Well, we’ve managed to make to August. Congratulations us! August is traditionally the time of year where I do kind of crash and burn, so reading a pleasantly fanficish story starring queer, black, female Holmes and Dr. Watson was absolutely 100% what I needed.  A Study in Honor, by Claire O’Dell was so exactly on point for me that I read it in a day and have the sequel lined up for tonight. ^_^

Dr. Janet Watson is a veteran of the New American Civil War and has no patience for the bullshittery of the VA. She wants her life back, but the emergency replacement of her arm with a part that’s too big and too clumsy to do surgery is only one of a dozen problems she’s got. She’s too Black, too female, too everything else an uncaring government and society attaches to those two words and she’s running out of options. When an old friend introduces her to the wholly, wildly, unreal Sara Holmes, Watson’s life becomes a study in perseverance, and of course, honor.

I loved this book. It has everything I needed in a Holmes fanfic, that is to say, an understanding of what makes a good fanfic, and a good story as well as a comfortable familiarity with the source material. And it has everything I want in good science fiction and in a good war story. The plot was comfortable and original in equal parts, the unreality of the tech balanced by the realness of the politics. I loved that Watson’s voice felt wholly grounded in the now, with attention to the kind of details that many white readers largely still don’t understand about being a Black woman in the United States. It helped me feel Watson’s daily, everyday discomfort and helped further to highlight her other levels of discomfort as a veteran, a disabled person, a queer woman.

This book is political, as well. Current politics are extrapolated into future politics, which blossom into the socio-political background radiation of this book, and create the scenario that allows the bad guys to do what must be discovered…and stopped.

It’s a rollicking yarn, as well, with chases, and gun fights and cyberish crime, all of which culminate in Newark, NJ. As you can imagine, this was the coup de grace for me. ^_^

Watson, in this iteration, is coming off a failed relationship and while no Mary Morstan appeared, it gave Watson room to develop the friendship with Holmes we’ve all come to know and adore. Holmes is a far less well-developed character and there is a great deal about Sara Holmes we’re left not knowing. Since the original Sherlock Holmes was a whole piles of handwaves in a suit, I’m content allowing the enigmas to exist without complaint. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 9

It was an honest, fannish joy to get the queer, Black, female Holmes and Watson we’ve always deserved.

Now, on to Hound of Justice!