What do you think?
Rate this book
YouSpace #1
Doughnut
The doughnut is a thing of beauty. A circle of fried doughy perfection. A source of comfort in trying times, perhaps. For Theo Bernstein, however, it is far, far more.Things have been going pretty badly for Theo Bernstein. An unfortunate accident at work has lost him his job (and his work involved a Very Very Large Hadron Collider, so he's unlikely to get it back). His wife has left him. And he doesn't have any money.Before Theo has time to fully appreciate the pointlessness of his own miserable existence, news arrives that his good friend Professor Pieter van Goyen, renowned physicist and Nobel laureate, has died.By leaving the apparently worthless contents of his safety deposit to Theo, however, the professor has set him on a quest of epic proportions. A journey that will rewrite the laws of physics. A battle to save humanity itself.This is the tale of a man who had nothing and gave it all up to find his destiny -- and a doughnut.
387 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
148 people are currently reading
2042 people want to read
About the author
Tom Holt
111 books1,164 followersTom Holt (Thomas Charles Louis Holt) is a British novelist.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt and fantasy novels writing as K.J. Parker.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt and fantasy novels writing as K.J. Parker.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 349 reviews
December 26, 2017
"So what's it like?" asked Not.
"What?" said Manny absent-mindedly.
"That book," said Not. "The one Noella gave you."
"Terrible," said Manny after a pause. "Absolutely dreadful. Worst thing I've seen since Harry Quebert."
"So that's why you've been reading it all day?" said Not, as her eyebrows did an impression of two rock-climbers starting a rather tricky ascent.
"Yes," said Manny, without looking up. "It's just not funny. He keeps putting in all these contrived metaphors that are supposed to be amusing, but they aren't."
The mountaineers, who had been stuck on an overhang, got out their pitons and edged onwards.
"So I suppose you'll be coming to bed then?" said Not's mouth, quite a bit further down her face.
"Oh," said Manny vaguely, "I think I might as well finish it. I only have another sixty pages to go."
The climbers, surprised by the sudden progress they'd made, wondered if they might be able to reach the top after all. Manny glanced up for a moment and stopped, surprised.
"You look kind of weird," he said. "Is something wrong?"
"Don't worry," said Not. "I didn't mean to interrupt you."
"That's okay," said Manny, as he opened the book again.
"What?" said Manny absent-mindedly.
"That book," said Not. "The one Noella gave you."
"Terrible," said Manny after a pause. "Absolutely dreadful. Worst thing I've seen since Harry Quebert."
"So that's why you've been reading it all day?" said Not, as her eyebrows did an impression of two rock-climbers starting a rather tricky ascent.
"Yes," said Manny, without looking up. "It's just not funny. He keeps putting in all these contrived metaphors that are supposed to be amusing, but they aren't."
The mountaineers, who had been stuck on an overhang, got out their pitons and edged onwards.
"So I suppose you'll be coming to bed then?" said Not's mouth, quite a bit further down her face.
"Oh," said Manny vaguely, "I think I might as well finish it. I only have another sixty pages to go."
The climbers, surprised by the sudden progress they'd made, wondered if they might be able to reach the top after all. Manny glanced up for a moment and stopped, surprised.
"You look kind of weird," he said. "Is something wrong?"
"Don't worry," said Not. "I didn't mean to interrupt you."
"That's okay," said Manny, as he opened the book again.
April 23, 2013
My opinion of this book declined the further I got into it. It wasn't so much bad--I don't think Tom Holt is ever really bad--as that I just became weary of how Theo was so consistently dumped on by the universe. The whole thing about how everyone wanted him to find Max, his jackwagon brother, and how Max kept getting away with total crap behavior just got on my nerves. Ditto Professor van Goyen, who just became more of a jerk the more we learned about him. And don't get me started on the "romance" between Matasuntha and Theo, because that wasn't a romance, that was an unsupported plot twist inserted for the sake of I don't know what. I'm giving it three stars because I enjoyed the final revelation about how everything tied together , and Theo's role in it all, and Tom Holt is a good writer--there's still a lot of good, clever material here. But that's about all it has going for it.
March 28, 2017
Doughnut is in the same basic genre as Douglas Adams. There is a plot of sorts which serves to advance the narrative, but the narrative serves as a sort of Christmas tree ornamented with various clever asides, commentaries, and general weirdness. I don't know if it is fair to compare the author to Douglas Adams, who was in a class of his own. Yet 'Doughnut' compares favorably to the Dirk Gently series, and in particular to 'The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'. It says a lot for Tom Holt that his book does not suffer by comparison.
October 25, 2020
Good SF/humor novel that was lacking something. For one, it was overlong. For another, false starts on romance. For a third, no really likeable characters. But I was still pleased, on the whole, and would read another. 3.3 stars.
