A Review: The Return of Sherlock Holmes by A. Conan Doyle

4/5 stars

I have been reading books so slowly this year but after starting the third series of the BBC's “Sherlock” I decided to go back to my near-omnibus collection of Holmes tales and finish the third short story collection to be published. How does one review Sherlock Homes stories? If you are already a fan of the consulting detective these stories are more of the same. Watson is as wooden and clueless as ever. Holmes is as brilliant and manic as ever. The details of Victorian London with its trains, hansoms, calling cards, telegrams, retired soldiers and women caught by social conventions are all part of the fun. However, if you are planning to start reading the Holmes stories, there are better places to begin (I suggest A Study in Scarlet, which is the beginning). Doyle killed his creation off in 1893 because of his own declining interest in writing the stories. The stories in this collection began appearing in 1903 and though Holmes is back by popular demand, it seems the break didn't help Doyle rekindle any interest in the character.

I think mystery stories should be a game the author plays with the reader. Many clues are given by the author and the reader has a chance of sifting through them all to guess the solution just ahead of the author's revelation of the truth. If mysteries are that game, in these stories Doyle often cheats. More so than in other Holmes collections the adventures in Return rely on tiny clues which only Holmes observes (that's fine, he's the genius detective) and which Holmes doesn't tell anyone about (come on!). The adventures of the Priory School, the Golden Pince-Nez and the Abby Grange all strike me that way. That said, they aren't all cheaty. The Missing Three-Quarter, the Six Napoleons and my favorite Sherlock Holmes short story, The Solitary Cyclist are each about initially mistaking a character's motivations rather than missing subtle trace evidence.

I'm sure others have looked into this, but I also notice what I assume is a change is Doyle's view of the law. Much more often in this collection Holmes looks the other way or denies knowledge of the truth in the face of the law because he is enacting his own sense of justice. In one story Holmes declares no one else is better suited to serve as judge of an impromptu court than himself! More than one murderer and it seems several thieves are let off by Holmes because they acted as they did in self-defense or to help a friend or because they were put to by love. In many of these “outside the law” stories the real killer or the blackmailer or general jerk ends up dead anyway. I have a friend who says “The universe tends to unfold as it should.” I guess Doyle thought the same way.

As with previous stories, there is a disturbing amount of fear of the foreign to Holmes' cases. It seems there is no truly English crime. The source of the trouble is always some outside influence. It always turns out that if an actual crime has occurred it was an Italian plasterer, an Australian sea captain, a whale fishermen who sent too much time in Norway, a fortune made in Rhodesia, a jealous Creole wife, or a Russian revolutionary who sets the plot in motion. That could be a reason to read these second-rate mysteries. The fin de siecle zeitgeist was powerfully suspicious. That sentiment is part of what lead to the horrors of the Great War, now one hundred years old. Thanks, Conan Doyle.

One last thing, for fun. Since I started with “Sherlock” let's return there. Here's my match up of the series three “Sherlock” episodes and the original stories which inspired them, several of which are in The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
The Empty Hearse – The Empty House (title and a few scenes).
The Sign of Three – The Sign of the Four (title and almost nothing else).
His Last Vow – Charles Augustus Milverton plus little bits of His Last Bow and The Second Stain.

A Review: Magic Knight Rayearth 2 by CLAMP

3/5 stars.

CLAMP is a team of four women who produce manga. A lot of manga. Their manga are in the shojo style (girl's comics), but if I understand things correctly they are known for combining this style of art with the darker subject matter usually found in shonen (boy's comics). It was a great combo for me when I was a teenager reading the first Magic Knight Rayearth series. In that story three girls are summoned from Tokyo to the magical realm of Cefiro to become the legendary Magic Knights and save the Pillar – a person whose force of will keeps the world stable. It's explicitly an RPG plotline – Hikaru, Umi and Fuu get armor, learn magic and “level up” as the series goes along.

Now that I am in my thirties, reading about the exploits of leggy Japanese teens tends a little bit toward the creepy. Thankfully, Magic Knight Rayearth 2 has also grown up. There are no forced references to experience points and no random monster encounters. This is somehow both a more personal story and a more expansive story. The events of the first series left Cefiro without a Pillar and now a new one must be chosen. The Magic Knights return to find representatives of three other realms vying to become the Pillar and remake Cefiro in their own image. There is a lot less action in this tale, at least from the Magic Knights. They mostly stand around watching Eagle of Autozam, Tata of Cizeta and Aska of Fahren duke it out. That's the more expansive part.

For the more personal story CLAMP has focused much more on the motivations of the “young women from another world.” Why did they want to return to Cefiro? How did they return if there is no Pillar to summon them? Why do they fight now? In particular, Hikaru is the focus as she wrestles with baggage from the first story line and what she wants for herself and and her friends this time around. In fantasy tales magic is often equated with willpower. In Cefiro, magic IS willpower. Thus the motivations of all the characters and what they are able to do because of what they desire is the focus of the storytelling. That's an element of the story to be appreciated at any age.

As the citizens of five (or more?) worlds clash together over the shape of the future, the comic becomes quite intense. The end is not really a surprise, but I still won't say. After the drama is over it all ends on a very cheesy note, but I guess that is to be expected; it is a shojo comic after all.

