Sherlock Holmes In Orbit (Paperback)

The cover on this book is as fascinating as any individual story: an eye-catching color scheme which includes a robotic Sherlock (the eyes are blank and the head is opened to reveal what appears to be a computer chip) superimposed against a background that includes a waterfall (presumably the infamous Reichenbach Falls) and a traditional 19th Century London scene of a horse-drawn carriage on cobblestones.

As one might guess from the title as well, the cover depicts the theme of the book: some of the short stories in it are set, in accordance with tradition, in 19th century London, and some are set in the future.

Even some of the "traditional" stories have a futuristic twist to them. For example, The Adventure of the Second Scarf involves an alien visitation to the year 1897 and a subsequent space flight.

I was prepared to hate all of the futuristic stories, but some of them are intriguing. In "Two Roads, No Choices", two scientists from the year 2014 visit go back 102 years in time to visit Holmes and Watson in their lodgings on Baker Street in order to ascertain why the Titanic did NOT sink.

This story has got a warm familiar Rod Serling kind of feel to it, and it's very easy to forgive the author, Dean Wesley Smith, for overlooking (deliberately, I'm sure) the fact that by 1912, Conan Doyle's Holmes had long since left Baker Street and retired to his country home in Sussex to keep bees.

"The Case of the Purloined L'isitek" by Josepha Sherman is a cute futuristic story about a staid and dignified horsy race known as the Shrr'loks on the planet Kholmes ruled by a pony whose mannerisms resemble those of a certain fictitious earthly detective - just the sort of story that I wanted to hate but couldn't.

Some of the more traditional stories cleverly interweave actual historical personages or events from the Sherlockian era with genuine references from the Conan Doyle stories or with conclusions drawn by Sherlockians from those stories.

"The Adventure of the Russian Grave" by William Barton and Michael Capobianco involves an actual astronomical event that took place in the early 20th century, plausibly anticipated by Professor Moriarty's "Dynamics of an Asteroid".

"The Future Engine" by Byron Tetrick features the son of mathematician Charles Babbage, a genuine historical figure, whose creation of an analytical engine to perform mathematical calculations anticipate the development of the computer - the functions of which really do match Sherlock Holmes's description (from Conan Doyle's "Adventure of the Greek Interpreter") of the mental processes of his brother Mycroft.

There are also two stories in this volume which alternatively provide a lighter and darker side of Lewis Carroll.

And Frank M. Robinson's "The Phantom of the Barbary Coast" sets Holmes and Watson in 1895 San Francisco ("The most evil city in the world, Watson; it would put Port Said to shame!"). There is a reference to Watson's having lived in this city before during a prior marriage that ended in tragedy. This is not directly derived from anything that Conan Doyle wrote, but I'm pretty sure that it is a tribute to Ronald Knox or some other Sherlockian cryptographer who concluded the existence of such a marriage based on his own reading between the lines of the Conan Doyle stories.

There are also stories in this volume not worth mentioning and others that are worth mentioning, if only to chastise the author. The logic that provides the solution to "You See But Do Not Observe" (a cat in the box is neither alive nor dead until one observes its condition) is unworthy of any adult consideration, let alone that of Sherlock Holmes or an advanced futuristic society. Equally illogical is the solution to "The Adventure of the Pearly Gate". Yet that last story, together with Janni Lee Simner's "Illusions" (an homage to Conan Doyle's actual interest in the afterlife), describes a recurring theme that often occurs in collections such as this: Sherlock Holmes can never die, can never be ALLOWED to die.

I wonder. Although he still has a loyal following, it's hard to imagine that the man who could discern the trades of everyone on a third-class carriage on the Underground (as suggested by Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet") by observing certain defining features would have the same success in an age where computers have eliminated much of the variety that once might have distinguished one professional from another.

Could the detective who used the distinguishing characteristics of a typewriter to unmask a scoundrel in Conan Doyle's "A Case of Identity" have the same success in an era where the word processor and laser printer have replaced the typewriter? Could purloined documents (from "The Case of the Naval Treaty" and "The Case of the Second Stain") be recovered so readily when faxes, photocopiers, and email make them so readily reproducible? And is a Sherlockian passion for justice permissible at a time when people are often quite willing to parse justice for base and self-serving motives?

Perhaps we keep Sherlock Holmes alive because we need him as a live object of respect. And perhaps we need him for this purpose because deep inside, we know that we are dead.