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Solar Pons
The Necronomicon of Solar Pons
From Sherlock Holmes to the Cthulhu MythosAugust Derleth introduced the world to Solar Pons and Dr. Lyndon Parker in the 1920's. Pons, like Sherlock Holmes, solved crimes using deduction and ratiocination, often referring to Holmes as “The Master” or “My illustrious predecessor”. Since his first appearance, Pons has been a favorite with Sherlockians.In the 1930's, Derleth coined the term "Cthulhu Mythos" to describe the weird fiction written by the writers in the Lovecraft circle. After Lovecraft died in 1937, Derleth created Arkham House Publishing to make certain Lovecraft and other writers of the Cthulhu mythos, himself included, remained in print. Derleth wrote a number of tales of the Cthulhu mythos including The Mask of Cthulhu, The Trail of Cthulhu, and The Watchers Out of Time (collaborating with Lovecraft).Now, for the first time ever, the estate of August Derleth has authorized a one of a kind anthology combining Derleth's Solar Pons, the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street, with his Cthulhu Mythos and horror tales. Join us in the foggy streets of early 20th Century London where horror is lurking on the streets and also at the veil of reality.Nine new tales of terror and detection The Rondure of Cthulhu by Stephen Herczeg - Solar Pons must solve the mystery of a man seemingly torn to shreds by invisible forces. The Meandering Mathematician by Robert Perret - A mathematician's strange disappearance leads to visions of an otherworldly realm, a witch, and a sinister rat with a human face. A Matter of Blood by Nick Cardillo - Dr. Seward brings Pons a case involving a a notorious Transylvanian Count. Fans of Stoker's Dracula will love this sequel. To Everything There is a Season by Stephen Persing - The Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street has a Lovecraftian Final Problem. The Adventure of the Book and the Gate by Eleanor Sciolistein - The Necronomicon is used to access a horrifying power source. Solar Pons and the Testament in Ice by Jeff Baker - Pons must face an evil Arctic entity. The Adventure of the Drowned Genealogist by I.A. Watson - How did the body of a recently deceased woman end up in a two century old tomb? It is up to Solar Pons to solve this Dunwich horror. The Man with the Writhing Skin by David Marcum - Mrs. Velda Knoll, a lecturer on "The Great Old Ones" is being stalked by a man with masses of open sores moving about his skin. The Devil's Tongue of Blue John Gap by Derrick Belanger - Solar Pons must solve the case of strange symbols mysteriously appearing in the fields of Blue John Gap.Plus a bonus Sherlock Holmes adventure!
433 pages, Paperback
First published April 5, 2020
About the author
Derrick Belanger
124 books50 followersAuthor Derrick Belanger's publications include an eclectic mix: book reviews, articles for education journals, short stories, poems, comic books, and the graphic novel, Twenty-Three Skidoo! A former instructor at Washington State University, and a current middle school Language Arts teacher, Derrick lives in Broomfield, Colorado with his wife Abigail Gosselin and their two daughters, Rhea and Phoebe. Currently, Derrick is working on several Sherlockian projects: the Young Adult novel Sherlock Holmes and the Transformers of Time, the teaching guide Sherlock Holmes for Teachers, the pastiche novel The Funeral of Sherlock Holmes, and the film studies book The Hound of the Baskervilles: From Page to Screen. He also co-authors the web site Mystery Aircraft.com with author Chuck Davis.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 7, 2020
This Kickstarter book had me at “Sherlock Holmes meets Cthulhu”. While I haven’t read the Solar Pons stories or been able to find August Derleth in the library, which means I went into this collection unfamiliar with the main characters, I still enjoyed this short story collection very much.
A little bit of backstory: August Derleth was a friend of HP Lovecraft who wrote some story based on notes left by Lovecraft after his demise, and he was an admirer of Sherlock Holmes. He created his detective. Solar Pons, after he was did not get permission to write Sherlock Holmes stories, which means that his detective bears a great resemblance to Sherlock himself.
In this collection of nine stories, various authors have contributed tales where the detective Solar Pons investigate mysteries that may or may not have something to do with the Great Old Ones. I enjoyed all the stories, and since nine isn’t a huge number, I thought I’d talk a bit about each in this review:
1. The Rondure of Cthulhu: A renowned business man is found dead – perhaps torn by a savage beast? Solar Pons and Dr Parker investigate and find out about the existence of an artefact that may or may not be related to this murder. This was a fun case and I enjoyed the twist at the end.
