The Last Sherlock Homes Story
SantiagoArmando
is one of the many books where Sherlock is pitted against Jack the Ripper. I
must say that it was truly one of the most powerful reads I have ever had. I
know it takes some adacious liberties (especially in the unmasking of Jack) but
I thought that these liberties made some sort of eerie sense. It was also an
extremely cinematic and historically accurate novel (from what I could tell).
Thoughts, anyone?
bor...@pacbell.net
I have not read the book, but based on what you wrote looked it up on
amazon.com. Beware! An upset reader revelas the ending.
SantiagoArmando <santiag...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010802023252...@ng-cj1.aol.com...
XsBum4Life
that book. I don't remember the title or the author.
SantiagoArmando
>
>I have not read the book, but based on what you wrote looked it up on
>amazon.com. Beware! An upset reader revelas the ending.
Yes, by all means....avoid the recent Amazon.com review that reveals one of the
books two major suprises.
Denise Gaertner
reviews it got, but I believe it is the one in which it turns out Holmes is
the Ripper.
By the way, I just discovered yesterday that Carole Nelson Douglas is
turning out a new Irene Adler book about the Ripper. It's called "Chapel
Noir" and is coming out in October.
Violet Hunter
SantiagoArmando
>reviews it got,
For what it's worth, I think the book has, pardon the pun, lots o' guts. Heck,
it's the best Halloween read anyone in the right mood could hope to have.
Tension, baby! That's what it's all about!
Birmingham Bob
all the way to the end, and the suspense was unreal.
Of course, I hated the ending, but that doesn't detract from the skill of
the author.
FWIW, the WORST Sherlock book ever written has to be "A Samba For Sherlock"
or something to that effect. I don't think the author even read the original
SH books. Sherlock spends half the book smoking pot and trying to get laid
by a cute local girl, and the other half bumbling his way through the
mystery. UGH. Horrible horrible book. Avoid this at all costs.
Birmingham Bob
"SantiagoArmando" <santiag...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010802023252...@ng-cj1.aol.com...
XsBum4Life
take the icon and twist it. The Samba book sounds dreadful.
I did read the earlier Carole Nelson Douglas books. (I'm even considering
selling off my copies -- I need to reduce the stuff I own). It doesn't bother
me if someone plays with the other characters, and I thought Douglas did a
decent job. There are also books about Lastrade and Mycroft. Maybe someone
should write one about Watson's wife -- kind of like Mrs. Columbo.
Laurie King....as well written as her books are, I just have a hard time with
them. And it's not what she did with Holmes that I dislike the most. It's
her main character who seems so perfect.
Cassandra Betker
XsBum4Life wrote:
> I've never liked writers who messed with Sherlock too much. It's too easy to
> take the icon and twist it.
Well, I once found a few stories about the early years on the net(anyone who got
the URL?*sigh*). In fact, Holmes and Watson are nearly completly out of character,
but somehow it was fun to read.(maybe because Holmes showed his wild side...) I
think the stories' contents were the stories that happenend when Holmes was just
21 or so.
> The Samba book sounds dreadful.
I just can agree here. I remeber a discussion (either here or on the mailinglist)
about the worst pasti....errr >fanfics<.(i think it was on the list). A
books-title with dragons in it came up as one of the worst writings.
> Laurie King....as well written as her books are, I just have a hard time with
> them. And it's not what she did with Holmes that I dislike the most. It's
> her main character who seems so perfect.
Isn't one of the 'laws for writers' "never make your character too perfect"?
My best wishes
Cas
Amiroq. aka Gypzy
> > Laurie King....as well written as her books are, I just have a hard time
> > with them. And it's not what she did with Holmes that I dislike the
> > most. It's her main character who seems so perfect.
>
> Isn't one of the 'laws for writers' "never make your character too
> perfect"?
Mary Sue! It's not so much a law for writers, more a law for writers who
proclaim to be good by sharing said story with the world. As we say in
Star Trek fandom "Every writer *writes* a Mary Sue. How good you are
depends on how quickly you realise how bad it is."
Gypzy
Joe Pfeiffer
>
> Mary Sue! It's not so much a law for writers, more a law for writers who
> proclaim to be good by sharing said story with the world. As we say in
> Star Trek fandom "Every writer *writes* a Mary Sue. How good you are
> depends on how quickly you realise how bad it is."
Dare I ask what a Mary Sue is?
--
Joseph J. Pfeiffer, Jr., Ph.D. Phone -- (505) 646-1605
Department of Computer Science FAX -- (505) 646-1002
New Mexico State University http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer
SWNMRSEF: http://www.nmsu.edu/~scifair
A.
Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
> Dare I ask what a Mary Sue is?
There are a lot of essays out there on Mary Sue. This description is from Dr.
Merlin's Guide to fan fiction:
Who Is Mary Sue and Why Does She Have to Die?
I honestly wish I'd kept a copy of the first essay I read about Mary Sueism.
It was well-done, and I don't think I can do the subject half the justice the
original did. However, I'll give it my best shot.