Here's a good review, by Thomas: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... His reactions were close to mine. Plus, this saves me writing an actual review of a 7 year old book!
And here's a first-rate Tom Holt novel that I recommend, and enjoyed much more than this one: The Management Style of the Supreme Beings. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here's a good review, by Thomas: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... His reactions were close to mine. Plus, this saves me writing an actual review of a 7 year old book!
And here's a first-rate Tom Holt novel that I recommend, and enjoyed much more than this one: The Management Style of the Supreme Beings. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
February 25, 2018
Strange, English, offbeat. Kinda Douglas Adams (who is better at wry), kinda Jasper Fforde (who plays it straighter, if you can believe it), and not quite Monty Python (who are way sillier), but you can see them from here. Your stomach will not hurt from laughing; you will not marvel at the literary cleverness of it all, and you will not revel in the absurdity of life. You will, however, chuckle often and enjoy bending your head around the Doughnut multiverse.
July 7, 2016
Fun, yet ludicrous, SF farce. I think it's one of those "if this is the kind of thing you like" books. Which I did.
February 9, 2020
At times I might have given this three stars but for the most part, it’s a 2. Had a little to do with feeling that I’d read it before. Still not sure that I hadn’t. One of the reasons for bothering with this review is to make sure I don’t read it again next year.
Memorable it isn’t.
So it goes.
Memorable it isn’t.
So it goes.
March 30, 2025
This is funny, clever, and a brain-teaser. Highly recommend.
February 5, 2014
I was looking forward to this one, having heard a lot of good things about Tom Holt's books, and I tried, 100 plus pages of tried, but just couldn't go on.
Doughnut is the first book I have bailed on in memory, I tend to stick with them and often a book has redeemed itself after a bad start and I've been grateful that I had patience, more occasionally I regret my dogged determination. Usually though there is something to keep me clinging on, whereas with Doughnut there was nothing; nothing in the writing, not an interesting character, no intrigue, and most definitely not the humour. When Holt describes a guilty shrug as resembling a giant centipede pretending to be a human, I knew things weren't going to get better for me. I mean, I do get the image, it's just not funny.
I felt in the company of a boorish, drunken, spliff smoking student union intellectual wittering on in a world of his own with a bunch of friends pretending to hang on his every word. I might hang around long enough to be respectful but then I'd take my leave; let's be honest, he won't notice I'm gone, and so it is with The Doughnut, life is just too short.
Doughnut is the first book I have bailed on in memory, I tend to stick with them and often a book has redeemed itself after a bad start and I've been grateful that I had patience, more occasionally I regret my dogged determination. Usually though there is something to keep me clinging on, whereas with Doughnut there was nothing; nothing in the writing, not an interesting character, no intrigue, and most definitely not the humour. When Holt describes a guilty shrug as resembling a giant centipede pretending to be a human, I knew things weren't going to get better for me. I mean, I do get the image, it's just not funny.
I felt in the company of a boorish, drunken, spliff smoking student union intellectual wittering on in a world of his own with a bunch of friends pretending to hang on his every word. I might hang around long enough to be respectful but then I'd take my leave; let's be honest, he won't notice I'm gone, and so it is with The Doughnut, life is just too short.
Read
July 10, 2020I finally DNFed this. Douglas Adams seems to be one of the few exceptions to my zany-sci-fi allergy. Thus isn’t one of the exceptions. While it had potential and interesting moments, mostly the humor was exhaustingly not for me.
March 26, 2019
I'm a big fan of K.J. Parker, so I was stoked to listen to this book. For those unaware, Tom Holt is K.J. Parker, with the difference being that Parker writes fantasy intrigue novels, and Holt writes ... modern-day satirical science fiction? Is that accurate?
Doughnut is about Theo Bernstein, a down-on-his-luck ex-physicist with one arm that's there, but invisible, trying to get his life back together after being responsible for blowing up the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider. Turned down for a job flipping burgers, he takes a job at a slaughterhouse, shoveling guts into a drain. While there, he receives a letter informing him that his old faculty adviser has left him some money and items in his will. From there, he discovers a new world -- literally. It exists someplace alongside our own.
Parker/Holt has a knack for highlighting the absurdity of life, and he does so here with Doughnut, as well. He also brings his unique wit to the book, dipping it in wry before putting it on the page. His similes and metaphors alone are enough to crack me up, and Doughnut is full of them.
The story, though, isn't that great. Part of it is Theo: He's hard to like, and comes across as more pathetic than sympathetic, and he doesn't seem to have a lot of agency. That's typical for Holt/Parker, but somehow I couldn't muster up enough feeling for Theo to have any real connection to the plot. The plot is also complicated (which, again, is pretty typical for the author), but it's hard to follow what's happening once . It's partly my fault for listening to this on audio, because the sudden jumps from place to place were a lot harder to follow in that format.