2. The Meandering Mathematician: Pons and Parker investigate the disappearance of a mathematical student who may or may not have been studying arcane maths. I found this one to be even creepier than the first story and enjoyed it even more – I mean, not to spoil the story but there are talking rats!
3. A Matter of Blood: Cthulhu meets Dracula! Pons and Parker are called to investigate the disappearance of Mina and Jonathan Harker’s son. I loved the mashup between Dracula and Cthulhu, but I’m a bit disappointed that the story wasn’t more… supernatural, for lack of a better word. That said, it’s still a fun mystery.
4. To Everything There Is A Season: Can you revive the dead? This intriguing story references both the Cthulhu mythos and what happens at Holme’s Reichenbach Waterfalls, all in the world of Solar Pons, of course. As you can imagine, I loved catching all these homages to the two worlds that influenced the story.
5. The Lancastrian and the Lake Monster: Originally written as a Sherlock Holmes story, this has Parker seeing a mythical beast while investigating a murder at the behest of a friend. While this was fun, I really wished it had a bit more of the spooky stuff in it (can you see a pattern appearing in my comments?)
6. The Adventure of the Book and the Gate: This one has it all – human cruelty and supernatural forces. It’s a pretty chilling one and there are some scenes that may be harder to stomach.
7. Solar Pons and the Testament in Ice: This has zombies!! Apart from that, it didn’t make too much of an impression on me. It wasn’t bad, but I enjoyed some of the other stories more.
8. The Adventure of the Drowned Genealogist: I’m not going to lie, this story about the mysterious death of a young lady had me confused – I had to reread the whole story to understand it. It had a twist that was a bit sudden for me.
9. The Man with the Writhing Skin: A woman dedicated to the prevention of the rise of the Old Ones comes to Solar Pons with a request for help: someone strange is following her. This one may be my favourite of the collection because the twist was surprising but believable and it was gruesome but not too much.
I found all the stories in this collection to be well-written and enjoyable. You definitely don’t need to be familiar with Solar Pons to enjoy this as long as you like Holmes and Cthulhu, but I’m guessing that you’ll enjoy the book more if you do. Each writer seem to treat the Cthulhu aspect a bit differently; in some cases, the Great Old Ones exist while in other cases, not so much, which makes each case unique and enjoyable. I also enjoyed all the meta-references to August Derleth (since the stories are supposed to be by Dr Parker) and to Sherlock Holmes as the predecessor of Solar Pons.
Overall, this was a fun anthology of stories and I’d definitely recommend this to people who like their mysteries with a hint (or more) of supernatural danger.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads
A little bit of backstory: August Derleth was a friend of HP Lovecraft who wrote some story based on notes left by Lovecraft after his demise, and he was an admirer of Sherlock Holmes. He created his detective. Solar Pons, after he was did not get permission to write Sherlock Holmes stories, which means that his detective bears a great resemblance to Sherlock himself.
In this collection of nine stories, various authors have contributed tales where the detective Solar Pons investigate mysteries that may or may not have something to do with the Great Old Ones. I enjoyed all the stories, and since nine isn’t a huge number, I thought I’d talk a bit about each in this review:
1. The Rondure of Cthulhu: A renowned business man is found dead – perhaps torn by a savage beast? Solar Pons and Dr Parker investigate and find out about the existence of an artefact that may or may not be related to this murder. This was a fun case and I enjoyed the twist at the end.
2. The Meandering Mathematician: Pons and Parker investigate the disappearance of a mathematical student who may or may not have been studying arcane maths. I found this one to be even creepier than the first story and enjoyed it even more – I mean, not to spoil the story but there are talking rats!
3. A Matter of Blood: Cthulhu meets Dracula! Pons and Parker are called to investigate the disappearance of Mina and Jonathan Harker’s son. I loved the mashup between Dracula and Cthulhu, but I’m a bit disappointed that the story wasn’t more… supernatural, for lack of a better word. That said, it’s still a fun mystery.
4. To Everything There Is A Season: Can you revive the dead? This intriguing story references both the Cthulhu mythos and what happens at Holme’s Reichenbach Waterfalls, all in the world of Solar Pons, of course. As you can imagine, I loved catching all these homages to the two worlds that influenced the story.
5. The Lancastrian and the Lake Monster: Originally written as a Sherlock Holmes story, this has Parker seeing a mythical beast while investigating a murder at the behest of a friend. While this was fun, I really wished it had a bit more of the spooky stuff in it (can you see a pattern appearing in my comments?)
