Reviews for The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Angel of the Opera

The average rating for The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Angel of the Opera based on 2 reviews is 1.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-09-15 00:00:00 Deanna Hesson [ I knew I was in for trouble in the 'preface' when we don't have Doctor Watson but Holmes sex obsessed cousin instead (I'll get to that later why he's labeled such). As many other reviews said, yes, he (the author, the cousin) slags Watson, calls him stupid, and Holmes a completely different person than we know. Oh ho. This is also an excuse for the author to give us a completely different Holmes. When I mean different, I mean 'different'. In the prologue, he calls people names and he has to be 'restrained' from slapping someone. Does that sound like Holmes to you? Well, guess what, there is more. (And we haven't even reached the part with the Phantom!) Soon enough we find out Holmes has a crush on a woman, and the author gives us this blatant foreshadowing about the Phantom. (Not gonna spoil it, but you'll know when you get to it.) Now to the actual story. The author does a fair job on following Leroux's novel but there are some changes: Holmes decides to swindle the managers like the Phantom does. Yes, he charges 20,000 francs for his services. What is this money for, his heroin? His cousin even states that sometimes Holmes would take on cases for free. (Apparently vampires weren't proof enough of the supernatural.) But he gets it and bitches about it. Then, the Count (Phillipe De'Chagny, Raoul's brother) is a ladies man and tries to get Holmes to 'pick up' Christine buy offering him money because he does not want her associating with his family. To which Holmes responds--and I quote--"I am a consulting detective, not a pimp". THE HELL? Well, this puts the De'Chagny's in a bad light so Holmes hates them from this point out. When Raoul shows up, as I already stated, Holmes blacklists him and finds him unworthy of Christine's affections. ... Okay. He finds everything Raoul does irritating and actually starts pitying the Phantom. I don't mean, 'oh, poor soul', I mean 'wow, I want the Phantom to end up with Christine instead of this douf'. Really now? So when Holmes finally meets the Phantom, he kisses the guy's butt. And this is where the story goes straight off the deep end. Holmes decides to befriend the Phantom, humor him, applaud him, and share common likes with him. The Phantom in return starts taking a liking to Holmes but doesn't want to peruse a friendship because he is associating with Raoul and creating matters difficult. Oh? And the sex obsessed cousin (who is our stand in for Dr. Watson), he keeps bringing up his girlfriend back in London. Every time he sees a ballet girl, he's reminded how much he misses his gf. Every time Christine does something, he's reminded of his gf. I mean, a woman could be taking a crap and he'll be ~reminded of her~ all of a sudden. It got so annoying that I just labeled him 'obsessively horny'. We also meet the Persian, who is a THUG. YES. Holmes is being stalked by the Persian at one point, and the Persian attempts to get money off of Holmes in exchange for information on Erik (but Holmes is so smart, he doesn't need the Persian's information). So the Persian gets angry and tries to shoot him, which clearly doesn't work out. The ending is just so god damn hilarious that I couldn't believe what I was reading. Apparently, Holmes and the cousin go down to the cellars, discover Erik's lair, and are trapped with Christine (like in the book). Erik reveals he had an accomplice (so now the blood, the threats, the kidnapping is on this guy's hands) and the accomplice is told to shoot them if they try to stop them. Meanwhile the Persian and Raoul are in the torture chamber. The Phantom then plays some tunes on his organ and Holmes just sits back, relaxes and enjoys the performance (while everyone is freaking out around him). When it's done, he applauds the Phantom and starts supporting the Phantom in everything he has done and tries to make another attempt at ~befriending~ the Phantom. He slags Raoul a bit, tells him that Christine and he [the Phantom] are better off, but it's really Christine's choice on who she should be with. So when the Phantom lets the Persian and Raoul out of the torture chamber, Raoul shoots the accomplice thinking it's the Phantom! Holmes gets angry and aims a gun at Raoul because he's so ~irritated~ with him by this point that he'll just off the guy to save the Phantom the trouble. Christine ends up choosing Raoul, to which Holmes wasn't surprised about. The Phantom, like in the book, plans on blowing up the opera house after letting them all go. There is an epilogue, but since we know that the author is already favoring happy endings and a friendship, we know that the Phantom doesn't die. BUT WHAT HAPPENS I WILL NEVER TELL BECAUSE IT'S EVEN CRAZIER THAN THE SCENE THAT I JUST SUMMARIZED. (hide spoiler)]

Review # 2 was written on 2012-06-24 00:00:00 WILLIAM BLOCKER Okay, so, my first review of this book was that it was so terrible I had to put it down. I've finished it now and feel I can give it a better review. Saying that though, I will give it two reviews - one as a Sherlock Holmes story and one as its own detective story. 1. As a Sherlock Holmes story this book is awful. I am a huge Sherlock fan and this book changes his character, his motives, and his style - essentially everything that makes Sherlock such a lovely character. I would venture that while Sherlock fans are most definitely in love with Holmes himself, a lot of affection is also held for Watson. Siciliano chose to dismiss Watson - in fact, the narrator of this story [Sherlock's cousin Dr. Vernier] says openly that he dislikes Watson. He goes so far as to claim Holmes doesn't like Watson - or his stories. If you're expecting an even remotely decent Sherlock Holmes story you won't find it here. Siciliano changes Holmes' character too much and takes too much liberty with his character to make it even remotely him even remotely endearing. 2. As a detective book, just happening to have the same name as Sherlock the book is adequate. It's not particularly gripping, it's mildly entertaining, but there's nothing really to make me tell you that you HAVE to read this book. The combination between the Phantom story and a detective is tense, and predictable.