James Blaylock es un autor de fantasía estadounidense celebrado por su estilo distintivo y humorístico. Sus personajes son conocidos por sus peculiares formas de moverse y por entablar conversaciones que cuestionan humorísticamente lo imposible, como la viabilidad del vuelo. Las obras de Blaylock a menudo fusionan lo fantástico en nuestro mundo actual, un estilo denominado fabulismo o realismo mágico. Amadrinado por Philip K. Dick, colabora frecuentemente con el también autor Tim Powers.
Mentored by Philip K. Dick, James P. Blaylock is best known for his Langdon St Ives sequence - one of which, Homunculus, won the Philip K. Dick Award - and, along with contemporaries Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter, is regarded as one of the founding fathers of Steampunk. All three of the novels collected in this omnibus were shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award.
The secret log of a murdered lighthouse keeper falls into the hands of the immensely wealthy Gilbert Frobisher, who discovers encoded within it a stunning and dangerous mystery. Against all odds Langdon St. Ives and his companions set sail in the dark of night for the West Indies aboard Gilbert Frobisher’s steam yacht, pursued by murderous pirates and bound for an uncharted volcanic island on the verge of eruption. There they undertake the perilous search for a hidden treasure protected by an unspeakable pagan god, and in the process unleash a power that will ultimately threaten the devastation of London.
The story begins with an inheritance. Following a protracted legal battle, Alice St. Ives, Langdon’s wife, has come into full possession of Seaward, the house left to her by her late Uncle Godfrey, a man with a number of bizarre proclivities. Heartened by this good fortune, Alice, Langdon and their surrogate son Finn prepare to take possession of the house. From this point forward, events spin out of control, taking on a madcap logic of their own that is exhilarating and—in typical Blaylock fashion—often quite funny. What follows is, in a sense, a tale of two houses. The first, of course, is Seaward, a “rambling, eccentric old house” with it its history, its secrets, its priceless accumulation of volumes of arcane lore. The other is a neighboring house known, for good reasons, as “Gobblin’ Manor,” home base of The Gobblin’ Society, a “culinary establishment” with its own peculiar—and very dark—traditions. In the course of an event filled few days, St. Ives and his cohorts will encounter smuggling, mesmerism, kidnapping, cannibalism and murder. It is, in other words, a typical—and typically eccentric—Langdon St. Ives adventure.
Determined to avert the doom of his beloved wife, scientist and detective Langdon St. Ives sees his only hope for doing so in Lord Kelvin's time machine, but the diabolical Dr. Ignacio Narbondo has other plans for the invention. Reprint.
It is the late 19th century and a mysterious airship orbits through the foggy skies. Its terrible secrets are sought by many, including the Royal Society, a fraudulent evangelist, a fiendish vivisectionist, an evil millionaire and an assorted group led by the scientist and explorer Professor Langdon St. Ives. Can St. Ives keep the alien homunculus out of the claws of the villainous Ignacio Narbondo?
"With a 100-year storm threatening the southern California coast, Jane Larkin is approached by a strange, audacious woman who wants to invest much-needed money in Jane’s Old Orange Co-op. Meanwhile Jane’s husband Jerry discovers an ancient excavation beneath the Larkin home. On that ominous morning in autumn, shadows descend over the deceptively quiet neighborhoods of Old Orange, ushering in a flood of chaos, terror, and murder
Der Autor ist Preisträger des »Philip K. Dick Award« und des »World Fantasy Award« Wer meint, die Sache mit Judas und seinen dreißig Silberlingen sei lange vorbei und vergessen, irrt sich gewaltig. Denn diese Münzen existieren noch immer, verteilt über die ganze Welt. Und sie verheißen demjenigen, der alle wieder zusammenbringt, unvorstellbare Macht und ein ewiges Leben. Doch wer damit in Berührung kommt, sollte lieber schleunigst das Weite suchen. Wie zum Beispiel Andrew Vanbergen, dessen Versuche, ein Restaurant aufzumachen, die gesamte Nachbarschaft in Angst und Schrecken versetzen. Oder Tante Naomi, die einen Silberlöffel mit geheimnisvoller Gravierung erbt und sich fortan so merkwürdig benimmt. Und besonders der aufdringliche Mister Pennyman, den nur noch fünf Münzen von der Unsterblichkeit trennen, dann vier, dann drei... »Die Fabulierkunst des Amerikaners Blaylock ist wirklich einmalig.« WILLIAM GIBSON »Blaylocks Mixtur aus Fantasy, Horror und SF setzt Maßstäbe. Auch sein neuestes Buch wird ohne Zweifel dazu beitragen, den Ruf dieses Autors als Trendsetter nachhaltig zu festigen.« SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Fantasy Deutsche Erstausgabe
