Review: Journey to the Core of Creation: A Romance of Evolution, Brian Stableford, 2011.

For one of Stableford’s August Dupin stories, the plot here is fairly simple. As the title suggests, there is also a lot more scientific speculation in this story than others in the series. But, as usual in these books, Stableford hangs multiple meanings on his title. Here it is not only the evolution of life as a whole but that of a single human.

Fittingly, we get some back stories on our main characters.

Our narrator, unnamed thus far in the series, is Samuel Reynolds. Hardcore Edgar Allan Poe buffs will recognize the name as part of Poe’s delirious utterings as he lay dying. At novel’s end, Reynolds makes an interesting statement: he wishes he wouldn’t have made notes on the whole experience. He really doesn’t like being reminded of it. As with “The Legacy of Erich Zann” and, to a lesser extent, The Quintessence of August, Reynolds seems to have a protective amnesia about his experiences.

And Dupin’s early life is also revealed.

It’s the spring of 1847, and political tensions are high in France.

Dupin and Lucien Groix, the head of Paris’s police and another frequent series character, hung about the salon of Achille Maret when they were young. They were both in love with the beautiful, teasing, manipulative Julie, Maret’s daughter.

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