Sherlock Holmes in Orbit

by Mike Resnick

Book Club Edition.

Genres: Mystery, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Steampunk, Fantasy

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Michael "Mike" Diamond Resnick, better known by his published name Mike Resnick, was a popular and prolific American science fiction author. He is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He was the winner of five Hugos, a Nebula, and other major awards in the United States, France, Spain, Japan, Croatia and Poland. and has been short-listed for major awards in England, Italy and Australia. He was the author of 68 novels, over 250 stories, and 2 screenplays, and was the editor of 41 anthologies. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He was the Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon and can be found online as @ResnickMike on Twitter or at www.mikeresnick.com.

Reviews

[cypt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visiškai simboliška knyga. Pradėjau skaityti per Holmso gimtadienį, baigiau per savo. Tai pirmoji šiemet perskaityta Holmso knyga - :( - ir paskutinė šiemetinio GR iššūkio knyga. Ir tt. Ir niekas nebuvo planuota, tiesiog šiandien sukrito. Arba - dėl mūsų likimo žvaigždės kaltos!

Nuo Holmso pastišų teko truputį atsitraukti, jau net susikaupė krūva nepradėtų. Šitoj knygoj (kurią oficialiai "autorizavo"=užskaitė Conan Doyle'io dukra!) surinktos trumpos istorijos, kurių didžioji dauguma Holmsą įtupdo į sci-fi žanro rėmus. Nesu jo ekspertė ir šiaip beveik ne skaitytoja, tai daug kas, kas turbūt gerbėjams ir gerbėjoms yra pabodę žanro tropai, man praplaukė pro šalį. Bet knyga vis tiek liko gražiai simboliška. Suskirstyta į 4 dalis: Holmsas praeityje; Holmsas dabartyje; Holmsas ateityje; Holmsas po mirties. Ten Holmsas bendrauja su ufonautais, tampa kompiuterio programa / holograma / ufonautu; net yra du cross-overiai su Alisa. Vienas jų - kvailas, o kitas - creepy. Absoliuti dauguma istorijų gana durnos, bet viena yra, nors irgi kvailoka, bent jau graži:

Holmsą ir Vatsoną laiko mašina transportuoja į ateitį (2096). Prašo ištirti, kur dingo 3 trilijonai ateivių: žmonės dedukuoja, kad nu jau tikrai kosmose turi būti protingų būtybių, bet kad jos neatsako į radijo bangų pranešimus. Kur dingo?? Holmsui įskiepija visą per 200 m. sukauptą žmonijos intelektinį kapitalą. Ir iš viso to jam prireikia... Šriodingerio. Nes 1893 m., prie Reichenbacho krioklių, Holmsas iš tiesų mirė (kai krito su Moriarčiu): Vatsonas, metaforiškai, atidarė dėžę ir pamatė, kad katė negyva, - nuo krioklio nebeveda pėdos, Holmsas nukrito ir žuvo. Paskui, per Didįjį pertrūkį, visa žmonija kolektyviai negalėjo patikėti, kad Holmso nebėra, - terorizavo Vatsoną, nedavė jam ramybės tol, kol Holmsas... grįžo iš mirusių. Žmonija savo tikėjimu pajudino kalną, kaip sakoma. Spoksojo į dėžę tol, kol katė atgijo. Ir viskas išsiderino: kai Holmsas atgijo, išsikreipė visi Žemės dėsniai, ateiviai nebeatsakė. Gali suprast, kad ir visi XX a. siaubai - dėl to paties. Nes žmonija labai norėjo iš numirusių prikelti Holmsą.

Kadangi kelionės laiku tame apsakyme įmanomos, Holmsas grįžta į 1893-iuosius numirti iš tikro, prieš tai perspėjęs Vatsoną, kad tas nepasiduotų, nebeparašytų jokių naujų apsakymų.

