question question question! and assistance

Okay, so say I suddenly had a burning desire to read Sherlock Holmes (thanks marycrawford). Other than Sir Conan Doyle, what are your recommendations? I've read on and off for years, but I'm thinking a concentrated hit would be nice right now.

Comments

[blade-girl.livejournal.com]

The Seven Percent Solution, by Nicholas Meyer

[blade-girl.livejournal.com]

But read all the Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories first. :)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I remember that one, though it's been *years*.

*bounces and adds to list*

[daraq.livejournal.com]

The Beekeepers Apprentice (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0553381520/sr=8-1/qid=1175783627/ref=dp_proddesc_0/002-9697423-4606440?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1175783627&sr=8-1) by Laurie R. King is lovely, and the first book in a Sherlock Holmes series.

[trobadora]

I second that one - it's awesome.

[reginagiraffe]

I second this rec.

It skims the edge of MarySueishness, but manages to avoid falling totally. And there's like 6 or 7 more books after it! Which is always a plus.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Seeing the girls name, I was actually wondering if this was were the term "Mary Sue" comes from ...

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

This (http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/dark/1000/marysue.htm) is generally considered to be the first known use.

[wojelah.livejournal.com]

I... fourth (?) this recommendation. Really well-done series.

[cjk1701.livejournal.com]

Totally seconded - the character is not a Mary Sue, and the books read very easily. The focus is on all the right things. I can recommend the entire series except for the last book, which is... odd.

[notpoetry.livejournal.com]

Word to this rec. The character is sort of a Mary Sue, complete with tragic past, but I am so in love with this series (A Monstrous Regiment of Women is my favorite) that I don't even care. Seriously, ten kinds of awesome.

[fairestcat]

I forth or fifth or tenth or whatever this.

First book in a fabulous series and a great take on later-days Holmes.

[mindyfromohio.livejournal.com]

Absolutely you should hit nekosmuse up -- she just finished reading *everything* and doing a slash-goggle Commentary of Great Length for all of it.

[(Anonymous)]

_The Beekeeper's Apprentice_ by Laurie R. King--the first in her marvelous series narrated by Mary Russell.

[graycastle.livejournal.com]

you must read all the Conan Doyle stories and the novellas first! but you are allowed to skip The Sign of Four, because it sucks and is all about Mormons again for some bizarre reason.

but, once you've done that, you should runnotwalk to get Michael Chabon's The Final Solution, which is set after WWII (with a very elderly Holmes). It is simply breathtaking, that book.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I have those somewhere packed up--I may need to get them out again. Hmm.

*goes to look at Final Solution*

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

LAURIE R. KING!! Laurie R. King. Laurie R. King LAURIE R. KINGLaurie R. King Laurie R. King Laurie R. King Laurie R. King. Yes. Her.

Start with The Beekeeper's Apprentice

I like her.

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

If you want to see what's new in the fandom, stop at Lyrastar's page first. Lyrastar's H/W recs and links page is a major work of love for the fandom and fen. She does a super job of keeping current with a huge variety of websites, lists, LJs and assorted other resources. Lyrastar's links have saved me a mind-boggling amount of search time by keeping her links current and staying on top of what's happening across various platforms. ABSOLUTELY THE FIRST, BEST STOP for any H/W fan. I love this collection passionately.
http://liquidfic.net/Holmes_Watson.html

Though Sacrilege! hasn't been updated in several years, it still has some of the best Sherlock Holmes fan fiction around.
http://www.hwslash.net/sacrilege.html

Brancher, Irene Adler, Jin Katkin, Emily Veinglory, and Miss Roylott, aka Cress are amongst my favorites on Sacrilege!

Highly Improbable is a new (2006) Holmes/Watson slash archive:
http://excessant.com/HI/index.htm

Briarbrae is an excellent, wide-ranging Holmesian slash site with lots of fiction links.
http://www.harperspenny.net/briarbrae/index.html

Cox & Co is one Sherlock Holmes slash LJ community:
http://community.livejournal.com/cox_and_co/

221B Baker Street is the gen Sherlock Holmes LJ community:
http://community.livejournal.com/221b_bakerst/

Obviously, I went the fan fiction route

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

I've been a lover of ACD's canon for decades, but never was particularly fond of any of the professionally published pastiches. Except perhaps, "Mr Dearest Holmes" by Rohase Piercy (GMP, £3.95) - which despite its excesses and flaws is one that I periodically reread.

