The Aylesford Skull

The Adventures of Langdon St Ives, Book 3

By: James P Blaylock

Narrated by: William Gaminara

Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

A skeletal hand clutching an iron key lies hidden within a mermaid's wooden sarcophagus; a hand-drawn map is stolen from beneath the floorboards an old museum. All while an eccentric inventor - he Sleeper - dreams of a passage to the centre of the hollow earth. And by dreaming, brings the passage into being....

Pursued by kidnappers thinking of riches and murder, Katherine Perkins and her two cousins must descend into the depths of the hollow earth in order to return the Sleeper to his ancestral home on the shores of Lake Windermere. But to awaken him might mean the end of his dream, the closing of the Windermere Passage, leaving the three intrepid explorers marooned in a savage land forgotten by time itself.

Zeuglodon, set in the world envisioned in James P Blaylock's The Digging Leviathan, is a landscape of colour, mystery, and adventure, in which reality and fantasy are shifting currents, and nothing is quite what it seems to be.

James P Blaylock is one of the founding fathers of modern steampunk along with fellow writers and friends Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter. He has won the World Fantasy and Philip K. Dick Awards. Blaylock lives in Orange CA with his wife, they have two sons.

©2013 James P. Blaylock (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic Reviews

"A singular American fabulist." (William Gibson, author of The Difference Engine)

"Blaylock is a magician!" (Michael Swanwick)

"Blaylock's prose is so rich it literally sings!" (Charles de Lint)

Combining the best of Blaylock

I've been studying Blaylock's work for four years now, since I first read portions of the omnibus collection of his early steampunk works, "The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives." When I was asked to interview Blaylock at a convention, I thought it best to acquaint myself with his non-steampunk writing as well, and read a few of his urban fantasies. I found that I preferred his later writing, which is to be expected. While I enjoy his early steampunk immensely, it's his modern theodicies like "Last Coin" and "All the Bells on Earth" I found to be more compelling. "The Aylesford Skull" combines the best of Blaylock's urban fantasies' villainous horror with the whimsy and romance of his steampunk world, in a book that is easily one of his best. William Gaminara's narration is superb, and his delineation of voices by accent, pitch, and mannerisms is among the best I've heard. I have no idea what prompted an early reader to give it one star, though I will readily admit that Blaylock may not be to the taste of modern readers used to brainless page turners. If you're looking for thoughtful, whimsical, and sometimes dark prose, Blaylock is your man.

Absurd steampunk with a subtle wit

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

James P. Blaylock is most famous for being a protégé of Philip K. Dick and, along with his friends K.W. Jeter and Tim Powers, developing the steampunk genre of fantasy fiction in the 1980s. Blaylock’s most popular steampunk stories take place in Victorian England and feature gentleman inventor Langdon St. Ives and his archnemesis Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, a hunch-backed necromancer. The Aylesford Skull is considered to be the seventh installment of THE NARBONDO SERIES, though each of the LANGDON ST. IVES novels can stand alone.

In The Aylesford Skull, Langdon St. Ives seems to be considering retirement. He and his wife (Alice) and their two small children (Eddie and Cleo) have moved to the country to lead a quiet life. Langdon continues to work on his hobby — building a functioning airship in his barn. Currently he’s trying to figure out how to roll back the roof of the barn so the airship can get out. He’s thinking about acquiring an elephant to provide the pulling power. Meanwhile Alice is fishing for the huge pike that lives in the stream behind their house so she can stuff it. (Are there always fish in Blaylock’s novels? I’m not sure.)

But the peace doesn’t last long. Narbondo’s mother (he has a mother?!) lives up the hill. When she asks St. Ives to help her destroy her son, at first he refuses. But then he discovers that Narbondo has been using a child’s skull to conjure up ghosts. When Narbondo kidnaps Eddie, St. Ives decides to act. He recruits his gentlemen friends from the Royal Academy and off they go to London on a manhunt. Arthur Conan Doyle, who was in town to meet with his publisher, accompanies them. The gentlemen don’t know it yet, but they will also be joined by a few more characters including Alice, Narbondo’s mom, a fortune-teller, and the gardener.

In London they uncover a nefarious plot that involves ghosts, skulls, anarchists, a pipe organ, and a portal to Hell. The plot is zany and chaotic as the characters run around chasing each other all over and underneath London, stopping only for the scientists to dine and for the dastardly villains to monologue. There are plenty of chases, gunshots, and explosions. And, of course, an airship goes up in flames.

I expect that the likelihood of any particular reader enjoying The Aylesford Skull will depend on how well they appreciate Blaylock’s extremely subtle and absurd sense of humor. If it doesn’t amuse you to think of using elephants to solve engineering problems, or to witness a group of gentlemen scientists from the Royal Academy camping in the woods (it’s extremely civilized camping), or to watch them running around London while buildings explode, then you might not find this story entertaining. There are nice period details and dialogue, but the story is slow moving at times (the book’s a bit too long), several of the characters are shallow, and it’s not blatantly funny. Those who are already familiar with Blaylock’s sense of humor and know they enjoy it will surely be entertained by The Aylesford Skull. Those who are unfamiliar with this father of steampunk should certainly give Blaylock a try.

I listened to William Gaminara’s narration of The Aylesford Skull. It’s 12 hours long and produced by Audible Studios. Gaminara does a very nice job with this story and I enjoyed his performance.