Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets

Fanfiction is amazing and you should never, never underestimate its ability to impress, despite its oddity and quirks. Think about it. Are you more likely to stay up until four in the morning for a good novel, or a AU about Shelock the barista and John the reluctant med student?

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. There are thousands upon thousands of stories regarding this legendary pair, among those numbers 3 popular tv shows and a box office hit. Whichever direction the creators take them, they can all agree on one thing: Our brilliant and eccentric detective will always find his brave and loyal doctor, and they will be blessed with a friendship to be envious of. In many ways, we own what we know about this dynamic duo to the revisionists, the writers that tireless try to create something new from something old.

Some features of this anthology include:

Circus AU Fem!lock Fourth wall? What fourth wall?
Johnlock Ghost stories and unsolvable mysteries (yes, even for Sherlock)
Assassination attempts Elvis A genius Mrs. Husdon Time travel and good ol' deduction from the world's most famous consultant.

Seriously though, if you're a fan of any Holmes works, read this. These are some superbly clever tales professional authors have put together for your enjoyment.

***Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

“Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets” is an anthology of Sherlock Holmes short stories compiled by David Thomas Moore. It was published in 2014 (October) and it consists of 14 short stories with very different versions of Holmes and Watson.

I must first say that I am not a fan of short stories. I find that they are simply too short!

In this case I did find the collection interesting. Most of the stores I was sad to see end so quickly. I have read all of the original Holmes stores written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and I found these to be complimentary of those original works. I give this a 4 out of 5.

My book reviews are also posted on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com).

This is an anthology that Moore put together with the common theme of stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. What sets these stories aside from other books with Holmes/Watson stories, is that he let the writer pick the era or alternate history timeline that they wished.

So stories are based anywhere from the ‘normal’ Victorian era that we are used to from the Conan Doyle stories to the future. Some stories are steampunk in character and others transport Holmes/Watson to modern day America or England. In one story people have one special power such as being impervious to weapons or the ability to fly. In another our detectives live in a constructed matrix base on the world of the Conan Doyle stories.

But my favorites were those that changed the genders of one or the other or both of the detectives. Some made them male lovers, others female lovers, and/or heterosexual lovers. Making the male lovers was not such a far reach, because that’s the way many people of our time look at men living together, though it was quiet normal in Victorian times.

My personal favorite was the one in which Mrs. Hudson is the true genius of the story and Holmes and Watson answer to her, though they don’t realize it.

All-in-all a fine idea, well edited and presented.

Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com

Two Hundred and Twenty One Baker Streets is, as the name suggests, an anthology of short stories (only fourteen, sadly, I was hoping it was really two hundred and twenty one) featuring our favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes. The stories flit from genre to genre, location to location, and gender to gender, and the authors include a pleasing balance of men and women - eight of the fourteen authors are female. None of them are really household-name authors. Some of the authors may be familiar to you - and I’ll include a list - but you’re not getting any Neil Gaimans out of this one. And that, my friends, is a good thing. Not that I didn’t love A Study in Emerald, because I did, but here are fourteen new authors. Think about it. A lot of potential reading in there. All told, it’s a remarkably well-collated anthology of creative reinterpretations of Doyle’s work.
The quality of the writing is universally excellent. Fanfic is by no means poor in quality, but there's a lot of it, and when you have a lot of anything, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time sifting through it to find what you really want. That’s one reason you’re reading this book review right now - TeaTalksBooks, reading, rating, and filtering so you don’t have to. And this anthology contains fourteen good, solid, well-written stories, and you know I don’t say that lightly. I don’t think there was a one of them I didn’t enjoy, though as always some were more to my taste than others.
Another thing to recommend this anthology is its variety. We have a circus, Australian ghosts, a semi-faux-Chinese high fantasy world, a genius geneticist/bioengineer Mrs Hudson and a bi or lesbian Watson, a rather sociopathic necromancer dentist Watson, drugged-up 70s NYC Holmes and Watson and the JFK assassination, teenage fanfic-writer Jane and her crush on her schoolmate Charlotte, a campus-themed reality show with a lady Holmes, canon-compliant investigation of witches and glassmaking, novel-hopping characters (Watson meets Elizabeth Bennet!), witchcraft in Nigeria, wax museum intrigue, and an eerie radio show Holmes and Watson with a surprising ending. I’m betting at least one of those sounds terribly intriguing to you, and it should.
And it’s not that you can’t find quality, variety, and new authors online, for free, in various fanfic archives, because you can. You really can. Some of it will be well-edited, as well, and others will give you links to more good works. Some of it may be even more to your taste, and a lot of it fulfills reading cravings that you’re not going to get from this anthology. However, this much variety in tone, plot, setting, character, and genre is going to be hard to find, and I’d say for the opportunity to discover new authors alone this anthology is well worth the money. As for me, I’m definitely checking out Kaaron Warren, whose ghost story scared my socks off in all the best ways, and Joan de la Haye, who is responsible for the story with the witchcraft in Nigeria. Both were very well-written and appeal to my taste for the macabre; people who enjoyed The Eyre Affair, on the other hand, will probably love Ian Edgington’s blurring of literary lines.
Some problems I did have with it: I may be mistaken, but I don't think there was a non-white Holmes or Watson anywhere within its pages, which is a crying shame given its otherwise diverse cast of characters - many of the non-major characters are not white. There were a few typographical errors in the advance copy I received, one of them a seriously misplaced sentence drifting in the middle of an author bio. Similarly, the advance copy did not contain a table of contents, which let me tell you made this review an incredible pain to write! I imagine these problems (except the race one) will vanish in the published edition, however, so don't worry too hard about them.

Advance copy provided by NetGalley.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1019039763

The imaginative stories about Sherlock Holmes and his down-to-earth counterpart, Doctor Watson, make for compelling reading. The familiar characters are given dramatically different interpretations from what Arthur Conan Doyle envisioned -- he probably never thought to make Sherlock a woman, or a teenage girl. The only strike against this volume is some stories end too soon; you want these versions of the characters to hang around longer.

LOVED this book. As a fan of Sherlock Holmes, I enjoyed seeing him and Dr. Watson in alternate scenarios. Probably my favorite story was where they helped an accused witch. Recommended for all lovers of Holmes & Watson!

Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets: An Anthology of Holmesian Tales Across Time and Space Edited by David Thomas Moore

* Provided by NetGalley for Review

5 out of 5 gnomes

There were no duds in this awesome collection of a myriad of stories about Sherlock Holmes. This book looks at Sherlock Holmes in just about every way imaginable. Most of these will have you wanting a whole book about the characters you’ve just read. If you’re anything like me you’ll be adding these authors to your TBR (To Be Read) List as you make your way through these stories.

The Adventure of the Speckled Bandana was one of those stories that really surprised me with its resolution. I adore the lore that was mixed together to make up this story.

The Lantern Men is one truly creepy Holmes story. It’s awesome but like I said before pretty darn creepy. The solution to the mystery lets you see the horrible and long history of a town.

A Woman’s Place was such a great look at how important Mrs. Hudson is. I love everything about this story and it’s surprising yet awesome twist on Sherlock.

The Small World of 221 B was so interesting and I don’t want to give anything away about it except to say that it really reminded me of an episode of The Twilight Zone.

All the Single Ladies is a fantastic look at a woman Sherlock Holmes. I liked the mix of humor, character, and the mystery of who the real killer was. This story also had some of my favorite quotes/lines.

With such a wide array of stories about Holmes in this anthology there truly is something for everyone. If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes then I highly recommend that you check out this anthology ASAP.

A bit hit and miss but on the whole a thoroughly enjoyable collection stories depicting the many faces of Holmes.