Subject: SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C Leeper)
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 02:08:59 GMT

SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg
             DAW, ISBN 0-88677-636-8, 1995, 374pp, US$5.50
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper

     In his introduction, Resnick says that Holmes is the world's most
long-lived fictional character, and compares him to who Resnick says is
the only other contender, Tarzan.  (I don't know--I would say that
Dracula--the fictional character, not the historical one--is certainly
giving them some competition.)  In any case, Resnick says that there
has been only one non-Burroughs Tarzan story: Fritz Leiber's TARZAN AND
THE VALLEY OF GOLD.  Well, no.  Barton Werper wrote five Tarzan novels
before the Burroughs estate cracked down on him, and Philip Jose
Farmer's LORD OF THE TREES and other works are certainly Tarzan
stories; in fact, Farmer's ADVENTURE OF THE PEERLESS PEER has both
Tarzan and Holmes, and Resnick even mentions it later!  And I have a
copy of TARZANI SEIKLUSED TALLINNAS (TARZAN'S ADVENTURES IN TALLINN)
"by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Toomas Raudam."  It's in Estonian, so I
can't be sure, but I suspect that Burroughs had very little input,
especially as it was written several years after his death.

     But this of course has little to do with Sherlock Holmes, except
perhaps to illustrate his axiom, "It is a capital mistake to theorize
before one has data."  Resnick may have overstated some of the details,
but the gist of his claim is correct: Sherlock Holmes *is* the most
recognized fictional character in the world.  In my various travels, I
have rarely failed to find Holmes in whatever the language of the
country is.  It's true that there didn't seem to be a Latvian
translation when I was there, but I did find him in Lithuanian,
Estonian, Finnish, and Swedish.  And I even found him in China in 1982
in comic-book form!

     So the appearance of a new Sherlock Holmes anthology, while
certainly welcome, can hardly be termed a surprise.  Even the
combination of Sherlock Holmes and science fiction is not new, dating
back to Robert C. Peterson's SCIENCE FICTIONAL SHERLOCK HOLMES and
continuing through Isaac Asimov, Charles Waugh, and Martin
H. Greenberg's SHERLOCK HOLMES THROUGH TIME AND SPACE, as well as many
individual pieces.

     So here we have twenty-six new Holmes stories, arranged
chronologically into four sections: Holmes in the Past, Holmes in the
Present, Holmes in the Future, and Holmes After Death.

     Reading these, I am struck by how Conan Doyle managed to write
fascinating stories without dragging in any famous authors, artists, or
events, while his imitators seem to insist upon it.  So Holmes has
dealings with Fu Manchu, H. G. Wells (twice), Lewis Carroll (twice),
Charles Babbage, and even Conan Doyle himself (three times--at least
two of these must be in an alternate universe where Holmes's exploits
were not published by Doyle).  When I first started reading this sort
of story, I found it amusing, but after a while the novelty pales, and
one gets tired of being able to guess the big surprise from a key
phrase or two--when a character says he's sailing for New York in April
of 1912, you *know* he's going to be on the Titanic.  (Note: that story
is not one of the ones in this book, though there is a Titanic story
here.)

     A few of the stories are not science fiction or fantasy; they have
a science fiction or fantasy element, but it is proved false by the end
(much as Doyle's own "Sussex Vampire" story).  By the way, if you want
to read an "original" science fictional Holmes story, Doyle's
"Adventure of the Creeping Man" qualifies.

     As for the stories themselves, they are a varied bunch. (If my
comments on some seem brief or cryptic, it may be because many of the
stories rely on some surprise twist that I am trying to avoid
revealing.)  "The Musgrave Version" by George Alec Effinger is not so
much a story as a vignette, suggesting much more than it delivers.
"The Case of the Detective's Smile" by Mark Bourne is a bit too
predictable.  On the other hand, although also somewhat predictable,
"The Adventure of the Russian Grave" by William Barton and Michael
Capobianco does have a nice twist to it.  (It also assumes more of a
knowledge of Russian calendar reform than many readers will have, I
fear.)  Vonda N. McIntyre's "Adventure of the Field Theorems," Brian
M. Thomsen's "Mouse and the Master," and Janni Lee Simner's "Illusions"
all use Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his interest in spiritualism;
although they use different approaches, it may still be overkill.  "The
Adventure of the Missing Coffin" by Laura Resnick, combined with her
stories in earlier anthologies, makes me think she has a thing about
writing about Italians and Italy the way her father has about Africa.
"The Adventure of the Second Scarf" by Mark Aronson is the "hardest SF"
story in the first section of the book (most of the science fictional
elements in the other stories are matter duplicators, time machines,
and the like).

     "The Adventure of the Barbary Coast" by Frank M. Robinson uses
Irene Adler's sister.  I once noted if I never saw another story about
Irene Adler, it would be too soon, and though Carole Nelson Douglas's
books have made me reconsider that statement, Irene's connection to
this story seems totally unnecessary to me, and she needn't have been
involved at all.  Dean Wesley Smith's "Two Roads, No Choices"  is one
of the better stories in the book, though the fact that it is an
alternate history may be influencing me here.  "The Richmond Enigma" by
John DeChancie is another alternate history of sorts, with yet another
famous character for Holmes to interact with.  "A Study in Sussex" by
Leah A. Zeldes refers not to "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," but
to Holmes's retirement.  While some stories suffer from a deus ex
machina, "The Holmes Team Advantage" by Gary Alan Ruse has what might
be termed a "nihil ex machina" ending.  Susan Casper's "Holmes Ex
Machina," on the other hand, doesn't attempt to be more than it is, and
works within the boundaries Casper sets, quite nicely.  (Though I think
Resnick errs in placing this in the present: it seems to be the future,
albeit perhaps the near future.)  Lawrence Schimel's "Alimentary, My
Dear Watson" ends in the title pun, takes its main idea from a well-
known science fiction film, and is arguably unfair to its most
historical character, whose faults are generally believed to be of a
much more non-participatory nature.  And "The Future Engine" by Byron
Tetrick could have been a great steampunk story, but shied away from
following up on its premise.

