The Digging Leviathan

Journey to the center of the Earth...
Giles Peach was unique. He was born with a neat set of gills on either side of his neck - and webbed fingers. He enjoyed reading (Edgar Rice Burroughs was his favorite author) and he liked to invent things.
First he invented a working model of the Solar System, powered by the motor from an old electric fan. Next he invented a mechanical man whose legs were roped-together tin cans. Finally he began work on the grandest invention of all: a machine that would burrow to the center of the Earth, a digging leviathan.
Absurd? Perhaps. But Giles Peach had the power to make his wildest fantasies come true...
"A literally wonderful novel." --Tim Powers
"Blaylock is an original author grounded in the quintessential classics, yet ready without notice to astonish: not only with what he reveals to us but how." --Philip K. Dick