great book

Many of us geeky guys were Sherlock Holmes fans in our youth. I must have read all the stories five times, and still reread one now and then. The mysteries weren't the point; Sherlock was.

This is a wonderfull book. It is told in the first person by an awkward, unhappy, hostile 15 year old girl who, in the midst of WWI, literally stumbles upon a beekeeper retired detective in the fields of Sussex.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

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John Larkin
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Sherlock may have been more clever, but Kojak had better throughput.

Reply to
bitrex

I haven't read that one, but did spend some time collecting pastiches. When I was rather ill many years ago, I mentioned that I might want to read of few of these. I was soon deluged by an avalanche of Sherlock Holmes. It took a few months to recover from the illness, and several years to recover from an overdose of Sherlock Holmes. Some of the compilations are the result of writing contests and are awful: They stories vary from exact mimicking of the original Arthur Conan Doyle style, to highly imaginative creations, such as Holmes as a VR (virtual reality) detective computer program solving crime in outer space.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Jeff Liebermann

The idea of fiction[*] isn't as much the story as the characters. The great authors aren't great because they have great plots, rather great characters and character development. Even most of the TV shows I watch (though TV is hardly "great"), I watch for the characters, not the recycled plot lines.

[*] Much of non-fiction, as well
Reply to
krw

The trouble with Sherlock is that so many like to imitate his logical thinking, despite having no ability to do so.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Thanks, (Yeah I read to words off the Sherlock books in my youth.) I blew through this over the weekend.. well ~100 pages left.)

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George H.

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

It's the first of a great series of books, actually.

Unless you're rabidly homophobic you should read her Kate Martinelli books, too -- they're set in San Francisco and environs, so you should get more out of them than I do.

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Tim Wescott 
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Tim Wescott

Yeah, I'm going on vacation next week (with a dozen speech pathologists) so I ordered the next two books and some high-end ear plugs. This crowd does talk a lot.

I'll check them out; she's an awfully good writer.

She mentions SF in that Holmes book, a car driving off a cliff south of the city.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
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John Larkin

Detective in outer space? Have you read John Zakour's 'The Blue Bombshell', or any of the other books in that series? He is the last private detective, on Earth. It is a comedic style of Science Fiction. I stumbeld across the book at Dollar Tree, so I bought it. I enjoyed it, but then I am rather warped. ;-)

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Victorian era rubbish for chair bound invalids suffering brain death and other neurological anomalies from lead poisoning...

Reply to
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred

Sherlock is rubbish? Well, I mostly read the stories as a teenager.

King's book begins in 1915, post-Victorian for sure.

I am hardly a chair bound invalid; I'm getting into shape for ski season. The season pass at Sugar Bowl includes 4 days at Squaw/Alpine. Whether I have suffered from lead poisoning is unknown, but I seem to be doing OK.

What's your idea of a great book?

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
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John Larkin

Read any good books lately, Fred? A hint before you post again on subjects that require more than the most trivial amount of brain power: Some of us read books that aren't made of chewy thick cardboard with the aim of helping teething toddlers cut their teeth. HTH.

Reply to
JW

I don't see any evidence of that in your posts, and I see no, much less great, display of brain power coming from your direction.

Reply to
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred

other neurological anomalies from lead poisoning...

Most fiction is a bunch of escapist garbage written by idiots, and, in the modern era, quite a lot of it is funded by abject trash with an agenda. And don't tell me you're buying printed matter, an even greater waste! Print b ooks, magazines and newspapers should be outlawed immediately.

Reply to
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred

You're awfully crabby, Fred. If you're so smart, how come you're not happy?

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

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John Larkin

And as (iirc) Tolkien pointed out, "Who is most opposed to escape? Jailers."

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
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Phil Hobbs

of

nd other neurological anomalies from lead poisoning...

e modern era, quite a lot of it is funded by abject trash with an agenda. A nd don't tell me you're buying printed matter, an even greater waste! Print books, magazines and newspapers should be outlawed immediately.

Don't hold back Fred, tell us what you really think. :^)

Of course fiction is an escape, that's why I like it. I lie in bed, and am taken away to some other time or place... and soon I'm asleep. Technical or other non-fiction tends to be too stimulating to act as a soporific, unless it's really poorly written.

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

And good fiction often has real value.

I've always found Science Magazine to be a prescription-strength narcotic.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

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Reply to
John Larkin

For some reason I just don't get on with fiction penned by women. The

*sole* exception to this firm rule is Charlotte Bronte.
Reply to
Cursitor Doom

It was Lisa Simpson (no less) who once observed that happiness and intelligence typically run in inverse proportion to one another. Never noticed how these spastics you see always seem so joyful for no apparent reason?

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

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