The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

by John Joseph Adams

Overview

The game is afoot! Night Shade Books is proud to present the fantastic adventures of the world's greatest detective — mystery, fantasy, science fiction, horror, no genre can escape the esteemed detective's needle-sharp intellect and intuition.
This reprint anthology showcases the best Holmes short fiction from the last 25 years, featuring stories by such visionaries as Stephen King, Neil Gaimen, Laura King, and many others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597802390
Publisher:	Night Shade Books
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	350
File size:	719 KB

About the Author

John Joseph Adams is the bestselling editor of many anthologies, such as Wastelands, The Living Dead (a World Fantasy Award finalist), and many others. Barnes&Noble.com named him “the reigning king of the anthology world,” and his books have been named to numerous best of the year lists. John is also the fiction editor of the online science fiction magazine Lightspeed. Prior to taking on that role, he worked for nearly nine years in the editorial department at The Magazine of Fantasy&Science Fiction. He is currently the co-host of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast on io9.com, and has published hundreds of interviews and other pieces of non-fiction.

Editorial Reviews

For the most part, this volume of short Sherlock Holmes pastiches—a mix of straightforward imitations and parodies—delivers on its goal of presenting the best of such work from the last 30 years. All but one of the 28 entries is a reprint, largely from such recent anthologies as Gaslight Grimoire and Shadows Over Baker Street, and many introduce the supernatural into the rational sleuth's world. Stephen King does a solid job of giving Dr. Watson a chance to show his own detective skills in “The Good Doctor.” Barbara Roden's “The Things That Shall Come Upon Them” riffs cleverly on M.R. James's “Casting the Runes.” Perhaps the highlight is Peter Tremayne's “The Specter of Tullyfane Abbey,” which offers a plausible explanation for a classic untold tale in which a man disappears from the face of the earth after returning home to fetch an umbrella. Holmes authority Christopher Roden provides an introduction. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Adult/High School—These 28 short stories are impressive in their variety and quality, as well as in the inclusion of authors with established young adult appeal such as Stephen King, Tanith Lee, and Neil Gaiman. Adams's goal was to highlight the best Sherlock Holmes stories of the last 30 years, emphasizing those that feature the fantastic. Readers may begin with a refresher course on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's world in Christopher Roden's "A Sherlockiana Primer." The mysteries themselves range from supernatural to political to domestic. They feature pirates, aliens, dinosaurs, and H. P. Lovecraft's horrific creatures. Readers meet H. G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, and Jack the Ripper, and will enjoy a story told by Laurie King's Mary Russell. Of course, most of the tales are narrated by Dr. Watson, and Mrs. Hudson, Inspector Lestrade, Mycroft, Irene Adler, and James Moriarty (who turns up in several cases) are all here. Entries not to be missed include Naomi Novik's moving, personal "Commonplaces," Peter Tremayne's chilling Moriarty story, the unexpected twist in Sharyn McCrumb's "The Vale of the White Horse," and the outrageous silliness of Dominic Green's "The Adventure of the Lost World." The final story, by Robert J. Sawyer, gives Holmes and his popularity among the reading public a truly universal significance. This is a substantial collection that will entertain teen fans for hours, and may well seduce them to seek out the original.—Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

School Library Journal