A Study in Emerald

[laughing_tree]

Comments

[tripodeca113]

Still an excellent story, not really much more to say.

[lordultimus]

Huh. The ending is weirdly optimistic. Yes, the Old Ones still rule the world, but Holmes and Watson are still out there, fighting.

[tripodeca113]

You know the "recent events in Russia" Moran mentions in the last page? Well since it takes place in 1881, I assume it's a reference to the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, who in this universe is an Old One.

[raveninthewind]

I really liked the palette used.

[remial]

ok, so I know that the detective was Moriarty, but who is the author?

[thanekos]

His crack-shot associate from The Adventure of the Empty House.

(Ex-, by that point.)

[angelophile]

Sebastian Moran.

[fungo_squiggly]

I love Sherlock Holmes and I love Lovecraft, and I quite like Neil Gaimsn too... but I have never really liked this story.

It’s just a little too overly precious or something for me.

[beyondthefringe]

I think as far as Holmes/Lovecraft mashups go, this one is rather well-done, and doesn't overstay its welcome.

And now, oddly, I have the desire to re-re-re-read Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October, and Esther Friesner's Druid's Blood.

[icon_uk]

And Fred Saberhagen's "The Holmes/Dracula File"? :)

[icon_uk]

I did enjoy this, though I think it works better as a text story as visual depictions of the Old One's rarely impresses.

My favourite anedote about it is NG's reply to the question "Do you approve of fanfiction?" was "I won the Hugo Award for a piece of Sherlock Holmes/H. P. Lovecraft fanfiction, so I'm in favour."

[mastermahan]

Another visual issue is that it immediately spoils the reveal that the Detective isn't Holmes, something the story takes pains to lead you toward.

And you're right, the thing in Moran's flashback loses something from being shown. I suspect Albuquerque saw the same problem, as he works to avoid showing the prince, and Victoria is largely hidden.

[laughing_tree]

I agree about the rest (I think Albuquerque still showed way too much of Victoria), but I don't see how it spoils the detective's identity. There's no reason to think that guy there isn't Albuquerque's interpretation of Holmes, a character audiences are used to seeing played by actors as different as Robert Downer Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch.

[mastermahan]

There's still a range for how Holmes looks. Tall. Slender. Dark hair. Only Jonny Lee Miller brakes the Sherlock mold in recent memory, and that's along with deliberate changes to Watson and other canon characters.

When I see a detective with blonde muttonchops, my immediate reaction is that he's not Holmes. And indeed, Albuquerque's real Holmes has dark hair and a pointy chin.

[laughing_tree]

"When I see a detective with blonde muttonchops, my immediate reaction is that he's not Holmes."

I think it would be if you also see him living at Baker Street, acting as a consultant for Lestrade, and re-enacting the famous Afghanistan scene with an injured vet.

[dejadrew]

I always loved this as the only story of Sherlock Holmes in a fantasy setting that really and truly WORKS.

The thing about Holmes is, he actually sort of exists in and depends upon a reality that is MORE reasonable and logical than ours. His deductions and leaps of logic depend on a reality that makes more than usually perfect sense, where the same clues always mean the same thing, where different kinds of cigars actually produce noticeably different kinds of ash. Putting him in a reality that is LESS reasonable and logical usually breaks him? Like, as a concept?

But Gaiman found a way that works. By putting him in a completely unreasonable world, and having him be fighting against it. A paladin of logic fighting against gods of madness, trying to force the universe back into the shape he believes it should be.