- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; Export ed edition (22 Feb 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575079428
- ISBN-13: 978-0575079427
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 612,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Somnambulist (Gollancz S.F.)
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Product Description
Review
"This promising debut subverts its 19th-century predecessors amusingly. Inventive and often witty. A cabinet crammed with curiosities." (Sarah Crowden THE OBSERVER )
Product Description
'Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. It is a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, peopled by unconvincing characters, written in drearily pedestrian prose, frequently ridiculous and wilfully bizarre. Needless to say, I doubt you'll believe a word of it.' So starts the extraordinary tale of Edward Moon, detective, his silent associate the Sonambulist and devilish plot to recreate the apocalyptic prophecies of William Blake and bring the British Empire crashing down. With a gallery of vividly grotesque characters, a richly evoked setting and a playful highly literate style this is an amazingly readable literary fantasy and a brilliant debut.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was a really entertaining read. If you liked Mark Gatiss The Vesuvuis Club then you'll love this. It references alot of english victorian writing such as dickens and Doyle. It is hilariously dark in humour. I found the prose well written and easy to read even though the story is complex. It is atmospheric to say the least. It is very much a book aimed at people with a sense of the ridiculous. This book doesn't take it's self too seriously and therefore you enjoy it all the more. A great read!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's the kind of book that may have been written if Lewis Carrol, Robert Rankin and Conan Doyle had somehow all gotten together and taken some very illegal substances while writing the script to a Hammer production of the early 1970s.
Full of grotesque characters and places, this is a brilliant hamming up of Victorian London, that follows its own twisted logic, with an equally twisted narrator and some very, very peculiar touches. It is carried off brilliantly, with a pacy plot and a nice dark chuckle at very regular intervals. It manages to walk the line between unpleasantness and humour with skill, and I am really hoping that Mr Barnes' second novel will be at least as good.
Full of grotesque characters and places, this is a brilliant hamming up of Victorian London, that follows its own twisted logic, with an equally twisted narrator and some very, very peculiar touches. It is carried off brilliantly, with a pacy plot and a nice dark chuckle at very regular intervals. It manages to walk the line between unpleasantness and humour with skill, and I am really hoping that Mr Barnes' second novel will be at least as good.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First things first - this book IS different.
Secondly, I thoroughly enjoyed this dastardly Dickensian thriller, and especially the characters. Edward Moon, the conjuror/detective and his silent partner, The Somnambulist, were terrific players in this Victorian farce, and should be the subject of further books, I believe.
Other characters too stood out and made this a book I wanted to get back to pretty smartish, in case the characters somehow disappeasred from the pages whilst I was gone.
The only let-down, noted I see by another critic here, was the silly ending to it all - but the characters just carried it through.
Not so much a silly ending more a SOPPY plot in the first place.
But, hey, a bit of tongue-in-cheek doesn't do any of us any harm, does it?
Go on. read it, and see if you agree with me - those two characters should be in a series of books.
Secondly, I thoroughly enjoyed this dastardly Dickensian thriller, and especially the characters. Edward Moon, the conjuror/detective and his silent partner, The Somnambulist, were terrific players in this Victorian farce, and should be the subject of further books, I believe.
Other characters too stood out and made this a book I wanted to get back to pretty smartish, in case the characters somehow disappeasred from the pages whilst I was gone.
The only let-down, noted I see by another critic here, was the silly ending to it all - but the characters just carried it through.
Not so much a silly ending more a SOPPY plot in the first place.
But, hey, a bit of tongue-in-cheek doesn't do any of us any harm, does it?
Go on. read it, and see if you agree with me - those two characters should be in a series of books.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Note: does not contain somnambulists
What a strange book. It starts out as a pastiche of the Victorian detective novel, with Edward Moon as the Great Detective, here moonlighting as a stage magician, his faithful... Read more
Published 1 month ago by phoebes_mum
Terrifically enjoyable
The Somnambulist is a rollickiing tale of detection, adventure, thrills and mysterious goings-on in Victorian London. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Federhirn
Fantasmagorical
Like many people, I tend to judge a book by it's cover. That's why I picked up this particular book, never having heard of debut novelist Jonathan Barnes before. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Dublinia
Starts poorly, declines rapidly
As I wandered seeking some new to read I chanced upon this novel within the hallowed space of a local charity shop. Read more
Published on 9 May 2010 by Koncorde
'Lost' in pastiche Edwardian novel form
This is a dreadful book. I compare it to 'Lost' as it goes down the same route of thinking a story is improved by adding great big helpings of 'mystery' whilst neglecting vital... Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2009 by Kevin
A Truly Terrible Mess
Reading the other reviews of The Somnambulist I can only presume that I must have read a wholly different novel, because the book I just struggled to finish and immediately cast... Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2009 by C. Green
A Lurid Piece of Nonsense
This is Jonathan Barnes' first book, and a very well-written début it turns out to be. But, given that Mr Barnes graduated from Oxford with a first in English Literature,... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2008 by Diziet
Wierd and Wonderful! A Brilliant Debut
I was initially drawn the 'The Somnnabulist by the enticing front cover which seemed to promise adventure, humour and intrigue all in one, and upon reading it I wasn't... Read more
Published on 21 April 2008 by Wildlife Bookworm
eye candy for the brain
The book has its roots in stream punk or gothic horror with a dark brooding picture of late Victorian London full of grotesques, human monsters, corruption, dystopian nightmares... Read more
Published on 15 April 2008 by John
Brilliant
Wow - just read it everyone - it's a joy. Please, please Johnathan Barnes let's have another one. Wonderful.
Published on 6 April 2008 by L. Kersh
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