Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space

354 Pages·1986·2.66 MB·English

by  Isaac Asimov et al. (eds.)

Sherlock Holmes through Time and Space
Sherlock Holmes through Time and Space

Edited by

Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and
Charles G. Waugh
Jacket Art by Thomas Kidd.
Interior Illustrations by Thomas Kidd and Richard Berry.

Bluejay Book’s Inc.
A Bluejay Book, published by arrangement with the editors.
Copyright © 1984 by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and
Charles G. Waugh.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval system, without the express
written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by
law. For information, contact Bluejay Books, 130 West Forty-
Second Street, New York, New York 10036.

Manufactured in the United States of America.
First Bluejay Printing: October 1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry
under title:
Sherlock Holmes through time and space.
1. Fantastic fiction, American. 2. Science fiction, American. 3.
Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930—Parodies, imitations, etc.
4. Holmes, Sherlock (Fictitious character) I. Asimov, Isaac, 1920-
. II. Greenberg, Martin Harry. III. Waugh, Charles.
PS648.F3S54 1984 813'.0876'08 84-18580 ISBN 0-312-94400-4
The publisher wishes to acknowledge the special editorial
contributions made to this book by Stuart Shiftman and Larry
Carmody. Furthermore, the artists wish to acknowledge Stuart
Shiftman's contributions without which this book would have not
have looked truly Sherlockian.
an ebookman scan.
Contents
Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space
Contents
Sherlock Holmes by Isaac Asimov
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Problem of the Sore Bridge—Among Others by Philip José
Farmer (writing as Harry Manders)
I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII.
The Adventure of the Global Traveler by Anne Lear
The Great Dormitory Mystery by S. N. Farber
The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound by Poul Anderson and
Gordon R. Dickson
The Thing Waiting Outside by Barbara Williamson
A Father's Tale by Sterling E. Lanier
The Adventure of the Extraterrestrial by Mack Reynolds
A Scarletin Study by Philip José Farmer (writing as Jonathan
Swift Sommers III)
Foreword
I - HERR RALPH VON WAU WAU
II - THE SCIENCE OF ODOROLOGY
III - THE STATEMENT OF THE CASE
IV - LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS, COURTESY OF VON WAU
WAU
V - MORE DAWNING LIGHT
VI - FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD
VII - NO EMERALD CITY FOR ME
VIII - THE CONCLUSION
Voiceover by Edward Wellen
The Adventure of the Metal Murderer by Fred Saberhagen
Slaves of Silver by Gene Wolfe
God of the Naked Unicorn by Richard Lupoff (writing as Ova
Hamlet)
I. II. III. IV.
Death in the Christmas Hour by James Powell
The Ultimate Crime by Isaac Asimov
End of Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space
Sherlock Holmes by Isaac Asimov

