The Homunculus

by Kenneth Rayner Johnson

Births: Sinclair—on June 24th at Burntwoods Hospital, to Elaine and Peter, a son...

Deaths: Sinclair—on June 24th at Burntwoods Hospital, in childbirth, Elaine, beloved wife of Peter...

He had arrived.

The Homunculus, blood-streaked from his dying mother's womb. Medically normal except for the thin membrane that webbed the fingers of the right hand. Normal except for the eyes. The old, chillingly cold eyes that looked with blank malice on the outside world.

Normal except for his conception: misbegotten and created out of evil. The ancient, ungodly dream of the alchemists come to pass. The Homunculus.

And only a woman, gasping in the final spasms of death, felt a bone-deep chill of premonition. Screamed, for herself and for the hideous future of mankind.

Genres: Horror

181 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly generic 1980s horror, though much of it seems resolutely stuck in the '70s, with the pace often saddled with Johnson's love of his own research, so there are pages of incantations, trivia, and esoterica, and a hero who seems genetically incapable of absorbing or retaining information that could save the day, which he does, with a last minute appliance of science.

[Signor Mambrino]

Good attention to occult detail, but a pretty dumb story to be honest