The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The War of the Worlds (1975) by Manly Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman.
Good Reads meta-data is 226 pages, rater 4.26 by 3,652 litizens.
Genre: Holmes +
DNA: Brit.
Verdict: Doyle réchauffé.
Tagline: In which H G Wells is corrected.
Those Martians arrived but made the mistake of involving Sherlock Holmes. The story follows in broad the H. G. Wells outline but with vigour and ingenuity that breath life into Wells’s expository lectures. It also integrates some of Wells’s other stories into the account. The mix works well.
Holmes is aided by Dr Watson and also by Doyle’s redoubtable Professor Challenger, the greatest genius among mankind according to Professor Challenger. The action consists of (1) staying out of the clutches of these invaders and (2) observing them closely to find weaknesses. Holmes, of course, is nonpareil at observation (followed by inference), and that makes for fascinating reading. Challenger and Watson also add intel to the picture.
The resolution is neat and simple, even more so than in the original.
Manly Wade Wellman was a prolific author and wrote this title with his son Wade Wellman.
This is not the first title to bring together Wells and Holmes. I read without interest, Sherlock Holmes and the Time Machine (2020) a while back.
Because I read War of the Worlds on Kindle this title was suggested to me, causing me to remember that I read another entry in this series many years (2014) ago involving Teddy Roosevelt (2010) by Paul Jeffries. However I found it lifeless, both Teddy and Sherlock were waxworks. Still I tried another one this time.
Now that I have read this one, the Mechanical Turk at Amazon is offering me more of the same, and I am tempted by some like: Eric Brown, Sherlock Holmes and The Martian Menace (2020) and Doug Murray, Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Missing Martian (2022). Stay tuned for more.