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Necroscope #16
Necroscope: The Möbius Murders
Harry Keough, aka the Necroscope, has always considered himself a master of the Mobius Continuum--a dimension existing parallel to all space and time and his personal instantaneous gateway to anywhere in the multiverse. But this is hardly overweening conceit on Harry's part, for to his knowledge he is not unique; two other intelligences, with powers similar to his, do indeed exist. One such is the long-dead August Ferdinand Mobius himself, the German astronomer, mathematician, and discoverer of the eponymous Mobius Strip which led him to explore, posthumously, his previously conjectural Continuum; and the other is Harry s son, who has not only inherited his father's mathematical skill but also the metaphysical talent by means of which the Necroscope converses with dead people in their graves!
Picture Harry's confusion, then, on returning home via the Mobius Continuum from an adventure in Las Vegas, as he witnesses however briefly a flailing figure hurtling conscious but uncontrolled through the endless midnight of the Continuum. Who could this be--how can it be?--that a helpless, silently protesting other is rushing meteor-like across the Continuum's Stygian vault? Moreover, if he hasn't arrived here voluntarily, then what vile murderer has sent his victim on this monstrous journey to the end of life itself? For Harry is sure that this is neither his son s nor Professor Mobius' doing.
Who and where is he, this Mobius murderer? It is a mystery that only the Necroscope can ever hope to solve--but at what risk to his own life?
Picture Harry's confusion, then, on returning home via the Mobius Continuum from an adventure in Las Vegas, as he witnesses however briefly a flailing figure hurtling conscious but uncontrolled through the endless midnight of the Continuum. Who could this be--how can it be?--that a helpless, silently protesting other is rushing meteor-like across the Continuum's Stygian vault? Moreover, if he hasn't arrived here voluntarily, then what vile murderer has sent his victim on this monstrous journey to the end of life itself? For Harry is sure that this is neither his son s nor Professor Mobius' doing.
Who and where is he, this Mobius murderer? It is a mystery that only the Necroscope can ever hope to solve--but at what risk to his own life?
176 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 2013
8 people are currently reading
815 people want to read
About the author
Brian Lumley
444 books1,353 followersBrian Lumley was born near Newcastle. In 22 years as a Military Policeman he served in many of the Cold War hotspots, including Berlin, as well as Cyprus in partition days. He reached the rank of Sergeant-Major before retiring to Devon to write full-time, and his work was first published in 1970. The vampire series, 'Necroscope', has been translated into ten languages and sold over a million copies worldwide.
He was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010.
He was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 8, 2021
The only thing that could've made this better would've been if the book was longer and more time spent on the killings and the horror of everything.
June 19, 2013
Originally posted at FanLit:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Harry Keogh is a necroscope. He speaks with the dead and considers himself to be their caretaker. The “Great Majority” love him because he keeps them connected to each other and the world they left behind. In return, Harry often benefits from their collective wisdom. One deceased person who has been particularly helpful is August Ferdinand Möbius, the mathematician whose famous work in geometry led to the discovery and naming of the Möbius strip. Since his death, Möbius has continued his interest in mathematics and astronomy and has taught Harry Keogh how to travel through time and space by using the Möbius Continuum — a timeless spaceless “place” outside of the dimensions we inhabit.
Harry thought he was the only person alive who knew how to travel the Möbius Continuum, but when one day (if you can call it a “day”) he sees someone else traveling through it, he is startled. When he investigates, he discovers that someone is using the Möbius Continuum to conveniently rid himself of his murder victims. This “someone” must have figured out the math on his own. And so Harry sets out to find the culprit and we have a scary tale of math, metaphysics, and murder!
Brian Lumley began writing about Harry Keogh the necroscope back in 1986. I haven’t read any of his previous work, so I was unfamiliar with this story until I picked up Necroscope: The Mobius Murders. I had no trouble quickly orienting myself to Lumley’s world and protagonist. There is enough background information supplied to enjoy the story, which I did, though I’m sure it would have been even more meaningful if I had the full context. I also can’t address this particular NECROSCOPE installment as compared to Lumley’s previous work.
