Final Thoughts *Spoilers*

[Michael, Mod Prometheus]

Final thoughts on Tales of Terror and Mystery

[Janet]

I started reading this today. Preliminary thoughts...I miss the interplay of Sherlock Holmes and Watson that is associated with Arthur Conan Doyle's work. I was surprised that the first story - "The Horror of the Heights" was more in a science fiction genre than a horror genre. The author appears to have been influenced by Jules Verne and possibly H.G. Wells. The story deals with a pilot that is attempting high altitude flight and he is testing a hypothesis that there are jungles above with frightening creatures. This story was first published in "The Strand" in 1913. At that point, in checking flight altitude records of fixed wing planes, the record was 18,405 feet. The pilot in the story reached an altitude of 43,000+ feet. He saw creatures that to me were reminiscent of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Although this might have been a very frightening horror story when first published it loses most of its effect in the current era, when most of us have been on commercial high altitude flights and space travel has yet to disclose such creatures.

[Cyndi]

I found the stories better than fair, but I agree that the missing Holmes/Watson interaction is felt. I did enjoy the uncredited appearence of Holmes in The Lost Special.

[Rob]

The stories were hit and miss for me, but I liked the book overall. As others have mentioned, it was nice to read some Conan Doyle that wasn't Sherlock.

[Franky]

I really liked this collection over all and glad this was selected because I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan and this collection really is the precursor to those stories.

There were a few in the collection I didn't care for, but mostly I enjoyed. A few in the "terror" section were a bit bizarre, but there are some good ones in there too. I think I enjoyed the mystery stories better overall. They felt a little more "Holmes-esque."

My favorites: "The Terror of Blue John Gap", "The Brazilian Cat", "The Japanned Box", "The Terror of the Heights."