Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror!
4 journalers for this copy...
Description from the back of the book:
"What would happen is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's peerless detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his allies were to find themselves faced with Lovecraftian mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but beyond sanity itself? In this collection of original tales, twenty of today's cutting-edge writers provide answers to that burning question. Contributors include Neil Gaiman, Brian Stableford, Poppy Z. Brite, Barbara Hambly, Steve Perry and Caitlin R. Kiernan. These and other masters of horror, mystery, fantasy and science fiction spin dark tales within a terrifyingly surreal universe."
I heard about this book in college when I went to a discussion of the Holmes stories, and a classmate brought along the book. It's basically a cross between the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft, and could be classified either as science fiction or horror. It's interesting - naturally, some of the content matter does give the reader a galloping case of the willies.
"What would happen is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's peerless detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his allies were to find themselves faced with Lovecraftian mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but beyond sanity itself? In this collection of original tales, twenty of today's cutting-edge writers provide answers to that burning question. Contributors include Neil Gaiman, Brian Stableford, Poppy Z. Brite, Barbara Hambly, Steve Perry and Caitlin R. Kiernan. These and other masters of horror, mystery, fantasy and science fiction spin dark tales within a terrifyingly surreal universe."
I heard about this book in college when I went to a discussion of the Holmes stories, and a classmate brought along the book. It's basically a cross between the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft, and could be classified either as science fiction or horror. It's interesting - naturally, some of the content matter does give the reader a galloping case of the willies.
Journal Entry 2 by 4thEstate at -- Mail or by hand-rings, RABCK, meetings, New Jersey USA on Saturday, October 22, 2011
Released 12 yrs ago (10/22/2011 UTC) at -- Mail or by hand-rings, RABCK, meetings, New Jersey USA
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Okay, all right, I meant to have this released eons ago, but things (like life and work) kept getting in the way. Anyway, this is the Shadows Over Baker Street bookring.
Recipient order is as follows:
LilyKlip (Germany)
Tsjara (Netherlands)
silvia-pco (Portugal)
abigailann (UK)
mafarrimond (UK)
ArabellaFigg (UK)
NMReader (USA)
cinnycat (USA)
So, the instructions are, journal the book once you receive it, journal it again once you finish, and send on to the next person. Try to have it moving along in about three weeks - if it looks like it is going to take longer than that, just make a journal entry saying so.
Recipient order is as follows:
LilyKlip (Germany)
Tsjara (Netherlands)
silvia-pco (Portugal)
abigailann (UK)
mafarrimond (UK)
ArabellaFigg (UK)
NMReader (USA)
cinnycat (USA)
So, the instructions are, journal the book once you receive it, journal it again once you finish, and send on to the next person. Try to have it moving along in about three weeks - if it looks like it is going to take longer than that, just make a journal entry saying so.
Ever since I first picked up my Grandfather's copy of Sherlock Holmes (I must have been about 10) I was intrigued by the character, the genius and the mysteries he and his companion solved. I am also a huge fan of ghost and horror stories and the like. So, a combination of both sounded fascinating to me.
Unfortunately it really doesn't work for me. I have read about two thirds of the stories now and will stop at this point. They're not bad stories, some of them are actually pretty good and I enjoyed reading them. However, so far only 2 of them slighly felt like a Sherlock Holmes story (Neil Gaiman: A Study in Emerald and Steven-Elliot Altman: A Case of Royal Blood). In all the other cases the name of the detective could have been exchanged for any other name and nobody would have been reminded of Holmes.
After rethinking my initial fascination with the idea it just doesn't really make sense to try and combine the two. Holmes is a completely rational being. His success is down to his talent of noticing details and drawing conclusions, and also to his extensive research in all sorts of (often scientific) fields. So he would probably fail were he ever in the situation of having to face something or someone that cannot be explained by science and logic.
Most of the writers also didn't even attempt to focus on Holmes' abilities (except the beginnings of the stories where the visitor is described and Holmes impresses with the details he sees and interprets from their appearance) which is what mainly makes me enjoy the original stories still after all those years and having read them so many times by now. That's why these stories just don't "feel right" to me.
So, enjoy the stories but don't think of them as Sherlock Holmes stories.
Unfortunately it really doesn't work for me. I have read about two thirds of the stories now and will stop at this point. They're not bad stories, some of them are actually pretty good and I enjoyed reading them. However, so far only 2 of them slighly felt like a Sherlock Holmes story (Neil Gaiman: A Study in Emerald and Steven-Elliot Altman: A Case of Royal Blood). In all the other cases the name of the detective could have been exchanged for any other name and nobody would have been reminded of Holmes.
After rethinking my initial fascination with the idea it just doesn't really make sense to try and combine the two. Holmes is a completely rational being. His success is down to his talent of noticing details and drawing conclusions, and also to his extensive research in all sorts of (often scientific) fields. So he would probably fail were he ever in the situation of having to face something or someone that cannot be explained by science and logic.
Most of the writers also didn't even attempt to focus on Holmes' abilities (except the beginnings of the stories where the visitor is described and Holmes impresses with the details he sees and interprets from their appearance) which is what mainly makes me enjoy the original stories still after all those years and having read them so many times by now. That's why these stories just don't "feel right" to me.
So, enjoy the stories but don't think of them as Sherlock Holmes stories.
And off they go to the Netherlands.
It's finally here, I had almost forgotten about this one. :p Seems it got a bit stuck in all the Christmas mail.. Thanks for sending Lilyklip. I have a couple bookrings in front, but will get to this as soon as I can. Sounds interesting... Thank you for sharing the book 4thEstate.
Happy Holidays everyone! ^_^
Update January 29th 2012: I'm still reading this, over halfway now.. but it's going a bit slow. Enjoying some stories more than others. I have already PMed and received Silvia-pco's address, will mail this as soon as I have finished it (hopefully in a week or so).
Happy Holidays everyone! ^_^
Update January 29th 2012: I'm still reading this, over halfway now.. but it's going a bit slow. Enjoying some stories more than others. I have already PMed and received Silvia-pco's address, will mail this as soon as I have finished it (hopefully in a week or so).
Released 12 yrs ago (2/9/2012 UTC) at Assendelft, Noord-Holland Netherlands
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
This took me a bit longer than I expected.. and had to read it in little bits (it was a bit slow sometimes). However, I did enjoy the stories (some more than others).
The first story by Neil Gaiman was my favorite (it seemed familiar, but somehow slightly off..). And there was one concerning the royal Dutch family, with H.G Wells which was fun (though the Dutch sounded a bit awkward sometimes :p). I also liked the story by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson, about a girl who hadn't eaten in years (and the only one that mentions Holmes cocaine use(?)). And the story with the sewers and giant alligator was fun as well, and also liked 'a case of insomnia'.
On its way now to the next reader :) (sorry for the delay)
The first story by Neil Gaiman was my favorite (it seemed familiar, but somehow slightly off..). And there was one concerning the royal Dutch family, with H.G Wells which was fun (though the Dutch sounded a bit awkward sometimes :p). I also liked the story by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson, about a girl who hadn't eaten in years (and the only one that mentions Holmes cocaine use(?)). And the story with the sewers and giant alligator was fun as well, and also liked 'a case of insomnia'.
On its way now to the next reader :) (sorry for the delay)
Here it is! Took it a while to get here, but it arrived safe and sound. I'll keep you posted :)
