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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
The occult Victorian era with airships and coin-powered robot bodyguards is mostly just a playground for the story of “what if Sherlock Holmes was an Angel named Crow.” The good doctor Watson is named Doyle, and “things are not what they seem” is pretty much the motto of this fun Holmes adventure, which works in dozens of allusions from the original Adventures.
The stories are mostly episodic, but they’re hung together by Crow and Doyle in pursuit of Jack the Ripper.
It’s a pretty good story. I wish it was less episodic, but I say the same thing about the original stories as well.
The stories are mostly episodic, but they’re hung together by Crow and Doyle in pursuit of Jack the Ripper.
It’s a pretty good story. I wish it was less episodic, but I say the same thing about the original stories as well.
A fun pastiche.
Enjoyed the way various supernatural creatures were mixed into historical fact. The steampunk details felt a little extra - they didn't add anything to story and were never really explored.
But overall I enjoyed the read!
Enjoyed the way various supernatural creatures were mixed into historical fact. The steampunk details felt a little extra - they didn't add anything to story and were never really explored.
But overall I enjoyed the read!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If you are a fan of historical fiction and alternative history writing this story is definitely for you. Also, if you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes then this story is 100% even more for you.
Now, before moving into the story itself there are a few things I wanted to clear up as I found them out for myself as I finished this novel. First, the author Katherine Addison is the same person as the author Sarah Monette. It appears that for different genres and topics Monette has applied her pen name Addison, so keep that fun fact for yourself if you want to read more of her writing. Second, and this is direct from the author herself in the Author’s Note – The Angel of the Crows began as a Sherlock wingfic fanfiction.
Now, to talk about this wonderful book itself. I am, admittedly, a fan of all things Sherlock Holmes so to see a reimagining of the story with different characters (Crow being Sherlock and Doyle being Watson) was fun for me. The explanation for why the characters are the way they are fits so well that I found myself smiling wide. Crow, being an angel whose domain is all of London, thus explaining his heightened senses and sometimes odd behavior as Sherlock, is wonderful in his odd ways. Doyle, much like Watson, is suffering from a leg injury and from having been in the war however his injury is of a spectral nature as he was attacked by what is known as a Fallen angel i.e. one that is now filled with dark, nefarious energy and power.
Throughout this book we cover the well-known Sherlock Holmes stories of “A Study in Scarlet,” “The Sign of the Four,” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” but Addison didn’t stop there and also had our heroes join the hunt for Jack the Ripper.
Honestly while I wish some lesser-known Sherlock tales had been picked or that things had been reworked a bit more to make them feel new or extremely different I did enjoy the way that Addison connected the dots between these classic stories and our newly reimagined characters.
If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes, alternative history or the idea of these characters being redone in a way that breathes new life back into these classics I would definitely suggest you pick up this book. While it wasn’t life altering it was a quite enjoyable read and I was impressed with Addison’s style. I may be picking up her other works soon.
Now, before moving into the story itself there are a few things I wanted to clear up as I found them out for myself as I finished this novel. First, the author Katherine Addison is the same person as the author Sarah Monette. It appears that for different genres and topics Monette has applied her pen name Addison, so keep that fun fact for yourself if you want to read more of her writing. Second, and this is direct from the author herself in the Author’s Note – The Angel of the Crows began as a Sherlock wingfic fanfiction.
Now, to talk about this wonderful book itself. I am, admittedly, a fan of all things Sherlock Holmes so to see a reimagining of the story with different characters (Crow being Sherlock and Doyle being Watson) was fun for me. The explanation for why the characters are the way they are fits so well that I found myself smiling wide. Crow, being an angel whose domain is all of London, thus explaining his heightened senses and sometimes odd behavior as Sherlock, is wonderful in his odd ways. Doyle, much like Watson, is suffering from a leg injury and from having been in the war however his injury is of a spectral nature as he was attacked by what is known as a Fallen angel i.e. one that is now filled with dark, nefarious energy and power.
Throughout this book we cover the well-known Sherlock Holmes stories of “A Study in Scarlet,” “The Sign of the Four,” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” but Addison didn’t stop there and also had our heroes join the hunt for Jack the Ripper.
Honestly while I wish some lesser-known Sherlock tales had been picked or that things had been reworked a bit more to make them feel new or extremely different I did enjoy the way that Addison connected the dots between these classic stories and our newly reimagined characters.
