very enjoyable

each tale captures the spirit of Holmes whilst adding a fresh twist to the genre

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Excellent fun for all Sherlockians!

I was in two minds about this when I saw it, but with Audible's money back guarantee there's nothing to lose and seeing the name Neil Gaiman, I opted in. I am so glad that I did, there are one or two stories that didn't quite hit the spot for me but in the main they were excellent. A great buy!

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A Mixed Bag, but an Enjoyable One

Perhaps unsurprisingly,the quality here varies wildly. Some stories evoke Doyle brilliantly, while others demonstrate the poorer instincts of fanfiction: Watson's American nephew will turn up as a Mary Sue for the (US) author or dialogue will be peppered with Americanisms followed by "-as our American cousins would say".



Enjoyment depends a bit on familiarity with the Doyle stories. Some authors seem to use crib-sheets of clichés, rather than canon. Thus Irene Adler is the *only* thing able to coax Holmes out of retirement (to America, naturally), and Watson still reels in surprise at basic deductions, despite decades of friendship with Holmes. Comically, a third of the stories make painstaking reference to Holmes filling his pipe from a Persian slipper - a detail only actually mentioned once by Doyle.



Yet other stories are wonderful, a superb melding of Doyle's style with the weird. Most fall into the format of "Holmes+": Holmes+Lovecraft, Holmes+Time Travel, etc. The best work both as satisfying detective stories as well as genre tales, and the worst at least maintain your interest for the genre-mashing. A highlight combines Holmes with psychic detective Flaxman Low: they investigate in tandem, providing parallel solutions (one natural, one supernatural) and the listener must make his/her mind up.



The only sour note is the continual presence of the Editor, who introduces each story... often badly. "This story involves parallel universes," he says. Well that's the solution to that one then.



Simon Vance is on excellent form, with a very traditional Holmes and Watson that grounds the pastiches nicely before they fly off into stranger realms. Flosnik, though able, is less successful. She reads those stories with female narrators (good plan), but then parades through Italian, Scottish, and Somerset accents with little success.



At 22 hours and over 30 stories, treat this as a lucky dip. Variable quality, but worth it for the highlights.

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6 people found this helpful

More Sherlock Stories!

ACD is dead, so if you've read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories but still want more then you'll have to look elsewhere.
If this is the case I suggest you start here - these are brilliant stories that are well narrated. Top marks!

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Exciting new & strange adventures.

Well performed & disturbingly strange and unworldly detecting, the game is afoot Watson.
BRAVO!.

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Some good, some bad

What did you like best about The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? What did you like least?

There are some excellent stories in this collection, especially those that occupy the more improbable or impossible reimaginings of Sherlock's world, as suggested by the title. There are unfortunately also many duller offerings, which don't seem to fit the brief at all and leave the listener wondering why they are part of the collection. The same can be said for the narration: Simon Vance does a great job of producing voices for both Watson and Holmes which are uncannily like the ones I have in my head when reading Holmes stories. Anne Flosnik, on the other hand, has no business reading audio books, least of all those which require any kind of regional accent.

What three words best describe Simon Vance and Anne Flosnik ’s voice?

Vance > Flosnik

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4 people found this helpful

Fantastic collection

If, like me, you love Sherlock Holmes (and Dr Watson!) but have heard all of the stories, you will love this collection of new ones. The intros to each book are done by an American who cannot say Moriarty (Mor-e-are-it-ee!) but the narrotors of the main stories are excellent. Plus its 22 hours, so it represents great value!

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An Improbable collection of Adventures

With everyone using an Intriguing idea as the premise. I have read all of Sir Arthur's stories and can honestly say I want more of these too.

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Interesting and intriguing

Collection of short sherlock holmes adventures. At first, it seemed weird that the stories were resolved ao quickly as the stories have 30-60 minutes. But i grew used to it and enjoyed the mysteries.
I loved that the narrator introduced each author and story. I didn't expect that but sometimes I have to say, it was almost more interesting than the story itself.
Overall very well narrated. I liked the changes in the readers and the consistencies where characters were voiced by the same people. Overall it doesn't feel like 30 separated stories with different characters but different adventures of the same people.

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Improbable is right.

The stories are improbable, but some of them are also very entertaining and in the style of Conan Doyle. What is difficult to take is the reading of the link man between the first few stories, who seems to have never read Sherlock Holmes and persists in calling Moriaty, Holmes arch enemy ' Morierity' Surely someone doing such a job should at least get the pronunciation of a charector right.!!! On the whole a good listen, if in places a tad too improbable.

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3 people found this helpful