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James P. Blaylock

1950-

Reviewed by
Rob and Kelly

James Blaylock was born in California and recieved a masters degree in English. He is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Chapman University in California. He often collaborates with Tim Powers.

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Balumnia — (1982-1989) Humorous fantasy. Each novel can stand alone.

James P. Blaylock 1. The Elfin Ship, 2. The Disappearing Dwarf, 3. The Stone Giant

Narbondo / Langdon St. Ives — (1984-2009) Steampunk. Each novel can stand alone. The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives contains Homunculus and Lord Kelvin's Machine.
Publisher: Science Fiction. Southern California — sunny days, blue skies, neighbors on flying bicycles ... ghostly submarines ... mermen off the Catalina coast ... and a vast underground sea stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Inland Empire where Chinese junks ply an illicit trade and enormous creatures from ages past still survive. It is a place of wonder ... and dark conspiracies. A place rife with adventure - if one knows where to look for it. Two such seekers are the teenagers Jim Hastings and his friend, Giles Peach. Giles was born with a wonderful set of gills along his neck and insatiable appetite for reading. Drawing inspiration from the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Giles is determined to build a Digging Leviathan. Will he reach the center of the earth? or destroy it in the process?

James P. Blaylock fantasy book reviews 1. The Digging Leviathan, 2. Homunculus, 3. Lord Kelvin's Machine

steampunk fantasy book reviews James P. Blaylock The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives, The Ebb Tide

The Ebb Tide

19th-century London. A quiet evening among more or less renowned gentleman, including the gifted scientist-explorer Langdon St. Ives, at their favorite tavern is interrupted by word that a map to a missing mysterious device has been found. In no time, as chronicled by St. Ives's cohort Jack Owlesby, the group sets off to claim the map and device, racing against the shadowy figure of St. Ives's nemesis, Ignacio Narbondo (now known as Dr. Frosticos).

The first new tale of St. Ives in nearly two decades, The Ebb Tide is a brisk steampunk yarn with a dash of Sherlock Holmes. (Steampunk is, of course, a play on cyberpunk; instead of computers, the focus is usually on airships or mechanical men.) The focus in The Ebb Tide is on underwater transports (and a strange underwater environment), which James Blaylock, as usual, describes with clear prose that manages to evoke the derring-do of the age. It's an engaging enough tale, and the illustrations by J.K. Potter are excellent. However, with a modest 110 pages of text (in my advance copy), there's just not much meat to it. There's virtually no character development, and I don't believe Dr. Frosticos even has any dialogue.

Sub Press is offering a deluxe hardcover edition for $35 (or $23 on Amazon as of October 2, 2009); however, many fans of steampunk would be better served by purchasing the Steampunk anthology (edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer) for about $10, as the latter includes the more satisfying St. Ives tale "Lord Kelvin's Machine" (one of the best tales in the anthology), as well as many other good stories. Thus, The Ebb Tide is recommended as a purchase for die-hard steampunk aficionados, or as a library loan for casual steampunk fans. 3 small brass portholes. —Rob R. Comments

Holy Relics — (1988-2008) Each novel can stand alone.
The Last Coin: Two thousand years after silver coins pass from the hands of Judas Iscariot, they continue to hold magical powers, changing the luck of those who posses them, and possibly even providing immortality.
The Paper Grail: Curator Howard Barton goes to Mendocino, California, to get a 19th-century woodcut sketch for his museum back home. But other, rather strange, people want the sketch for their own dubious purposes. Now Howard's caught in the middle of a secret war that somehow involves a piece of paper that is much more than it seems.
All the Bells on Earth: This is a homey fantasy, almost excessively so. Doughnuts, family tensions, relatives who arrive in a Winnebago, Christmas decorations, business worries, Uncle Henry's womanizing, and pyramid schemes wrap Walt Stebbins in layers of detail and distraction. Walt runs a small catalog business out of his garage, and he has no notion of a demonic presence in his town until a package is mistakenly delivered to him. The contents are not the inexpensive Chinese toys and novelties he deals in. The nasty-looking pickled bluebird of happiness ("Best thing come to you. Speak any wish.") piques Walt's interest, and he keeps it when he rewraps the box and passes it on to the addressee: the one person in the world Walt loathes, his former friend Robert Argyle. But Walt's keeping back the bluebird of happiness is the best thing that could have happened to Argyle — and the worst thing that could happen to Walt. What price happiness? If you have to ask ...
Knights of the Cornerstone: Calvin Bryson has hidden himself away from the world, losing himself in his work and his collection of rare and quirky books. He never meant to let so much time go by without visiting his aunt and uncle in the tiny town of New Cyprus, California. When he gets there, he'll discover the town's strange secrets and a mysterious group dedicated to preserving and protecting holy relics - a modernday incarnation of the legendary Knights Templar.

James P. Blaylock 1. The Last Coin, 2. The Paper Grail, 3. All The Bells On Earth

Ghost stories — (1994-1999) Each novel can stand alone. Publisher: Blaylock's Night Relics is a chilling novel of unearthly emotional power, a ghost story that pushes beyond the classic form. It is the tale of a man haunted by the ghosts of the human heart--both real and imagined--where lost memories and lost loves whisper on the wind. It is a perfectly captured nightmare.

James P. Blaylock 1. Night Relics, 2. Winter Tides, 3. The Rainy Season

Winter Tides: Not what I expected

I was disappointed in Winter Tides, though it's probably not fair to blame James P. Blaylock for my disappointment. It's not his fault the cover copy doesn't accurately describe the novel's actual subject matter. It's also not his fault I'm a big enough ballad geek that when I see the words "Anne," "Elinor," "sisters," and "drowning" in the same sentence, I immediately think of "The Cruel Sister," a heartbreaking ballad of love and sisterly betrayal. Between the cover copy and a ballad reference that may or may not have been intentional, I led myself to expect a ghost story and a love story. Here's the cover copy, for what it's worth:

Fifteen years ago, on a deserted California beach, Dave Quinn swam out into the winter ocean to save two drowning girls — identical twin sisters. He was only able to save one. Now, years later, he meets Anne, a struggling artist from Canada. He has no idea that she is the child he saved so long ago. And he has no idea that Elinor, the long-dead sister he couldn't save, has come with her...

What I got instead was a novel about a serial killer and arsonist named Edmund, who isn't even mentioned on the cover.

Dave and the sisters were there, all right, but I never really felt connected to them, never really felt like I was in their heads. Even when the story was being told from Dave or Anne's point of view, the narrative focused more on their physical actions than on what was happening with them psychologically. Elinor, the ghost sister, gets even shorter shrift, and mainly seems to be a plot device. The romance between Dave and Anne almost seemed skimmed-over, and both of their feelings for Elinor are summed up in a few sentences here and there. The only intricate, fully developed characterization in the book is that of Edmund, a psychopath who sees torturing people as a fine art form. Blaylock does a good job of depicting him, but I wasn't expecting a psychopath story. It's not really my thing.

If you like novels about psychopaths and serial killers, you may well love Winter Tides. It's a well-written example of that genre. Blaylock's subtlety and restraint leave the worst bits to the imagination, creating a palpable terror without buckets of splatter. It's just not the genre I was expecting. —Kelly Comments

Stand-alone novels:

Land of Dreams — (1987) Young adult. Publisher: The twelve-year Solstice has come. And with it, a sinister carnival brings a new sense of terror and wonder to a small California town.

13 Phantasms — (2000) Short stories. Publisher: The first short story collection from Philip K. Dick Award-winning author James Blaylock features sixteen thought-provoking forays into the fantastic-from a tale of alien influence on an ordinary neighborhood to the story of one man's self-destructive obsession with a dragon.

The Devils in the Details — (2003) Short stories with Tim Powers. Publisher: Collects three original short stories, ''Through And Through'' by Powers, ''The Devil In The Details'' by Blaylock, and ''Fifty Cents'' a collaboration by both authors together. Plus a foreword by Powers and an afterword ''Mexican Food'' by Blaylock (this afterword comes in the form of a separate chapbook laid into the book).

In For A Penny — (2003) Short stories.

Metamorphosis — (2009) A story collection. Publisher: Metamorphosis: three stories, each one involving a man who discovers that he has come to dwell, for an hour or for a lifetime, in a house and in a mind not quite his own. Each one opens doors onto rooms of illusion, radiance, regret, and dark enchantment. Welcome to the stories of three young writers, stories written in collaboration with James P. Blaylock. Welcome to the borderland of illusion and reality. Three tales, written in collaboration by James P. Blaylock with students in a class by Tim Powers, with an introduction and illustrations by Tim, an afterword by Blaylock, and some necessary meddling by William Ashbless.

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