Zeuglodon: The True Adventures of Kathleen Perkins, Cryptozoologist by James P. BlaylockZeuglodon: The True Adventures of Kathleen Perkins, Cryptozoologist by James P. Blaylock

fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsEleven year old Kathleen Perkins considers herself a scientist — a cryptozoologist, to be exact. She studies legendary animals. According to Kathleen, “legendary” just means that they don’t appear very often. (“You can hardly blame them.”)

Kathleen’s mother disappeared in a submersible while trying to find the entrance to Pellucidar, so Kathleen now lives with her orphaned cousins Perry and Brendan at her eccentric uncle’s house. Uncle Hedge, who runs a little seaside museum of strange objects, is a member of the Guild of St. George, a secret society of men and women who fight the plots of an evil genius named Dr. Hilario Frosticos. Kathleen and her cousins love Uncle Hedge but their neighbor Ms. Peckworthy, “a member of a very troublesome do-gooder society,” is trying to get the kids reassigned to their Aunt Ricketts who would probably be a more suitable guardian.

When a pale stranger and a mermaid show up looking for an old key that may be in Uncle Hedge’s museum, the three cousins and their dog are drawn into a dangerous adventure. Along the way they must contend with an island made of ice, Ms. Peckworthy, a giant skeleton, the kinds of creatures that only a cryptozoologist could love, Social Services and, of course, Dr. Hilario Frosticos.

Zeuglodon is a fun adventure story — it’s fast-paced, entertaining, and delightfully absurd. Kathleen’s charming voice (it’s written in the first person) is the star of the show. It’s impossible not to like her, to admire both her wild imagination and her desire to be a good scientist, and to appreciate her understanding that she’s writing for a skeptical audience:

“You can believe in Pellucidar or not, and I won’t blame you if you don’t. But like I said before, no one believed in Japan, either, until they got there, and then there they were.”

Perry and Brendan, who are sometimes looking over Kathleen’s shoulder as she writes, giving her help or suggestions about her style and structure, each have their own distinctive and likable personalities. The children value both their traditional and non-traditional educations and are eager to apply their knowledge and experience to their new adventure.

I was surprised at the end of Zeuglodon. I expected some things to get resolved that didn’t. I liked this mysterious but optimistic ending and I sincerely hope that James P. Blaylock will be producing further adventures for Kathleen and her cousins. Zeuglodon was a fun read. I’ve given my copy to my 13-year-old son.

Published in 2012. A skeletal hand clutching an iron key lies hidden within a mermaid’s wooden sarcophagus; a hand-drawn map is stolen from beneath the floorboards an old museum; an eccentric sleeping inventor dreams of a passage to the center of the hollow earth, and by dreaming of the passage, brings it into being…. Pursued by kidnappers thinking of riches and murder, Katherine Perkins and her two cousins, junior members of The Guild of St. George, must descend into the depths of the hollow earth in order to return the Sleeper to his ancestral home on the shores of Lake Windermere. But to awaken him might mean the end of his dream, the closing of the Windermere Passage, and the three intrepid explorers marooned in a savage land forgotten by time itself…. Zeuglodon, set in the world envisioned in James Blaylock’s The Digging Leviathan, is a landscape of color, mystery, and adventure, in which reality and fantasy are shifting currents, and nothing is quite what it seems to be.

(fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews) steampunk fantasy book reviews James P. Blaylock The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives, The Ebb Tide steampunk fantasy book reviews James P. Blaylock The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives, The Ebb Tide steampunk fantasy book reviews James P. Blaylock The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives, The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic book reviewsRiver's Edge Kindle Edition by James P. Blaylock (Author)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE LANGDON ST IVES STORIES.

Author

  • Kat Hooper

    KAT HOOPER, who started this site in June 2007, earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University (Bloomington) and now teaches and conducts brain research at the University of North Florida. When she reads fiction, she wants to encounter new ideas and lots of imagination. She wants to view the world in a different way. She wants to have her mind blown. She loves beautiful language and has no patience for dull prose, vapid romance, or cheesy dialogue. She prefers complex characterization, intriguing plots, and plenty of action. Favorite authors are Jack Vance, Robin Hobb, Kage Baker, William Gibson, Gene Wolfe, Richard Matheson, and C.S. Lewis.

    View all posts