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EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE |
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For Two Nights Only by Tom Holt check out website: www.OrbitBooks.co.uk
The first novel 'Overtime' concerns an uninteresting bloke from World War Two who ends up meeting a time-travelling minstrel. The minstrel is on a mission to find King Richard who has somehow become lost in time. The second novel 'Grailblazers' concerns an Arthurian knight who becomes frozen in time only to be reawakened in our era. He then meets up with his old buddies and goes on a jolly old adventure to find religion's funkiest cup. Both of these efforts left me cold. Had you been watching me as I read you quite possibly would have been able to see the icicles forming on my eyelids. Perhaps I've been spoilt. Used as I am to the wonderfully funny works of Pratchett and the anarchic vitality of Rankin's books, I was not prepared for this assault of mediocre and utterly pointless narrative. Five pages into each book I just couldn't care less what happened. The plot is skeletal. This does not always matter. Indeed, other authors of humorous novels often employ a loose structure to shape their works. However, where others might do it in style, Holt fills his works with tedious wordplay and outmoded humour. I swear, if I ever read one more joke about the DVLC they're going to have to drag me away in a straitjacket. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure there are people out there who will absolutely love this stuff. If you enjoy hearing comedians joking about speeding offences or regularly complain about 'those bloody automated phone machines' then you'll get a real kick out of this middle class drivel. If, like me, you're not a fan of authors recycling material by much better artists (see the ill-thought out concept of 'Bureauspace' in Overtime, a weak and ineffective version of Pratchett's 'L-Space'), then you might want to avoid this one. I'm seriously trying to think of something good to say about these books. Well, they aren't the worst books I've ever read. Holt certainly has a nice grasp of language and does use this to an adequate effect. As mentioned though his ideas are lacklustre. His transformation of Father Christmas into a malevolent ex-deity in 'Grailblazers' is a conceptual stillbirth. I just kept asking myself why? Whoops! There I go again. All I can say is that if you're a fan of Holt's then you've probably already bought these novels in their original format. If you're not, then you should go out and pick up something a little more entertaining and humorous, like the obituaries column of your local newspaper. The word's 'plague' and 'avoid' come to mind. 'Nuff said. Paul Skevington
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OTHER REVIEWS - June 2004
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This
book is an omnibus edition of two of Tom Holt's earlier novels,
so that means a double dose of off the wall hilarity all round,
hurrah! Or not as the case might be. It's a struggle to force myself
to summarise the plots of these books for you because I found them
so mind-numbingly boring. 
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