Laurie R. King's series is one that I want to like more than I do because there are elements that I do appreciate. But for me it not only falls over the line into Mary Sue territory, I just cannot ultimately envision Holmes in any sort of long-term intimate relationship (sexual or otherwise) with anyone other than Watson.

[giglet.livejournal.com]

I've been enjoying these links.

But alas, Briarbrae's page appears to be gone. Do you know if harperspenny.net migrated or was mirrored someplace?

Sherlock Holmes - Briarbrae

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

Damn - thought I'd checked all the links to make sure they were current. So far, I've not managed to find Briarbrae at a new location. Frustratingly, though the Wayback Machine archived the site (it looks like a full archive version, too), the site owner has blocked acccess to the archived pages. So while you can see the listing of pages archived, you cannot access them, rendering the Wayback Machine archived versions useless. I hate that with a passion that words cannot adequately express. Why block access to the archive of a widely-used and public site (Briarbrae) whose purpose was to gather scattered resources and link to other Sherlock Holmes fan and canon sites for fen and make networking easier?

Anyway, you might have better luck turning up some info on a new location - or possibly even getting the Briarbrae block lifted at the Wayback Machine archive.

I don't know if you realize that Brairbrae was created and maintained by the Old Briar Pipe? The site wasn't updated in the last few years, but remained accessible. The Old Briar Pipe has shifted fandoms, and is now active in SGA. In checking out their recent LJ entries, I ran across a recent post in which you and the Old Briar Pipe are chatting about an email exchange you've had about SGA team fiction (http://briar-pipe.livejournal.com/52404.html). So perhaps you might ask the Old Briar Pipe what's going on with Briarbrae? It's still considered a very valuable resource amongst Sherlockians and especially H/W fen, and I'd dearly love to see it back online.

If you find a new URL, do please let me know!

Re: Sherlock Holmes - Briarbrae

[giglet.livejournal.com]

Huh! No, I completely failed to realize that da Pipe ran this. Thanks for pointing it out to me.

I'm investigating.

Re: Sherlock Holmes - Briarbrae

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

Thought you might not have realized the connection since SH is an old fandom for Briar Pipe. Fingers crossed that you discover the site will be returning.

Re: Sherlock Holmes - Briarbrae

[giglet.livejournal.com]

Not an entirely dead fandom, either. Fairly recently, I was threatenedoffered a bribe of Holmesfic.

I suspect it's "just" a matter of having failed to pay the domain fee.

Re: Sherlock Holmes - Briarbrae

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info - both those things make me decidedly hopeful!

[ltlj.livejournal.com]

Laurie King, Carole Nelson Douglas (the main character is Irene Adler, but Holmes shows up later and Irene and her friend solve Holmesian-style mysteries in the meantime), David Pirie (awesome), Nicholas Meyer (awesome, especially the second book), and Neil Gaiman has a short story online somewhere ("A Study in Emerald" maybe? I think?)

Also "Lestrade and the Ripper" by I forgot the author's name. The real version of Lestrade investigates Jack the Ripper. Also great for Ripperologists because he goes into a lot of the theories they were working on at the time. And it's incredibly funny.

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

_The Last Sherlock Holmes Story_ by Michael Dibdin.

"A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman

_The West End Horror_ by Nick Meyer (frankly, ANY Holmes by Nick Meyer is worth it, tho I haven't read _The Canary Trainer_ yet so that one I can't vet).

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

'The Seven Per Cent Solution', by, um - oh, that's Nicholas Meyer. People have already recced that. Well, it's hilarious. Wait, he's written more? Huh.

If you're looking for fic, somniesperus has written some very good, very tense and understated Holmes/Watson fic without any damned moustache sex, which is on her site, linked from her LJ.

[cjandre.livejournal.com]

Not a book, but if you can get hold of it, you should watch it. I don't think you could get it on DVD, but someone might have a copy to download someplace: Sherlock Holmes: The strange case of Alice Faulkner (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163227/).

This is a TV broadcast of the play done on stage, with Frank Langella playing Holmes. I remember that I loved it when it came out and watched it several times on HBO. It's an interesting take on Holmes - all the more because it was written by someone else while Doyle was alive. Of course it was done with his permission, but it does have an interesting hint of fanfic to it.

:-)