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4.45 AVERAGE
4.45 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
What can I say that hasn't already been said?
These stories are cleverly written and quite fantastic.
The deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes are simply remarkable. It is fascinating to follow his line of reasoning and steps to conclusion once they are revealed.
The true friendship between he and Dr. John Watson is also lovely to explore. The camaraderie and unwavering loyalty between them provides a quiet comfort throughout the series while getting lost in their many cases. Their's is a bond that is precious and rare, indeed.
I imagine that I will return to these treasured little adventures often over the years.
These stories are cleverly written and quite fantastic.
The deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes are simply remarkable. It is fascinating to follow his line of reasoning and steps to conclusion once they are revealed.
The true friendship between he and Dr. John Watson is also lovely to explore. The camaraderie and unwavering loyalty between them provides a quiet comfort throughout the series while getting lost in their many cases. Their's is a bond that is precious and rare, indeed.
I imagine that I will return to these treasured little adventures often over the years.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-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:
No
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Probably not fair to rate this as one book. Some titles were way better than others, with the original one being the best, I think. Sort of a YA style, but with more adult content, and mysteries that were often far-fetched. Sherlock Holmes seems to make large leaps in logic with very little information, and is always right. Skip the book and watch Sherlock on Netflix!
Classic. The audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry is fantastic. My favorites were the Hounds of the Baskervilles and the Blue Carbuncle.
Classic reading. Elements in these tales are well applied elsewhere. Steve Hockensmith has a good, similar series, Holmes On the Range (book 1) with Big Red and Old Red.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I heard these out of order and this is the first time being able to read the stories in order and the correct sequence. Being able to contrast these and seeing in your mind's eye the development of the stories as they come out over the years. I enjoyed the introductions by Stephen Fry, including the introduction of James Moriarty, in the story The Final Problem. "He is the archiest arch-villian who ever arched!" said Stephen Fry. I laughed so hard at that!! But I am a little underwhelmed by the intricacies of Moriarty and that of Col. Moran. They both were taken care of relatively easily and though the threat of danger was there, it seemed to me that Holmes was never really threatened by them as they were dispatched without any real danger. Though I love Arthur Doyle's stories and how he wrote this character, I think that the books by Larry Millett and James Cosgrove were a little more suspenseful as to the danger that Holmes and Watson were in during those stories, in addition to the stories that Kareem Abdul-Jabar wrote about Mycroft Holmes were also excellent. It is sort of like the sequel being just as good as the originals.
Happy that I got this one, can‘t believe that the 70 hours of the audiobook are already over. Brilliant introductions by Mr. Fry and his reading really brings the characters to life. Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson grew on me.
Great stories, great narration...
This fabulous new audio collection from Audible includes all the short and long stories, set out in the traditional order. Fry gives a short introduction to each of the five books of short stories and individually to each of the long ones. The collection runs to over seventy hours, so needless to say I haven't listened to it all yet, but will have great fun dipping in and out of it over the coming months and years. I started by listening to The Valley of Fear.
In the intro to this one, Fry puts the book into its historical context, telling the story of the Molly Maguires, a secret society active among the immigrant Irish coalminers in Pennsylvania during the 1870s; and of the Pinkerton agent who infiltrated them, ultimately leading to their destruction. He points out how soon after the Civil War this was, and that the bosses of the Pennsylvania mines were effectively their own law and could hire people of their own choosing to enforce it. He also tells the other side of the story – the appalling working conditions and extreme poverty of the workers. He manages all this without giving any spoilers for the story to come. An excellent introduction – brief, but interesting, clear and informative.
His narration of the story itself is great! He had to compete with my favourite Holmes narrator, the wonderful Derek Jacobi, so he was going to have to work hard to convince me. And I found myself laughing sympathetically because ACD didn't make his task an easy one. Almost every character has his accent described, usually something like “half-English, half-American” or “Chicago with a hint of Irish” or “German overlaid with the twang of the new country”. And then there are the characters who are not who they first seem, so that when their true identity is revealed, they change to their real accents. I must say Fry did brilliantly with all of them and, despite there being a pretty huge cast in this story, he managed to differentiate them all quite clearly. There are two characters with straight Irish accents, so to make them different, he made one sound Northern Irish and the other Southern, both done totally convincingly. Even Inspector MacDonald's Aberdonian accent got a high pass mark from me. He brings out the humour and the warmth of Watson's character, and makes the adventure parts suitably exciting without over-dramatising them. I always think you can tell when a narrator loves the material he's reading, and Fry's strong affection for the Holmes's stories comes through clearly.
There was an issue at first with there being no adequate indexing but Audible has now rectified this by issuing an accompanying PDF which tells where to find each story.
My love for the Jacobi recordings remains, but these are just as excellent, and the little introductions are a great addition, making this a fabulous collection which I highly recommend to all Holmes fans out there.
NB The audiobook was provided for review by Audible via MidasPR. Lucky me!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
This fabulous new audio collection from Audible includes all the short and long stories, set out in the traditional order. Fry gives a short introduction to each of the five books of short stories and individually to each of the long ones. The collection runs to over seventy hours, so needless to say I haven't listened to it all yet, but will have great fun dipping in and out of it over the coming months and years. I started by listening to The Valley of Fear.
In the intro to this one, Fry puts the book into its historical context, telling the story of the Molly Maguires, a secret society active among the immigrant Irish coalminers in Pennsylvania during the 1870s; and of the Pinkerton agent who infiltrated them, ultimately leading to their destruction. He points out how soon after the Civil War this was, and that the bosses of the Pennsylvania mines were effectively their own law and could hire people of their own choosing to enforce it. He also tells the other side of the story – the appalling working conditions and extreme poverty of the workers. He manages all this without giving any spoilers for the story to come. An excellent introduction – brief, but interesting, clear and informative.
His narration of the story itself is great! He had to compete with my favourite Holmes narrator, the wonderful Derek Jacobi, so he was going to have to work hard to convince me. And I found myself laughing sympathetically because ACD didn't make his task an easy one. Almost every character has his accent described, usually something like “half-English, half-American” or “Chicago with a hint of Irish” or “German overlaid with the twang of the new country”. And then there are the characters who are not who they first seem, so that when their true identity is revealed, they change to their real accents. I must say Fry did brilliantly with all of them and, despite there being a pretty huge cast in this story, he managed to differentiate them all quite clearly. There are two characters with straight Irish accents, so to make them different, he made one sound Northern Irish and the other Southern, both done totally convincingly. Even Inspector MacDonald's Aberdonian accent got a high pass mark from me. He brings out the humour and the warmth of Watson's character, and makes the adventure parts suitably exciting without over-dramatising them. I always think you can tell when a narrator loves the material he's reading, and Fry's strong affection for the Holmes's stories comes through clearly.
There was an issue at first with there being no adequate indexing but Audible has now rectified this by issuing an accompanying PDF which tells where to find each story.
My love for the Jacobi recordings remains, but these are just as excellent, and the little introductions are a great addition, making this a fabulous collection which I highly recommend to all Holmes fans out there.
NB The audiobook was provided for review by Audible via MidasPR. Lucky me!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com