Jonathan Barnes' The Somnambulist is Nothing to Sleep Through
Set in Victorian London, The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes is the kind of fun book that I couldn't resist blurbing when Barnes' editor at William Morrow asked me to a few months ago. This is what I said: "Sneaky, cheeky, and dark in the best possible way, this massively entertaining book manages to make the familiar daringly unfamiliar. I enjoyed the heck out of this novel." The Somnambulist has just been published in hardcover in the US, and I highly recommend you pick up a copy. It's received a starred review in Publishers Weekly as well as a lot of other praise. I think you'll find the exploits of, among others, the odd detective Edward Moon and his even odder sidekick, the Somnambulist, well worth your time. It's one of those books that both fantasy and non-fantasy readers should enjoy.
Paul Jessup on February 29, 2008 at 12:48 PM
A lot of people seemed to like this book- but I just couldn't get into it. I read it about half way through before just stopping. Maybe I'm weird, heh. I'll give it a try again later, maybe it was just my brain at that time.
John on March 08, 2008 at 06:11 PM
Jeff, I'm really curious what you think about Michael Swanwick's The Dragons of Babel. It been getting a lot of buzz and I loved Iron Dragon's Daughter. I would really like to know more about this book.