Man toj istorijoj susikaupęs visas fanų kultūros ir populiariųjų tekstų žavesys: kartais juose gali neįtikėtinai sukibti skirtingos plotmės. Šiuo atveju tai pasakojimas ir apie Holmsą kaip personažą, ir apie jo kūrimo istoriją. Savotiškai - ir apie fanficus, kurie iš paskutiniųjų bando prikelti mirusius personažus (ar tiesiog tuos, apie kuriuos neberašo jų tikrieji autoriai), bet taip tik iškreipia tikrovę, permeta skaitytojus į wishful thinking, į wishful tikrovę, ir taip, anot Eco, mes nebeišmokstame gyvenimo ir mirties pamokų, kurių turi mokyti literatūra. Savotiškai - apie tai, kas kartais vadinama vienu Holmso žavesio aspektų - kad tai nostalginis personažas, nukeliantis į laikus, kai galiojo aiškios taisyklės (aišku žavinga čia jei tu tais laikais kilmingas, vyr. g. intended), kai pasaulis dar nebuvo matęs nei Hirošimos, nei Aušvico. Sykiu - nežinau, ar mano jėgoms tą komentuoti, bet dar ir tolimas krikščioniškosios istorijos aidas ar antifrazė - kai prisikėlimas netampa išeitimi, kai jo visa širdim trokštama, bet jis vis tiek lieka pažeidimu, iškreipiančiu tikrovę. O gal tas ir nesikerta su Kristaus istorija - juk ir krikščionybėje prisikėlimas iškreipė tikrovę, išjudino pamatinius jos dėsnius. O kad Holmsas yra savotiška mesijinė figūra - gal XX a pradžioj dar ne, bet XXI a pr - tikrai.

Gražu ir liūdna, liūdna dar ir dėl to, kad supranti, jog tavo interpretacijos didžiąja dalimi yra wishful thinking, apauginęs tekstą, kuriame turbūt ir netelpa tiek daug, kiek ten išskaitai. Kaip Džordanos dainose. Kur žodžiai tikri, nesumeluoti?

[Amy H. Sturgis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many collections, this one includes some hits and some misses. It's divided into four sections: "Holmes in the Past," "Holmes in the Present," "Homes in the Future," and "Holmes After Death." On the whole, the majority of the stories are quite worth reading, and I'm glad I encountered these science fictional interpretations of Sherlock Holmes.

I quite liked "The Musgrave Version" by George Alec Effinger, a story told from Reginald Musgrave's point of view about Sherlock Holmes's early meeting with Fu Manchu.

"The Case of the Detective's Smile" by Mike Bourne is beautifully crafted tribute to Lewis Carroll - and to Sherlock Holmes, who, like Alice, has visited "that place." A truly charming and imaginative story.

"The Adventure of the Russian Grave" by William Barton and Michael Capobianco is a fun story about how Moriarty uses an asteroid to try to get revenge on Sherlock Holmes (and Watson) from beyond the grave (a precautionary measure, in case he didn't survive Reichenbach). Clever and unexpected!

One of the standout stories in the collection, "The Adventure of the Field Theorems" by Vonda N. McIntyre has it all: a snarky and skeptical Sherlock Holmes, an empathetic Dr. Watson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself (achingly naive), crop circles, and talks of spiritualism and Martians. A poignant and satisfying story about what we choose to believe and why.

"The Adventure of the Missing Coffin" by Laura Resnick is a bit too flippant for me, relying heavily on one-liners for its effect as two vampires square off in a competition to see who can land a contract with Bram Stoker first. Not funny enough to be a successful humor piece, and not well researched enough to be a good Holmesian pastiche, this became rather tiresome rather quickly.

Mark Aronson's "The Tale of the Second Scarf" is a somewhat unremarkable mystery in which Sherlock Holmes proves his deductive powers once again, but offworld, after an alien appears at 221B and invites him to consult about a murder. There's much missed opportunity here for Holmes and Watson to comment on extraterrestrial life and all they observe in it presence, as the story remains fixed solely on solving the crime.

