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J. W. Wells & Co. #7
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages
Polly is a real estate solicitor. She is also losing her mind. Someone keeps drinking her coffee. And talking to her clients. And doing her job. And when she goes to the dry cleaner's to pick up her dress for the party, it's not there. Not the dress -- the dry cleaner's.
And then there are the chickens who think they are people. Something strange is definitely going on -- and it's going to take more than a magical ring to sort it out.
From one of the funniest voices in comic fiction today comes a hilarious tale of pigs and parallel worlds.
And then there are the chickens who think they are people. Something strange is definitely going on -- and it's going to take more than a magical ring to sort it out.
From one of the funniest voices in comic fiction today comes a hilarious tale of pigs and parallel worlds.
378 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
91 people are currently reading
1182 people want to read
About the author
Tom Holt
98 books1,173 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.
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March 11, 2021
You know that feeling you sometimes get where you feel like reality has just been scraped off its plate like yesterday’s leftovers? No? Let me tell you a story, then:
I have a vivid memory of watching the Rob Reiner movie ‘Misery’ in a Memphis hotel room in July 1990, whilst on a month-long tour of the States. I remember it as clearly as I remember re-watching the movie for the first time yesterday on my sofa. I even remember the crisps I was eating at the time and that my brother had a towel on his head throughout (don’t ask).
The trouble with this memory is that I looked up ‘Misery’ on IMDb yesterday during said re-watch (I like to read the trivia section) and it kind of blew my mind because ‘Misery’ didn’t come out in theatres until late October 1990.
So I couldn’t possibly have watched it on my hotel TV (random Skunk Anansie reference for no particular reason) in July of that year.
Yet I remember it so clearly.
This is just one example, you understand. This sort of thing happens to me all the time.
The resulting feeling can only be explained in two ways:
1. The human memory is a slippery little bugger and absolutely cannot be relied upon for anything even vaguely approaching accurate recall.
2. At some point between 1990 and yesterday, I slipped into a parallel universe which is identical in all respects to my original universe apart from the fact that the movie ‘Misery’ was released in a different year.
Option two is, of course, I’m sure you’ll agree, the far more likely explanation.
Well, this feeling is what this book is about.
Oh, and it’s hilarious.
It also tries to answer the age-old question of ‘which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ I know the answer.* Don’t ask me what it is, though, as I will tell you and boring explanations often offend.
* We were actually set ‘Which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ as an essay when I was at school, many, many, many moons ago. After I handed mine in, my teacher accused me of plagiarism as my essay was, and I quote, ‘far too sophisticated for a twelve-year-old to have come up with by themselves’. I think I just confused her, as she was probably expecting an answer rooted in philosophy rather than evolutionary biology.**
**I had several run-ins with teachers along these lines while I was at school as I was a precocious little shit.***
***I never once plagiarised anybody, though, for the record.
My next book: The Celtic Twilight
I have a vivid memory of watching the Rob Reiner movie ‘Misery’ in a Memphis hotel room in July 1990, whilst on a month-long tour of the States. I remember it as clearly as I remember re-watching the movie for the first time yesterday on my sofa. I even remember the crisps I was eating at the time and that my brother had a towel on his head throughout (don’t ask).
The trouble with this memory is that I looked up ‘Misery’ on IMDb yesterday during said re-watch (I like to read the trivia section) and it kind of blew my mind because ‘Misery’ didn’t come out in theatres until late October 1990.
So I couldn’t possibly have watched it on my hotel TV (random Skunk Anansie reference for no particular reason) in July of that year.
Yet I remember it so clearly.
This is just one example, you understand. This sort of thing happens to me all the time.
The resulting feeling can only be explained in two ways:
1. The human memory is a slippery little bugger and absolutely cannot be relied upon for anything even vaguely approaching accurate recall.
2. At some point between 1990 and yesterday, I slipped into a parallel universe which is identical in all respects to my original universe apart from the fact that the movie ‘Misery’ was released in a different year.
Option two is, of course, I’m sure you’ll agree, the far more likely explanation.
Well, this feeling is what this book is about.
Oh, and it’s hilarious.
It also tries to answer the age-old question of ‘which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ I know the answer.* Don’t ask me what it is, though, as I will tell you and boring explanations often offend.
* We were actually set ‘Which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ as an essay when I was at school, many, many, many moons ago. After I handed mine in, my teacher accused me of plagiarism as my essay was, and I quote, ‘far too sophisticated for a twelve-year-old to have come up with by themselves’. I think I just confused her, as she was probably expecting an answer rooted in philosophy rather than evolutionary biology.**
**I had several run-ins with teachers along these lines while I was at school as I was a precocious little shit.***
***I never once plagiarised anybody, though, for the record.
My next book: The Celtic Twilight
January 31, 2013
Equal parts Tom Robbins, Christopher Moore and Jasper Fforde, Tom Holt’s Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages, is an insanely imaginative and hilarious read. There’s no point telling you what this book’s about, it wouldn’t make any sense. But, I’ve got to give you something.
There’s a pig who figures out the secret to transdimensional travel, a guitarist who gets turned into a rooster, a flock of chickens who learn that they’re really human lawyers, and a real estate boss who has no personal history but a knack for getting rich by eliminating the inefficiency of operating in only one dimension.
All this happens because somebody tries to cheat in a 700 year-old game of “chicken or the egg.” Cheaters never prosper, especially when they forget that lawyer-chickens revolt.
