A Gimmick that Sort-of, Kind-of Works - A Review of Sherlock Holmes vs. Cthulhu

Sherlock Holmes vs. Cthulhu: The Adventure of the Deadly Dimensions by Lois H. Gresh

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


When an idea becomes ridiculously popular, it is inevitable that the idea will be used in almost anything and everything, often melding with other, equally popular ideas. This is especially true today, when the Internet has made concepts and ideas easy to share, and easy to find. From out of this melange anyone could pull together bits and fragments of various things and put them together in new ways. Sometimes, that new thing is a fresh take on old material - something that revives interest in the originals, while simultaneously maintaining its own unique identity and appeal. Other times, it is nothing more than a gimmick, not anything truly fresh.

That has been the case with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, and H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Sherlock Holmes carries much cachet in any sphere of storytelling, since he has become the “quintessential detective”. There are innumerable homages, adaptations, and pastiches available out there, in all forms of media: from genre fiction to serious literary fiction, all the way to movies, television shows, and video games. The volume is such that it is possible to build an entire branch of literary scholarship dedicated to Sherlock Holmes alone - in fact, many Sherlockian societies are already doing just that.

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