Frank M. Robinson's "The Phantom of the Barbary Coast" brings Holmes and Watson to San Francisco in search of Irene Adler's missing sister. Although I spotted the solution to both mysteries (sister and phantom) quite early, I enjoyed seeing Holmes deduce while out of his geographic element, as well as learning more of Watson's past (in this case, some details about his short-lived 1st marriage). There's no science fiction here, really, but it's a good story.

Being lovingly playful with canon is one thing; making fun of it is another. Brian M. Thomsen's "The Mouse and the Master" tries so self-consciously to be witty (at canon's expense), it's annoying. There are nods to other 'verses (including Dracula, among others), but they're empty. The premise that Watson is a near-deaf fool who's gotten everything about Holmes wrong falls flat. There's a sham seance, but no science fiction.

Dean Wesley Smith's "Two Roads, No Choices" sends two time travelers to Holmes and Watson to ask their help in solving the mystery of why the Titanic didn't sink. Clever use of the "alternate universe" idea, as it suggests that, on "another road" (ours, perhaps?), Holmes attempted to restore the travelers' history by sending many of the Titanic's helpless passengers to their deaths."

Another standout story, John DeChancie's "The Richmond Enigma" is a very clever look at the paradoxes of time travel. Filby the solicitor asks Holmes to investigate the question of whether or not his client/friend - H.G. Wells's Time Traveler (a distant relation of Holmes's) - still lives. Well done indeed.

"A Study in Sussex" by Leah A. Zeldes packs a punch for such a short story. An elderly Watson is summoned to visit his friend in the country and "stand by" as Holmes conducts an experiment on himself. I'd call this weird fiction rather than straight-up science fiction; it's heavy on atmosphere and ends on a (somewhat improbable) note of wonder and hope.

Gary Alan Ruse's "The Holmes Team Advantage" is a fun, if not enthralling, tale about cloning.

Lawrence Schimel's "Alimentary, My Dear Watson" is a short, dark, strikingly effective piece crossing over into the universe of Alice from Lewis Carroll's books. This one will stick with me a while.

Byron Tetrick's "The Future Engine" plays off of Charles Babbage's idea for the difference engine to very good effect. I especially enjoyed the cleverness of Moriarty and the credit given the Baker Street Irregulars here. Nicely done. A favorite quote (describing the Irregulars as they approach): "Hark!" yelled Holmes, a smile on his face. "The sound of random variables."

Moving to "Holmes in the Present," Susan Casper's "Holmes Ex Machina" brings Hollywood special effects to literature - "These books are about to become a person" - and thus animates the "real" Sherlock Holmes. Loving, clever, and fun.

Craig Shaw Gardner's "The Sherlock Solution" is an enjoyable, witty look at what happens when a Sherlock Holmes program turns an entire tech company's employees into walking, talking Holmeses out to fight the computer virus known as Moriarty.

David Gerrold's "The Fan Who Molded Himself" is an ominous, eerie story positing that Sherlock Holmes was a time traveler, not a detective. This secret, handed down from one generation to the next, puts Watson's heirs in danger. I quite liked this one.

Another standout in this collection is Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "Second Fiddle," which is a very good read. A modern-day serial murder investigation brings Sherlock Holmes forward in time to consult. The solution to the mystery leaves the protagonist, a detective who resents and envies Holmes, food for thought about jealousy and its results. Holmes is very well drawn here, very aware of how his influence could twist or better the protagonist. A thoughtful premise well executed.

Kicking off the "Holmes in the Future" section, Josepha Sherman's "The Case of the Purloined L'isitek" is an empty story built on a series of (annoying) puns: the race of Shrr'loks living on the planet Kholmes, where the archeologist Dr. Watson goes. Definitely a weak link in the chain of this anthology.

Anthony R. Lewis's "The Adventure of the Illegal Alien," on the other hand, though short, is quite touching. An AI Holmes becomes Holmes with the help of his Watson.

Ralph Roberts's "The Greatest Detective of All Time" has a time-traveling Holmes and Watson fall into a trap - or is it lay a trap? - for Moriarty on Mars. The ending is a bit too neat, but the premise is clever.

