Thursday, September 13, 2012

A Skyler Hobbs Review - Japanese style

I have a Google Alert on my recently published EQMM story, "Skyler Hobbs and the Garden Gnome Bandit," and it turned up this review by Japanese writer/blogger Toshiji Kawagoe.

Now, thanks to the magic Google Translate, we are able to almost decipher what it says. Read on, if you dare.

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An excerpt from the post "Critique of the work published EQMM 9 / October (first half)"

Evan Lewis "Skyler Hobbs and the Garden Gnome Bandit" 
Hobbs has crowded believe reincarnation of Holmes himself is chasing robbery continuous figurine precision reminiscent of Jason and Wilder decided the role of Watson himself, the "Napoleon of Six", of land for gardening. Holmes parody of things like work. Continuous theft figurine gnomes, we will eventually lead to theft bike continuous. Baritsu to attack or defend themselves with the villain, but funny Rocchi Ann Shah, it was amusing Cozy Mystery. Evan Lewis, this is what Hobbes Schuyler will be published in the first post of department EQMM, seems to have its debut short story takes a further Newcomer Award.
The rating B +
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"Cozy Mystery"? Ouch. But I'll take the B+.

As proof I didn't make this up, the Google Translate version of the full review of seven stories is HERE.

The original Japanese blog post is HERE.

7 comments:

Toshijii Kawagoe said...

Hello, Evan,

Thank you for visiting my blog and your comment. And I thank especially for your introduction of my review on your story in a funny translation ;-)

Probably there is many mistranslations there, I'd like to make a brief comment on your story again.

In fact, your "Skyler Hobbs and the Garden Gnome Bandit" is one of the best in the current issue of EQMM.

Probably B+ seems to be underestimation. I should have assigned A for your Skyler Hobbs story, because it excited me a lot!

The reason behind in my evaluation is due to my strict sense of detective story. My (and many Japnese mystery fans') models are Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr and Agatha Christie. We love the story in which an impossible crime is solved logically and a surprising evidence is revealed in the end. But your story appeared in EQMM seems to lack a bit of them, in my view.

But again I confess that your story was extremely well-written and enjoyable. I'd like to read more of your Skyler Hobbs stories (I found here a lot!) and I'd like to translate them into Japanese if I could have a chance.

Thank you again.

Best regards,

Toshiji Kawaoe

shonokin said...

I didn't even know you are writing fiction, Dave. I'll run out and get this issue!
(My library is full, otherwise I'd have a EQMM subscription, but these days I just pick certain issues that specifically have stuff I'm interested in).

Rick Robinson said...

Makes perfect continuous sense to mostly me. The story gnomes garden continuous interesting way mostly Holmes but not.

Charles Gramlich said...

Cool. Always very much fun when you discover something like that!

Evan Lewis said...

Thanks for the review, and the clarification, Toshiji. Your points are well taken. It would be fun to see one of the flash fiction pieces translated into Japanese.

There are links to more Hobbs stories in the left-hand column, shonokin sir, and a few other tales.

I'm not surprised to see you are multi-lingual, Mr. R.

Yeah, it was a kick, Charles. I recommend the reviews of the other stories, too. The Google Translate versions are mystifying.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Well done - Hobbs is getting around

Cap'n Bob said...

Drat, I went to B&N today to buy the EQMM and they had the November issue in stock. I'll need to find your somewhere else.