If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes, alternative history or the idea of these characters being redone in a way that breathes new life back into these classics I would definitely suggest you pick up this book. While it wasn’t life altering it was a quite enjoyable read and I was impressed with Addison’s style. I may be picking up her other works soon.
I like Crow and Doyle even better than Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and that's saying something.
I loved this book. It was wonderful. Please read it.
I loved this book. It was wonderful. Please read it.
Lovely Holmes fanfic where Holmes is an angel and Watson is a hellhound. I know enough Holmes to get some of the references, in writing, characters, and plots, but certainly not all of them. This is now well up there in my favourite depictions of the Holmes/Watson relationship, and the world building is lots of fun.
The main duff note for me was the inclusion of Jack the Ripper, in whom I have basically no interest at all, and I despair at how many stories about him continue to appear. For me, this would have been a better book without him. But if Addison writes more in this world, sign me up.
(There's also an extremely spoilery thing which I won't mention, but which filled me with delight, and went a long way to making up for the over-exposed Ripper.)
The main duff note for me was the inclusion of Jack the Ripper, in whom I have basically no interest at all, and I despair at how many stories about him continue to appear. For me, this would have been a better book without him. But if Addison writes more in this world, sign me up.
(There's also an extremely spoilery thing which I won't mention, but which filled me with delight, and went a long way to making up for the over-exposed Ripper.)
Sherlock is an angel, not fallen, *definitely* not fallen, in a London where a wide variety of supernatural elements exist.
The Angel of Crows is a collection of intertwined episodes, which is similar to a collection of short stories, yet structured more like a series of the TV show Sherlock with a main plot-of-the-week but with some overarching story threads that build to the end of the book, or season, as it were. This is Sherlock (the TV show) fanfic, admitedly so.
Writing alternate versions of Sherlock Holmes has a fairly long tradition; I tend to like them. I don't read a lot of fanfic per se, though, mostly because I feel getting into fanfic might be a little dangerous for me. When I was younger, I constantly reread books. These days I have a lot of new things I want to read and don't want to get set on an infinite spin cycle of Sherlock Holmes or other favorite fiction.
At any rate, I was curious as to how this book would play out. I've read another book by this author under her Sarah Monette name and liked it.
There seem to be plusses and minuses to this particular approach to these ideas. (Whether this is consistent across all fanfic, well, probably not.)
Plusses:
- Familiar characters.
- The drama is focused on the plots, not the two main characters (Crow and Doyle--the "Sherlock" and "Watson" characters, that is--get along well and even treat each other with consistent kindness).
- Plot twists that wouldn't have been acceptable on TV were fine here.
Minuses:
- The plots got tired, mainly rehashes of Sherlock Holmes plots, and got shorter and less interesting as the book went on.
- There were logical inconsistencies between the Angels being so limited and the Fallen being so powerful; how does any sort of stable society exist?
- It feels like this is really a Neverwhere-meets-Sherlock fanfic and there is a second set of rules about the world that's not handled openly.
- The worldbuilding wasn't organic with everything else; something like Anno Dracula by Kim Newman or A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullen has an overall vision for the world that comes to life.
- Some of the plots didn't pay off, as in, the plot was wrapped up almost as an aside and in the middle of what should have been a smaller, less important plot! One of the big plot twists was completely obvious, if you knew Sherlock Holmes at all. And in a world that has been designed to give readers what they want, there were definitely plot threads where the satisfying choices didn't happen.
How I experienced this was:
- I gulped down the book like a long cool drink of water.
- But afterwards I didn't feel really refreshed, and if there had been more of it, I would still have been gulping for more.
This book was good and fun! Don't get me wrong. But overall it tells me that fanfic as such may not be for me. Books like this one, where the author has put fanfic out into the wider world, should be fine overall, but may not be something I seek out. What made this book work for me was the author's writing and ability to handle the characters. Reading an author who isn't as standout as she is would probably leave me disappointed.
So I think I will leave the first-wave reading to fanfic fans, yet not avoid fanfic-that-is-now-a-packaged-book, but not seek it out, either. Other intrepid souls can bring back the cream of the fanfic crop, as it were.