Overall, though, the story lacks the subtle structuring that Parker/Holt brings to his K.J. Parker fiction. I'm used to reading those books and feeling like events are just spooling out at random right before he pulls everything together into a breathtaking conclusion, but with Doughnut, it felt more random. He does pull everything together, but somehow it didn't feel as cohesive. Maybe that's due to the book being novel-length instead of novella-length, since I've only read Parker's novellas so far. Regardless, I'm not giving up on the Holt novels; I just wish this one had lived up to my expectations.
Doughnut is about Theo Bernstein, a down-on-his-luck ex-physicist with one arm that's there, but invisible, trying to get his life back together after being responsible for blowing up the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider. Turned down for a job flipping burgers, he takes a job at a slaughterhouse, shoveling guts into a drain. While there, he receives a letter informing him that his old faculty adviser has left him some money and items in his will. From there, he discovers a new world -- literally. It exists someplace alongside our own.
Parker/Holt has a knack for highlighting the absurdity of life, and he does so here with Doughnut, as well. He also brings his unique wit to the book, dipping it in wry before putting it on the page. His similes and metaphors alone are enough to crack me up, and Doughnut is full of them.
The story, though, isn't that great. Part of it is Theo: He's hard to like, and comes across as more pathetic than sympathetic, and he doesn't seem to have a lot of agency. That's typical for Holt/Parker, but somehow I couldn't muster up enough feeling for Theo to have any real connection to the plot. The plot is also complicated (which, again, is pretty typical for the author), but it's hard to follow what's happening once . It's partly my fault for listening to this on audio, because the sudden jumps from place to place were a lot harder to follow in that format.
Overall, though, the story lacks the subtle structuring that Parker/Holt brings to his K.J. Parker fiction. I'm used to reading those books and feeling like events are just spooling out at random right before he pulls everything together into a breathtaking conclusion, but with Doughnut, it felt more random. He does pull everything together, but somehow it didn't feel as cohesive. Maybe that's due to the book being novel-length instead of novella-length, since I've only read Parker's novellas so far. Regardless, I'm not giving up on the Holt novels; I just wish this one had lived up to my expectations.
December 13, 2013
This is a very strange book. Combining theoretical physics with a klutz of the first order presents an amusing and confusing book. Theo destroys the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider before the book begins. We join him as he is trying to get a job, but there aren’t many jobs available for a person with his job history, not to mention the invisible arm. He is even rejected for a job flipping burgers for fear that he might upset the customers by handing them their food with a hand no one can see. The puns are painfully funny while the physics makes my head spin. It takes a bit more time than it should for Theo to solve the problems and realize what is really happening but I guess destroying the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider would cause some depression and slow your brain’s reaction time. With Theo’s family & friends, it’s amazing that he does solve the problems leading to my favorite kind of ending---Happy.
July 23, 2013
Started weak and went downhill from there.
March 14, 2017
I blame this book for the unreasonable amount of doughnuts brought into the Wells/Tomlinson house over the last couple of weeks.
October 19, 2015
Another convoluted story from Tom Holt. Breath-taking in scope, this book spans time from the big bang to somewhere in the future (from the here and now). Tom Holt indulges his imagination to explain many unlikely events, in the life of the main character, in terms of pseudo logic. Tom Holt excels at proposing scenarios then explaining them through a series of assumptions to reach the desired conclusion. Many great discoveries of science have started as thought experiments. Who's to say if some of these suggestions hold a grain of truth. I enjoyed this quirky tale with its many twists and turns. In a story that allows instant travel through space and time, by looking through a doughnut, it's easy to get lost. I did a few times but still enjoyed the journey.
January 18, 2019
Quirky. This is my first Tom Holt and during my reading I thought of these at times:
1) Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
2) Some of Terry Pratchett's works
3) Waiting for the galactic bus
1) Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
2) Some of Terry Pratchett's works
3) Waiting for the galactic bus
October 9, 2017
Aaahhh, I love Tom Holt and I really wanted to like this book :( Honestly, it gave me a really really hard time and took more than a couple of weeks to finish it.
I think I’m partially responsible for not enjoying this book because I opted for the audio and the random incidents in the scenes were harder to connect. Anyhow, I’m glad this is over. It took a delayed flight to finish this book since I wasn’t interested in carrying on. In some ways, I enjoyed the dry humour. I just feel books of this genre should not exceed 250 pages!
I think I’m partially responsible for not enjoying this book because I opted for the audio and the random incidents in the scenes were harder to connect. Anyhow, I’m glad this is over. It took a delayed flight to finish this book since I wasn’t interested in carrying on. In some ways, I enjoyed the dry humour. I just feel books of this genre should not exceed 250 pages!
