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| The Somnambulist | 
 enlarge | Author: Jonathan Barnes
Publisher: William Morrow
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $8.25
You Save: $15.70 (66%)
Buy New/Used from $7.74
Avg. Customer Rating:  (44 reviews)
Sales Rank: 82692
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0061375381
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780061375385
ASIN: 0061375381
Publication Date: February 1, 2008
Release Date: February 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. Needless to say, I doubt you'll believe a word of it. Once the toast of good society in Victoria's England, the extraordinary conjurer Edward Moon no longer commands the respect or inspires the awe that he did in earlier times. Despite having previously unraveled more than sixty perplexing criminal puzzles (to the delight of a grateful London constabulary), he is considered something of an embarrassment these days. Still, each night without fail, he returns to the stage of his theatre to amaze his devoted, albeit dwindling audience with the same old astonishments—aided by his partner, the silent, hairless, hulking, surprisingly placid giant who, when stabbed, does not bleed . . . and who goes by but one appellation: The Somnambulist On a night of roiling mists and long shadows, in a corner of the city where only the most foolhardy will deign to tread, a rather disreputable actor meets his end in a most bizarre and terrible fashion. Baffled, the police turn once again in the direction of Edward Moon—who will always welcome such assignments as an escape from ennui. And, in fact, he leads the officers to a murderer rather quickly. Perhaps too quickly. For these are strange, strange times in England, with the strangest of sorts prowling London's dank underbelly: sinister circus performers, freakishly deformed prostitutes, sadistic grown killers in schoolboy attire, a human fly, a man who lives backwards. And nothing is precisely as it seems. Which should be no surprise to Moon, whose life and livelihood consists entirely of the illusionary, the unexpected, the seemingly impossible. Yet what is to follow will shatter his increasingly tenuous grasp on reality—as death follows death follows death in the dastardly pursuit of poetry, freedom, utopia . . . and Love, Love, Love, and Love. Remember the name Jonathan Barnes, for, with The Somnambulist, he has burst upon the literary scene with a breathtaking and brilliant, frightening and hilarious, dark invention that recalls Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, and Clive Barker at their grimly fantastical best . . . with more than a pinch of Carl Hiaasen-esque outrageousness stirred into the demonically delicious brew. Read on . . . and be astonished!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 The Somnambulist July 17, 2008
This book was interesting in content, but too wordy. Jumped all over the place. It was like being caught in a long bizarre dream. Not sure why I read it.
 Wickedly funny July 14, 2008
This book was so much fun to read. As the author warns - it is perhaps without any literary merit whatsoever. But it is good, good fun. Silly, bizarre and quirky to the end. A great beach read for those who like well written prose about crazy, nonsensical characters on an equally crazy adventure.
What a trip July 10, 2008
I finished reading this book six weeks ago, and I'm still thinking about it now. The characters are fantastic (literally, as nothing like this ever actually happened), plot is very intricate and there's more than one twist to keep things interesting.
I can only hope that this book is not self contained and that there will be future volumes featuring Mr. Moon and The Somnambulist. Hopefully we see The Prefects again too, definately the most unusual characters to be dropped into a realistic London setting.
 Couldn't finish it July 7, 2008
I don't understand the great reviews for this book in the popular press. The first half, which was all I managed to get through, was mildly entertaining, but instead of firming up, it degenerates into absurdity -- pointless characters introduced at every turn, ridiculous plot devices, unanswered questions -- you name it, the author threw it in there. I'm not against this in principle, but it wasn't done well here. Added to this, the book was poorly edited, with some fairly major grammatical and continuity errors in every chapter (the ones I read, anyway). I gave it one star because I thought the writing style was good, and I liked the author's use of unusual words.
 Clearly a talented writer, but needs clearer direction July 5, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
_The Somnambulist_ has a lot going for it: an admitedly unreliable narrator, murder, a protagonist who may be past his prime, and of course, the Somnambulist, who remains an enigma throughout. I had thought I had stumbled on to a 5-star book. Unfortunately, Barnes tries to do too much with his characters and the story.
A murder mystery set in Edwardian England will always get my attention - and _The Somnambulist_ has a tremendously promising beginning as we are introduced to Edward Moon (an investigator whose best days are behind him given an apparently botched case) and his partner, the silent, odd-looking (and, unless I missed something, inappropriately named) Somnambulist who are called to solve a puzzling murder. Unfortunately, things quickly deteriorate: in an attempt to thicken the plot and perhaps provide red herrings, Barnes makes the story increasingly improbable with gaping holes and undeveloped plot points. (The relationship between Barabbas, Moon and his sister Charlotte is never clarified, for example. How the Somanmbulist can do the remarkable things he does is another.) As other reviewers have mentioned, the characters Boon and Hawker - McGuffins - are vastly more interesting and entertaining than the other characters, but they arrive in the story too late to rescue it. The ending of the story was underwhelming.
Some apparently didn't care for the writing, as Barnes does tend to use words uncommon to American vernacular ("prolix", "etiolate", for example; even "somnambulist" is out of common usage); I thought the choice of words were appropriate given the time and the narrator, although I undestand where these criticisms are coming from.
The story certainly had promise, and I look forward to more by this author as he matures and grows in his craft. I do wonder if perhaps Barnes' debut novel is the beginning of a series with these characters (it would certainly explain the many undeveloped relationships and connections between characters.) Still, I can't recommned _The Somnambulist_.
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