But I can say that reading Necroscope: The Mobius Murders made me put the rest of Lumley’s NECROSCOPE stories on my TBR pile. I want to learn about Harry’s parents and his estranged wife and son. But mostly I want to learn more about the Möbius Continuum. Is it perhaps, as Harry suspects, the mind of God? The place behind our reality where, as Albert Einstein said “the distinction between past, present, and future is an illusion”? I doubt I’ll find out, but I do hope that in previous stories Lumley explains how the math is applied to space to open the continuum. I was enchanted by this idea and some of the things I learned about Möbius and Pythagoras.
The Mobius Murders is dark, creepy, and exciting. It was published a few weeks ago by Subterranean Press. The cover art and some interior illustrations were done by Bob Eggleton.
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Harry Keogh is a necroscope. He speaks with the dead and considers himself to be their caretaker. The “Great Majority” love him because he keeps them connected to each other and the world they left behind. In return, Harry often benefits from their collective wisdom. One deceased person who has been particularly helpful is August Ferdinand Möbius, the mathematician whose famous work in geometry led to the discovery and naming of the Möbius strip. Since his death, Möbius has continued his interest in mathematics and astronomy and has taught Harry Keogh how to travel through time and space by using the Möbius Continuum — a timeless spaceless “place” outside of the dimensions we inhabit.
Harry thought he was the only person alive who knew how to travel the Möbius Continuum, but when one day (if you can call it a “day”) he sees someone else traveling through it, he is startled. When he investigates, he discovers that someone is using the Möbius Continuum to conveniently rid himself of his murder victims. This “someone” must have figured out the math on his own. And so Harry sets out to find the culprit and we have a scary tale of math, metaphysics, and murder!
Brian Lumley began writing about Harry Keogh the necroscope back in 1986. I haven’t read any of his previous work, so I was unfamiliar with this story until I picked up Necroscope: The Mobius Murders. I had no trouble quickly orienting myself to Lumley’s world and protagonist. There is enough background information supplied to enjoy the story, which I did, though I’m sure it would have been even more meaningful if I had the full context. I also can’t address this particular NECROSCOPE installment as compared to Lumley’s previous work.
But I can say that reading Necroscope: The Mobius Murders made me put the rest of Lumley’s NECROSCOPE stories on my TBR pile. I want to learn about Harry’s parents and his estranged wife and son. But mostly I want to learn more about the Möbius Continuum. Is it perhaps, as Harry suspects, the mind of God? The place behind our reality where, as Albert Einstein said “the distinction between past, present, and future is an illusion”? I doubt I’ll find out, but I do hope that in previous stories Lumley explains how the math is applied to space to open the continuum. I was enchanted by this idea and some of the things I learned about Möbius and Pythagoras.
The Mobius Murders is dark, creepy, and exciting. It was published a few weeks ago by Subterranean Press. The cover art and some interior illustrations were done by Bob Eggleton.
August 21, 2022
great addition to Harry's Timeline
February 16, 2015
"Mobius Murders" was a well-crafted, well-paced novel that showed Harry's mastery of the Mobius Continuum in greater and more fascinating detail than ever before. Lumley has created himself such a multi-faceted world within the "Necroscope" books that the possibilities are endless. So many angles, characters, and phenomena to explore.
In "Mobius Murders," Harry learns he isn't the only one (aside from his son) who can manipulate the Continuum. In fact, it can be used for murder. This is also when we learn of Harry's previously unknown ability - to be able to discern another's passage through the Continuum.
Lumley does an excellent job here describing the time streams Harry follows to discover the truth of the crime without overwhelming the reader with scientific and mathematical jargon and buzzwords. It would be quite easy to do that. Yet Lumley keeps the story moving at a fast pace. His writing can be quite inspiring as to how much Harry can see behind the curtain of existence:
"It might be considered morbid, Harry supposed, to be secretly privy to the aging and decline and passing of so many fellow members of humanity. But maintaining a balance, the Mobius time-streams were even more filled with beginnings. He had witnessed the blindingly brilliant blue star bursts of thousands of brand new lives in the births of future generations. And suddenly inspired, uplifted by that thought - also with an idea in mind - he determined there and then to pay another visit to the Mobius time-streams."
