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The Balumnia Trilogy #2
The Disappearing Dwarf
Jonathan Bing, Master Cheeser, has been growing a bit bored in Twombly Town. So it’s no surprise that when Professor Wurzle suggests a trip downriver, Jonathan jumps at the chance. A visit to the Evil Dwarf Selznak’s abandoned castle leads to a treasure hunt, but also to the discovery that Jonathan’s old friend the Squire has vanished, and that Selznak may be involved.
Jonathan--accompanied by his wonderpooch Ahab, the Professor, and Miles the Magician--will have to set off to darkest Balumnia, to the city of Landsend, to find the treasure, and the Squire. And to make matters worse, Selznak will be there, too ...
Jonathan--accompanied by his wonderpooch Ahab, the Professor, and Miles the Magician--will have to set off to darkest Balumnia, to the city of Landsend, to find the treasure, and the Squire. And to make matters worse, Selznak will be there, too ...
251 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1983
31 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
About the author
James P. Blaylock
102 books283 followersJames Paul Blaylock is an American fantasy author. He is noted for his distinctive style. He writes in a humorous way: His characters never walk, they clump along, or when someone complains (in a flying machine) that flight is impossible, the other characters agree and show him why he's right.
He was born in Long Beach, California; studied English at California State University, Fullerton, receiving an M.A. in 1974; and lives in Orange, California, teaching creative writing at Chapman University. Many of his books are set in Orange County, California, and can more specifically be termed "fabulism" — that is, fantastic things happen in our present-day world, rather than in traditional fantasy, where the setting is often some other world. His works have also been categorized as magic realism.
He and his friends Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter were mentored by Philip K. Dick. Along with Powers he invented the poet William Ashbless. Blaylock and Powers have often collaborated with each other on writing stories, including The Better Boy, On Pirates, and The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook.
Blaylock is also currently director of the Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County High School of the Arts, where Powers is Writer in Residence.
He was born in Long Beach, California; studied English at California State University, Fullerton, receiving an M.A. in 1974; and lives in Orange, California, teaching creative writing at Chapman University. Many of his books are set in Orange County, California, and can more specifically be termed "fabulism" — that is, fantastic things happen in our present-day world, rather than in traditional fantasy, where the setting is often some other world. His works have also been categorized as magic realism.
He and his friends Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter were mentored by Philip K. Dick. Along with Powers he invented the poet William Ashbless. Blaylock and Powers have often collaborated with each other on writing stories, including The Better Boy, On Pirates, and The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook.
Blaylock is also currently director of the Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County High School of the Arts, where Powers is Writer in Residence.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 10, 2018
Between the ages of 13 and 15, James P. Blaylock was one of my favorite authors (and still is; just, my tastes have expanded since then). This is the sequel to The Elfin Ship, and a better book in my opinion. I like Blaylock's ability to imbue his books with a great sense of wonder. In this book, Jonathan Bing, the cheese maker from Twombly Town, sets off on a trip down the river to visit his friend Squire Myrkle, the next King of the Linkmen. Linkmen, since you asked, are smaller than people, bigger than dwarves, like to wear shorts and pointy hats, and generally behave like twelve year olds. But the squire has disappeared into the world of Balumnia (by staring into a magic marble for too long) and Jonathan and his friends Professor Wurtzle, Bufo Morinus, and Stick-a-Bush, set off to find him.
February 25, 2012
What a joy! I love disappearing into this world. There is a joy of wonder and the creepy to make your skin crawl as well as the laugh out loud moments. Once again there is a motley crew of characters with new additions too. I am glad I didn't read this when I was younger... I have the pleasure of reading these stories "as if" I were a youngster now!
There is as always high adventure, mystery, travel to another world, strawberries and coffee to go cuckoo for. There's a missing squire, a creepy witch, goblins and headless oarsmen. Oh! And not to be forgotten, there's a treasure map too.
There is as always high adventure, mystery, travel to another world, strawberries and coffee to go cuckoo for. There's a missing squire, a creepy witch, goblins and headless oarsmen. Oh! And not to be forgotten, there's a treasure map too.
March 15, 2017
review of
James P. Blaylock's The Disappearing Dwarf
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 14, 2017
I just read Blaylock's 1st bk, the predecessor of this, The Elfin Ship, less than a mnth ago so one might think that reading this now means that I'm enthusiastic about Blaylock's writing & just cdn't wait to get more of it but it was more of 'house-cleaning' activity. reading this one meant that I cd finish w/ Blaylock & have all of his bks in my collection up on the shelves & out of my piles-of-bks way. That's not very flattering, eh? But, don't get the wrong idea, I enjoyed it.
As I've explained in probably far-too-many other reviews: I have a tendency to read stuff-that's-important-to-me slowly & to intersperse stuff-that's-easier to give myself some slack. The Disappearing Dwarf is definitely in the latter category.
