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Lain

Earthbound Immortal
Premium
the-valley-of-fear-sherlock-holmes-7.jpg


So I'm currently doing a marathon of the Sherlock Holmes stories since I haven't read them since I was a tyke, and I just finished the fourth and last of the novels - "The Valley of Fear" which I wanted to flag up since I felt it represented all that was good, and all that was bad in Arthur Conan-Doyle's writing. And I wrote an overly long (and spoiler free!) review of it.

First things first, this novel is often the go to example of continuity problems in the Holmes mythos. The fact that when Holmes' nemesis Moriarty first appeared in "The Final Problem" Holmes had to explain who he was to Watson as the latter hadn't ever heard of the man. But come this novel (which serves as a prequel), Watson not only knows of the man but is also aware that he's a criminal mastermind. Honestly? I don't really care, but it's worth mentioning since it's one of the more blatant examples of error.

Actually, speaking of Moriarty. I remember being disappointed when I first read this story because the edition I had billed it dramatically as the first appearance of Professor Moriarty and somesuch...and yet not only does he not appear in the book itself, but he has only a tangential connection to most of the goings on in the plot. Anyways, enough babbling and onto the book itself.

I wanted to start with something positive, and that would be that the actual mystery (don't worry, no spoilers here) that Sherlock is one of the most interesting in the mythos and has some of the best plot twists. Added to that, Doyle became rather self aware of the trappings of the mystery genre as there's a meta conversation between Holmes and a detective about mystery literature and how the heroes of such stories often don't "play fair" when it comes to showing the audience how they came about to solving the crime. And to that end, Holmes does play fair for about 90% of his appearance in the story, he verbalises both everything that he has seen and his theories of the crime to Watson and the detective. It is only at the climax of Part 1 that Holmes becomes separated from Watson and discovers the final clue that allows him to solve the mystery. So while it may not be possible for the audience to solve it without some serious leaps of logic, I at least appreciated the attempt at playing fair. What else was good? Ah, the characters of Holmes and Watson were on fine form as usual, and the supporting cast were actually interesting which is always good.

And now onto the not so positive. As you may have gathered, this novel is split into two very different parts. Part 1 is your standard Holmes story, but that only comprises about 45% of the book. Part 2 is where the meat of the book lies in that it is a very long backstory of the murder victim's history with a secret society in America - Doyle does love these doesn't he? First the Mormons in "A Study in Scarlett", then the KKK in "The Five Orange Pips" but I digress. From what I understand, Part 2 is inspired by Allan Pinkerton's account of how his agency infiltrated the Molly Maguires. But as I'm not familiar with American history I'll leave that there. Anyways, Part 2 is very much a hard boiled crime thriller that could have easily been it's own novel but Doyle felt the need to squeeze it into a Sherlock Holmes story. Perhaps he got really bored of writing Holmes again, or perhaps he has a problem with writing backstories as the murderer's motives in "A Study in Scarlett" was also bloated at several chapters long. "Brevity is the soul of wit" as someone said, and that's the main reason I feel that the Holmes short stories tend to be the tightest in the writing department.

Brevity is not the soul of this review apparently, it's far longer than I had intended so I'll swiftly draw it to a close and give my final thoughts. "The Valley of Fear" is an oft forgotten entry into the Holmes mythos. Which is a bit of a shame, as the bits with Sherlock in a definitely worth checking out at the least and the Pinkerton thriller is a decent read with an entertaining twist at the end. Both could have been great stories in their own right, but mashed together in the same book unfortunately drags both down.
 

Rebel Dynasty

Creator of Microcosms
Premium
@Izzy I like your review. I haven't gotten to this story yet (I have been working very slowly through the Complete Sherlock Holmes between books) but the issues you've taken with this one, I feel, reflect a number of issues I have with the tales preceding it. This is also one of those things that makes me glad that, in other adaptations (film, TV, etc.) Moriarty is given more of a part, considering how little he features in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's universe.

Oh, and currently reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. (So mad that the used copy I have is riddled with annotations from the previous owner). >.>
 

Lain

Earthbound Immortal
Premium
@Izzy I like your review. I haven't gotten to this story yet (I have been working very slowly through the Complete Sherlock Holmes between books) but the issues you've taken with this one, I feel, reflect a number of issues I have with the tales preceding it. This is also one of those things that makes me glad that, in other adaptations (film, TV, etc.) Moriarty is given more of a part, considering how little he features in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's universe
Why thank you. :D

And yes, Moriarty is a fascinating villain who you can do a lot of interesting stuff with in other media...and not so interesting *cough* BBC's Sherlock *cough*. :whistle:
 

Rebel Dynasty

Creator of Microcosms
Premium
Borrowed these from the library today:









The plan being to decrease the amount of impulse buying I've been guilty of, lately. If I like any of these enough to see myself reading them again, then I'll secure my own copy (ies) in the near future. Otherwise, I'm just satisfying my curiosity.
 

WolfOD64

That Guy Who Hates Fox McCloud
DarkApprentice_Jap.jpg
Needed a break from all these case books for Law classes...finished the previous book, so I'm now moving onto part two of the Jedi Academy Trilogy, Dark Apprentice.

There are traitors everywhere in this book, it's kind of crazy. A little odd that Mara's been absent so far, considering she's a traitor too.
 

Rebel Dynasty

Creator of Microcosms
Premium
Despite telling myself to take a break from reading, I was re-reading this for a few days last week



(I still love it so frigging much. I kind of want to read it all over again).

But now I'm moving onto:

 

Lain

Earthbound Immortal
Premium
So a while back I was discussing with @WolfOD64 about "War in the Pocket", one of the most tear inducing animes I've seen. So now I decided to go all in an read "Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash" - the absolute darkest and depressing entry in the Gundam series...I have the tissues at the ready. :'(

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The cover has some interesting symbolism with the two faces of protagonist Hathaway. In front is the friendly young man, son of a war hero and innocently studies botany. But behind him and clad in black is his darker alter-ego, a leader of a terrorist group that assassinates corrupt politicians/military leaders in an attempt to correct a system that he deems twisted. This is also reflected in the two machines on the cover, Hathaway's public persona is holding a children's toy robot associated with his father's victory in the war, while his terrorist self has the Xi Gundam behind him - an angel of death that kills all the evil who lay eyes on it.
 

Lain

Earthbound Immortal
Premium
A book on the history of music.

Some fascinating stuff, like how the oldest known instrument (a flute made of animal bone) was discovered in Slovenia in 1995 and believed to have been played by a Neanderthal.
 

V's patron

be loyal to what matters
https://archiveofourown.org/works/9767168/chapters/21951749

Its a Voltron AU where Coran and Allura are muslim and they invite Shiro and his friends over Eid.

:eek: I understand the idea of everydays AU because you are using your favorite characters to talk through something personal. Or you are just curious on how they would react in a different setting/scenario.

I don't really care for them because i'm more interested in playing in a different sandbox than everyday life. You could ground the fantastical but there still needs to be the fantastical.

I thought it was touching tho.
 
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justlexi

Beautiful Creature
I'm on the third of Lara Jean story...
Always and Forever, Lara Jean - Jenny Han

The feminine side of me shows up thanks to Peter Kavinsky

“We broke so easily. Like it was nothing. Like we were nothing. Does that mean it was never meant to be in the first place? That we were an accident of fate? If we were meant to be, how could we both walk away like that?” - P.S. I Still Love You
 
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