β Scribed by Barbara Hambly; Kim Newman; Barbara Roden; Bob Madison; Christopher Sequeira; Chris Roberson; Peter Calamai; Jeff Campbell; Charles Prepolec; David Stuart Davies
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
In his foreword, David Stuart Davies asserts that the authors of these 11 stories pitting Holmes against the supernatural are very well-versed in the world of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Unfortunately, this authority fails to come through. The eloquence of the one standout, Barbara Roden's The Things That Shall Come Upon Them, only emphasizes what the others lack. Roden effortlessly involves Holmes in a mystery derived from M.R. James's classic tale of terror, Casting the Runes, featuring psychic sleuth Flaxman Low. By contrast, Martin Powell's Sherlock Holmes in the Lost World sees Holmes battling ape-men and dinosaurs without any display of his remarkable intellect, and M.J. Elliott's The Finishing Stroke pays so much homage as to neglect originality. As a whole, this mixed bag fails to differentiate itself from other similar anthologies. (Nov.)
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This one seems like a natural. Itβs well known that Sherlock Holmesβ creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, was deeply interested in the paranormal, a subject bursting with possibilities for the kind of mystery that only Holmes could solveβexcept that Conan Doyle had firmly established Holmes as investigating only real-world cases with real-world, logical solutions. This anthology, featuring such writers as Barbara Hambly, Chris Roberson, and Kim Newman, purports to present the kinds of Holmes stories Conan Doyle might have written if he had allowed Holmes to become involved with the otherworldly. The stories are a mixed lot, with characters ranging from Peter Pan to a 1940s Los Angeles private eye to old friends like Professor Moriarty and Inspector Lestrade, but unfortunately some of them read not like a story Conan Doyle might have written but like fan fictionβlong on imagination but short on execution. Others, however, are a lot of fun, well written and entertaining. Holmes devotees may be a bit disappointed, but fans of fantastic fiction should be happy to see the famous detective stepping into their world. --David Pitt
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