In Jack Nimersheim's "Moriarty by Modem," Holmes is, and has always been, a computer program, and the same is true for Moriarty. This is a bittersweet and loving tale, which I quite enjoyed.

Barry N. Malzberg's "Dogs, Masques, Love, Death: Flowers" has the seed of something very interesting indeed, but unfortunately Malzberg is more enamored of his overwritten style than the story itself, and his meaning gets bogged down in the swamp of his prose.

"You See But You Do Not Deserve" by Robert J. Sawyer ends the "Holmes in the Future" section on a whimper rather than a bang. While the bring-Holmes-and-Watson-to-the-future premise, based on the desire to solve the Fermi paradox, is fascinating, the execution is woefully underwhelming, even self-contradictory. Sawyer can't spend any time away from his unpersuasive "infodump" for character development, either.

The final section, "Holmes After Death," has cute but lackluster entries. In "Illusions" by Janni Lee Simner, Arthur Conan Doyle finally gets proof to support his Spiritualist beliefs when a family member visits him from beyond the grave... to express his disapproval of "The Final Solution" and demand that Sherlock Holmes be brought back from the grave.

In Mike Resnick's "The Adventure of the Pearly Gate," Holmes is bored in heaven, but makes a deal with Saint Peter to be returned to earth post-Reichenbach.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Resnick is famous for editing & writing weird tales this is an odd ball of weird Holmes set not in Victorian times but in both time & space It is over 20ys since read this so love to read it again.

[tara bomp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick review: Overall it was probably more good than bad. I liked that the variety in stories meant that even the bad ones didn't matter much. There were a few really good stories too. Not something I'd recommend to many people but if you're into this sort of thing then it's good.

Best stories: The Adventure of the Field Theorems, The Greatest Detective of All Time
Worst Stories: The Mouse and the Master, The Adventure of the Pearly Gates

Short review of all the stories because hey why not right. Will contain minor spoilers for things revealed in the first few pages of a story, anything that's clearly intended to be an interesting reveal or is nearer the end is in spoiler tags.

The Musgrave Version: Sherlock Holmes meets Fu Manchu except narrated by the client from The Musgrave Ritual. The digs at Watson are a little amusing and I appreciate the attempts to talk about the racism with the Fu Manchu character while still keeping him an evil mastermind but nothing really happens. Dull but OK.

The Case of the Detective's Smile: Another crossover with Alice from Alice in Wonderland, except her real life inspiration. Again nothing much happens except MAGIC IS REAL. I found it a bit mawkish and excessive, it relies entirely on the interest of (kind of) seeing the crossover. Poor.

The Adventure of the Russian Grave: Holmes in an historical event witnessing a certain comet. The pretext for it is pretty flimsy and nothing much happens till the very end so you have to enjoy the pay off. I liked that it was all a very clever Moriarty trap from the grave though, even if it was a bit unlikely. OK.

The Adventure of the Field Theorems: a funny, clever, affectionate tribute to Conan Doyle, Houdini, magic and UFO stories that I highly recommend. Probably one of the best non-Doyle Holmes stories I've read. Probably benefits from the slightly extended length but makes the most of it and gives Holmes a chance to show his appreciation of other masters of a craft. Good character writing for Holmes and just enough detail to make a convincing mystery and retain a sci-fi element but without making it the centerpiece. Loved it.

The Adventure of the Missing Coffin: pretty funny joke story (although told in the third person! what a faux pas) that's another crossover although they only appear at the end. Features vampires and some pretty decent jokes. Obviously not super hilarious but I thought it was a funny play on the typical Holmes story + the supernatural while still sticking pretty closely to how they should go. I liked it.

The Adventure of the Second Scarf: Sherlock Holmes... in SPACEEE! Pretty mediocre because it gets tied up too hard in explaining the introduced sci fi elements which make things like the explanation kind of clumsy, but it's ok.

The Phantom of the Barbary Coast: Not really convinced by the attempted Irene Adler connection but hey. There's a reasonably interesting mystery revolving around some stuff I'd never heard of before the equivalent of pressganging except in the US but that are explained and are interesting and the villain is a corrupt policeman so that gets points in my book. Not brilliant but enjoyable enough.

