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BOOK REVIEW: THE IMPROBABLE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
Anthology: editor John Joseph Adams
Nightshade Books, San Francisco, 2009, hardcover, 455 pages
Reviewed by Tom Hamilton
This book includes 28 stories, 25 of which previously appeared in a wide
variety of venues. All use the Holmes canon, but with decided "alternate"
content. Well known historical personages appear in various stories, including
Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, and Jack the Ripper. Neil Gaiman's contribution is
the most unusual, being set in a universe where Cthulhu's creatures conquered
Earth in the Eleventh Century. London's leading consulting detective is a Prof.
Moriarty, with a Col. Sebastian Moran as his aide. They are trying to track the
killers of one of the Suggoth princes, a limping doctor and his tall friend, a
master of disguise.
Familiar characters appear in the various stories, including Mrs Hudson,
Lestrade, and Holmes' brother Mycroft. Watson is his usual obtuse self in most
stories, even failing to remember Galileo's experiment droipping weights from
the Tower of Pisa. Many of the titles do a fine job of imitating the style of
the canonical 56 stories and four novels. One case is "solved" by Watson.
Authors include some well known names. In addition to Gaiman we have
Anthony Burgess, Steven King, Vonda McIntyre, Michael Moorcock, Tanith Lee,
Robert J. Sawyer, and many others.
As a long time reader of Holmes stories (I have a collection of the original
60 from the 1920s, inherited from my father) I thoroughly enjoyed this
collection, and recommend it without hesitation.
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