A Review: Merciless: The Rise of Ming by Scott Beatty, Ron Adrian, et. al.

4/5 stars.

Let me start off by saying I know next to nothing about the Flash Gordon storyworld. Flash Gordon, Earth's dashing hero in a red rocketship, thwarts the invasion attempts of Emperor Ming the Merciless. That's about it.

I got this comic from the title alone. I assumed it would be like Gregory Maguire's Wicked, which I enjoyed immensely. It is only broadly similar in that it is about the younger days of a famous villain. Unlike misunderstood Elphaba, young Ming is ruthless and merciless right from the first pages. Beatty's is not a tale of how Prince Ming became so merciless, but a tale of how quickly an ambitious man can rise. I would have liked a little bit more complexity from the characters, but it is good for what it is.

One by one Ming “renegotiates” the old treaties between the nations of Mongo, each time coming out stronger an more secure in his position. I particularly like the way these shtick nations such as the Hawkmen and the Sharkmen were portrayed. I assume these subjugated nations are only part of the Mongo empire so Flash Gordon can have enemies on land, sea and air. In this comic these different nations are given a little more gravitas then I assume they had in the old film shorts. Even stock characters with reverse-SCUBA gear are more interesting when they get to speak for themselves.

One last thing I will comment on: the art is great! Adrian's art, with color by Roni Setiawan, is a great look for this revisiting of a retro vision of the future. The costume and character design feels like it fits with the 1930s ideals of the future as well as with modern fantasy aesthetics. The technology is similarly treated with a mix of camp and cutting edge. This story is not science fiction so much as science fantasy and the rich color pallet for Mongo and the flamboyant costumes fit that perfectly.

A great read.

A Brief History of Recent Times

I have been a busy, busy guy in the last few months. I don't feel there has been time to post. I have no idea how I had time to post almost daily during NaNoWriMo and still get my stuff done. No idea.

You may remember I mentioned other projects in the background during my November posts. Let me give a rundown of what I have been up to. I submitted a manuscript to Third Eye Games in August for the game Part-Time Gods. It's a role-playing game where everyone plays the role of modern-day gods trying to balance their divine duties with the human side of their lives. They are only part-time gods. The power that is over at Third Eye Games liked it well enough to ask me to write more in the same game line. I submitted the first draft for that on 7 November. Then for a couple weeks I just focused on my NaNoWriMo.

However, I had also been working on a very long term project with another guy for Palladium Books. He declared (and I agreed) after four years of working on it on and off, 2013 was the year to finish. I realized along about 22 November there was no way I could wait until 1 December to get back to the Palladium project. At about the same time the edits came back for my Third Eye Games draft. That's three projects that needed work ASAP!

I worked on The Valley of Insects as a warm-up or cool-down activity but I considered finishing my Palladium manuscript my first priority. I was still working on my NaNoWriMo on 30 November, putting in a little bit more here and a little bit more there. I got just over the mark. I'm a NaNoWriMo winner! There was no stopping, though, I finishing my writing for the Palladium project on 4 December. Next I re-read the whole manuscript, both my sections and the sections my co-author had written. It was very helpful to see the whole project at once for the first time. It's the book we wanted to write (good thing, right?). There was a little bit of adjusting we needed to get the tone consistent throughout. My co-author and I met throughout the second half of December to hash out how to clean up problem issues and who was going to tackle what. I am very happy to say we completed all our work on 31 December at 14:00 or so. We were not freaking out at 23:55 that night. It was great to put that project to bed, go home and go to bed early myself.

I took the first week of January off from writing, but it wasn't off completely because my wife and I always host a big end-of-the-holidays party. There was a lot of work needed to get ready for that. It was not until 6 January that I first looked at the feedback I had on the Third Eye Games manuscript. It needed a lot of work. I assumed I could finish it up in a couple weeks, but I had submitted such a poor first draft (at least in my opinion) it all needed to be significantly reworked. It took me most of January and February to get that done. In Part-Time God, characters ally themselves with various Theologies (not the same thing as religions) and for me the hardest part was developing the special ability which makes each Theology unique. Making each ability simple, unique and thematic was a tough balancing act. Almost as hard was crafting the characters which exemplify each Theology. They had to fit in the game world, into their Theology and into the real world, at least as I understand it. I think it all came out pretty well, but I guess I won't know until I get the next round of feedback.

Of course, I am not just sitting on my hands while I wait. I have taken the time in the last few weeks to clean up my NaNoWriMo just enough to send it out to some early readers. I hope they can tell me if it has potential. If they like it, I will consider expanding it and possibly sending it around to see if I can get it published. I also have a few other projects in mind for Palladium Books. One has already begun!There will be updates about all of these projects as there are developments to report.

Peace.

Published Again!

 

I have a (somewhat belated) announcement to make. I have been published for a second time! I was brought on as a contributor to a project for Third Eye Games and I worked on it in fits and starts for much of 2013. The book was published in January of 2014. It is Divine Instruments, a sourcebook for Third Eye's game Part-Time Gods. In the game, players are modern-day gods who have to split their time between their human lives and their divine demands. They are only part-time gods. The source book I helped write deals with some of the tools of trade which were only hinted at in the main book. Worshippers, Relics and Territory are all covered. Learn a bit more about the game and go buy thebook. Better yet, do both! Thanks.