Book Giveaway Contest: The Lazarus Machine

The 2013 Book Giveaway Extravaganza begins! First up: an Advance Reader Copy of The Lazarus Machine by Paul Crilley.

 

 

It is 1895, and the Babbage Engine is reality. Tesla-powered contraptions are everywhere in London. So are shadowy government figures, and there are even rumors that Moriarty, presumed dead, is really alive, skulking about in the shadows, and kidnapping individuals. Sebastian Tweed sees the proof of this firsthand when his father is abducted in front of him. He joins forces with Octavia Nightingale, who has her own reasons for hunting down the kidnappers, and the result is a Sherlockian steampunkian adventure, with two bantering protagonists, a hive of intrigue, and the beginnings of what looks like a swell series for young adults.

 

We have one advance reader copy of The Lazarus Machine to give away! The usual protocols apply. In order to be considered for the giveaway, post a comment below and tell us what Sherlock Holmes depiction is your personal favorite. Is it Jeremy Brett’s PBS series? The new Benedict Cumberbatch BBC series? Just Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories themselves, in unadulterated form? (I am partial to Young Sherlock Holmes, myself). If we get more than five answers, we’ll do a video giveaway; if not, we’ll do it the old-fashioned way (probably dice-rolling). The deadline is Sunday, January 27th. Good luck to everyone, and we’ll have another book to give away next week!

 

More information on The Lazarus Machine at Pyr Books.

More information on author Paul Crilley via his Facebook and Twitter pages.

Comments

[Gordon Steadwood]

Basil Rathbone's Holmes sums it all up for me. Filmed in black and white perfectly captured the atmosphere of the books and Rathbone's appearance must have become Homes for many who saw the films - with Nigel Bruce a rather bumbling foil to the brilliance of Holmes.

[Professor Moniker]

I've really liked the Guy Ritchie movies but it's a toss up between that and the BBC Sherlock series; they're both so good. I suppose if someone made me choose or die I'd go with the BBC series. Although the best anime, anthropomorphic, depiction of Holmes is definitely Sherlock Hound lol.

[Seanna]

I happen to love the newest Sherlock, played by Robert Downey Jr. He has a mad intensity that makes his deductions believable. I'm a huge fan of anything set in the gaslight era, though.

[Alden Ash]

I am hard pressed to choose between Robert Downey, Jr. (even though his is very different from the books), and the latest series with Benedict Cumberbatch. It really depends on my mood at the time.

[Sir Reggie]

What ho chaps & chappettes!

Only one more entry and I'll be pressed into service for majesty the Steampunk Librarian! I'd best be getting my ether opter steam-o scope calibrated and tip my be-goggled hat to a jaunty angle! Keep the entries coming! Why?
Cogs I love you!
Bwah!

Sir Reginold Puddingpop III

[Laura Morrigan]

While I love Robert Downey Jr for his older, dishevelled Holmes, the mad inventor, and Benedict Cumberbatch for his young, modern, almost asperger style inability to understand his friends despite his intelligence, and his use of the memory palace, I do have a lasting fondness for my old favourite of Rupert Everett in The Case of The Silk Stocking. With his urbane, world weary charm, and casual references to taking heroin (as did the old Holmes)he really captured that unapproachable, self contained enigma that was Holmes.

[Traci Coker]

I am partial to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writings, but I do love the Robert Downey Jr. version. Although, CBS's modern day twist - Elementary is beginning to grow on me.

[Steampunk_Gypsy]

I really love the BBC Sherlock series - it's the best of the modern takes. But the original Doyle stories blow all of them out of the water.

[Soundofthunder]

I'm back! I'm back!

(I guess nobody missed me, though, lol).

OK, this is a tough one. I've always had the impression the "real" Holmes, the Doyle version, has never been truly portrayed. Every actor has given something personal to the character, and each actor has built on the previous ones, thus removing their Holmes from the "real" Holmes.

Having said that, I think Jeremy Brett did for me convey the attitudes and character of Holmes more closely to the books than anybody else.

And, regardless of all of the above, I do have a weakness for Robert Downey Jr!

[NovaDrifter]

I really like the new series on BBC and the recent movies, but if I had to choose I'd stick with the original writings.

[Lynn Doe]

I used to enjoy the Jeremy Brett version. I always thought he looked just how I would imagine him to look. I remember being a kid watching this with my Nanna as she was so into crime dramas like Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple etc.. :)

[Page Turner]

The sketches fanned out across the library table under the soft glow of the overhead gas lamp were arguably all of the same man in different guises: a chinaman with an opium pipe, a rag picker in his patched overcoat, an oxcart driver with ribbons on his derby hat, and a one-eyed seaman, all painstakingly limned in charcoal and ink.

“So each of these is a true likeness of Sherlock Holmes, the consulting detective?” I asked.

“Yes, Mr. Rathbone,“ replied my host, “But you, as an actor, can understand that Holmes is a bit of a chameleon. Although these drawings have accompanied Dr. John Watson’s case studies in The Strand, one cannot be certain that they reveal the true Sherlock Holmes.

“Ah, then,” I said. “Anyone I chance upon during my evening stroll might be Sherlock Holmes.”

My host smiled thinly. “Oh, no, Mr. Rathbone, it would be difficult indeed for anyone else to be Sherlock Holmes, but Mr. Holmes can become, literally, anyone when it suits his purpose.”

I nodded in appreciation. Any actor, especially one of my modest skill and even more modest success, would envy the thespian talents of Sherlock Holmes, the renowned consulting detective. “And inviting me here for this discussion? How might that suit your purpose?”

“Very admirably,“ said my host as he gathered the sketches into a precise stack. “Quite simply, Mr. Rathbone, for public purposes you will be whom I chose not to be in public; myself: Sherlock Holmes.”