the
collection Homunculus begins with a
dirigible flying high above London, spiraling slowly earthward. Containing secrets many are guessing at and
desire to have, St. Ives works on his rocket ship, oblivious. But a late night burglary and St. Ives coming
into the possession of certain arcane memoirs serve to turn the tide. Graveyard robberies, carp livers, animate
skeletons, street corner religions, malevolent industrialists, train chases,
vivisection, mysterious blue-enamel boxes, and a series of unfortunate
incidents propel the gentleman scientist and his Royal Club comrades to a spicy
conclusion, and learn, indeed, what is in the dirigible. The most offhand,
picaresque story in the collection, it is the novel that triggered further St.
Ives novels. (A full review can be found
here.)
A look at the butterfly effect as only St. Ives/Blaylock
can, “Two Views of a Cave Painting” starts with St. Ives’ discovery of a small,
overlooked cave in the Surrey countryside.
Entering the cave, he finds an ancient painting, as well as the fact the
cave is a time traveling portal—the painting, in fact being created in
real-time by a mysterious Neanderthal from ages past. Naturally, St. Ives and his companions go
exploring in the past. But to what
effect?
A novel-length reworking of one of the earliest St. Ives’
stories, Lord Kelvin’s Machine takes
the original novelette, adds a frame, and extends the story significantly. The evil Narbondo killing St. Ives’ wife
Alice in the prologue, the scientist-adventurer wants revenge. From the volcano’s of Norway to the rough
edges of South America, St. Ives pursues his course, a fact with added meaning
with Lord Kelvin’s time machine in play. Much
darker than Homunculus, the second
novel in the St. Ives universe looks at the man from a new perspective, and is
certainly the story which digs deepest into the man’s character and psyche. (A
full review can be found here.)
Perhaps the biggest advantage of the St. Ives stories is Blaylock’s
focus on variance. Switching narrators
and story types, what could have been rote adventure, one similar story after
another, becomes something more with the differing approaches to character,
viewpoint, and plot device. Adventure
for certain exists in each is, but by constantly shifting gears, Blaylock makes
something more of the sum. Another way
of putting this is, The Adventures of
Langdon St. Ives is a worthwhile if only uniquely entertaining reading
experience, an idea complemented by J.K. Potter’s art.
Originally published between 1978 and 2002, the following is
the table of contents of The Adventures
of Langdon St. Ives:
“The Ape-Box Affair”
“The Hole in Space”
“The Idol's Eye”
Homunculus
“Two Views of a Cave Painting”
Lord Kelvin's Machine
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