I'd read that Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy is one of Blaylock's favorite bks & he quotes from it at the beginning of this. The quote is about imbibing "radical moisture" in order to "know not what it is to fear death", in other words, potomania - alcohol-induced 'bravery' (or foolishness). I like that Blaylock likes Sterne but I must admit to finding none of Sterne's formal inventiveness & playfulness in Blaylock's writing.
I read The Elfin Ship less than a mnth ago but the action since then has advanced more than that: ""We've been back six months," the Professor said, "and you've got an air of boredom about you.["]" (p 5) It might be interesting to read a series of bks during the seasons that they take place in & taking a break between them equivalent to the time lapsed in the stories. That wd've meant that I wdn't've read this one until July. Oh well, too late.
As I mentioned in my review of The Elfin Ship ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ): "There's the peaceful small village that the reluctant humble hero hails from. There's the magician & the elves & the dwarves n'at. The evil creeping over the land." In other words, the standard tropes of fantasy. Add to those the door-into-an-alternate-world-or-some-such:
""This notation here," the Professor continued, "hasn't anything to do with dogs, I'm sure of it. It refers to a door, I think."
""A door to where? To the center of the earth?"
"The Professor perked up at the idea. "Quite possibly so, Jonathan. There are theories about it being hollow, you know."" - p 15
Indeed, there are & I once enjoyed reading those theories enuf to even organize the "Sinnit-Nut Hollow Earth Symposium". A digitized recording of Side A of the original cassette release from this can be heard here: https://archive.org/details/noise-arc... Please read the comment that I added if you go there.
Blaylock's wonderworlds are reruns of sorts, images from a pre-existing image pool imagined slightly anew by him. That's ok, I like this neo-Verne world, this world w/ caves filled w/ antiquities & oddities (if not treasure):
"In the dim shadows of one corner stood a collection of stuffed animals, a sort of taxidermist's wonderland, that looked as if it had stood just so for two hundred years. An elephant with long curving tusks and tufts of wooly hair along his back watched them through green glass eyes. Beside him stood a great long hippo and three crocodiles that had to have been twenty feet from head to tail. There were zebras and antelope and great cats and a weird hollow-eyed buffalo that was almost as big as the elephant. Four white apes stood in a cluster further back in the darkness. Pushed in among these strange dusty creatures were more chairs and wardrobes and tables and candelabra and such, heaped together in disarray." - pp 34-35
What? No stuffed humans or elves or dwarves or trolls or linkmen or goblins? Wassup w/ that?!
"Most puzzling of all the notations on the map was the legend scrawled across the top—merely the word "Balumnia," the name, possibly, of the city along the river or of the country where the river lay." - 44
""I once read a book about this Balumnia," he said. "It must have been twenty years ago. It was a wonderful book by the elf author, Glub Boomp. A fantasy novel."" - p 63
If only Jonathan read my review of The Elfin Ship it wdn't've taken him 19pp to remember Balumnia b/c I wd've reminded him that he knew what Balumnia was a mere 6 or 7 mnths ago:
"""Fine," Jonathan said, picking up an empty wooden crate and putting the pirate book in the bottom with a few others by the same author. Then he ran across a shelf of books by Glub Boomp, the elf author from the White Mountains who wrote about lands way off in space and about the Wonderful Isles and a country beneath the sea called Balumnia that was peopled by mermen. Needless to say, Jonathan stacked these away in his crate too."
Then again, according to that version of the story Balumnia is "a country beneath the sea" "that was peopled by mermen" wch ain't the case here. Get yr stories straight people. Some of us DO pay attn (sortof).
Selznak was the evil dwarf magician in The Elfin Ship who was defeated in the end but whose life was spared b/c our heroes aren't bloodthirsty sorts n'at. Surprise, surprise, he's back in the sequel & up to no good AGAIN:
"["]I promised Twickenham in a way that I'd keep an eye on Selznak. Of course he was up to no good, but it was pretty common stuff—murder and the like—and it was clear he knew I was there. In April he disappeared. I had it on authority that he was off downriver, so I moseyed along down to the Wood, where I lost track of him. You can't track evil through the Wood. There's too much of it already.["]" - p 48
Blaylock seems to be of the school of untamed-nature-is-evil-nature's-ok-when-it's-being-harvested-in-sleepy-hamlets-but-not-in-its-full-vitality. I doubt that I'd survive a night in the Amazonian jungle but that doesn't mean I want to turn it into grazing lands for McDonald's cows-bred-for-slaughter. Blaylock even imagines his obese character eating singing squid. I guess it depends on what they're singing.
