{"id":6947,"date":"2026-02-13T15:50:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=6947"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:50:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:50:51","slug":"god-of-the-naked-unicorn-by-richard-lupoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=6947","title":{"rendered":"God of the Naked Unicorn by Richard Lupoff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

God of the Naked Unicorn<\/em><\/strong> by Richard Lupoff [as by Ova Hamlet1<\/sup>] (Fantastic<\/em>, August 1976) is one of a series of author parodies\u2014although this one doesn\u2019t concentrate one writer but mashes up Dr Watson and various pulp action heroes. The story begins with Watson, after another failed marriage, returning to Baker Street in search of accommodation only to find that Sherlock Holmes no longer lives there (he has apparently retired to keep bees). Watson rents a flat in a down-and-out area and is almost immediately visited by \u2018The Woman.\u2019 After learning of Holmes\u2019 retirement she reveals the purpose of her visit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe God of the Naked Unicorn has been stolen.\u201d
\u201cThe God of the Naked Unicorn!\u201d I exclaimed.
\u201cThe God of the Naked Unicom!\u201d
\u201cNo!\u201d I blurted incredulously.
\u201cYes!\u201d she replied coolly. \u201cThe God of the Naked Unicorn!\u201d
\u201cBut\u2014but how can that be? The greatest national art treasure of the nation of\u2014\u201d
\u201cShh!\u201d She silenced me with a sound and a look and a renewed pressure of fingertips to wrist. \u201cPlease!
Even in more familiar and secure quarters than these it would be unwise to mention the name of my adoptive motherland.\u201d p. 44<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Watson and The Woman then take a train and an autogyro flight to a building in the Arctic called The Fortress. Here, The Woman introduces him to Doc Savage, and leaves after saying the theft is part of a greater plot. Savage takes Watson to meet a number of other men:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cRichard Benson\u2014the Avenger,\u201d said the man in gray.
\u201cKent Allard\u2014the Shadow,\u201d the hawk-nosed man chuckled grimly.
\u201cGordon, Yale \u201934\u2014my friends call me Flash.\u201d
\u201cCurtis Newton, sir, sometimes known as Captain Future.\u201d
\u201cJohn Carter, former captain, confederate cavalry.\u201d
\u201cDavid Innes of Connecticut and the Empire of Pellucidar.\u201d
\u201cRichard Wentworth,\u201d said the second of the black-clad men, \u201cknown to some as the Spider.\u201d Even as he shook my hand I detected a look of suspicion and jealousy pass between himself and the man who had identified himself as the Shadow.
And finally, the man in the green clergy suit. \u201cOm,\u201d he intoned making an Oriental sign with his hands before extending one to me in western fashion. \u201cJethro Dumont of Park Avenue, New York. Also known as Dr. Charles Pali and\u2014the Green Lama. p. 53<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We later learn that Holmes and Tarzan were kidnapped at the same time as the theft of the God of the Naked Unicorn. Savage explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe fiend had apparently developed a superscientific device of some sort which reduced the stature of his victims to that of pygmies, and he strode away with poor Holmes under one arm and Greystoke under the other.\u201d
\u201cYes,\u201d I said encouragingly, \u201cpray continue.\u201d
\u201cWell, Dr. Watson,\u201d Savage resumed, \u201cas the fiend left the Exposition of European Progress he seemed to be mumbling something to himself. I could barely make out what it was he was saying. But it seemed to be something like Angkor Wat, Angkor Wat<\/em>. But what could that possibly mean, Watson?\u201d p. 58<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Savage and Watson then take another autogyro flight to search for the evil genius, first to Angor Wat then to a number of other locations before ending up back at Baker Street. There (spoiler), they find the man they seek\u2014a writer sat in front of a typewriter apparently writing the tale of which they are part. Watson shoots the man: pulp flakes come out of the bullet wound.
If you like the pulp pastiche and superhero references then you\u2019ll probably appreciate this more than I did, but it\u2019s an overlong piece that is mostly description and motion. And the ending is on the same level as \u201cand then I woke up and found it was all a dream.\u201d
(Mediocre). 12,000 words. Archive.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The Ova Hamlet stories were collected, first in The Ova Hamlet Papers<\/em><\/a> (1979) and then in the expanded The Compleat Ova Hamlet<\/em><\/a> (2009). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God of the Naked Unicorn by Richard Lupoff [as by Ova Hamlet1] (Fantastic, August 1976) is one of a series of author parodies\u2014although this one doesn\u2019t concentrate one writer but mashes up Dr Watson and various pulp action heroes. The story begins with Watson, after another failed marriage, returning to Baker Street in search of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1648],"tags":[21,527,1649,206,7,1650],"class_list":["post-6947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-richard-lupoff","tag-21","tag-527","tag-dr-watson","tag-fantastic","tag-novelette","tag-pulp-heroes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6947"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6965,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947\/revisions\/6965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}