Lumley writes of the intricacies of the Continuum more in "Mobius Murders" than any previous novel (chronologically). And explains his own theories on where humanity might have originated.
"The dazzling, brilliant evolution of all humanity, lit by myriad blue life-threads: a vast whirlpool of light, narrowing down in its centre, distantly and finally (or originally?) converging, coming together maybe two-and-a-half million years ago in a sapphire core than was mankind's beginning."
What I loved so much about this book was the way we get to see all of Harry's skills on display. He recruits his mother to work with the Great Majority to find the victims of Gordon J. Hemmings. He reaches out to Darcy at E-branch and becomes friends with the skilled researcher, Geoff Lambert. He also does his own detective work, tracking murders in the past, and even speaks to the dead Calloway and the dead victims in the North Sea. Harry's an investigator and assassin like no other. He's no invincible, but is humble in his own way, and not seeing any special praise for the dangerous work he does. Who else is going to fight and claim justice for the dead? Who else but the Necroscope.
The idea of the Necroscope in the world begs a discussion on how comforting it would be to know that even in death, the warm light of the Necroscope would still be in the world. And one never knows when they'll be visited by the Necroscope. Further, the thought of the Great Majority and how friendly they can be is also comforting. Yes, there are "other" dead things in the ground that the Great Majority stay far away from, even shun, but for the most part, they welcome the newly dead and give them some kind of company, so they're not completely alone.
It was intriguing the way Lumley explored the concept of vampirism is an entirely different way! A different kind of vampire - who sucked the soul out of his victims. And Hemmings' attitude and megalomania seemed to match perfectly some of the real vampires Harry has already destroyed:
"...distancing himself however temporarily from the scene of his latest kill. Not that he saw what he did as homicide; no, he was simply revitalizing, reinvigorating himself. Common or garden food as such was never enough, for he'd long since discovered that the proverbial staff-of-life, at least in this case, was the actual stuff of life: the lives of others. Oh, he enjoyed filling his belly as well as any man and far more than most: but there was only one real way to feast, to satisfy and energize his other, more darkly transcendent self."
So any Harry frantically conducts his investigation into these murders and who is responsible, Hemmings begin to question, postulate and consider the deeper mechanics of the Continuum and what he might be able to achieve given more time to solve the mathematical and metapsychic equations.
Hemmings' backstory was convincing, tragic, and terrifying. He killed both his parents before realizing just what he was capable of. Had Harry not stopped him he would have gone onto kill a great many more people than even a typical vampire might. For Hemmings would not be restricted to hunt only at night and darkness. As we saw, he killed in broad daylight.
Really enjoyed the quick shout-out of the thing in the woods that had been eating people and imprisoning their souls for untold ages. "For the Dead Travel Slowly" from "Harry and the Pirates" is a fantastic story.
Of course, the best part of the story was when Harry finally confronted Hemmings at his lecture. I expected Harry to pull Hemmings into the Continuum, but was surprised that Hemmings hadn't learned anything new of how to use it. In the end, he really was no match for Harry. I assumed that over the course of the story, Hemmings' knowledge would grow and he'd become more of an even match for the Necroscope. But nope, Harry is the only master of the Continuum. Harry is indeed the watcher of the dead, and the only one who can secure justice for them. He put it best here:
"Not as individuals, said Harry, but as a group? You live on what you took from them - and what you are trying to take from me - as a parasite lives on its unwilling host. You are a mutation, Hemmings, a different kind of vampire, a loathsome thing that derives sustenance from the souls of the poor unfortunates it dispatches into oblivion. But you didn't get it all! A spark remained in each of them, and as a group they now have a single voice that speaks out against you...and I have heard it!"
