| Title | : | The Great Detective |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0765386569 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780765386564 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 44 |
| Publication | : | First published February 17, 2016 |
But it is really Mr. Holmes' Reasoning Machine who they are there to see, for it is only fitting for one automaton to opine on a matter concerning the fate of another of its kind.
The Great Detective Reviews
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WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, i carved out my own short story advent calendar as my project for december, and it was so much fun i decided to do it again this year! so, each day during the month of december, i will be reading a short story and doing the barest minimum of a review because ain't no one got time for that and i'm already so far behind in all the things. however, i will be posting story links in case anyone wants to read the stories themselves and show off how maybe someone could have time for that.
here is a link to the first story in last year's project,
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
which in turn links to the whole monthlong project, in case you wanna do some free short story reading of your own! links to the stories in this year's advent-ure will be at the end of each review.
enjoy, and the happiest of decembers to you all!
DECEMBER 2
“What is an Illogic Engine?”
“Ah. Well.” Sir Arthur sat back, ready to lecture. “Simply stated, the Illogic Engine is a variation on the Logic Engine that drives intellects such as your own. It is designed to endow mechanicals with those aspects of human intelligence that exist independent of reason.”
The Reasoning Machine’s fine brows lifted in a parody of surprise. “Engines are, by definition, logical. An Illogic Engine, therefore, cannot exist.”
“It does, then,” Tacy snapped before she could stop herself. “And functions very well, look you, for a prototype.”
a steampunk sherlock holmes tale, with plenty of welsh consonant clusters, ghosts, and nonhuman people. apparently this is a return to characters introduced in a previous short story, which is a fact i wish i knew going into it, since i like to do things properly and well.
here is a link to the first story, if you also like to do things properly and well.
i didn't love it enough to go back and read the first story, but that's just because steampunk has never really been my thing. i thought having the sherlock element would get me there, but it wasn't enough to elicit much more than a raised eyebrow and a "huh" at the end. but what an exciting find for fans of both steampunk and sherlock!
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2016/02/17/the-gr...
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http://www.tor.com/2016/02/17/the-gre...
Description: When Sir Arthur Cwmlech’s home is robbed and the Illogic Engine–his prize invention–stolen, it is only natural that he and his clever assistant Miss Tacy Gof consult with another inventor, the great Mycroft Holmes, about who has taken it. But it is really Mr. Holmes’ Reasoning Machine who they are there to see, for it is only fitting for one automaton to opine on a matter concerning the fate of another of its kind. This charming story by award-winning fiction writer Delia Sherman is a delightful romp set within an a slightly altered version of one of our most beloved literary universes.
Opening: November 1880: On a foggy autumn morning, a horseless carriage chugged slowly along a fashionable London street. The carriage was of antique design, steam-driven instead of the more modern clockwork, with a tall chimney pipe that added its acrid mite to the smoky air. A burly footman sat on its box, peering through the gloom at the house numbers. As they passed a pleasant Georgian lodging-house, he hastily pulled the brake and the carriage came to a halt with a long hiss of escaping steam.
Sherlockian steampunk - fun, noisy, busy and bereft of even a soupçon of subtlety. Drenched in clichéd Welshness, The Great Detective qualifies for those wanting to tick off a St David's Day reading quest.
Solid 3* -
A steampunk story with Welsh flavours, set in 1880s' London, includes both a detective story and a ghost living in an automaton fighting for mechanicals to have rights, although there are no discussion about laws or ethics. This is kind of a sequel to
The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor (it can be read on its own without any problem), but the timing unfortunately doesn’t add up, as 19 years passed since (1861->1880), but they aged only 2-3 years (Tacy was 16-17 and now is 18-20)..
I really liked the Sherlock implications :) -
This is a steampunk short fiction focusing on a stolen android in 1880 London, featuring Mycroft Holmes as a side character.
Don't read this if you've read a lot of 19th-century novels - you'll only notice all the inauthentic details, for example in social conventions and etiquette. E.g. a baronet who introduces himself as "I am *Sir* Arthur..." (even today, one never uses titles when introducing oneself), and also failing to introduce the ladies accompanying him? A woman introduces herself as "I am Mistress ..."? Not to mention the head-hopping and various problems with POV (sometimes, it's simply a complete mystery who is describing or observing things at the moment: it can't be an omniscient narrator because they are limited and speculating based on appearance, and it cannot be any of the characters either). And the romance that appears out of nowhere!
The world-building also seems to have internal contradictions (e.g. on the one hand, people immediately assume that Miss Gof must be Sir Arthur's (the inventor's) scientific assistant, since she doesn't look like a relative but travels with him (why not a wife?) but on the other hand immediately dismiss women as obvious ignoramuses/naturally disinterested in scientific matters - which is it?). And then we have machines that all fall apart if someone simply whistles at a particular frequency! Sadly this didn't work for me. Perhaps I would have liked it more if I'd known beforehand that it was a continuation of another story - but why publish it separately if it can't stand on its own?
It does have some charming aspects, however, so it still gets an "it was alright" 2.5-star rating, rounded up because I'm guessing it would have been better if I'd read The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor before going into it. -
Full review at my
blog.
The novelette reflects the contemporary futuristic discussion of human rights and artificial intelligence - of course, our current A.I. systems are not self-aware, yet, and this problem is as far away as wondering about overpopulation of Mars. One miss in the story is that it doesn't touch Robot ethics, i.e. the risks coming along with robots, at all: Everything about mechanics is happy sunshine and working absurdely perfect. That is another problem with the story that I have: I didn't buy into the steampunk logic at all, as the pure technological background is so far away from believability that I only could consider it as pure fantasy.
