Customer Reviews

The Amazing Dr. Darwin

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At the dawning of the enlightenment, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, stands as a voice of reason. England is beset with rumor of the supernatural--vampires, werewolves, and demons. Darwin approaches everything with an open-minded skepticism. Together with his treasure-anxious sidekick, Colonel Jacob Pole, Darwin delves deep into the mysteries that confront 18th century England finding, among other things, the Loch Ness Monster, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and a forgotten race of humans.

Author Charles Sheffield has created a charming set of stories of a past not too different from our own. Darwin contains the best of Sherlock Holmes as well as the gluttony of Nero Wolfe. I suspect that Sheffield meant his novel to be a reminder to us, in the 21st Century, to always remember to look to rational and scientific causes before we ascribe whatever we see to the supernatural or unexplainable. It is easy to see why Sheffield, a scientist, would choose Erasmus Darwin as his hero.

THE AMAZING DR. DARWIN is both powerful and amusing. Darwin is fallible enough to be sympathetic, and Pole is sympathetic without being completely brainless.

This is a revised and expanded version of Charles Sheffield's earlier (1982) Ace paperback "Erasmus Magister". But neither the Introduction nor the cover tells you this.

The hero of this book is Erasmus Darwin, the real-world grandfather of Charles Darwin. He apparently was quite a spectacular observer and thinker, quite in the Sherlock Holmes mode. Indeed, a couple of the stories remind me greatly of Sherlock Holmes, one in particular of Hound of the Baskervilles. There are several novellas in this book, each of which stands alone. As another reviewer mentioned, this is an expanded version of the earlier Erasmus Magister, but it does have new stories that make it quite a buy, especially at this price!

Very readable and enjoyable. If you have an interest in the period, or are a fan of Sheffield's writing, you'll enjoy it.