And as Harry and Hemmings fall into the North Sea, and Hemmings seeks to suck the living soul out of the Necroscope, who should come along in a boat but the very victims Hemmings killed. There really should have been a Bob Eggleton illustration of this scene:
"Moreover, having glimpsed those silent, silver-eyed rowers in their stolen or commandeered inflatable, Harry knew his work was done here, his promise kept and that it was time to move on. The last thing he desired was to witness or be party to the beginning of the end of the Mobius murderer; that wasn't the arrangement; let the dead people in the rubber vessel - who doubtless had their own take on how matters should proceed from here on - have the final say."
And then the end of the monster Hemmings:
"He struggled to be free of their gooey grasp...better to sink, drown, die quickly than fade to nothing and only then expire; but they wouldn't let him go! Now that they had him they would drain him to nothing, to a husk, an empty gourd."
Gordon Hemmings foolishly tried to use his rudimentary understanding of the Continuum to save himself, only for his plan to backfire horribly, but deservedly:
"Like a weird aerial bomb with trailing rags, his corpse hit water that might as well have been paved with garden slabs. For no longer the fat man but the flat man, the great leech's frame at once burst open from groin to gullet and spread out over the sea like a ruptured bladder, a lumpy, nameless stain.
At which the dead people in the inflatable has slopped overboard to take hold of whatever they could find. And as the vileness submerged and the abyss took back its due, half a dig continued to chew of Hemmings' silently shrieking face; while slowly but surely that most grisly patch of ocean discharged its poisons and was clean again."
Spectacular novel. Lumley is becoming quite good at using the Necroscope to fight those monsters other than true Wamphyri! But I imagine the next book, "Deadspeak," will bring those monsters back to the forefront.
In "Mobius Murders," Harry learns he isn't the only one (aside from his son) who can manipulate the Continuum. In fact, it can be used for murder. This is also when we learn of Harry's previously unknown ability - to be able to discern another's passage through the Continuum.
Lumley does an excellent job here describing the time streams Harry follows to discover the truth of the crime without overwhelming the reader with scientific and mathematical jargon and buzzwords. It would be quite easy to do that. Yet Lumley keeps the story moving at a fast pace. His writing can be quite inspiring as to how much Harry can see behind the curtain of existence:
"It might be considered morbid, Harry supposed, to be secretly privy to the aging and decline and passing of so many fellow members of humanity. But maintaining a balance, the Mobius time-streams were even more filled with beginnings. He had witnessed the blindingly brilliant blue star bursts of thousands of brand new lives in the births of future generations. And suddenly inspired, uplifted by that thought - also with an idea in mind - he determined there and then to pay another visit to the Mobius time-streams."
Lumley writes of the intricacies of the Continuum more in "Mobius Murders" than any previous novel (chronologically). And explains his own theories on where humanity might have originated.
"The dazzling, brilliant evolution of all humanity, lit by myriad blue life-threads: a vast whirlpool of light, narrowing down in its centre, distantly and finally (or originally?) converging, coming together maybe two-and-a-half million years ago in a sapphire core than was mankind's beginning."
What I loved so much about this book was the way we get to see all of Harry's skills on display. He recruits his mother to work with the Great Majority to find the victims of Gordon J. Hemmings. He reaches out to Darcy at E-branch and becomes friends with the skilled researcher, Geoff Lambert. He also does his own detective work, tracking murders in the past, and even speaks to the dead Calloway and the dead victims in the North Sea. Harry's an investigator and assassin like no other. He's no invincible, but is humble in his own way, and not seeing any special praise for the dangerous work he does. Who else is going to fight and claim justice for the dead? Who else but the Necroscope.
The idea of the Necroscope in the world begs a discussion on how comforting it would be to know that even in death, the warm light of the Necroscope would still be in the world. And one never knows when they'll be visited by the Necroscope. Further, the thought of the Great Majority and how friendly they can be is also comforting. Yes, there are "other" dead things in the ground that the Great Majority stay far away from, even shun, but for the most part, they welcome the newly dead and give them some kind of company, so they're not completely alone.