""Well," said Gump, sticking in his two cents worth, "we don't have to worry about any squids. The Squire would just eat the things. I've seen him eat squid sandwiches that would turn your head. They were marvels. And he wouldn't care if they sang either; he'd eat them anyway. A singing sandwich is right in the Squire's line."" - p 65
If he ate a squid that was singing Cathy Berberian's "Stripsody" wd my head turn around 360 degrees & keep on turning? Wd I get head if the squids were singing the "Ode to Joy"? Things like this cd be important y'know.
I recall that Blaylock likes the work of Robert Louis Stevenson too so it's no surprise that shades of Treasure Island appear:
"If books could be believed—and it was beginning to look as if they could—then it seemed as if pirates spent their lives amassing great chests full of emeralds and gold for the purpose of burying the lot if it away on some goat-populated desert isle, only to sail back years later and fight over it and make up songs about it and bury it again, finally, somewhere else. He had never heard of pirates spending any of it." - p 67
What the piratical HEY!, I like Treasure Island so much I even watched a sequel movie called Return to Treasure Island recently. The main moral I got from that is: don't-get-married-if-you-still-want-to-have-fun & The Disappearing Dwarf does seem to echo that somewhat, too, by having our heros be bachelors.
The back cover of this edition has the following copy: "Into darkest Balumnia", wch strikes me as spin-off of the old "Into darkest Africa" but Balumnia isn't made out to be the least bit like Africa. UNLESS Africa's like this:
"Bomb or no bomb, Sikorsky or no Sikorsky, he'd had enough of being on the lookout. As he straightened up he caught a glimpse of a pair of eyes, milky eyes, watching him from the darkness of a recessed doorway not three steps away. There was a whispering in the doorway and the faint cackle of something laughing weirdly to itself, at a joke that no one else could hear or wanted to hear. From the shadows of the doorway, a thin, pale, skeletal hand reached out toward him, beckoning to him with a bent finger. Tattered lace hung round the wrist." - p 128
That's not the way I remember darkest Africa but, then, I've never been there. I've never even been there w/ Jonathan, the fictional character, but he & I are like 2 peas in a pod anyway:
"They pushed in through the doors of the inn and booked two rooms for the night from a lad in enormous spectacles who read a thick book behind a wooden counter. Jonathan cocked his head sideways to read the title on the volume. he had always been compelled to discover what it was that anyone he met was reading." - p 149
Well, ok, we're not really like 2 peas in a pod but I do the same thing when I see someone reading. Such as Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop or Theophile Gautier's The Mummy's Foot:
"When they did, they were presented with the sight of a hippopotamus head, mouth agape, staring back out at them. In among his teeth sat a small, satisfied-looking pig with his mouth open too. And in the pig's mouth, peering out as if through a window, were the head and shoulders of a mouse. A price tag dangled from one of the hippo's teeth: Two hundred dollars."
[..]
"Too bad this place isn't open," Gump said. "I'd like to talk him down fifty or so and buy that thing. I've always wanted one."" - pp 165-166
Gotta have one, simply gotta. Although it wd be even cooooler to have the mummified piece of Nearchus's ear that Zeno bit off:
""If there are three north-south streets between Royal and Oak that aren't on the map, and six east-west cross streets . . ."
""And no end of alleys," Gump interrupted.
""And, as you say, no end of alleys, then how many blocks do we have to explore in that one section?"
"The Professor ticked off streets on his fingers. "Let's see, that's . . . eighteen square blocks altogether."
""Multiplied by no end of alleys," Jonathan said.
""How do you multiply something by no end?" Gump asked.
"Jonathan shrugged. "You'd have to have a lot of zeros."
""More than we have time for," the Professor put in. "It all has to do with the study of infinitudes. Very complex affair."
""We studied those in school," Gump said. "It was fascinating. You take a line and divide it in half. Then you cut it in half again . . ."
""What do you cut in half again?" asked Bufo. "Both halves or just one? Seems pretty sloppy just to cut one half in half and leave the other one half alone. What does it do with himself?"" - pp 175-176
I'd never heard of fishing w/ kites before but I like the idea (even if it shd be called 'birding w/ kites'):
"Not far from the road two dark gypsys were fishing for seabirds with kites. Jonathan was tempted to stand and watch for a bit, as now and again a big gull or heron would swoop down and lunge at the bait dangling at the tail of the bird-shaped kite." - p 212
I HAVE heard of John Sheehan's "balloon fishing" where you go to a fishing spot before any of the other fisher-folk arrive & attach a balloon to your hook, submerge it underwater somehow, & then bring it up casually as if there's nothing abnormal about snagging an inflated balloon w/ a fishing line & leave w/o explanation. So, that's kinda normal to me - but what I want to know is what were the gypsys planning to do w/ the seabirds's credit info?
