Expecting Someone Taller (©1987)

Here's something you don't find everyday. A book that's supposed to be funny that's actually funny. I remember seeing this one years ago and thought it looked pretty funny, but didn't buy it. I'm not made of money you know - for what ever reason people aren't sending me books for free.

Anyway, this one isn't a laugh out loud riot, but it did put a grin on my face for most of the book. The basic premise is a take off on the familiar Ring story. Poor Malcolm Fisher, he comes to inherit the ring, and soon he's being chased by a pantheon of forgotten gods, the Rhinemaidens, and at one point a host of Valkyrie (supply the appropriate Wagner music here).

The story moves along providing some cheeky moments. The wind up is abrupt, but who really cares? This was my first Holt, and undoubtedly not my last.

Reviewed June 2002

Who's Afraid of Beowulf (©1988)

I think I've found a pretty funny guy here. This was better than the first one I read. The story is pretty forgettable (which is my cop-out to writing a synopsis), but the characters situations are what make this a fun book. Okay, there are a bunch of displaced Viking types who have survived to the future to battle the ultimate evil, or at least a very bad fellow. Sprinkle in a heroine archiologist, and a hapless investigative reporter it adds up to a swell adventure.

Reviewed June 2002

Flying Dutch (©1991)

Now this was a funny story. A very liberal treatment of the Flying Dutchman. We learn the secret of the curse, and meet up with an accountant who has no sense of smell. Danny the hapless reporter is back, and learns all of his worst conspiracy fears were to be feared after all.

This was actually laugh out loud in a couple of places.

Reviewed June 2002

Here Comes The Sun (©1993)

I suppose I read too many too quickly. This was the fourth Holt I'd read, and I basically read them one after the other. This one has a really good premise, and the story should have worked.

Essentially the story revolves around how the universe really works. Sadly it's not working very well. The sun needs an overhaul, and things are breaking down all over the place. What's needed is an infusion of fresh ideas. Enter Jane - a mere mortal, who is coerced to take up a job as a management trainee to help set things right.

It's all very clever. Except it never really caught my imagination. It rode along like a bicycle with a flat tire. I know he's a funny guy, it's just that this one was overly complicated, messy, and well, sorry to say not all that funny.

Reviewed July 12, 2002

Overtime (©1993)

Tom Holt is someone I binge on - I haven't been able to read just one. So after finishing Faust (look down the page a little bit, I don't always read them in order), I plowed into this one. He's a freakin' funny man. Of course I'm only guessing - he could be a right goof in real life, but he writes a helluva story. Good enough for me. Heck, if I ever had the chance I'd have a pint or four with the guy and try and trade scatological wit. I'd hold my own. Now if it turned to politics or religion I'd be still trying to trade scatological barbs. I am not a deep man.

Uh, where was I? Oh yeah, I just finished Overtime, and it was generally speaking a pretty good read. It was fun, and twisty, and featured some of the great Holtisms (it's a word now) fans (of which there are millions) have come to expect. Overtime isn't his best that's for sure, but it wasn't embarassing say like reading something by Hubbard.

Mister Holt has a lot of fun with time travel stories, and this one is pretty interesting as far as the premise goes. I'm not in the mood to give a play by play of the plot. Okay, I'll give a single play: Guy Goodlet through no fault of his own finds himself in the company of John de Nesle (who goes by the handle Blondel) a time travelling jack of all songs kind of guy. I don't know why but I sort of imagined him to be a mix of Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck (cause lonely is a man without love). Anyway along the way a host of truly bad people try and stop Blondel and Guy from trying to rescue Richard Coeur de Lion and putting the world right as we know it.

I should know better than to have chocolate and coffee before reviewing a book.

Reviewed January 16, 2002

Faust Among Equals (©1994)

If I was worried about a downward spiral after reading Here Comes the Sun, this one sets a new high water mark for the works of Mister Holt that I've read so far. This is freakin' funny. In places it's actually laugh out loud funny - which can be embarrassing when you're reading on the train. Tom Holt is a rare find, a writer of funny fiction who really writes funny (as in ha ha) fiction. Short of the Grant Naylor (solo and together) stuff he's the funniest writer I've read.

