The Disappearing Dwarf

The Disappearing Dwarf (1983) is James Blaylock’s second published book, and the second of the trilogy that started with The Elfin Ship. The characters are mostly drawn from the first book, while the plot revolves around another encounter with the villain Selznak. As before, the world has magic well as pseudo-science, and scientific explanation depends on tongue-in-cheek scientific concepts.

The story is set in a world in which human beings live alongside elves, dwarves, goblins, and other fanciful beings including linkmen, a kind of gnome.

Plot summary

Professor Wurzle, a know-it-all scientist, inveigles Jonathan, the master cheeseman of the High Valley, into accompanying him on a trip downriver. Wurzle's real plan is to revisit Hightower Castle, from which the heroes routed Selznak in the previous novel. There the pair discover a treasure map and encounter Miles the Magician, a travelling wizard, in a nearby inn. Miles alerts them that the Squire, a linkman they befriended in the previous novel, has disappeared. Learning that Selznak was seen nearby at the time they fear the worst.

The trio travel to the Territory, ruled by the Squire's father. There they once again encounter linkmen poets Bufo and Gump, as well as Twickenham the elf, who flies the mysterious elfin airship. Twickenham and Miles determine that the Squire has accidentally activated the Lumbog Globe, a magical paperweight allowing travel into the land of Balumnia. Balumnia can also be reached through magical doors, using one Jonathan, Ahab, the Professor, Miles, Bufo, and Gump enter Balumnia.

The group has adventures as they make their way to Landsend, a major port and subject of the treasure map. The dark presence of Selznak and an omnipresent, sinister witch is mitigated by light encounters with an inept stage magician, and an extraordinarily extended panegyric to the virtues of coffee. In Landsend the adventurers encounter the natural fool Dooly with his grandfather Theophile Escargot, who trades in Balumnia using his marvellous submarine. After searching for the treasure, the group splits and Jonathan, Ahab, and the Professor find themselves once again menaced by the evil Selznak, who is plotting to use the Lumbog Globe to terrorize the High Valley. As in the previous novel, however, unexpected allies such as the Strawberry Baron and Cap'n Binky of the magical blend prove crucial in resolving the plot.^[1]

Literary Precedents

The first novel Blaylock wrote to completion was The Man in the Moon, a fantasy inspired by Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows,^[2] Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Brownies and the Goblins by Nathaniel Moore Banta, and illustrations by Arthur Rackham.^[3] Submitted for publication circa 1978, the novel was initially rejected by editor Lester Del Rey and subsequently rewritten and published as The Elfin Ship in 1982.^[3] In 1983 The Disappearing Dwarf reunited the characters for a second adventure.

References

1. ↑ James Blaylock, The Disappearing Dwarf, Ballantine, 1984.
2. ↑ The Internet Speculative Fiction Database
3. 1 2 James Blaylock, The Man in the Moon, Subterranean Press, 2002, p. 233.

• Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works:Light-Hearted Science-Fiction & Fantasy Books http://greatsfandf.com/humorous-books.php
• Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books by James Blaylock http://greatsfandf.com/AUTHORS/JamesBlaylock.php
• Of Steam and Stuff: A Conversation with James P. Blaylock http://www.sybertooth.com/blaylock/intervew.htm