January 2, 2023
Fun read, surprising topic (had no idea what it was about until I stumbled into the chaos). Gave me Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy vibes and I love that book.
July 24, 2021
Fun, in a very Hitchhikers Guide way.
June 6, 2014
Comic fantasy, horror and science fiction can be tricky sub-genres and I've found in the past that they sometimes fall flat for me. With Doughnut I certainly started off enjoying the story of Theo and his adventures with various eccentric supporting characters, YouSpace and the alternative realities but then found that my interest and enjoyment was starting to tail off about half-way through. By the fifth and final section I really only continued because it was a reading group selection and I wanted to be able to participate in discussion.
As things turned out I didn't make the meeting but I received a report the next day and apparently I wasn't alone in feeling that it was a good premise that had failed in execution. It may also have been a matter of just not being in the right mood for comic SF/F as I've been reading a lot of serious fiction during the last few weeks and this may not really been what I needed as a break from that. So not a terrible book by any means but one that just didn't work for me.
As things turned out I didn't make the meeting but I received a report the next day and apparently I wasn't alone in feeling that it was a good premise that had failed in execution. It may also have been a matter of just not being in the right mood for comic SF/F as I've been reading a lot of serious fiction during the last few weeks and this may not really been what I needed as a break from that. So not a terrible book by any means but one that just didn't work for me.
February 27, 2019
The infamous Theo Bernstein is a physicist who has fallen upon hard times. After blowing up the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider that was his primary responsibility he becomes unemployable in his field, and pretty much everywhere else, except the slaughterhouse. While he’s contemplating the continuation of his existence, however, he receives a mysterious windfall from his former boss, Professor Pieter van Goyen, who leaves him a number of strange objects in a safety deposit box. One of the items is a letter that leads Theo to a new job and accommodations in a hotel that is not really a hotel at all. The rest Theo has to work out on his own – the mysterious bottle with the equation etched into its bottom, for instance, and its ability to transport him into other realities (with life-threatening consequences). While the laws of his world work exactly as expected, those in other parts of the multiverse behave quite strangely, but conveniently, as it turns out. Delightfully weird and entertaining.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2013
Theo Bernstein accidentally put a decimal point one place to the left instead of the right and, thusly, caused the Very Very Large Hadron Collider to explode, thereby disintegrating an entire Alp and becoming one of the most hated men alive. Coincidentally, Shliemann Brothers, the company that held all his investments, went bust at just about the same time, so, well, things aren’t going great for Theo.
After Theo receives an apple, a seemingly empty bottle and a small pink powder compact as part of an inheritance from his friend and former physics professor Pieter van Goyen, he ends up working at a huge but mostly empty hotel. There, he accidentally stumbles into what appears to be a parallel universe, and from that point on, things start getting weird…
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
After Theo receives an apple, a seemingly empty bottle and a small pink powder compact as part of an inheritance from his friend and former physics professor Pieter van Goyen, he ends up working at a huge but mostly empty hotel. There, he accidentally stumbles into what appears to be a parallel universe, and from that point on, things start getting weird…
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
August 21, 2016
I stumbled across Tom's book in the staff pick section of the library and to be honest, didn't expect such a cool, off the wall, AR/VR, shape shifting Disneyland with a big dash of humor kind of story. I love this guy and will read everything he writes now. This is no Pulitzer prize story, but extremely entertaining and well paced. He hits you with a surprises all the way through and a bigger one at the end. Oxford grad turned lunatic writer..gotta love it!
June 12, 2021
I’m not adding anything another review doesn’t say, but this book is funny and quirky enough not to put down, and not in a good way. More in the last-picked-for-a-baseball-team way, where it’s not BAD per say, but not the one you’d want batting off for your team. I never reached a point of complete frustration, so I kept reading and made it to the end. But I will say I appreciated the creativity in worldbuilding the different universes mentioned in the books!!
March 26, 2013
Funny, totally weird, at times unintelligible.
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/201...
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/201...
May 11, 2014
Tom Holt is fun to read. Nothing to serious and certainly not great literature, but full of laughs, bad puns.
August 7, 2018
Oh well. It was an easy read, I'll give you that. Dumb puns from beginning to end. Somehow addictive, and hard to stop devouring, yet it was obvious from the beginning it couldn't be very special, just a sort of "well not I've had that"-experience. Like a doughnut. Also very classic man writing, sorry to say. But it was okay.
September 15, 2020
This book deserves higher than four stars but not quite 5. Beautifully strange, and mind stretching...the kind of humor that only the few really appreciate. Yes, I loved it, it could have moved a little more quickly is my only critique.
September 6, 2017
I have changed my mind about this book. It's actually really cool but a bit confusing. It's really quite funny too but some parts are a bit boring. But I like it, everyone should read this book.
April 2, 2020
deserves 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed his writing. Love his original way of saying common things.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 349 reviews