Mouse and the Master: I really don't get this one, I feel it's a reference to something but I have no idea what. The main character is a stereotypical noir detective and the story is basically about how the accepted Holmes stories are all wrong and actually Holmes and Watson are very different etc but it's just... weird and doesn't pull it off at all. There are a couple funny lines but not much more. Watson gets turned into an old fool who makes up all the stories based on mishearings and Holmes is an arsehole. And then Holmes sends the detective to a spiritualist meeting which Watson has been taken in by where a load of fictional characters are trying to make contact with the other side. And then the detective stops the criminals by listening to a voice in his head. What??? It's just incoherent> Very strange

Two Roads No Choices: A time travel story and a pretty cool one. More like a "traditional" sci-fi story with Sherlock Holmes as a character, but I thought it dealt with the topic in an interesting way with a good set up, an attempt at a moral problem and an interesting ending with regards to determinism and the paradoxes of time travel. Good story.

The Richmond Enigma: Another crossover and also another time travel story, this time with the most famous time travel story of all time (probably) Quite a bit of it is repeating the story of its source material, which is a little silly, and the conclusion is a little dull. Holmes doesn't do any detecting and the time traveller just says "oh well I'll fly around a bit and destroy my time machine. woo" it just ends. Eh.

A Study in Sussex: Amazing. Genius. I highly recommend just reading it yourself unless you're scared of bees but given someone else has spoiled it I'll put the plot in spoiler tags because it deserves commemorating somewhere: Holmes has been injecting himself with bee venom, which has healed his old age complaints. He decides to inject himself with a massive amount with Watson watching. Overnight, he turns into a giant swarm of bees with his own conciousness and flies away. The ending is Watson injecting himself with the rest of the venom. Fin I wish I had this person's creative imagination to be honest. Bloody hell.

Holmes Team Advantage: There's a cloning machine used by evil people! And then Holmes clones himself! And the clones do stuff not described and then they die because they didn't get "molecularly stabilised". Eh. Does very little with the concept. Pretty dull.

Alimentary, My Dear Watson: OK, I was not expecting this. At all. Very short and that it's an Alice in Wonderland crossover is obvious from the first page. Worth warning for child sexual abuse (yeah) Makes a marked contrast to the reverent tone towards Carroll in the earlier story, here he gets eaten by the Cheshire Cat after all the characters from Alice in Wonderland trick him into a trap because he's been abusing Alice. Like. I mean. I wasn't expecting to read a story with a premise like that. At least Holmes immediately sympathised and helped cover the "murder" up

The Future Engine: There's an engine... that can predict or maybe even affect the future!! That's why it's called the future engine. Involving a descendant of Babbage. I laughed so hard when it was said the maths used to operate it is the "binomial theorem" and Holmes collapses in paroxysms over Moriarty. An alright caper, doesn't do enough with the concept, but it's ok. Oh also at the start Holmes gives a ridiculous speech extolling the incredible progressive virtues of the British empire and how the world is being lead into a glorious new age and then at the end he says actually progress is bad, because Moriarty was able to predict stock markets using a primitive computer. Incredible stuff, really makes you think

Then starts the modern/future stories, most of which resort to having Holmes be a computer program because I guess it's hard to find excuses to have him appear otherwise. The language used to talk about computers is pretty funny in general - I feel some of the authors had never used a computer. But only in an era where there was a sudden craze for all things "cyber" could a line like "computer, delete MORIARTY.DAT" be considered a fitting climax to a story. It's beautiful in a way.

Holmes Ex Machina: A guy uses computers to create a virtual "actor" of Holmes from the books, virtual Holmes solves a very simple mystery, nothing much happens. Oh, and instead of films everything is on "holos". The future!! Eh.

The Sherlock Solution: Another one that gets some points for creativity. Basically the entire staff of a company have been turned into Holmes through some transferral of a computer program that also released Moriarty into the world as an evil villain. Has a few funny bits and the ending clearly cries out for a sequel. It's alright.

