James P. Blaylock’s The Adventures of Langdon S. Ives collects four short stories (“The Ape-Box Affair”, “The Hole in Space”, “The Idol’s Eye”, “Two Views of a Cave Painting”) and two novels (Homunculus and Lord Kelvin’s Machine) featuring Victorian inventor, Langdon St Ives in various adventures and escapades.
I already own both novels—Homunculus in the Morrigan edition and Lord Kelvin’s Machine from Arkham House. The short stories appear in other books that I also already own; “The Hole in Space” in the Subterranean Press edition of The Man in the Moon, and the other three in the Edgewood Press collection, Thirteen Phantasms. Why then buy this book? I recall buying The Further Adventures of Langdon St. Ives because, although I owned three of the novellas collected in that book, I lacked two of the short stories. But, I’d looked at the contents of the first Langdon St. Ives book many years ago and decided back then that I didn’t need it.
The itch was still there, somehow, and when an opportunity came along to pick it up at cover price, I took it. Originally published in 2008 as a trade and limited edition, I thought the copy I bought was a trade edition. However, when I received the book, the dust jacket listed the trade edition price, but the book was one of 200 numbered and signed copies, which matched the limited edition description. I suspect that I have a mix of book and cover, which is a strange circumstance. At any rate, it looks good next to my other Subterranean Press Blaylock books, and the introduction by Tim Powers and afterword by Blaylock are fun reads. Blaylock’s afterword, however, covers much of the same territory as his afterword to “The Hole in Space” in The Man in the Moon. I’ve read, I think, almost all of Blaylock’s works, barring a short story or two. So, all in all, I’m happy that I finally went ahead and got this book.