“Watson! The game is afoot.”—Sherlock Holmes

It can easily be argued that Sherlock Holmes is the most
successful fictional character of all time. It has been a century
since he was created in the mind of Arthur Conan Doyle, and in
all that time he has delighted countless millions of readers with
an intensity that has not diminished with time. A substantial
fraction of those readers refused to accept Holmes as fictional,
but thought (and some think so even today, I’m sure) that he
was real and alive and sent him letters, addressed to 221B
Baker Street, outlining their problems.
This very success, which gave pleasure to the reading public
generally, was the source of great annoyance to Conan Doyle.
Sherlock Holmes obscured all his other literary endeavors,
which dwindled and died in the vast Sherlockian shade. It even
obscured Conan Doyle as an individual, for he became nothing
but an intermediary between the detective and the public.
Conan Doyle knew this and resented it bitterly. He tried to
end his enslavement by demanding a higher price with each
story he wrote. It didn’t work; the price was always met. He
resorted to more drastic measures and wrote a story in which
he ruthlessly killed his detective. It didn’t work; outraged public
demand forced him to resurrect Holmes.
I have often thought that Conan Doyle turned to spiritualism
and other follies in later life in an (unconscious?) effort to
dissociate himself from Holmes and to achieve some sort of
fame that would adhere to himself alone. The extremities of
irrationality to which he descended (he believed in fairies and
let himself be fooled by obviously faked photographs) may well
have been a wild attempt to rebel against Holmes’s supreme
rationality. If so, that didn’t work either. Conan Doyle was
laughed at, but Holmes was still revered.
Holmes’s success added him quickly to the notable roster of
people (both real and fictional) who are “undefined.” What I
mean by this is simple:
When Holmes describes James Moriarty, that master criminal,
as “the Napoleon of crime,” he doesn’t bother to pause and
explain who Napoleon was. He takes it for granted that Watson
knows who Napoleon was and Conan Doyle can safely take it for
granted that virtually anyone capable of reading him knows who
Napoleon was.
In the same way, when anyone describes someone as being
“a regular Sherlock Holmes,” he never pauses to explain what
he means. The name is part of the English language. Each of us
assumes that all others know exactly who Sherlock Holmes is.
Holmes set the fashion for detectives, or at least for the most
unfailingly fascinating ones, for all times. To be sure, there were
fictional detectives before Holmes; and some who must
undoubtedly have inspired Conan Doyle’s creative effort
(notably, Edgar Allan Poe’s detective, Dupin), but the
overwhelming success and popularity of Sherlock Holmes wiped
out all that had gone before as though they had never been. It
was Holmes who became the model.
Holmes was a gifted amateur who could see clearly through a
fog that kept the professional police (Scotland Yard bunglers)
hopelessly puzzled.
This sounds like an inversion of the natural order of things.
How can amateurs be superior to professionals? Actually, it’s a
reflection of Victorian superstition and the English acceptance of
their caste system. The Scotland Yard bunglers were, at best,
middle class; perhaps even lower class in origin. The gifted
amateur, however, was a gentleman who had been to Eton (or
Harrow) and Oxford (or Cambridge). Naturally, an English
gentleman would be born far superior to tradesmen and others
who were beyond the pale.
And so the tradition of the gentleman detective came into
being and was particularly beloved by a century of superb
mystery writers, particularly those who were English, with Peter
Wimsey being perhaps the most extreme case. Even when the
detectives were professionals, they were often gentlemen who
became policemen out of some quirk (Roderick Alleyn and John
Appleby, for instance).
Nor did those mystery writers who followed Conan Doyle
attempt to hide their indebtedness, for they could not. Consider
the very first mystery written by Agatha Christie (the most
successful of all the post-Doyle writers), The Mysterious Affair
at Styles. The narrator, Captain Hastings, confesses his
ambition to become a detective himself. He is asked “The real
thing—Scotland Yard? Or Sherlock Holmes?” And Hastings
replies, “Oh, Sherlock Holmes by all means.”
The stage is set, in this way, for the appearance of Hercule
Poirot, the best of all fictional detectives in the Sherlockian
tradition.
To step down several notches, I have frequently described
my own creation, the waiter Henry, in the stories that feature
him, as “the Sherlock Holmes of the Black Widowers.” Since it is
useless to deny the debt, mystery writers refer to it brazenly
and thus disarm, in advance, those who might otherwise sneer
Sherlock Holmes invited imitation, of course, both worshipful
and mocking. Mark Twain was one of the mockers, and did a
very poor job of it, unfortunately. More successful was Robert
Fish in his Schlock Homes stories. While Conan Doyle’s
copyrights were in force writers could only approach Holmes
obliquely, of course, but they managed to write pastiches, often
humorous ones, in a variety of ways. After the stories passed
into the public domain, “new” Sherlock Holmes stories, as
identical to the original in all respects as the writer could
manage, began to be written in surprising numbers.
In fact, so numerous are the Sherlock Holmes continuations,
parodies, and pastiches, that they can be divided into
subgroups. The particular subgroup we deal with in this book
are stories in which the Sherlockian style of fiction is treated in
terms of science fiction or fantasy, and it is surprising (as you
will see) how well the legend survives the transition.
This book contains fifteen stories that in one way or another
deal with Sherlock Holmes. The first story is by Conan Doyle
himself; an authentic Holmes story entitled “The Adventure of
the Devil’s Foot,” one of two that, in all the canon, are most
nearly science fiction. [The other, “The Adventure of the
Creeping Man,” can be found in The Best Science Fiction of
Arthur Conan Doyle (Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinois University
Press, 1981), edited by Charles G. Waugh and Martin H.
Greenberg.]
It is very good science fiction, too, and you will be amazed