The Somnambulist (edit title)

• Rated 2 stars

“"The Somnambulist" is an unwieldy sprawl of underdeveloped notions, hurriedly introduced characters & sharply veering plot lines. Perhaps intentionally, although most likely not, it reads as the most recent installment of a long running series, except the reader does not have the benefit of having been able to read any of the previous installments. Barnes muddles genres repeatedly, plodding through elements of fantasy, mystery, & science fiction, all within the context of historical fiction; but he never convincingly develops ideas in any of them before admitting defeat and moving onto the next, although one could make the argument that he's so continually pleased with himself at each turn that he either sees it as a neo-stylistic triumph, or he simply doesn't care. The author pretty obviously cops his tone & style from Neil Gaiman, who also occasionally has trouble reigning in ideas, but has little of his countryman's charm or ability, and has none of the mastery of language that Susanna Clarke so elegantly displays.”

• Rated 4 stars

“The Somnambulist is a dark fantasy sort of mystery that takes place in turn-of-the-century Victorian England. It follow the adventures of Edward Moon, stage magician and part-time detective, and his loyal sidekick the Somnambulist. When a series of bizarre murders and strange disappearances starts taking place throughout London, the Directorate turns to Moon to help them figure out what's going on. But as the investigation proceeds, and the cryptic messages from medium Madame Innocenti start to make a scary kind of sense, Edward realizes that there's something much deeper going on here... something that extends down into the very bowels beneath the city.

I received this as an Advance Readers Edition from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Group, and unlike most ARCs, this one was actually a velobound manuscript copy with full-size 8.5" x 11" pages. It was a bit unwieldy to handle, especially trying to read in bed, but the story was good enough to keep me wanting to read on despite the uncomfortable binding format. I also found my copy was missing page 71. But because it was the first page of a new chapter, and a new section started at the top of the following page, I couldn't figure out anything important that was missing, so perhaps it was intentional. And finally, I found it odd that the date at the bottom of the pages was 6/28/07. Since this was first published in the UK in Feburary of 2007, and later in the US in Feburary of 2008, I was left wondering if I might actually have a copy of the UK manuscript, and wondering if there might be a slight difference in language and localisms between the two.

Now enough about the format and on to the story itself. It's told from the point-of-view of an outside party, one who's observing the events from the outside. Because of this, the reader doesn't get a lot of deep insight into each character's feelings and thoughts. In a way, this makes the story seem a bit cold and distant, which may in fact be the intended result. But an unfortunate side effect was that I had a more difficult time remembering some of the more personal facts about each of the characters. I felt I didn't know them as well since the author didn't really allow us to see inside their heads. *shrug* By the end of the book however, it became a bit more obvious why it was written that way, and who the person is who's telling the story. But I found it a bit disconcerting at the first in any case.

Because of my few complaints above, I couldn't give this book a perfect score. However, I really enjoyed the action, the mystery, the dark horror, and the whole wackiness of it, which made for a very enjoyable story overall. And thus, despite its few shortcomings, a book I would wholeheartedly recommend to others.”

• Rated 0 stars

“ See a great review by SciFiChick: http://shelfari.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/02/review-the-somn.html”

• Rated 4 stars

“Completely original! Reviewers are likening Barnes to authors such as Susannah Clark and Neil Gaimen. I thought Moon reminded me a bit of an aging Sherlock Holmes. Somnambulist is a suspenseful mystery with something of a supernatural twist.”