The Fan Who Molded Himself: This is a pretty wild one that makes novel use of time travel and changing up our preconceived notions of the Holmes character. I liked the concept a lot anyway - I don't usually like Holmes was an arsehole or ~dark gritty~ stuff but I thought this was clever/creative enough that it worked well. And it's pretty scary!. I liked this a lot.

Second Fiddle: The descriptions of the murder are pretty brutal. Definitely much more "modern" crime style than a lot of the others. Holmes gets pulled to present day California by time travel to solve a murder (the only sci-fi bit is to get the plot started) with an investigator who's mad at being upstaged. By the end, he has a healthier view of things. Kind of. Possibly. Pretty decent, although I could have done without some of the ~grittier~ stuff.

Moriarty by Modem: Another "Holmes is a computer program" thing. Not very exciting, nothing much happens, although I liked the attempt at a dramatic ending in the CYBERWORLD. Kind of. OK.

The Greatest Detective of All Time: Fun premise, Holmes is literally what the title says so he and Watson get consulted on things by many time travellers to solve mysteries in their own times. And Moriarty acts as the counterpart for future villains. Does some cool stuff with the concept/time travel, has a mystery of sorts, entertaining ending, pretty good.

The Case of the Purloined L'Isitek: A story existing for the sake of a few abominable puns. Here Holmes's place is taken by an alien that shares his name. Pretty pedestrian mystery but it's OK. Having someone who's not Holmes but acts like him as a joke makes it a bit better than average generic mystery.

The Adventure of the Illegal Alien: Holmes as AI in an incoherent and mercifully short story. Takes on a client, solves the mystery by calling in a favour of a descendant (?) of Mycroft by saying he's Holmes even though he's an AI and the dude somehow totally accepting it, then lies to the client because Holmes is some sort of British patriot who covers up murder for commercial gain now apparently?? Oh and the AI computer gets wiped but he disappears into the Internet somehow. And a policeman is a dolphin. Just really bad and insulting and makes a mess of the character of Holmes as well as barely making sense through sloppy writing.

Dogs, Masques, Love, Death, Flowers: Two bad stories in a row! If anyone has the slightest clue what's going on in this story please tell me. Set on a spaceship where people are in cold storage or something with a load of stream of conciousness passages that are incomprehensible because they hint at a setting behind the story that's impossible to understand or guess at. I have no idea what happens at the ending, what the motive for the murder was, how it happened, why any of the things in the story happened in fact. Just a total mess. The idea of robots based on fictional detectives is cute though.

You See But You Do Not Observe: This is a kind of "cute" story, where Holmes solves the Fermi paradox - in the most ridiculous way with a load of gobbledegook "science", of course, but it's fun nonetheless. Ending spoilers: Of course, the problem is that Holmes got resurrected by the power of people's will to see him again after his death at Reichenbach, putting Earth out of sync with the rest of the universe and preventing contact with aliens! What a great+totally ridiculous idea. It's at least coherent within itself and takes an interesting angle compared to a lot of the stories. I liked it a lot.

Illusions: A fun, short story with Conan Doyle as the main character. He attends a spiritualist seance in the hope of making contact with the great beyond and meeting someone: his uncle, who demands he make more Sherlock Holmes stories. A cute, amusing, light story that'd have been a great ending to the collection imo.

The Adventure of the Pearly Gate: But instead, we get this. Congrats to the author for saying that 3 of Jack The Ripper's victims are in hell! What an unpleasant thing to say, especially as it's pretty easily guessable why he'd think that (and it's a really really bad reason). The rest of the story is naff as heck - I don't think Holmes meeting St Peter is something even the best authors could write well, and it certainly doesn't come across well here. Features Holmes being *bored of heaven*, which is uh... yeah. It's just a really ridiculous view of heaven that's both not interesting and also would probably be kind of insulting if you believed in it. The whole way Jack the Ripper and his victims are talked about is also really insulting and just bizarre too - like because he's "insane" he can't recognise "fake" Pearly Gates unlike everyone else?? None of his victims are in heaven?? I dunno. Just a bizarre, unpleasant story that's a shame to end the book on.