Sometimes it helps the plot to have the characters be considerably slower on the uptake than the reader:
"he barely gave a thought to the strange fact that the girl's hand was very cold and was dry as dust. For a moment, just as she stepped out into the moonlight, Jonathan had the strange thought that her hair wasn't blond, as it had seemed to be in the lantern light. It seemed momentarily to be gray, like old ashes in a grate, and her face, rather than being pleasantly thin, appeared skeletal just for the slip of an instant." - p 220
Some guys never learn - but don't feel too bad, Jonathan, computer dating services tend to pair me w/ women who look like they'd been left for dead in a body of water & bloated out to twice their living size.
This, predictably enuf, is the 2nd bk of a trilogy, it has to be a trilogy, right?!. the 1st 2 parts were only published a yr apart but the next one, The Stone Giant didn't come out until 6 yrs later in 1989. Maybe by then Jonathan managed to hook a live one.
James P. Blaylock's The Disappearing Dwarf
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 14, 2017
I just read Blaylock's 1st bk, the predecessor of this, The Elfin Ship, less than a mnth ago so one might think that reading this now means that I'm enthusiastic about Blaylock's writing & just cdn't wait to get more of it but it was more of 'house-cleaning' activity. reading this one meant that I cd finish w/ Blaylock & have all of his bks in my collection up on the shelves & out of my piles-of-bks way. That's not very flattering, eh? But, don't get the wrong idea, I enjoyed it.
As I've explained in probably far-too-many other reviews: I have a tendency to read stuff-that's-important-to-me slowly & to intersperse stuff-that's-easier to give myself some slack. The Disappearing Dwarf is definitely in the latter category.
I'd read that Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy is one of Blaylock's favorite bks & he quotes from it at the beginning of this. The quote is about imbibing "radical moisture" in order to "know not what it is to fear death", in other words, potomania - alcohol-induced 'bravery' (or foolishness). I like that Blaylock likes Sterne but I must admit to finding none of Sterne's formal inventiveness & playfulness in Blaylock's writing.
I read The Elfin Ship less than a mnth ago but the action since then has advanced more than that: ""We've been back six months," the Professor said, "and you've got an air of boredom about you.["]" (p 5) It might be interesting to read a series of bks during the seasons that they take place in & taking a break between them equivalent to the time lapsed in the stories. That wd've meant that I wdn't've read this one until July. Oh well, too late.
As I mentioned in my review of The Elfin Ship ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ): "There's the peaceful small village that the reluctant humble hero hails from. There's the magician & the elves & the dwarves n'at. The evil creeping over the land." In other words, the standard tropes of fantasy. Add to those the door-into-an-alternate-world-or-some-such:
""This notation here," the Professor continued, "hasn't anything to do with dogs, I'm sure of it. It refers to a door, I think."
""A door to where? To the center of the earth?"
"The Professor perked up at the idea. "Quite possibly so, Jonathan. There are theories about it being hollow, you know."" - p 15
Indeed, there are & I once enjoyed reading those theories enuf to even organize the "Sinnit-Nut Hollow Earth Symposium". A digitized recording of Side A of the original cassette release from this can be heard here: https://archive.org/details/noise-arc... Please read the comment that I added if you go there.
Blaylock's wonderworlds are reruns of sorts, images from a pre-existing image pool imagined slightly anew by him. That's ok, I like this neo-Verne world, this world w/ caves filled w/ antiquities & oddities (if not treasure):
"In the dim shadows of one corner stood a collection of stuffed animals, a sort of taxidermist's wonderland, that looked as if it had stood just so for two hundred years. An elephant with long curving tusks and tufts of wooly hair along his back watched them through green glass eyes. Beside him stood a great long hippo and three crocodiles that had to have been twenty feet from head to tail. There were zebras and antelope and great cats and a weird hollow-eyed buffalo that was almost as big as the elephant. Four white apes stood in a cluster further back in the darkness. Pushed in among these strange dusty creatures were more chairs and wardrobes and tables and candelabra and such, heaped together in disarray." - pp 34-35
What? No stuffed humans or elves or dwarves or trolls or linkmen or goblins? Wassup w/ that?!
"Most puzzling of all the notations on the map was the legend scrawled across the top—merely the word "Balumnia," the name, possibly, of the city along the river or of the country where the river lay." - 44
""I once read a book about this Balumnia," he said. "It must have been twenty years ago. It was a wonderful book by the elf author, Glub Boomp. A fantasy novel."" - p 63
If only Jonathan read my review of The Elfin Ship it wdn't've taken him 19pp to remember Balumnia b/c I wd've reminded him that he knew what Balumnia was a mere 6 or 7 mnths ago:
"""Fine," Jonathan said, picking up an empty wooden crate and putting the pirate book in the bottom with a few others by the same author. Then he ran across a shelf of books by Glub Boomp, the elf author from the White Mountains who wrote about lands way off in space and about the Wonderful Isles and a country beneath the sea called Balumnia that was peopled by mermen. Needless to say, Jonathan stacked these away in his crate too."