     Moving on to "Sherlock Holmes in the Present," "The Sherlock
Solution" by Craig Shaw Gardner seems to serve mostly as an example of
why science fictional Sherlock Holmes stories set in the present are
hard to write--it's just not very convincing as science fiction.
Similarly, "The Man Who Molded Himself" by David Gerrold is only
technically set in the present, in that it is a manuscript being read
by somebody in the present, but the main action takes place in the
past.  Not surprisingly, Kristine Kathryn Rusch turns in the best story
in this section in the form of "Second Fiddle," though again I would
dispute calling this the present--last time I checked we did not have
time travel, though I admit that the pressures of work may have made me
overlook the news.

     Jack Nimersheim's "Moriarty by Modem" is yet another
hacker/computer virus story, with Holmes and Moriarty only secondary
considerations.  (What makes Casper's story present-day and this
future, one wonders?)  "The Greatest Detective of All Time" by Ralph
Roberts was a bit convoluted to follow and I'm not sure didn't have
major problems, but it *was* science fiction.  "The Case of the Purloined
L'Isitek" by Josepha Sherman seems like the sort of thing Isaac Asimov
would have written, complete with the awful pun at the end.  (I don't
think I'm spoiling the surprise; when we are told in the first
paragraph that the aliens have a love of puns, what else could we
expect?)  "The Adventure of the Illegal Alien" by Anthony R. Lewis is
yet another Holmes in a computer.

     I have yet to figure out what Barry N. Malzberg is doing in these
anthologies.  His stories usually blow all the others away in terms of
style, literary value, and philosophical content, and "Dogs, Masques,
Love, Death: Flowers" is no exception.  Robert J. Sawyer's "You See But
You Do Not Observe" is an original view of the idea of Schroedinger's
Cat as applied to Sherlock Holmes: it may not be great literature, but
it is an intriguing philosophical idea.

     And finally, Mike Resnick ends the anthology with his own "The
Adventure of the Pearly Gate," one of the better stories, adding a
touch of George Bernard Shaw to the detecting involved.

     I had saved up this book as a treat for a day when I had a three-
hour bus trip, and even in spite of my various quibbles I found it
enjoyable and varied.  Sherlock Holmes fans who are not science fiction
fans may find a few of the stories too science-fictional for their
tastes, but on the whole this shouldn't be a problem.  Science fiction
fans who don't like Sherlock Holmes (if any such peculiar creatures
exist) would probably be less enthralled, but for Holmes fans this is
recommended.

     (Proof-readers are starting to add more typos than they delete:
For example, I am sure that Resnick wrote that Robert L. Fish wrote
parodies featuring "Schlock Homes," and then some proof-reader decided
to "fix" this to say that Fish's parodies featured "Sherlock Holmes,"
and likewise that Frank M. Robinson typed "Semiramide," not
"Semirande."  For this and other typos blame a very tight schedule,
which resulted in the editors not actually receiving the galleys until
after the deadline for changes.  I'm all for faster publication, but
I'd rather wait an extra couple of weeks for a book that's more
accurate.  Publishers, take note.)

%E      Resnick, Mike 
%E      Greenberg, Martin H. 
%B      Sherlock Holmes in Orbit
%T      "The Musgrave Version" by George Alec Effinger
%T      "The Case of the Detective's Smile" by Mark Bourne
%T      "The Adventure of the Russian Grave" by W. Barton and M. Capobianco
%T      "The Adventure of the Field Theorems" by Vonda N. McIntyre
%T      "The Adventure of the Missing Coffin" by Laura Resnick
%T      "The Adventure of the Second Scarf" by Mark Aronson
%T      "The Adventure of the Barbary Coast" by Frank M. Robinson
%T      "Mouse and the Master" by Brian M. Thomsen
%T      "Two Roads, No Choices" by Dean Wesley Smith
%T      "The Richmond Enigma" by John DeChancie
%T      "A Study in Sussex" by Leah A. Zeldes
%T      "The Holmes Team Advantage" by Gary Alan Ruse
%T      "Alimentary, My Dear Watson" by Lawrence Schimel
%T      "The Future Engine" by Byron Tetrick
%T      "Holmes Ex Machina" by Susan Casper
%T      "The Sherlock Solution" by Craig Shaw Gardner
%T      "The Man Who Molded Himself" by David Gerrold
%T      "Second Fiddle" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
%T      "Moriarty by Modem" by Jack Nimersheim
%T      "The Greatest Detective of All Time" by Ralph Roberts
%T      "The Case of the Purloined L'Isitek" by Josepha Sherman
%T      "The Adventure of the Illegal Alien" by Anthony R. Lewis
%T      "Dogs, Masques, Love, Death: Flowers" by Barry N.$Malzberg
%T      "You See But You Do Not Observe" by Robert J. Sawyer
%T      "Illusions" by Janni Lee Simner
%T      "The Adventure of the Pearly Gate" by Mike Resnick
%I      DAW
%C      New York
%D      February 1995
%G      ISBN 0-88677-636-8
%P      374pp
%O      paperback, US$5.50
%S      Sherlock Holmes

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked]
"No one is ever fanatically devoted to something they have complete
confidence in.  No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to
rise tomorrow.  They *know* it is.  Whenever someone is fanatically
devoted to a set of beliefs or dogmas or goals, it is only because
those beliefs or goals are in doubt."  --Robert M. Pirsig