Title: Homunculus
Author: James P. Blaylock
Date of First Publication: 1986
Place of Publication: Ace
Type: Novel
Characters: No Character
Themes: RETRO SF; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; ANDROID
Critical Summary: Homunculus follows the bizarre happenings of Victorian London in 1875. A dirigible with a dead pilot has frequently been sighted in the sky over the span of a decade. The dirigible catches the attention of essentially the entire city, but specifically an evangelical fraud named Shiloh. Anxious about the sightings, Shiloh preaches to his followers about the impending doom that the dirigible will bring. In actuality, he believes his father is a tiny alien man who is on the dirigible with its dead pilot and enlists in the help of the evil hunchbacked Dr. Ignacio Narbondo to help resurrect his mother.At the same time, Sebastian Owelsby left his son, Jack, a large emerald as an inheritance that is held in one of the box mechanisms created by the inventor William Keeble. Many of these “Keeble boxes” have been made, one of which contains the emerald. Keeble’s daughter Dorothy, engaged to the younger Owelsby, is kidnapped by conniving millionaire Kelso Drake, who—along with Narbondo—has ulterior motives for the tiny homunculus on the dirigible. The dirigible also intrigues Langdon St. Ives and the rest of the Trismegistus Club,a group of gentleman adventurers. After a mysterious manuscript winds up in the possession of St. Ives, he and Theophilus Godal turn their attention to the nefarious Dr. Narbondo and his unstable assistant Willis Pule, whom they suspect is using the elder Owelsby’s science to reanimate the dead. A battle ensues to capture the blimp and hunt down the boxes made by Keeble. The action in the story makes for dramatic chases through the streets of London, the use of often unconvincing disguises, many cunning plans and a good deal of gentlemanly bravado. Dr. Ignacio Narbondo creates numerous walking corpses that make up the leagues of converted sinners under the control of Shiloh, the fraudulent evangelist. In the end, the creature in the title, the homunculus, a tiny man in a jar, ends up on a steampubk spaceship built (and mourned) by St. Ives as it shoots into the stars.
Homunculus definitely presents characters that are inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The mad scientist plays a major role in this novel and it is easy to be reminded of Victor Frankenstein when looking at characters such as Sebastian Owelsby, who loses his mind pursuing the science of reanimating the dead. Dr. Narbondo’s actions in the book also resemble Victor’s actions, as Narbondo reanimates the corpses of the dead he and his assistant Pule dug up out of the local cemetery. There is a moment near the conclusion of the book where Willis Pule has been deformed worse than he normally is and is met with the looks of disgust by everybody he encounters in London. Pule’s experience is similar to that of the Creature in Frankenstein. As for theme, the story is clearly retro sf; it is considered one of the first Steampunk novels. The appearance of these contraptions, dirigibles, and crafts capable of space travel in Victorian London are all aspects of the steampunk genre, with retro science developed by writers such as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Mary Shelley.
Administrative Notes: Chelsea Sundberg, CSUF; Joshua Byfield CSUF Student; Alexandra Roman CSUF (editing)