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John Pelan (1957–2021)

Author of Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror!

41+ Works 1,565 Members 36 Reviews

About the Author

Series

Works by John Pelan

Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror! (2003) — Editor — 722 copies
The Children of Cthulhu (2002) — Editor; Contributor — 258 copies
The Darker Side: Generations of Horror (2002) — Editor; Contributor — 74 copies
The Century's Best Horror Fiction Volume 1 (2011) — Editor — 51 copies
Goon (1996) 51 copies
A Walk on the Darkside: Visions of Horror (2004) — Editor; Contributor — 49 copies
The Century's Best Horror Fiction: Volume 2 (2011) — Editor — 46 copies
Lost on the Darkside: Voices From The Edge of Horror (2005) — Editor; Contributor — 43 copies
Darkside : horror for the next millennium (1624) — Editor — 42 copies
Family Tradition (2002) 38 copies
Shifters (2016) 38 copies
The Last Continent: New Tales of Zothique (1999) — Editor; Contributor — 18 copies
Dark Arts (2006) 17 copies

Associated Works

Black Wings of Cthulhu 4 (2016) — Contributor — 87 copies
No Place Like Earth [collection] (1951) — Introduction — 44 copies
Powers: Secret Histories: A Bibliography (2009) — Contributor — 43 copies
Shivers (2002) 29 copies
The Garden at 19 (1910) — Introduction, some editions — 28 copies
Weird Fiction Review #5 (2015) — Contributor — 25 copies
Tales of the Uneasy (2004) — Editor, some editions — 16 copies
What Shadows We Pursue: Ghost Stories Volume Two (2003) — Editor, some editions — 15 copies
Off the Sand Road: Ghost Stories (2002) — Editor, some editions — 15 copies
The Anthology of Dark Wisdom: The Best of Dark Fiction (2009) — Contributor — 14 copies
Acquainted with the Night (2004) — Contributor — 13 copies
Shadows and Silence (2000) — Contributor — 10 copies
The Shadow on the Blind (2001) — Introduction, some editions — 10 copies
Imagination Fully Dilated (Anthology) (1998) — Contributor — 9 copies
The Broken Fang and Other Experiences of a Specialist in Spooks (2015) — Introduction, some editions — 9 copies
Fritz Leiber: Critical Essays (2007) — Foreword — 8 copies
The border line (1937) — Introduction, some editions — 5 copies
The House That Time Forgot and Other Stories (2011) — Introduction — 3 copies
The Man Who Was Secrett and Other Stories (2013) — Introduction — 3 copies
A Niche in Time and Other Stories (2011) — Introduction — 3 copies
The Story Writer and Other Stories (2011) — Introduction — 3 copies
The Two Suns of Morcali and Other Stories (2012) — Introduction — 2 copies
The Cloudbuilders and Other Marvels (2013) — Introduction — 2 copies
The Alien Envoy and Other Stories (2012) — Introduction — 1 copy
Chariots of San Fernando and Other Stories (2011) — Introduction — 1 copy
Old Faithful and Other Stories (2012) — Introduction — 1 copy
The Man Without a Planet and Other Stories (2012) — Introduction — 1 copy

Tagged

anthology (201) bibliography (12) Cemetery Dance (12) collection (18) Cthulhu (37) Cthulhu Mythos (55) detective (17) ebook (14) fantasy (77) fiction (191) first edition (12) ghost stories (13) ghosts (13) hardcover (15) HB (11) Holmes (11) horror (367) limited (17) Lovecraft (59) Lovecraftian (23) mystery (77) mythos (11) non-fiction (12) pastiche (18) read (20) science fiction (30) sf (18) sff (11) Sherlock Holmes (100) short stories (149) signed (28) speculative fiction (13) stories (10) supernatural (13) to-read (88) unread (16) Victorian (12) weird (14) weird fiction (24) wishlist (14)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

This collection of Holmes or Holmesian characters meeting the Lovecraftian-themed horror was interesting. The stories were uneven though, with some lacking the feel of Lovecraftian horror and others barely linked to Sherlock Holmes or Watson. Still, I enjoyed the book overall.

Try this book if you enjoy both Sherlock Holmes and H. P. Lovecraft.
 
Flagged
Jean_Sexton | 20 other reviews | Mar 17, 2024 |
Pretty average, except for A Study in Emerald, which works as an affectionate tribute to Sherlock Holmes with a decent twist. It plays a bit loose with Lovecraft but in a good way - some of the stories don't seem to get Lovecraftian horror at all.

The big problem is that the Holmes format and Lovecraft format are totally at odds with each other. Lovecraft stories end with a horror ending where people lose their sanity, nothing is understandable and there's no hope for the future. In a Holmes story the ending is (usually) happy, everything is resolved and everything is explained as being entirely logical, while clues throughout the story make the ending satisfying. These stories typically follow a pretty unhappy medium. Even attempts to portray some permanent effect on Holmes' or Watson's mind falls flat when the next story has them yet again baffled and confused about the idea of Lovecraftian cults existing, despite them having just confronted them. Obviously that's somewhat unavoidable in a short story collection like this but it is a little silly. Most of the stories have unpleasant things happen to the characters yet Holmes and Watson escape mostly unscathed. Multiple stories seem to have a very loose handle on Holmes' character and speaking style, which is pretty jarring. One story dedicates pages to a lovingly described firefight in the London sewers, which is neither very Lovecraftian or Sherlockian. One story is based on Moriarty recording his plans to control the world on a wax cylinder, live, while he's doing them. There's a story that featured something from Jewish folklore that almost felt anti-semitic because of the weird way it was handled.

I feel like more stories could have done with trying to break away from some of the Lovecraft mythology while still keeping some of the spirit. Some of them quote Lovecraft stuff but make it incredibly mundane.

I guess I feel most of the stories failed to work as either a Lovecraft story or a Holmes story and ended up not making much of an impact. It was alright enough but just not exciting and too much repetition of basic story premises.
… (more)
 
Flagged
tombomp | 20 other reviews | Oct 31, 2023 |
This large collection of stories that try to combine Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft is consistently entertaining, but other than Neil Gaiman's opening tale, which manages to surprise, nothing else rises above the ordinary. Even the few stories narrated by Dr. Watson lack the feel of Doyle's original tales, and in these and the other stories I can't help but feel that these are not the Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes I have come to know. As for the Lovecraftian elements in these stories, there are some grim things to be sure, but none of the writers writes like Lovecraft, so the effect of the horrors is less immediate. Even the appearance of H.G. Wells and (the fictional) Dr. Nikola don't liven things up that much. This one is more of a miss than a hit, for sure.… (more)
 
Flagged
datrappert | 20 other reviews | Feb 7, 2023 |
Not his best work.
 
Flagged
IreneCole | Jul 27, 2022 |

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Statistics

Works
41
Also by
29
Members
1,565
Popularity
#16,485
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
36
ISBNs
46
Languages
4

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