Book – Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space

Sherlock Holmes – Through Time and Space – edited by  Isaac Asimov, Martin Harry Greenberg and Charles Waugh (1976).  A collection of short stories that explore the possibilities of the Great Detective as a time traveler, an alien or confronting same.  Authors include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mack Reynolds, Fred Saberhagen, Philip José Farmer, Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson, and Isaac Asimov.

Two things leapt out at me when I came across this volume at my local library.  Holmes, and Asimov.  I am enormous fans of both.  So this was a no-brainer for me.

I approach Holmes stories, both print, and movie, with a certain purist’s gleam in my eye.  Far too often I see what I think of as core parts of the canon being fiddled about with.  The two most common failings have to do with Professor Moriarty, and Irene Adler.  Either one will tend to throw me into a towering rant, which I will spare you here.  Even the current Benedict Cumberbatch Holmes, which I generally love, gets both of those parts very, very wrong.

But as a long-time science fiction fan, I could see that there was a lot of potential in the Holmes stories to explore some favorite tropes.  The stories here range from Conan Doyle’s own foray into the unknown with “the Adventure of the Devil’s Foot” to the rather ridiculous “The Scarletin Study” by Philip José Farmer’s introduction of Ralph Von Wau Wau, the canine Holmes.  By and large, the stories are pretty good.  There are a couple that simply didn’t work for me.  The most common problem here is the desire to be overly clever with either the dialogue or the story line.

Why I Liked It – A chance to see several of my favorite science fiction authors take on one of my favorite characters.

Why You Will Like It – A different look at the Great Detective

Rating – *** Worth A Look