6. The Adventure of the Book and the Gate: This one has it all – human cruelty and supernatural forces. It’s a pretty chilling one and there are some scenes that may be harder to stomach.
7. Solar Pons and the Testament in Ice: This has zombies!! Apart from that, it didn’t make too much of an impression on me. It wasn’t bad, but I enjoyed some of the other stories more.
8. The Adventure of the Drowned Genealogist: I’m not going to lie, this story about the mysterious death of a young lady had me confused – I had to reread the whole story to understand it. It had a twist that was a bit sudden for me.
9. The Man with the Writhing Skin: A woman dedicated to the prevention of the rise of the Old Ones comes to Solar Pons with a request for help: someone strange is following her. This one may be my favourite of the collection because the twist was surprising but believable and it was gruesome but not too much.
I found all the stories in this collection to be well-written and enjoyable. You definitely don’t need to be familiar with Solar Pons to enjoy this as long as you like Holmes and Cthulhu, but I’m guessing that you’ll enjoy the book more if you do. Each writer seem to treat the Cthulhu aspect a bit differently; in some cases, the Great Old Ones exist while in other cases, not so much, which makes each case unique and enjoyable. I also enjoyed all the meta-references to August Derleth (since the stories are supposed to be by Dr Parker) and to Sherlock Holmes as the predecessor of Solar Pons.
Overall, this was a fun anthology of stories and I’d definitely recommend this to people who like their mysteries with a hint (or more) of supernatural danger.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads
November 19, 2021
This was a solid collection of Lovecraftian tales, with Solar Pons as the protagonist. Unlike similarly themed anthologies where Sherlock Holmes battles such monstrosities, this tome had a more sharp and modern take. Also, as tribute to Derleth's own mythos, the stories were more... American in style; but they were very competent nevertheless.
My favourites were~
1. Stephen Herczeg's "The Rondure of Cthulhu";
2. Robert Perret's "The Meandering Mathematician";
3. I.A. Watson's "The Adventure of the Drowned Genealogist";
4. Derrick Belanger's "The Devil's Tongue of Blue John Gap";
5. Derrick Belanger's "The Wylington Lake Monster" (a Sherlock Holmes case).
Recommended.
My favourites were~
1. Stephen Herczeg's "The Rondure of Cthulhu";
2. Robert Perret's "The Meandering Mathematician";
3. I.A. Watson's "The Adventure of the Drowned Genealogist";
4. Derrick Belanger's "The Devil's Tongue of Blue John Gap";
5. Derrick Belanger's "The Wylington Lake Monster" (a Sherlock Holmes case).
Recommended.
July 18, 2021
A True Delight
Each story in this anthology is sure to delight and entertain. Best to take each story on its own as in some, Solar Pons is a convinced skeptic of the Cthulhu Mythos, while in others he is a firm believer. Taking each story individually in stride is sure to please the most demanding reader.
Each story in this anthology is sure to delight and entertain. Best to take each story on its own as in some, Solar Pons is a convinced skeptic of the Cthulhu Mythos, while in others he is a firm believer. Taking each story individually in stride is sure to please the most demanding reader.
October 16, 2022
Very good Mythos stories indeed
Well done all the way through, and recommended. Most are definitely Mythos stories, though at least one is a medical horror story masquerading as Mythos.
The stories that take it seriously would all make great Call of Cthulhu scenario seeds. Definitely recommended for anyone whose tastes include Holmes and Cthulhu.
Well done all the way through, and recommended. Most are definitely Mythos stories, though at least one is a medical horror story masquerading as Mythos.
The stories that take it seriously would all make great Call of Cthulhu scenario seeds. Definitely recommended for anyone whose tastes include Holmes and Cthulhu.
October 21, 2024
Solar Pons and the Cthulhu Mythos. 'Nuff said.
April 27, 2025
weird detective stories, love them!!!!
December 30, 2022
There is a range of quality to these stories in The Necronomicon of Solar Pons. I quite enjoyed the first half of the collection. Then it was a bit of a slog for the second half. However, the last story, Derrick Belanger's "The Devil's Tongue of Blue John Gap" was excellent. I would only recommend this book to someone who is already a huge fan of Solar Pons and August Derleth's take on the Cthulhu mythos. If you can't tick both boxes, I'd say you're safe taking a pass.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews