At first I tried to tell myself it was just me. I was reading under adverse conditions -- on a ferry, going to meet a friend I knew was upset, tired from work -- I probably just missed something. You know, that little explanation or aside that would make the action comprehensible. I went back and reread the first chapter. Nope, still didn't make sense. Well, you know, there are those authors who like to throw you into the story en medias res and then give you the backstory as they go along. That sometimes works very effectively. If the author actually gets around to filling you in, that is. And there is a backstory of sorts, it just wasn't enough to make me care about the characters or excuse the author from being totally unable to structure his book in a balanced, coherent fashion. So there's this guy we don't know driving a carriage at night, and he gets a weird message, and then he falls asleep despite the fact that he is rushing to rescue his beloved wife from his nemesis, and they crash, and he doesn't save her. Because he is really hesitant about shooting even a very evil person who is about to kill his wife. But don't worry, you won't be upset about this poor lady getting shot in the head because there are no details and we never meet Alice or really learn anything about her, and her supposedly-brilliant-scientist husband doesn't have much more personality, either, he pretty much stumbles around being incoherent. Narbando, our villain, is even less explicable. Why does he hate our hero? Why do all the bad guys like vivisection? Why are hunchbacks so evil? We will never know, because the nemesis is hardly more present in the story than the dead wife. It pretty much is just St Ives -- oh, except that middle third of the book that is narrated by some other guy. Not the titular Lord Kelvin, he only has a walk-on. And there's a lot of staying in a bed-and-breakfast. Actually I think it was several inns, supposedly in different countries, but they all seem the same. And just when you think you are near the end of book, finally the time travel mentioned on the cover will happen. But by then you'll be sick of the bland characters and impossibly confused yet pointless events and not care.
The tagline for this book -- "do unto others before they do unto you... with a time machine!" -- should really have given me some warning as to the quality, but I was too excited by the title to notice. Langdon St. Ives is a scientist to wants to get hold of the titular machine before the dastardly Ignacio Narbondo to save his wife.Written in a faux-Victorian style, and set in the 19th century, this book completely failed to interest me. It was okay, but the style wasn't authentic enough to feel like what it was trying to be and the writing wasn't strong enough to carry off the story. And the (American) author completely fails to understand cricket.When there's so many better books in the world, I wouldn't bother wasting my time reading this one.
What do You think about Lord Kelvin's Machine (1992)?
Episodic and disjointed. I'll give this novel some benefit of doubt because it's actually a sequel to a previous Blaylock novel, Homunculus. I hope the earlier novel does a better job of establishing the characters, because a sense of characterisation is entirely absent here. Instead we are thrown headlong into three loosely connected Victorian-era science fantasy/adventure tales written in a rather weak attempt at period prose, including a middle section that is narrated in first person by one of the participants, for no particular reason. There are many elements of a good story here, but it all falls apart because the characters are so characterless and the narrative is so episodic and loth to reveal its own points of interest that the time travel angle doesn't even kick in until the final third of the novel. Even then, it's such a slapdash affair that I'd have been better served just viewing the Back To The Future trilogy once more. Still, I have Homunculus on my to-read list. But I will say that even if it throws this later work into sharper focus, Blaylock really should have worked harder to make this one stand on its own.
—Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
I read this as part of my immersion course in steampunk. It's really a collection of three novellas featuring the same main characters. I enjoyed them all, but particularly liked the middle one which is written in the first person of a servant of the main character. The third story has a neat time travel sketch, well done, and depicts the main character loosing his mind pretty convincingly. Solidly in the 19th century British mode of steampunk with only minor departures from history into odd science.
—Benjamin Newland
I have to admit that 'steam punk' is not my thing, but I have to acknowledge a good writer and a good book. This novel introduces James P. Blaylock's hero, Professor Langdon St. Ives, as well as his nemesis Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, in a literal race against time. Having lost his love at the hand of Narbondo, St. Ives and his companions seek to change the past to rescue her from her fate.As is typical in this genre, we see here an alternate world where many of the technological and scientific discoveries that took place in the 20th century, have been achieved much earlier. Elaborate machines, powered by steam & coal have changed the face of the world and mighty airships prowl the skies.Considered a classic in the genre, I recommend the book to fans and those, like myself, who are new to this type of fiction.
—Steve Chaput
