All-Consuming Fire

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1106827.html

I enjoyed this tremendously. The Doctor, Ace, and Bernice Summerfield, in nineteenth-century London, get mixed up with Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson; and all five of them are then confronted with an invasion of Earth by the forces of Azathoth from the planet Ry'leh (sic). Mixing the mythoses (mythoi?) of Arthur Conan Doyle and H.P. Lovecraft is risky, but Lane has done it very well - lots of borderline steampunk in his Victorian settings, most of the narrative told in the first person by Watson (who inevitably develops a liking for Benny), cameo appearances from Pope Leo XIII, the San Francisco fire of 1906, and the smart missiles from Iain M. Banks' Culture novels.

Apart from the wonderful romp of the setting, Lane is also pretty smart about reinforcing our willing suspension of disbelief. Is Sherlock Holmes real or fictional in the Whoniverse? We get a rather neat answer here. On top of that, the entire narrative is nicely presented as a flashback, Benny and Ace perusing Watson's account, and then critiquing him as an unreliable narrator.

Strongly recommended, especially for fans of Holmes or Cthulhu who may for some reason not have encountered Doctor Who. ( )

The Seventh Doctor meets Sherlock Holmes. How can that not be full of win? And it pretty much is—unlike a lot of the Holmes pastiches I've read, Lane isn't afraid to actually *do* things with Holmes canon; many pastiche writers seem VERY AFRAID that they're somehow going to damage Sir Arthur's toys, which 1) is ridiculous, and 2) leads to very boring stories. Lane, meanwhile, is more willing to take Holmes canon in hand—he allows for character development and doesn't simply maintain the status quo. He also, bless him, lets Watson shine; in fact, this novel ends up being much more about Watson than about Holmes, or even the Doctor. It's probably a better Holmes novel than it is a "Doctor Who" one, honestly. But I love both worlds so I enjoyed it.