The Somnambulist
I finished The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes yesterday evening. It is a really weird book. I really liked the first 80% but the last 20% was just weird and incongruent. So, you might really enjoy this book if you like the end.
Set in late Victorian London, the main character is Edward Moon, a sort of washed-up Holmes who works as an illusionist/magician. His assistant is a tall, mute, apparently invulnerable man named the Somnambulist. A couple bizarre murders cause the police to ask for Moon's assistance. There is also a secret government group, the Directorate, who want Moon to work for them. There is also what may be a real medium, a man who claims to be from the future, circus freaks, a condemned murderer, a brothel, a long-lost sister, and a very strange club.
I like stories and novels that feel like they've been going on long before you start reading them. One complaint i have about YA novels is that they often feel like they start on the first page; every action and relationship points forward, not to any past. The Somnambulist is in a world with a lot of past but seems to have no future. So many of the questions raised, characters introduced, and past happenings referenced are never explained or finished up. I really liked the character Cribb, and the Somnambulist too, but i was very unhappy with how the last bit of the novel dealt with them as well as others.
Overall, a 4 from me.
Set in late Victorian London, the main character is Edward Moon, a sort of washed-up Holmes who works as an illusionist/magician. His assistant is a tall, mute, apparently invulnerable man named the Somnambulist. A couple bizarre murders cause the police to ask for Moon's assistance. There is also a secret government group, the Directorate, who want Moon to work for them. There is also what may be a real medium, a man who claims to be from the future, circus freaks, a condemned murderer, a brothel, a long-lost sister, and a very strange club.
I like stories and novels that feel like they've been going on long before you start reading them. One complaint i have about YA novels is that they often feel like they start on the first page; every action and relationship points forward, not to any past. The Somnambulist is in a world with a lot of past but seems to have no future. So many of the questions raised, characters introduced, and past happenings referenced are never explained or finished up. I really liked the character Cribb, and the Somnambulist too, but i was very unhappy with how the last bit of the novel dealt with them as well as others.
Overall, a 4 from me.
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