Then again, according to that version of the story Balumnia is "a country beneath the sea" "that was peopled by mermen" wch ain't the case here. Get yr stories straight people. Some of us DO pay attn (sortof).
Selznak was the evil dwarf magician in The Elfin Ship who was defeated in the end but whose life was spared b/c our heroes aren't bloodthirsty sorts n'at. Surprise, surprise, he's back in the sequel & up to no good AGAIN:
"["]I promised Twickenham in a way that I'd keep an eye on Selznak. Of course he was up to no good, but it was pretty common stuff—murder and the like—and it was clear he knew I was there. In April he disappeared. I had it on authority that he was off downriver, so I moseyed along down to the Wood, where I lost track of him. You can't track evil through the Wood. There's too much of it already.["]" - p 48
Blaylock seems to be of the school of untamed-nature-is-evil-nature's-ok-when-it's-being-harvested-in-sleepy-hamlets-but-not-in-its-full-vitality. I doubt that I'd survive a night in the Amazonian jungle but that doesn't mean I want to turn it into grazing lands for McDonald's cows-bred-for-slaughter. Blaylock even imagines his obese character eating singing squid. I guess it depends on what they're singing.
""Well," said Gump, sticking in his two cents worth, "we don't have to worry about any squids. The Squire would just eat the things. I've seen him eat squid sandwiches that would turn your head. They were marvels. And he wouldn't care if they sang either; he'd eat them anyway. A singing sandwich is right in the Squire's line."" - p 65
If he ate a squid that was singing Cathy Berberian's "Stripsody" wd my head turn around 360 degrees & keep on turning? Wd I get head if the squids were singing the "Ode to Joy"? Things like this cd be important y'know.
I recall that Blaylock likes the work of Robert Louis Stevenson too so it's no surprise that shades of Treasure Island appear:
"If books could be believed—and it was beginning to look as if they could—then it seemed as if pirates spent their lives amassing great chests full of emeralds and gold for the purpose of burying the lot if it away on some goat-populated desert isle, only to sail back years later and fight over it and make up songs about it and bury it again, finally, somewhere else. He had never heard of pirates spending any of it." - p 67
What the piratical HEY!, I like Treasure Island so much I even watched a sequel movie called Return to Treasure Island recently. The main moral I got from that is: don't-get-married-if-you-still-want-to-have-fun & The Disappearing Dwarf does seem to echo that somewhat, too, by having our heros be bachelors.
The back cover of this edition has the following copy: "Into darkest Balumnia", wch strikes me as spin-off of the old "Into darkest Africa" but Balumnia isn't made out to be the least bit like Africa. UNLESS Africa's like this:
"Bomb or no bomb, Sikorsky or no Sikorsky, he'd had enough of being on the lookout. As he straightened up he caught a glimpse of a pair of eyes, milky eyes, watching him from the darkness of a recessed doorway not three steps away. There was a whispering in the doorway and the faint cackle of something laughing weirdly to itself, at a joke that no one else could hear or wanted to hear. From the shadows of the doorway, a thin, pale, skeletal hand reached out toward him, beckoning to him with a bent finger. Tattered lace hung round the wrist." - p 128
That's not the way I remember darkest Africa but, then, I've never been there. I've never even been there w/ Jonathan, the fictional character, but he & I are like 2 peas in a pod anyway:
"They pushed in through the doors of the inn and booked two rooms for the night from a lad in enormous spectacles who read a thick book behind a wooden counter. Jonathan cocked his head sideways to read the title on the volume. he had always been compelled to discover what it was that anyone he met was reading." - p 149
Well, ok, we're not really like 2 peas in a pod but I do the same thing when I see someone reading. Such as Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop or Theophile Gautier's The Mummy's Foot:
"When they did, they were presented with the sight of a hippopotamus head, mouth agape, staring back out at them. In among his teeth sat a small, satisfied-looking pig with his mouth open too. And in the pig's mouth, peering out as if through a window, were the head and shoulders of a mouse. A price tag dangled from one of the hippo's teeth: Two hundred dollars."
[..]
"Too bad this place isn't open," Gump said. "I'd like to talk him down fifty or so and buy that thing. I've always wanted one."" - pp 165-166
Gotta have one, simply gotta. Although it wd be even cooooler to have the mummified piece of Nearchus's ear that Zeno bit off:
""If there are three north-south streets between Royal and Oak that aren't on the map, and six east-west cross streets . . ."
""And no end of alleys," Gump interrupted.
""And, as you say, no end of alleys, then how many blocks do we have to explore in that one section?"
"The Professor ticked off streets on his fingers. "Let's see, that's . . . eighteen square blocks altogether."