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another collection of sci-fi Holmes pastiches; this one is much better than Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space, despite opening, for some bizarre reason, with what's by far the worst story in the whole book. (Profic writers really could learn a thing or two from fandom. Rule No. 1: Don't character bash. Rule No. 2: DON'T CHARACTER BASH.) I suspect this is because all these stories were written specifically for this anthology, while the other was a collection of previously published stuff. Thus, the focus of these tales is much more the actual Sherlock Holmes (and sometimes—but not nearly enough—Watson), and not characters merely similar to him. So, while none of the stories were what I'd call revelatory—I still haven't found my ideal Sherlock Holmes sci-fi pastiche (maybe I'll have to write it myself)—the collection as a whole was quite enjoyable. Though I wish someone would give Watson a bit more love. *pouts*

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several of the stories were quite good. Some were not.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Sherlock Holmes stories with a science fiction or fantasy element. Quite a number involve time travel (interactions with The Time Machine particularly popular). Many are parodies, and most of the poor stories are the ones where the humour doesn't work.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short-story fanfictions about Sherlock Holmes, all with a speculative fiction bent. There are tales about ghosts and robots and lots and lots of time travel. The best of the bunch is the "The Adventure of the Missing Coffin," a parody by Laura Resnick wherein Holmes is hired by a vampire to find his missing coffin. My least favorite was "A Study in Sussex” by Leah A. Zeldes which is truly bizarre. Holmes, while experimenting with immortality, turns himself into a swarm of bees.

[BBoz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of the stories in this collection are painfully average, but there are definitely some gems that make the book worth reading.

Stories I really enjoyed (not necessarily adherent to the premise of Sherlock, but fun & enjoyable nonetheless):
The Adventure of the Missing Coffin, The Phantom of the Barbary Coast, Moriaty by Modem

Stories I found to be BRILLIANT (based on how well the author leveraged the sci-fi elements to construct solid logical deductions and a unique investigation process):
The Adventure of the Second Scarf, The Future Engine, Second Fiddle

To get this out of the way: I liked Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century as a kid, so I have no prejudice against sci-fi Sherlock stories. I believe a sci-fi setting allows the writer to freely construct intricate and interesting logical puzzles, when the story doesn't have to strictly abide by the limitations of reality. A sci-fi Sherlock story has the potential to be extraordinary. Some authors in this book attempted to do so with their stories - A few succedded; Others produced out-of-nowhere solutions that felt like lazy & convenient explanations of the impossible, rather than a logical train of thought based on established in-universe rules that the readers could work out.

Not all authors went for the "logical deduction" approach though. Many of the stories here can hardly be classified as Sherlock stories at all (or even detective / mystery stories). Quite a few of them made me wonder why some of the authors agreed to write for this book in the first place, if they cared nothing for the spirit of Sherlock. But, some of those off-genre works were thoroughly entertaining as a light read!

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though there are some readable tales here, for the most part it doesn't live up to expectations.
First,the book IS all original stories, & the book IS well organized, divided into Holmes of the Past, Holmes of the Present, & Holmes of the future.
From the title and lead-in , I would expect most stories to be in the present or future categories, but the majority are set in the same London as the original.
Third, plot details. I know some probably think I'm a little too picky about plot, but that's a REQUIREMENT in detective fiction, especially when the stories are about THE Detective; those tiny little details are what makes a Holmes story. Which brings up a related point: Time travel; a number of these stories attempt it, but as I just said, details matter in this sort of thing, so they just shouldn't. The original Holmes had fits over tiny details; he would have absolute stroke over genuine Paradox! The only legitimate Holmes theme involving time travel would be to disprove it!!

