Customer Reviews

The Great Detective at the Crucible of Life

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is more than an adventure novel; it is far more than just another untold chapter in the life of Sherlock Holmes. By mixing elements of Doyle, Haggard, Verne, Collins, Kipling, and others, Thos. Kent Miller has created a remarkable literary melting pot that will certainly appeal to fans of Alan Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" series or of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton universe. By using a voice other than Watson's usual eye-witness account, Miller avoids the difficulties inherent in many pastiches; nothing in the writing style should distract the reader from enjoying the epic quest(s) the protagonists undertake in this tale. Their discoveries include both the physical and metaphysical, and Miller leaves the reader with new ideas that will linger for some time to come.

This story might be over the heads of some, but I found it fascinating. I think the reviewer that said it was convoluted must have read a different story than I did. I highly recommend this book, and am hoping the author will give us more of the same.

I thoroughly enjoyed Thomas Kent Miller's The Great Detective at the Crucible of Life.The characters were well developed and interesting. It took a different approach to Sherlock Holmes pastiches which made more interesting. I found it intriguing and stimulating. I couldn't wait to finish the book and at the same time not wanting it to end. I look forward to reading more of Miller's work.JWC SEAL 76

Fiction can either present a narrative alone, with descriptions and dialogue and such, or it can present the narrative in the context of all the things that went on to make the narrative--specifically the physical reality of the narrative--possible. This book is one of the latter, with possibly more apparatus than you've ever seen before, more than fifty pages worth. (About fifty at the very beginning.) If you typically do not read prefaces and introductions and authors' notes and footnotes and afterwords, you must change your habits for this book or miss out on all the fun. Sure, there's a story. Allan Quatermain is persuaded to lead a bunch of people into Africa to find some things. They have all sorts of adventures along the way. And what they find surprises all of them, and all of us, too. But the book is not the adventure story. The book is the adventure story as related through several narrators, including H.P. Lovecraft! Therein lies its charm. This is a world in which establishing credibility is the main thing, in which madeup facts and historical facts are mixed together, are treated, indeed as equal. This is a world, in short, in which figures like Thos. Kent Miller and Conan Doyle and H. Rider Haggard have just as much reality as Sherlock Holmes or Allan Quatermain.

I won't say I couldn't put this book down. Of course I did, several times, to eat, to sleep. But I didn't WANT to, that's the point! It's great good fun. It's only fault, if it has one, is that it's too short. Truly. I mean that as more than idle praise. It does not develop some of its lines as much as I would have liked. But that's just me. If you like your fiction to go over the top trying to convince you that it's just historical fact, as I do, you will love this book.

This labor of love by Thos. Kent Miller, to give the preferred abbreviation, is NOT your father's Sherlock Holmes pastiche. That is to say, drop any preconceived notions you might have of what a Sherlock Holmes pastiche SHOULD be, or you're liable to end up sputtering incoherently with rage like AQ after the, "OK, I wasn't COMPLETELY honest about what I am looking for; I'm also looking for THIS..." scene or for that matter like a few of this book's previous reviewers.

To begin with, this is primarily an Allan Quatermain pastiche; Sherlock Holmes is present though not identified until the Afterward (for the totally clueless). Second, Mr. Miller is clearly doing something of a gentle send up of pastiches in general what with TWO Editor's Notes to non-existing editions, a Preface about a fictional phone call, a Forward by John H. Watson, M.D., an Introduction by Allan Quatermain, and an Afterward, all running to THIRTY pages accompanying a tale told by Allan Quatermain, transcribed by John H. Watson, M.D., revised by H. P. Lovecraft, and finally "edited" by Thos. Kent Miller, containing lots of Footnotes, Endnotes, and three Digressions into supporting documents supposedly written by John H. Watson, M.D., Alberto Cardinal Cigliutti, and Bors, Count of Mainz, (not to mention fragments of a lost gospel), concerning an expedition whose members include both historical figures and fictional characters from the pens of H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, and Wilkie Collins in search of one or more of the following: A missing and presumed dead emperor? Fossils of the ancestors of the human race? A surviving part of the Library of Alexandria? The "graveyard of iron meteorites"? Lost notebooks or paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci? A lost gospel? The Holy Grail? A lost city? A reincarnation of the Mother Goddess? The end result is a rollicking old-fashioned African adventure/murder mystery that can be enjoyed at several levels, starting with abject awe at the sheer audacity (and considerable success) of an author attempting to write both as himself and as about five other people, if I've counted right. "With an emphasis in Creative Writing" indeed!

Defects? First, IMHO Mr. Miller attempts to do too much in one book. Two literary characters are brought back for little purpose I can see other than dying, and, as is the case with most historical pastiches, relatively little of consequence ends up actually happening because that would change too much history, real and fictional.

SPOILER ALERT

Second, the attempted admixture of fiction and religion here is a little cringeworthy, and not merely because the thickly laid on veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus, will remind forgetful Protestants of that particular cause for the schism with Rome. It basically amounts to a Voice from God proclaiming Evolution as FACT. Leaving aside the long, long list of reasons THAT could never happen, the problem is that this idea, Theistic Evolution, the hoped for point of compromise between Evolution and Christianity, is an absolutely untenable middle ground between two completely opposed views of science, history, and the meaning of life, though in fairness this wouldn't have been as obvious during the time period of this story.

END OF SPOILER

Still, if you can get past the religiosity, you are in for a fun trip. I'm looking forward to reading the two sequels: Sherlock Holmes in The Great Detective on the Roof of the World formerly published as Sherlock Holmes on the roof of the world, or, The adventure of the wayfaring God and "The Great Detective At The Dawn Of Time".

_The Great Detective at the Crucuble of Life_ is truly a great adventure story of the lost race/hidden civilization genre. Kent weaves a masterful tale recovered from the legendary Allan Quatermain that is "edited" by such literary giants as Dr. John Watson and H.P. Lovecraft. The true joys of this book lie in its tendencies toward the epistolary. Quatermain has an epic adventure in which he crosses paths with our itinerant hero Holmes; however, Quatermain's narrative is actually "revealed" several times over in the course of the document's existence--as recorded by Watson and edited by others, including Lovecraft, Jim Turner (Arkham House) and Kent (predominantly). In other words, the real story lies in the front material and the editor's notes to the text. Not reading this material does the reader a terrible disservice.

I found the book to be very entertaining and difficult to put down. I have this nagging itch for stories that reveal the mysteries of time, and this little exfoliate especially provided me gratification as I sifted through its many layers because of its qualities as a "lost" story that is discovered and revealed through happenstance and vision.

Excellent work!

I'm more of a fan of H. Rider Haggard's fiction than A. Conan Doyle's, but I think that Mr. Miller is a worthy enough writer to reanimate the protagonists of both those gentlemen's characters in his own fiction. To those Sherlock Holmes purists who have concerns with The Great Detective at the Crucible of Life not being a straightforward Holmes mystery, I say chill out and just try it. This book has the virtue of being unique in a sort of textual "League of Extraordinary Gentleman" kind of way, blending various fiction(Quartermain, Hans, Holmes, Axel Lindenbrock) and non-fiction characters (Sir Richard Burton, Maria Mitchell, Frederick Church) in an entertaining, multifaceted adventure that also makes you think about the amazing world we live in, many parts of which are still as yet unknown to us, where we came from and how far, and what might lie unseen and unknown beyond the horizon. I urge anybody who hasn't yet read it to buy a copy and see for yourself.

This story is an Allan Quartermain adventure, and a excellent one, so the author need not be ashamed. Mr. Miller might be said to possess the spirit of H. Rider Haggard. Let him come forth and loudly proclaim that our hero is not dead! And Holmes appears as well, to those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear. Remember the Great Detective's own words wile reading this story: "You see, but you do not observe." A true Sherlockian will do both.

But the works of H. Rider Haggard have never inspired the type of pastiche that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes have. (I correct myself-- some are mentioned in Hunter Quatermain's Story-- but hardly the best sellers some pastiches of Holmes have become. Raven) And Holmes sells books. It's too bad, really, because Allan Quartermain is a hero with his own set of accolades. New tales would be welcome.