""Multiplied by no end of alleys," Jonathan said.
""How do you multiply something by no end?" Gump asked.
"Jonathan shrugged. "You'd have to have a lot of zeros."
""More than we have time for," the Professor put in. "It all has to do with the study of infinitudes. Very complex affair."
""We studied those in school," Gump said. "It was fascinating. You take a line and divide it in half. Then you cut it in half again . . ."
""What do you cut in half again?" asked Bufo. "Both halves or just one? Seems pretty sloppy just to cut one half in half and leave the other one half alone. What does it do with himself?"" - pp 175-176
I'd never heard of fishing w/ kites before but I like the idea (even if it shd be called 'birding w/ kites'):
"Not far from the road two dark gypsys were fishing for seabirds with kites. Jonathan was tempted to stand and watch for a bit, as now and again a big gull or heron would swoop down and lunge at the bait dangling at the tail of the bird-shaped kite." - p 212
I HAVE heard of John Sheehan's "balloon fishing" where you go to a fishing spot before any of the other fisher-folk arrive & attach a balloon to your hook, submerge it underwater somehow, & then bring it up casually as if there's nothing abnormal about snagging an inflated balloon w/ a fishing line & leave w/o explanation. So, that's kinda normal to me - but what I want to know is what were the gypsys planning to do w/ the seabirds's credit info?
Sometimes it helps the plot to have the characters be considerably slower on the uptake than the reader:
"he barely gave a thought to the strange fact that the girl's hand was very cold and was dry as dust. For a moment, just as she stepped out into the moonlight, Jonathan had the strange thought that her hair wasn't blond, as it had seemed to be in the lantern light. It seemed momentarily to be gray, like old ashes in a grate, and her face, rather than being pleasantly thin, appeared skeletal just for the slip of an instant." - p 220
Some guys never learn - but don't feel too bad, Jonathan, computer dating services tend to pair me w/ women who look like they'd been left for dead in a body of water & bloated out to twice their living size.
This, predictably enuf, is the 2nd bk of a trilogy, it has to be a trilogy, right?!. the 1st 2 parts were only published a yr apart but the next one, The Stone Giant didn't come out until 6 yrs later in 1989. Maybe by then Jonathan managed to hook a live one.
July 7, 2017
This sequel to The Elfin Ship follows the further adventures of Jonathan Bing, Master Cheeser, and his friends, as they venture into the unknown world of Balumnia in search of the missing Squire Myrkle. Blaylock is good at balancing the fun with the creepy, generally, but I don't think he does it as well here as in the first book; everything is just a touch too grim. Still, it's a worthy sequel and entertaining.
March 19, 2009
Sequel to The Elfin Ship. Blaylock pays off some of the big picture issues from the first story while retaining the fairy-tale elements and the small scale of the story. Some big setpieces in this one top Elfin Ship, particularly the riverboat under assault by a witch and zombies in the dark of night.
November 5, 2014
I listened to the audible.com audio book, read by Malk Williams.
The further adventures of the adventuring cheese maker and his dog. Jonathan Bing and his group travel to the magical land (parallel universe) of Balumnia in search of the missing Squire. The machinations of the evil Dwarf, now under another name, provide the group with many a nasty turn.
The further adventures of the adventuring cheese maker and his dog. Jonathan Bing and his group travel to the magical land (parallel universe) of Balumnia in search of the missing Squire. The machinations of the evil Dwarf, now under another name, provide the group with many a nasty turn.
November 26, 2009
The sequel to Elvin Ship is a tad darker than its predecessor, but still full of whimsical elements like a magic bag capable of producing an endless supply of marbles and the Strawberry Baron who is obsessed with brewing the perfect cup of coffee.
February 15, 2008
sequel to the Elvin Ship
July 4, 2008
Blaylock's previous book in this series was basically a children's fantasy version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I'm interested to see where he'll go next.
August 30, 2010
It's one of those hard to describe funky blends of fantasy, science fiction and humor.
July 21, 2009
The second book of the adventures of Jonathan Bing, Master Cheeser, and his friends. Like most second books, it's darker.
February 8, 2012
4/5
took me 74 pages to get into this but once i was it was an enjoybale wee read.
took me 74 pages to get into this but once i was it was an enjoybale wee read.
September 4, 2013
Not my usual, but still told well.
March 23, 2014
OK. I actually laughed out loud in a couple of places. I'm glad I was reading this for work, though. I probably wouldn't have kept at it just for fun. Part two of a trilogy.
June 12, 2015
A great series in the tradition of The Hobbit and Wind in the Willows. Highly recommended.