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

While one or two stories were worth reading the rest were, at best, boring or pointless (one spent a few pages trying to establish that Watson is a jealous, compulsive liar, and that the adventures of Holmes are either made up or another man aided him...that's it, no actual story-line...come to think of it, there were three stories written around this basis in one way or another) and, at worst, offensive to true Sherlock fans (Sherlock is a meth addict with schizophrenia whose sidekick is an imbecile, neither has ever left their shared apartment which stinks of every body fluid imaginable...this one fits into the previous category of Sherlock/Watson being shams).

[Anthony Granziol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not all short stories are wonderful to all audiences. Even ones that are focused on a specific character or idea. This compilation is no exception.

That being said, there is so much that is good here. So many tasty tales and bite-sized bits of Holmesian goodness that will appeal to a variety of fans and folks who like neat stories with a dash of mystery and logic in them.

You probably won't enjoy all of them. I don't and I cannot think of anyone who does. But you should find at least a few shining ones that speak to you and make you smile.

[Jean-Pierre Vidrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of post-Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories is not the least bit traditional, yet it is entirely enjoyable. Styles range from holding close to feeling like Doyle to nowhere near his type of wording. Sometimes this leads to near incomprehensibility. But whether the story is good, great, or head scratching, it is always compelling.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

My lowest rating. The stories started as mediocre and went steadily down. I was hoping for an imaginative reimaging of Holmes, what I got was a mishmash of cliches. Waste.

[Read1000books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been a classical (or originalist) Sherlockian, meaning a strong point of view that the characters belong and do best in their own time period and location (i.e. Victorian London or thereabouts). However, this volume of short stories, each with a little or a lot of sci-fi elements, was worth a read through. The 26 selections are grouped into four categories: Holmes in the past, in the present, in the future, and after death. Some were silly ("The Sherlock Solution", "The Adventure of the Missing Coffin"); some were hard to understand ("Dogs, Masques, Love, Death: Flowers"); some way out on the fantasy side (something about dolphin police officers) some bizarre ("A Study In Sussex"), but a fair portion were quite good and stood out, such as "The Adventure of the Russian Grave", "The Future Engine", and "The Richmond Enigma". Not so much mystery, but for old time sci-fi readers and Holmes aficionados with an expansionist mindset, give it a try.

[Jose Luis Meza Garcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normally when you collect short stories not all of them are good or even great, but in this case only 2 or 3 of them gave me the feeling that I was reading a Sherlock Holmes story hence the 2 stars.

Of all the stories, the one that struck me the most was the encounter of Holmes with St Peter in heaven, yup Holmes in Heaven!

The stories truly try to take Holmes where he hasn't been before and in that part they succeed. I just wish they could have wrote better stories in those scenarios (past, present and future). Still, if you feel curious read it; I hope you liked it more than me.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall this is a very good theme-anthology which features all things Sherlockian. It's divided into four sections, with Holmes in the past, the present, the future, and after death. As with all such volumes there are highs and lows; it's essentially fan-fiction, after all, and I tended to most enjoy the stories that seemed to me to be closest to the original. Almost all of these stories had a fantasy or science-fiction-themed slant, but I still think Doyle may well have approved.

[Matt Kuhns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is among the best Sherlock Holmes anthologies I have read, for consistent quality. Out of 26 stories, several were excellent, nearly all were enjoyable, and only a few didn't really work for me.

Anyone with an open mind about departures from the traditional canon approach to Holmes should give this one a look.

[Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better anthologies, some of the most interesting stories were the ones where Holmes crossed paths with a Vampire, Dr. Fu Manchu, Lewis Carroll, and an author by the name of Arthur Conan Doyle.

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought a second hand copy of this book.

See my note in my blog:

[http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/20...]

[ClaR3Sa Siu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a nerve wrecking story...>3<

[Viking · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Sort of fun to read new Sherlock stories.

[Astraia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book with a wide variety of faux-Holmes tales that are delightful to non sci-fi readers as well

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this anthology a lot. There's a number of different styles of SF here and different styles of mystery. Well worth a read to mystery fans, Sherlockians, and SF fans as well.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

As is usual with books of this sort, some were better than others. A few were excellent.

[Amit]

Let me read first

[Lilit]

handsome book!!!!