Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Scout is Brave by Will Ludwigsen

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Scout is Brave by Will Ludwigsen:   Reviewed by Jeanne It’s 1963, and the Castillo family has just moved from Queens, NY to a small backwater town in Massachusetts.   Whi...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Our Favorite Books Read in 2023: Rita and Tonia

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Our Favorite Books Read in 2023: Rita and Tonia:   Rita   The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz - This is a book that I have read multiple times. I find the insights to be enlightenin...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Shadows Over Baker Street edited by Michael Reaves and John Pelan

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Shadows Over Baker Street edited by Michael Reaves...:   Reviewed by Jeanne This wonderful collection of short stories imagines the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft colliding to del...

Jeanne Reviews: A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, art & adaptation by Rafael Albuquerque

Please welcome Jeanne of the BPL back to the blog today….

I picked up this graphic novel from a review that ran on the Bristol Public Library’s Bookblog, so Ambrea did a good job of selling this book!

 

The short description is that this is a sort of The Great Detective Meets The Great Cuthulu but of course there’s a twist.  As the story opens, a veteran of the campaign in Afghanistan finds lodging with an idiosyncratic detective—does this sound familiar?—and the two of them are soon called to the scene of a shocking murder. Lestrad, the policeman, is suitable astounded by the swift deductions by the consulting detective and soon they are called to an audience with a Royal Personage who wants the case solved quickly.

 

 In Gaiman’s story, we soon learn that The Great Old Ones of Lovecraft conquered Earth and have become rulers of their various human countries, maintaining the Royal bloodlines.  Let’s just say I won’t ever quite look at Queen Victoria in the same way.

 

The graphic novel is based on a Hugo Award winning short story by Gaiman and now I really want to read the original just to see how some things are handled.  For example, the graphic novel boasts advertisements for various things, such as Doctor Jekyll’s Powders which are “Guaranteed to Release the Inner You!”

 

It’s this sense of playfulness amid the grim investigation and all the little inside jokes that made this such a hit with me.  I am more of a Holmes fan than Lovecraft so I’m sure I missed some things there, but the little fannish Easter eggs delighted me.  From some other things I’ve read, I have wondered if some reviewers missed a crucial plot point, but that certainly didn’t seem to mar their appreciation.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have actually read it over a couple of times, finding some new little tidbit each time.  For that reason, I highly recommend it.

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman and Rafael Albuquerque

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman and Rafael Albuq...:   Reviewed by Ambrea Defined as a cross between the world of Sherlock Holmes and the mythos of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu, A Study in Emerald...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions b...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions b...: Reviewed by Jeanne Let me start off by admitting that I am somewhat intimidated by Mr. Gaiman.   I often have the feeling that ...

Via Prose&Cons: Amazing Author, Horrible Person

 On one of the many lists I am on there has been a discussion in recent days of whether or not readers want to know stuff about the author's personal life. Many have expressed a desire to know everything though there have been a few of us who have expressed the idea that all we care about is the book. We don't want to know and yet maybe some times we should. I had no idea about this issue and certainly would have quit reading Bradley if I had know this at the time.

Prose&Cons: Amazing Author, Horrible Person: Walter Breen wrote under the pen name J.Z. Eglinton in his book defending pedophilia. Despite being dead now for fifteen years, Marion ...