The scenery and atmosphere was beautifully described. Characters remain distant, and do some behavioural jumps which I simply didn't understand, e.g. Tacy's love story. The logic of the detective story was somewhat far-fetched and has some holes. -
Steampunk short story, freely found online. Two (or three) main characters (also available in an earlier story) visit Mycroft Holmes, Watson and Sherlock can't be far behind. Quite cute, and well written.
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A clever steampunk story where Sherlock Holmes is an automaton built by Mycroft. Sherman plots it well and the tale is filled with overt and subtle Holmes references, and the whole is quite light. For me, much of the English-ism - and Welsh-ism - sounded a little twee; for the latter, somewhat heavy on the "look you"s and sentence construction that verges on the Yoda-esque.
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You may read online at
Thor.com.
Openin lines:
November 1880
On a foggy autumn morning, a horseless carriage chugged slowly along a fashionable London street. The carriage was of antique design, steam-driven instead of the more modern clockwork, with a tall chimney pipe that added its acrid mite to the smoky air. A burly footman sat on its box, peering through the gloom at the house numbers. As they passed a pleasant Georgian lodging-house, he hastily pulled the brake and the carriage came to a halt with a long hiss of escaping steam. -
Sherman has a likable, compact and uncomplicated writing style. Her steampunk London described in this short story was rich in detail, lively, and clever (but not witty). The various nods to steampunk are both broad (automatons galore) and subtle (for example, Morris wallpaper called "Bird and Gear," which I had to google - it's a play on Morris wallpapers from the era called "Bird and Pomengranate"). There is quite possibly a longer novel at work behind the scenes here; without giving too much away, the ending seems to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
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I'm currently reading the Sherlock Holmes books, so it was a pleasant surprise to find this little gem over at Tor.com. Even though this was a short story, the characters were well developed, and the story was fully realized. This is the second story with the character of Tacy Gof, the first being "The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor" which can also be found over at tor.com. I recommend reading them both.
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A fun sequel to "The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor", one of my favorite stories from Sherman's collection. I've recently read a lot of mysteries riffing or referencing Sherlock Holmes, so a lot of the tie-in details felt tired to me. But otherwise a fast, fun mystery, and I need more Angharad!
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An entertaining steampunk short story, in a clockwork version of Sherlock Holmes' UK. While it can be enjoyed on its own, this is the sequel of
The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor, and I recommend reading the stories in order to enjoy them at the fullest (I did not, and I regretted it).
In this second installment, Sir Arthur Cwmlech's home is robbed and the Illogic Engine, his prize invention, stolen, it is only natural that he and his clever assistant Miss Tacy Gof consult with another inventor, the great Mycroft Holmes, about who has taken it. But it is really Mr. Holmes' Reasoning Machine who they are there to see, for it is only fitting for one automaton to opine on a matter concerning the fate of another of its kind. -
This should be developed as a complete novel. (I would probably give the full book a'10'). It has a compelling steampunk world and interesting characters. As a 44 page short story, it was too choppy and the plot was not fully realized. It felt as if I read a book with sections missing.
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I gave up. Steampunk clearly is not my thing, plus I can't suspend disbelief for a villain named Gotobed. I just can't.
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Dire.
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4.5 Brilliant
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★★☆☆☆ (2/5)
Great writing style but disappointing premise.
A selection of my favourite passages from the book
• Angharad launched into a thoroughly seventeenth-century rodomontade on the subject of the encroaching ways of the lower classes when given the least measure of power
• To Ethel, the workshop was a wilderness of tiny objects she was not allowed to move. To Tacy, it was a model of Sir Arthur’s mind and hers. She knew precisely where she might lay her hand on any tool or paper she needed
• Grateful, for once, for the masculine prejudice that dismisses all females as more or less decorative featherbrains, Tacy wandered to the back of the shop, where a promising-looking ledger stood open upon a high desk -
Heads up: you need to read
The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor first otherwise like me you will have no idea why everyone is shouting about a Mr Gotobed suddenly when he's not mentioned until pulled out of the blue as if we should know who he is and how he's connected.
I didn't, so got massively confused and annoyed by this random leap of unforeshadowed logic. I only found the previous short story mentioned in reviews. -
loved all the detailed references to Holmes, easy to miss if you're not a fan of Doyle's detective... but the steampunk angle was a bit overwrought and didn't work for me... a few too many plot angles (mystery, automaton rights, feminism, alternate history) that don't get fleshed out in this medium... still, a fun read...
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Great fun! An interesting twist on the Sherlock Holmes line of stories.
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"The Great Detective" is a sequel to the short story "The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor." While I didn't enjoy "The Great Detective" as much as the previous story, it was still cute and fluffy.
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Meh. Not as good as the first one. Trying to hard to shoe-horn in the connection to Conan Doyle's characters and a position on the ethics of AI.
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A steam-punk detective story featuring sorta-Sherlock Holmes. It has nice ideas but it's a bit messy and convoluted.
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What if Mycroft Holmes created a Reasoning Machine? And Sir Arthur created an Illogic Engine to give human emotions to a mechanical intelligence (think Data in Star Trek trying to be human but not quite succeeding)? Add in a young woman as an apprentice, John Watson just returned from Afghanistan, and a kidnapping.
Great fun! -
You might also enjoy:
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The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor (also featuring Sir Arthur Cwmlech) -
A fun steampunk-ish spin on a tale with Mycroft Holmes, Sir Arthur Cwmlech, Tacy Gof and a Dr John Watson in the search for a stolen Illogic Engine.
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An interesting spin on the Sherlock Holmes mythos. Very fun.
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An amusing steampunk origin story for Sherlock Holmes.
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This was great fun. I love the mechanicals. And Tacy is lovely.