August 1, 2024
The second novel of the Balumnian trilogy, the most Tolkien-like in the spirit of Middle-Earth and a special, "hobbit" worldview, although completely devoid of the heroics of the Lord of the Rings. I would not recommend reading "The Disappearing Dwarf" to someone unfamiliar with the "Elf Ship", the first book with its freaky characters and wacky humor sets up a good continuation, not to mention the cumulative effect of the series, according to which they are much less annoying. Although. if you want to distract from reality with something absurdist in the spirit of "Monty Python", this story is perfect.
So, several months have passed since the journey of Jonathan the cheesemaker along the river in the company of the local intellectual Wurdle, and the nomadic star is already drawing them on the road again: the assistant is coping at the cheese factory, there is no need for constant presence, why not afford a vacation to visit the gentle Squire, the future heir to either the dwarf or the elven kingdom? And they set off, on the way, every now and then bumping into traces of the ominous presence of a certain Sikorsky, who is here in the "unnamed" status of Voldemort - at the very mention, the people they meet turn stern and stop communicating. And when they meet the wizard Miles, their ally from past adventures, the friends find out that the Squire has disappeared. Kidnapped? Is Sikorski involved? And isn't he the same person as the treacherous dwarf sorcerer Shelznak, whom they defeated in the first part?
The answer is yes in both cases, so you need to save the heir, if possible combining the mission with the treasure hunt - the heroes found a map indicating the location of the treasure in Haytower, the former home of the vile dwarf. I must say that there are a lot more adventures in this book: wandering in the labyrinths of dungeons, getting to know the Strawberry Baron (salute, Escobar), meeting with goblin werewolves luring travelers to a forest tavern and everything else like that. And the characters behave much less infuriatingly than in the "Elf Ship". And overall, it turned out to be a nice and sweet book.
Клубничный барон, карта сокровищ и коварный гном
Гном вернулся – дома нет,
Дом вернулся – гнома нет.
"Джеймс Блэйлок хороший,но читать его больше не стану", - подумала я, и обнаружила себя с очередной книжкой Блэйлока в руках. Второй роман Балумнийской трилогии, наиболее толкиновой по духу Средиземья и особому, "хоббичьему" мироощущению хотя напрочь лишенной героики "Властелина колец". Читать "Исчезающего гнома" незнакомым с "Эльфийским кораблем", я бы не посоветовала, первая книга с ее фриковатыми персонажами и дурацким юмором, хорошо настраивает на продолжение, не говоря уж о кумулятивном эффекте сериала, в соответствии с которым они куда меньше раздражают. Хотя. если хотите отвлечься от действительности чем-то абсурдистским в духе "Монти Пайтона", эта история подойдет идеально.
Итак, прошло несколько месяцев со времени путешествия сыровара Джонатана по реке в обществе здешнего интеллектуала Вурдла, а кочевая звезда уже снова влечет их в дорогу: помощник справляется на сыроварне, необходимости в постоянном присутствии нет, почему не позволить себе отпуск, чтобы проведать милягу Сквайра, будущего наследника не то гномьего, не то эльфийского царства? И они отправляются, в пути то и дело натыкаясь на следы зловещего присутствия некоего Сикорски, который тут в "неназываемом" статусе Волан-да-Морта - при одном упоминании встречные суровеют и перестают общаться. А встретив волшебника Майлза, своего союзника по прошлым приключениям, друзья узнают, что Сквайр исчез. Похищен? Не замешан ли тут Сикорски? И не одно ли он лицо с коварным гномом-колдуном Шелзнаком, которого они победили в первой части?
Ответ утвердительный в обоих случаях, значит нужно спасать наследника, по возможности совместив миссию с поисками сокровищ - карту с указанием места клада герои обнаружили в Хейтауэре - прежнем обиталище подлого гнома. Должна сказать, что приключений в этой книжке намного больше: блуждание в лабиринтах подземелий, знакомство с Клубничным Бароном (салют, Эскобар), встреча с гоблинами-оборотнями, заманивающими путников в лесную таверну и всякое еще в таком роде. А ведут себя герои куда менее бесяче, чем в "Эльфийском корабле". И в целом, славная и милая получилась книжка.
So, several months have passed since the journey of Jonathan the cheesemaker along the river in the company of the local intellectual Wurdle, and the nomadic star is already drawing them on the road again: the assistant is coping at the cheese factory, there is no need for constant presence, why not afford a vacation to visit the gentle Squire, the future heir to either the dwarf or the elven kingdom? And they set off, on the way, every now and then bumping into traces of the ominous presence of a certain Sikorsky, who is here in the "unnamed" status of Voldemort - at the very mention, the people they meet turn stern and stop communicating. And when they meet the wizard Miles, their ally from past adventures, the friends find out that the Squire has disappeared. Kidnapped? Is Sikorski involved? And isn't he the same person as the treacherous dwarf sorcerer Shelznak, whom they defeated in the first part?