It was intriguing the way Lumley explored the concept of vampirism is an entirely different way! A different kind of vampire - who sucked the soul out of his victims. And Hemmings' attitude and megalomania seemed to match perfectly some of the real vampires Harry has already destroyed:
"...distancing himself however temporarily from the scene of his latest kill. Not that he saw what he did as homicide; no, he was simply revitalizing, reinvigorating himself. Common or garden food as such was never enough, for he'd long since discovered that the proverbial staff-of-life, at least in this case, was the actual stuff of life: the lives of others. Oh, he enjoyed filling his belly as well as any man and far more than most: but there was only one real way to feast, to satisfy and energize his other, more darkly transcendent self."
So any Harry frantically conducts his investigation into these murders and who is responsible, Hemmings begin to question, postulate and consider the deeper mechanics of the Continuum and what he might be able to achieve given more time to solve the mathematical and metapsychic equations.
Hemmings' backstory was convincing, tragic, and terrifying. He killed both his parents before realizing just what he was capable of. Had Harry not stopped him he would have gone onto kill a great many more people than even a typical vampire might. For Hemmings would not be restricted to hunt only at night and darkness. As we saw, he killed in broad daylight.
Really enjoyed the quick shout-out of the thing in the woods that had been eating people and imprisoning their souls for untold ages. "For the Dead Travel Slowly" from "Harry and the Pirates" is a fantastic story.
Of course, the best part of the story was when Harry finally confronted Hemmings at his lecture. I expected Harry to pull Hemmings into the Continuum, but was surprised that Hemmings hadn't learned anything new of how to use it. In the end, he really was no match for Harry. I assumed that over the course of the story, Hemmings' knowledge would grow and he'd become more of an even match for the Necroscope. But nope, Harry is the only master of the Continuum. Harry is indeed the watcher of the dead, and the only one who can secure justice for them. He put it best here:
"Not as individuals, said Harry, but as a group? You live on what you took from them - and what you are trying to take from me - as a parasite lives on its unwilling host. You are a mutation, Hemmings, a different kind of vampire, a loathsome thing that derives sustenance from the souls of the poor unfortunates it dispatches into oblivion. But you didn't get it all! A spark remained in each of them, and as a group they now have a single voice that speaks out against you...and I have heard it!"
And as Harry and Hemmings fall into the North Sea, and Hemmings seeks to suck the living soul out of the Necroscope, who should come along in a boat but the very victims Hemmings killed. There really should have been a Bob Eggleton illustration of this scene:
"Moreover, having glimpsed those silent, silver-eyed rowers in their stolen or commandeered inflatable, Harry knew his work was done here, his promise kept and that it was time to move on. The last thing he desired was to witness or be party to the beginning of the end of the Mobius murderer; that wasn't the arrangement; let the dead people in the rubber vessel - who doubtless had their own take on how matters should proceed from here on - have the final say."
And then the end of the monster Hemmings:
"He struggled to be free of their gooey grasp...better to sink, drown, die quickly than fade to nothing and only then expire; but they wouldn't let him go! Now that they had him they would drain him to nothing, to a husk, an empty gourd."
Gordon Hemmings foolishly tried to use his rudimentary understanding of the Continuum to save himself, only for his plan to backfire horribly, but deservedly:
"Like a weird aerial bomb with trailing rags, his corpse hit water that might as well have been paved with garden slabs. For no longer the fat man but the flat man, the great leech's frame at once burst open from groin to gullet and spread out over the sea like a ruptured bladder, a lumpy, nameless stain.
At which the dead people in the inflatable has slopped overboard to take hold of whatever they could find. And as the vileness submerged and the abyss took back its due, half a dig continued to chew of Hemmings' silently shrieking face; while slowly but surely that most grisly patch of ocean discharged its poisons and was clean again."
Spectacular novel. Lumley is becoming quite good at using the Necroscope to fight those monsters other than true Wamphyri! But I imagine the next book, "Deadspeak," will bring those monsters back to the forefront.
November 11, 2017
A pretty good entry in the Necroscope series. I’ve only read the first couple of books so I don’t know if there was anything I was missing before reading this.
August 31, 2023
Nice addition to the pantheon
March 18, 2016
I have loved all of the Necroscope books for many years now. This one was no exception. It's a much shorter tale than most of the series, but it is always good to get to travel through the Mobius Continuum with Harry Keogh again.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews