Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes (Paperback)

by Barbara Hambly (Author), Kim Newman (Author), Barbara Roden (Author), Bob Madison (Author), Christopher Sequeira (Author), Chris Roberson (Author), Peter Calamai (Author), Jeff Campbell (Editor), Charles Prepolec (Editor), David Stuart Davies (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
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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From Booklist
This one seems like a natural. It’s well known that Sherlock Holmes’ creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, was deeply interested in the paranormal, a subject bursting with possibilities for the kind of mystery that only Holmes could solve—except 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 fiction—long 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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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing; 1st edition (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894063171
• ISBN-13: 978-1894063173
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #124,979 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghosts May Apply!, November 11, 2008

By	Philip K. Jones (St. Clair Shores, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a collection of Sherlockian tales in which, to quote David Stuart Davies' Forward, "Ghosts may apply." Each of the tales involves some `supernatural' element, a Djinn, a Vampire, a painting, quite a variety of individuals and items. In fact, Chico Kidd and Rick Kennett's "The Grantchester Grimoire" is only the second pastiche I know of that pairs Holmes and Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost Finder in a single tale. Further, each tale is written by one who knows Holmes and Watson intimately, which makes them disturbing at the very least.

The stage is set by the opening tale, "The Lost Boy," by Barbara Hambly. When the Darling children disappear, Mr. Darling consults Sherlock Holmes and Mrs. Darling goes to an old friend who, like her, knew Peter Pan from her youth. At the end of this sad and lovely story, one is left wondering who, exactly, was "The Lost Boy" of the title.

Each of the tales has its own context and viewpoint. Nothing carries across from one to the next except the certainty that things will be not quite what they seem. The sheer nastiness of the villain in Christopher Sequeira's "His Last Arrow" is balanced by the delight of an aged Holmes in his (2nd?) meeting with Count Dracula in Bob Madison's "Red Sunset." Martin Powell's "Sherlock Holmes in the Lost World" gives new meaning to `Non-stop Adventure' with a surprise villain thrown in as an extra. Strictly speaking, Chris Roberson's "Merridew of Abominable Memory' has no supernatural element, but it is a true horror story and it fits right in with the rest of the collection.

As is true with most anthologies, some tales appeal to one taste and some to another. This group seems well mixed, with a variety of approaches and themes. I have mostly commented on those stories that appealed to me. There was, however, one perfectly marvelous tale by Kim Newman called "The Red Planet League" that deserves special attention. It is told by "...your humble narrator - Colonel Sebastian `Basher' Moran ..." and it is worth the reading if only for the delicious villainies of `Basher.' Of the eleven tales included, all are worth reading and several will stand up to re-reading. The only bad feature I found was the quality of the binding on my copy, which seems to induce cover curl.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, October, 2008.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Holmes fix, February 23, 2009

By	Winter (Kelseyville, CA) - See all my reviews

I love Barbara Hambly's work as a writer, and this book was worth it just for her story. As a collection it gave me my Holmes fix, and I will definitely read it again. And probably several more times after that. I'd say it was a good, solid B+ or A- level Holmes read - close, but stumbling occasionally into too obvious-ness.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating ideas for stories, March 17, 2009

By	R. Kelly Wagner "[e-mail]" (MD, United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The idea of combining the ultra-rational (supposedly) mind of Sherlock Holmes with supernatural happenings is one bound to produce some interesting challenges, and many of the authors in this anthology met those challenges with good stories. From the first - where Holmes, Dr. Watson's wife, and Peter Pan - yes, THAT Peter Pan - must solve a kidnapping, to the last, which doesn't even include Holmes, but rather features Dr. Moriarty as the - well, protagonist, if not exactly good guy - every story in this collection is different.

Some of the stories had no supernatural content at all - "Merridew of Abominable Memory," for example, features a character with an eidetic memory; perhaps the extent of that ability is stretched a little beyond what we normally think of as a photographic memory, but not into the realm of a supernatural power, and the crimes involved are entirely down-to-earth. And the aforementioned final story, "The Red Planet League," is not exactly supernatural either: Moriarty and a rival scientist disagree on an astronomical issue, and Moriarty gets even by using some science fictional ideas, but not fantasy or the supernatural. This is one of the funniest stories in the book, in my opinion. The first story, involving Peter Pan, although OK, is somewhat weak, and would be totally incomprehensible and pointless to anyone who hadn't ever read "Peter Pan." Another story, "His Last Arrow," is a thoughtful story of Dr. Watson's introspection on why he continues to associate with Holmes and what drives his need to write about it; the supernatural nature of it is rather unlikely and would probably bother some Holmes fans, as Holmes does not come out on the good side of Watson's analysis.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the book: the illustrations by Phil Cornell which accompany each story. For many of them, it's not obvious what the illustration means at the beginning of the story, but at the end, you go back and look and say, aha! If only I had interpreted this correctly, I would have seen it coming! But unless you are Holmes, you won't have guessed which details of the illustration are important in advance. Perhaps my favorite story AND my favorite illustration was "Red Sunset."

A suggestion: read this and _The Final Solution: A Story of Detection_ by Michael Chabon (# ISBN-10: 0060777109) together. You'll enjoy them both!