Now for the weak points of the story. It would have been much better to not try to mix religion and fiction so heavily. Having an Icon of the Catholic Religion espouse evolution as "God's Truth"? Whoops! Sherlock Holmes as "Will Scott"? Typical of those who chase after Sir William S Baring-Gould as though he knew more about Holmes than the man who created him! Professor Moriarty really "Sherrinford Holmes" brother of Sherlock himself? Well, everyone has an opinion, I just can't swallow this one.

Other than these points which a less picky reader can overlook, it is a extremly good Quartermain story, (as good as the originals) and The Raven encourages Mr. Miller to write more novels-- on Quartermain. I have yet to read The Great Detective on the Roof of the World. The Raven withholds comment on that book until then. Quoth the Raven...

I will not doubt that were I a big Rider Haggard or H. P. Lovecraft fan I might have liked this. It is really not a book about Sherlock Holmes though "the great detective" is there as a teenager under the name of Will Scott. Now people who write books about Sherlock Holmes often explain in a couple pages how they came about receiving a long lost manuscript. In my last review I expressed the idea that that is unnecessary as it makes Watson look pretty sloppy leaving hundreds of manuscripts around for people to accidentally find. So many have been found in that one chest alone that we have to assume it was as large as a room. Thos. Kent Miller really goes to extremes as he gives us a history of why this was written, how it was written, and then how Allan Quatermain narrates the story to Dr. Watson. Over forty pages before you get to the text. We are even treated with information on Carl Barks and how Uncle Scrooge McDuck influenced the author. Interesting stuff if you aren't in a hurry to get to the real action. The real action itself is same old-same old thanks to many similar stories and movies. I could have given it more than three stars, however the author built things up to expect so much more. Much more.

This is the second in a series of three books involving heroes of H. Rider Haggard adventure tales. The first was "Sherlock Holmes (retitled as "The Great Detective...") on the Roof of the World Or, the Adventure of theWayfaring God" which featured Leo Vincey from Haggard's "She' and "Ayesha." This book features Allan Quatermain of "King Soloman's Mines" and other tales. The final adventure in the series will be titled "The Great Detective at the Dawn of Time Or, the Adventure of the Star of Wonder." Who will be the hero of the final book is not yet clear. All three books include Holmes in the narratives, generally as a secondary, but importatnt character.

Both books published so far have been short novels. This second book is narrated by Dr. James H. Watson as told to him by Allan Quatermain. It seems to have been written before Watson made the acquaintance of Sherlock Holmes and includes Holmes acting under an alias and still unknown to Watson. The circumstances surrounding the tale are detailed at the beginning at some length and copious notes by the editor are included at the end to make many of the oblique references in the text a bit clearer.

One problem that some readers will have with this book is the numerous shifts of scene and viewpoint. A number of related but widely-separated events are presented and there are a number of shifts in viewpoint in both time and space. Personally, I found this method of presenting the materials to be interesting and efficient, given the author's and editor's knack for lively prose and characterizations, but it requires attention and care by the reader. On the other hand, the reader is left with the feeling of having watched a rapid-fire sequence of loosely related but widely scattered incidents that leave some bewilderment about the relative importance of the component scenes.

After completing the 200 or so pages of introductions, explanations and narrative, as well as the dozen or so pages of notes, the reader faces a lot of challenging ideas and upsets to their previous understanding of events and persons. The result is disturbing and unsettling. A standard African adventure featuring the Great White Hunter, Allan Quatermain, has left qustions about what just happened. The adventure was there, although a bit subdued, but what was the outcome? The Great Revelations presented require the traditional "willing suspension of disbelief," and, in this case, that is a large requirement.

In summary, this is an H. Rider Haggard look-alike that includes a healthy dose of Sherlock Holmes. It moves along a bit more quickly that the original Haggard tales, but also displays a great deal of jumping around in time and space. It is fun, but basically unsatisfying if the reader does not fully agree with the author/editor's priorities and viewpoints.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones; September, 2009.