I want stories that feel like the whole thing fits together seamlessly. Sometimes new work that's built on existing work can do that; often it can't. The Angel of Crows didn't quite make the jump to taking on a life of its own as a retelling (which is what I'm looking for) but was quite readable if you're a fan of Sherlock.
Recommended if you're a Sherlock fanfic reader or a historical urban fantasy reader in general. A perfectly readable page turner, even though it doesn't make the leap to quite becoming its own thing.
The Angel of Crows is a collection of intertwined episodes, which is similar to a collection of short stories, yet structured more like a series of the TV show Sherlock with a main plot-of-the-week but with some overarching story threads that build to the end of the book, or season, as it were. This is Sherlock (the TV show) fanfic, admitedly so.
Writing alternate versions of Sherlock Holmes has a fairly long tradition; I tend to like them. I don't read a lot of fanfic per se, though, mostly because I feel getting into fanfic might be a little dangerous for me. When I was younger, I constantly reread books. These days I have a lot of new things I want to read and don't want to get set on an infinite spin cycle of Sherlock Holmes or other favorite fiction.
At any rate, I was curious as to how this book would play out. I've read another book by this author under her Sarah Monette name and liked it.
There seem to be plusses and minuses to this particular approach to these ideas. (Whether this is consistent across all fanfic, well, probably not.)
Plusses:
- Familiar characters.
- The drama is focused on the plots, not the two main characters (Crow and Doyle--the "Sherlock" and "Watson" characters, that is--get along well and even treat each other with consistent kindness).
- Plot twists that wouldn't have been acceptable on TV were fine here.
Minuses:
- The plots got tired, mainly rehashes of Sherlock Holmes plots, and got shorter and less interesting as the book went on.
- There were logical inconsistencies between the Angels being so limited and the Fallen being so powerful; how does any sort of stable society exist?
- It feels like this is really a Neverwhere-meets-Sherlock fanfic and there is a second set of rules about the world that's not handled openly.
- The worldbuilding wasn't organic with everything else; something like Anno Dracula by Kim Newman or A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullen has an overall vision for the world that comes to life.
- Some of the plots didn't pay off, as in, the plot was wrapped up almost as an aside and in the middle of what should have been a smaller, less important plot! One of the big plot twists was completely obvious, if you knew Sherlock Holmes at all. And in a world that has been designed to give readers what they want, there were definitely plot threads where the satisfying choices didn't happen.
How I experienced this was:
- I gulped down the book like a long cool drink of water.
- But afterwards I didn't feel really refreshed, and if there had been more of it, I would still have been gulping for more.
This book was good and fun! Don't get me wrong. But overall it tells me that fanfic as such may not be for me. Books like this one, where the author has put fanfic out into the wider world, should be fine overall, but may not be something I seek out. What made this book work for me was the author's writing and ability to handle the characters. Reading an author who isn't as standout as she is would probably leave me disappointed.
So I think I will leave the first-wave reading to fanfic fans, yet not avoid fanfic-that-is-now-a-packaged-book, but not seek it out, either. Other intrepid souls can bring back the cream of the fanfic crop, as it were.
I want stories that feel like the whole thing fits together seamlessly. Sometimes new work that's built on existing work can do that; often it can't. The Angel of Crows didn't quite make the jump to taking on a life of its own as a retelling (which is what I'm looking for) but was quite readable if you're a fan of Sherlock.
Recommended if you're a Sherlock fanfic reader or a historical urban fantasy reader in general. A perfectly readable page turner, even though it doesn't make the leap to quite becoming its own thing.
The cover promised so much more than this book delivered. I would’ve been happy to read the book as it is, but the potential of something remarkable about Crow and Dr. Doyle - the possibility of more details of their otherworldly lives - hung over the book making me wish for more.
If you are a Sherlock Holmes fan looking for a different take on the material this will delight. However if you are intrigued by the cover - “This is not the story you think it is. these are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.” - you may find that the book falls flat.
3.5 stars rounded down for disappointment
If you are a Sherlock Holmes fan looking for a different take on the material this will delight. However if you are intrigued by the cover - “This is not the story you think it is. these are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.” - you may find that the book falls flat.
3.5 stars rounded down for disappointment
Holmes is just so tired right now. Throw in werewolves and vampires too? It's overdone cliche conglomeration with no energy.
Loveable characters:
Yes
lol I should’ve KNOWN that this started as sherlock fanfic