The story is clever, and features some wonderful twists and turns. Lucky George Faust has escaped from hell, which oddly enough is under new management. Of course this is unacceptable. So they hire the greatest bounty hunter of all time to track him down and bring him back. Kurt Lundqvist is a great foil in the terminator like hit man who can't catch a lucky break when it comes to capturing George.

Along the way we get to meet a whole host of characters you don't normally get a chance to see in comic fantasy. I'd list them but it'd spoil the fun, that and I'm too lazy to flip through the book to get the spelling right on some of the names. Heck even Danny the Milk Marketing Board conspiracy guy makes a ghostly cameo. Very funny.

The ending with the General Operative is priceless and was well done (oh come on, that's not a spoiler. A spoiler gives away the ending, this just mentions the ending - BIG difference).

Reviewed January 6, 2003

Only Human (©1999)

Only Human is marginally better than Here Comes the Sun, my least favourite Holt to date. Sadly after a number of entertaining books I find myself shaking my head. This isn't a top shelf read folks. It's a close miss, there's just something that didn't spark this time out. The writing is tight, clever, and has all the hallmarks of pretty goodness, but for whatever reason it never catches, it's as hollow as the inside of a donut.

I struggled a little with some of the near sacrilegious aspects (who am I kidding, it's over the line) to the story, but it was pretty funny. Kevin the younger son of God, or as he's known in heaven Our Kid, takes over while JC and the Old Man take a fishing holiday. Of course all hell breaks loose, and the resulting hilarity wasn't all that hilarious. Holt has so many ideas and characters that perhaps more isn't always better. The lemmings bit is great, the demon in an Anglican Priest is a wicked turn, and made me chuckle. Even the alien invasion sub plot was cute. But when taken together as a whole the bits and pieces don't mesh well.

There are people out there I'm sure who'll think I'm a nut job for not "getting" the genius of Holt. I can live with that. I paid my money and took a chance. Heck, I've got a few more Holt's on the shelf to read yet, and I'm sure they're pretty good.

So he didn't hit the ball out of the park this time, he can be forgiven - after all (wait for it ... ) he's only human.

Reviewed March 2003

Nothing But Blue Skies (©2001)

Another return to the imagination of Tom Holt. I've spent an inordinate amount of time there this year, and for the most part I've had a lot of fun playing in the guy's backyard. Nothing but Blue Skies is clever, witty, and funny. It'll never win any prestigious awards for expanding the literary genre, but as a fantastic humorist he's got a pretty impressive track record. Even the occasional story that I haven't really liked was pretty inventive.

The basic story is one of Dragon meets boy, falls in love, forswears her immortality for said human, and then the proverbial dung hits the fan. We meet up with a couple of world weary weathermen, one of whom has uncovered the real reason behind the weather in England. We get a maniacal billionaire dude who is one step away from ruling the world.

Oh yeah, and there's rain. Lots of rain, for a little while at least.

But of course nothing lasts forever ...

Reviewed September 9, 2003

Falling Sideways (©2002)

Meet David Perkins. A man in love. Unfortunately he's in love with a painting. And so begins another of the brain twisting jaunts authored by Tom Holt, quite possibly the most consistently funny writer I've come across in many years.

Mister Holt's imagination is a little like Pandora's box. Once opened you're never sure what you're in for. The little voice at the bottom keeps repeating "Hang on, it may be a bumpy ride."

As usual there is more here than meets the eye, as our hero soon discovers. After buying a lock of hair of the woman in the picture, David soon finds himself up to his knees in frogs, clones, and bags of sugar.

Not one to give away too much, other than saying there's a lot you didn't know about frogs. If you're looking for a fun read, with some righteous groaners you can't go far wrong with Tom Holt.

Reviewed April 21, 2004