You already know Mary Sue. Mary Sue is the perky, bright, helpful
sixteen-year-old ensign who beams about the ship. Everyone on the ship likes
Mary Sue, because Mary Sue is good at everything. Mary Sue is an engineer, a
doctor in training, a good leader, an excellent cook, and is usually a
beautiful singer. Mary Sue often has mental powers that may manifest
themselves as telepathy, precognition, or magic. Her past is tragic, more so
than any other character on the series. (Many Mary Sues have a backstory that
reads like a V.C. Andrews novel. This is a clue.) If Mary Sue is very young,
she is often the offspring of one or two already established characters. If
she's a little older, she will probably end up sleeping with the author's
favorite character. Sometimes, she fills both roles. Her name is often the
author's name, be it a net.name, a favored nickname, or the author's middle
name (this is seen in the most famous Mary Sue of all time, Wesley Crusher,
who was named after Trek creator Eugene Wesley Roddenbery). By the end of the
story, Mary Sue will be in bed with the desired character, will have beamed
away amid cheers from all the regulars, or will be dead, usually accompanied
by heavy mourning from the cast. The reader, on the other hand, will be
celebrating. BTW, Mary Sue's twin brother can often be identified by his
brooding, solitary behaviour, matched by his maverick disregard for authority
(for a great example, see the very beginning of TNG's "Hollow Pursuits" alias
Barclay, Part One).
Before I go any further, I would like to point out that I have read several
excellent stories with characters that fit every part of this description.
Fortunately, there are authors who can take this character type, and make a
figure just as memorable and vibrant as any ever seen on the series. My
absolute favorite Mary-Sue-made- wonderful is Fionnuala Rowan, in Tara
O'Shea's Gargoyles stories. If you haven't read them, you really really
should. They're ... remarkable. There are others who've managed to do it well
(I'm going to be slapped by some of them for not saying so here, but I've
drawn a blank to names right now). Still, for the most part, unless you know
what you're doing, if you see a character of your own fitting this
description, find another way of telling the story. Please. Remember, fanfic
is about characters we know and love, not about how much they like a new
person who has nothing to do with their universe. Mary Sues not only stop
fanmail, they often invite flames. Use them wisely, or not at all.
Joe Pfeiffer
before. Where does the name come from? Is there a story out there
I really, really want to avoid?
Amiroq. aka Gypzy
> Thanks for the essay on Mary Sue -- I'd never heard the expression
> before. Where does the name come from?
Apparently the first recognised person to write one was called that - or
at least that was (similar to?) her net-name. Undoubtable there were
others before her, though.
Gypzy
hamish
http://missy.reimer.com/library/marysue.html
http://enterprise.mathematik.uni-essen.de/~bastian/Ranma/MarySue.html
There's even a Mary Sue Society: http://www.subreality.com/marysue.htm
and http://swansongs.net/entreat/essays/marysue.html
To paraphrase the John Lennon, "She's more popular than Sherlock."
"Amiroq. aka Gypzy" <fitc...@netaccess.co.nz> wrote in message
news:2001080807...@p46-max2.christchurch.netaccess.net.nz...
XsBum4Life
Thanks for sharing that!
bor...@pacbell.net
Fandom. I think that the book "Star Trek Lives" Mentions the Mary Sue story
and gives a complete description of it.
The only thing more odious than a Mary Sue story are people giving away the
endings of Mystery novels.
Take care,
Kevin
XsBum4Life <xsbum...@aol.comet> wrote in message
news:20010807185357...@ng-xa1.aol.com...
A.
want to avoid. Some people like to read Mary Sue stories. And some Mary
Sue stories are quite good though it takes a skilled writer to pull it
off. It's all a matter of personal taste :-) But if you come across a
character that is annoyingly perfect and well liked by everyone, you have
probably met Mary Sue. If she irritates you for pages upon pages, well,
just stop reading the story.
peace,
Andrea
John Sherman
SOMETHING new (i.e. mess with him), then what's the point? It's just another
Holmes story, which would be fine if it was jsut another Holmes story by DOYLE,
but no one writing stories out there today is Doyle.
-John Sherman
Cardinal 1
Birmingham Bob wrote...
>FWIW, the WORST Sherlock book ever written has to be "A Samba For Sherlock"
>or something to that effect. I don't think the author even read the
original
>SH books. Sherlock spends half the book smoking pot and trying to get laid
>by a cute local girl, and the other half bumbling his way through the
>mystery. UGH. Horrible horrible book. Avoid this at all costs.
>
I agree that ASFS isn't a good Holmes story, but in retrospect I don't
think it was meant to be. The book seems to be more about the history and
atmosphere of Brazil than about Holmes. If the author had wanted to do a
book about The Great Detective, he would probably have done a better job
than this; he doesn't seem to be a stranger to research. If you look at it
from that perspective and try to ignore all the gross inaccuracies regarding
Holmes, the book is actually quite readable. If it's Sherlock you prefer,
however, then I say take a tip from Bob and look elsewhere.
C1