The answer is yes in both cases, so you need to save the heir, if possible combining the mission with the treasure hunt - the heroes found a map indicating the location of the treasure in Haytower, the former home of the vile dwarf. I must say that there are a lot more adventures in this book: wandering in the labyrinths of dungeons, getting to know the Strawberry Baron (salute, Escobar), meeting with goblin werewolves luring travelers to a forest tavern and everything else like that. And the characters behave much less infuriatingly than in the "Elf Ship". And overall, it turned out to be a nice and sweet book.
Клубничный барон, карта сокровищ и коварный гном
Гном вернулся – дома нет,
Дом вернулся – гнома нет.
"Джеймс Блэйлок хороший,но читать его больше не стану", - подумала я, и обнаружила себя с очередной книжкой Блэйлока в руках. Второй роман Балумнийской трилогии, наиболее толкиновой по духу Средиземья и особому, "хоббичьему" мироощущению хотя напрочь лишенной героики "Властелина колец". Читать "Исчезающего гнома" незнакомым с "Эльфийским кораблем", я бы не посоветовала, первая книга с ее фриковатыми персонажами и дурацким юмором, хорошо настраивает на продолжение, не говоря уж о кумулятивном эффекте сериала, в соответствии с которым они куда меньше раздражают. Хотя. если хотите отвлечься от действительности чем-то абсурдистским в духе "Монти Пайтона", эта история подойдет идеально.
Итак, прошло несколько месяцев со времени путешествия сыровара Джонатана по реке в обществе здешнего интеллектуала Вурдла, а кочевая звезда уже снова влечет их в дорогу: помощник справляется на сыроварне, необходимости в постоянном присутствии нет, почему не позволить себе отпуск, чтобы проведать милягу Сквайра, будущего наследника не то гномьего, не то эльфийского царства? И они отправляются, в пути то и дело натыкаясь на следы зловещего присутствия некоего Сикорски, который тут в "неназываемом" статусе Волан-да-Морта - при одном упоминании встречные суровеют и перестают общаться. А встретив волшебника Майлза, своего союзника по прошлым приключениям, друзья узнают, что Сквайр исчез. Похищен? Не замешан ли тут Сикорски? И не одно ли он лицо с коварным гномом-колдуном Шелзнаком, которого они победили в первой части?
Ответ утвердительный в обоих случаях, значит нужно спасать наследника, по возможности совместив миссию с поисками сокровищ - карту с указанием места клада герои обнаружили в Хейтауэре - прежнем обиталище подлого гнома. Должна сказать, что приключений в этой книжке намного больше: блуждание в лабиринтах подземелий, знакомство с Клубничным Бароном (салют, Эскобар), встреча с гоблинами-оборотнями, заманивающими путников в лесную таверну и всякое еще в таком роде. А ведут себя герои куда менее бесяче, чем в "Эльфийском корабле". И в целом, славная и милая получилась книжка.
March 19, 2020
Though a sliver below "The Elfin Ship" in quality, this is still a corker of Blaylock's very earliest years when he was writing straight, gentle but extremely odd and whimsical fantasy. Blaylock was already a master of lovably clueless characters with earnestly weird world views. Blaylock was never quite this delightfully funny again, though I think he wrote a couple of better books when his approach was a little more "civilized" and his stories took place in the real world.
January 11, 2023
This is an enjoyable read, although perhaps for younger readers than myself. It is written in a light, "don't take me seriously" style that seemed very appropriate for my holiday but may turn some people away. It's not laugh-out-loud funny like Diskworld or Hitchhiker's, but I guess those series are a very high standard to aim at.
February 9, 2019
I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the Elfin Ship, which I have read several times. This was my first "read" (audiobook, actually) of the Disappearing Dwarf. It has the same characters, but the story wasn't as appealing. And it was rather darker than the first one, too.
January 14, 2023
A little too twee and charming. Very British. Then somehow main character turns into a semi-badass in the last few chapters.
February 27, 2025
An amusing book that is the second in a series. The first was unavailable at the library site. I think I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had read the first one first (makes sense). Jonathan Bing sets off on an adventure with Professor Wurzle, but they are redirected by the disappearance of the Squire. The Squire has taken a globe from the Hightower Castle from the dwarf Sclznak. The two suspect that the globe has something to do with the Squire's disappearance and that it had some ability that they knew nothing about. And so set out with the wizard Miles to discover the Squire.
February 9, 2018
A bit darker and more violent than The Elfin Ship, but still quite amusing and a charming read. Selznak turns out to be a much crueler and more devious villain than he seemed in the previous book. all the great characters from Book 1 return, and the dry British humor is still at the forefront.
May 5, 2009
More of the same as the Elfin Ship. There are nice moments here, but the spark of originality and wonder was, for me, mostly missing, and it seems to mostly retread the same ground.
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