THE HOMUNCULUS; David H. Keller, M.D. Prime Press
$3.00 (16/6). (Reviewed by K.F.S.)
The good doctor, who has been authoring s-f takes for some long time, can generally be relied upon to pull a fresh rabbit out of his hat periodically. In this book he pulls out a baby, or rather his hero does. The method used a that of paracelus, and this little experiment in masculine parthogenesis, as performed by Colonel Bumble, is definitely first-grade fantasy.
Apart, however, from the fantastic - in our sense of the word - appeal of this book, it has many other good points. Dr. Keller has excelled himself in the whimsical treatment of his hero, Col. Bumble, and the other characters in the story. Humour is present in plenty; a dash of bitters in the form of pathos is added so that the book will not be too sweet for our mental palates.
Interwoven into the plot are a number of finer threads; Col. Bumble's explanation of evolution, forced upon man by the greed of women; the "true" birth of man, as expounded by a character who should know. The efforts of a "sob-sister" reporter to bring disrepute on the name of Bumble are "epics;" however, it does not pay to take a story to bits, it is meant to be read as a whole and should be treated as such, I imagine. Incidents from the book stick in my mind, neverrtheless, and so I note them ... the desire of the good Colonel to go to gaol, in his own home town ... he describes it as "a life long ambition"; I wonder if it is - or was - also an ambition of Dr. Keller's? I think the Doctor has drawn heavily on his own personal experiences for many parts of the book, and for the many facets of Col. Bumble, who starts off the story with a desire "to build a hole," and who refutes his wife's claim that you can't build a hole, you can only dig one. But from where did the Doctor draw the character of Lilith? She who is every man's desire, and who fills that part in the lives of some of the characters to their disadvantage.
But perhaps I appear to wax too enthusiastic. There is a reason, and it is simple. I have long wanted to add to my collection of books a story that was fantasy, and contained much of that delightfully dry humour often found in "detective" fiction, but so very rarely in "fantasy." And now I have ... THE HOMUNCULUS is it!
Data entry by Judy Bemis
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