Don't mistake the humor for hollowness, there's a point behind the absurdity. A little Vonnegut seasoning. There are things we cannot know, and the more we try to figure them out, the bigger mess we make.
As an added bonus, the introductory chapter is about as good a piece of creative writing as you're apt to find. It is FANTASTIC, and the book is well-worth the price even if you read no further.
After finishing Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages, I immediately bought another Tom Holt book, Blonde Bombshell. This is the greatest compliment I can give an author.
There’s a pig who figures out the secret to transdimensional travel, a guitarist who gets turned into a rooster, a flock of chickens who learn that they’re really human lawyers, and a real estate boss who has no personal history but a knack for getting rich by eliminating the inefficiency of operating in only one dimension.
All this happens because somebody tries to cheat in a 700 year-old game of “chicken or the egg.” Cheaters never prosper, especially when they forget that lawyer-chickens revolt.
Don't mistake the humor for hollowness, there's a point behind the absurdity. A little Vonnegut seasoning. There are things we cannot know, and the more we try to figure them out, the bigger mess we make.
As an added bonus, the introductory chapter is about as good a piece of creative writing as you're apt to find. It is FANTASTIC, and the book is well-worth the price even if you read no further.
After finishing Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages, I immediately bought another Tom Holt book, Blonde Bombshell. This is the greatest compliment I can give an author.
February 10, 2011
Before I read this book, I’d never heard of Tom Holt. I read this book for one reason: this blurb by my beloved Christopher Moore, which appeared in the NetGalley write-up:
“Tom Holt may be the most imaginative satirist to land on our shores since Douglas Adams.” — Christopher Moore
Funny that Moore (who Tom Holt kind of reminds me of) mentions Douglas Adams (who Tom Holt kind of reminds me of) because this book is in the same genre as Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with the difference being that Holt’s band of motley heroes don’t venture off into the galaxy (although they do visit other space-time dimensions). In other words, this is aggressively silly but smart stuff, and you either like this kind of stuff or you don’t. I do (like this kind of stuff).
Why don’t I try to tell you what the book is about so you can see for yourself? Take a deep breath. Here goes.
My Attempt To Describe The Book’s Plot
The book starts with a sow working out some physics questions in order to determine where her piglets keep disappearing when they go inside a rather large trailer near the pig pen. When she finally makes her way inside, she seemingly vanishes into another dimension. (But more on that later. That is just the warm-up.)
The real start of the book is when we meet Polly, a lawyer at a construction firm who has had some rather odd things happening to her lately: disappearing coffee, work being done without her doing it, strange notes in her files. Plus she can’t seem to find the dry cleaners where she left her dress; it has seemingly vanished into thin air. When she talks to her brother Don about whether she might be going crazy, her fears are allayed by his explanations. That is, until Don picks up clothing at the missing dry cleaners and finds a mysterious pencil sharpener that apparently lets him perform magic—magic that includes accidentally disappearing his annoying upstairs neighbor as well as the ability to create minions out of his hair.
From there, things get a little weird. As Polly and Don try to figure out what is happening, we bounce around meeting other characters, including: the couple who work at the dry cleaners that moves to a new location every night (and don’t think about going in the downstairs bathroom around 10:30 in the morning); Mr. Huos (Polly’s boss) who has a rather unusual back story as well as the headache of having the properties he’s developed disappearing overnight; and Mr. Stan Gogerty, the only man who has a chance of unraveling all the things that are plaguing these poor people (but only if he can escape from a tube station that hasn’t been built until 10 years in the future). Oh, and did I mention that the key to figuring out what is going on comes down to determining which came first … the chicken or the egg?
So????
If reading the book description gave you headache or made you roll your eyes, this book isn’t for you. If, however, you found yourself saying “Yes! Yes! Yes! This sounds like the goofy, abusurdist kind of book I like but just can’t find enough of!“, this book is for you!
I loved this book—although it occasionally caused me a headache trying to keep up with who was doing what and where and when. It is best not to think too much, sit back and let it all come clear in the end. When you read a book like this, it is like getting on a roller coaster: you sit down, strap yourself in, and prepare to have a wild ride that doesn’t always make sense, has lots of twists and turns and craziness but is good, clean, mind-bending fun.
My only real complaint was that I often got confused about who was narrating. “Is this the chicken talking,” I’d think, “or is this the knight stuck in the time warp?” (Yeah … it is that kind of book.) It would have been helpful to have some clearer transitions (for example, a small heading saying “Don” if we are with Don). However, I did read the book in PDF format that I downloaded from NetGalley so it is entirely possible that the non-galley of the version of the book has this information. However, even with that minor quibble, I still very much enjoyed this book. In fact, I actually snorted with laughter a few times. Here are some of the passages that really made me giggle (although it is the kind of book where passage after passage is amusing).
Describing a rather special library: They called it a library, which was a bit like calling croquet on the vicarage lawn a fight to the death.
“Um,” he said, and then his voice stopped working, a failure so abrupt and total it was hard to believe Microsoft didn’t have anything to do with it.
The voice was very loud and when it spoke the ground shook under his feet, but he’d stood up to bigger bullies before. He’d used Windows Vista. He’d installed broadband. Incomprehensible and immensely powerful forces entirely beyond his control were all in a day’s work as far as he was concerned.
I really enjoyed this book and was thrilled to find out that Tom Holt has quite a few other books for me to explore. How did I not hear of this author until now???? Well, at least I’m in the know now. If you’re a Tom Holt fan, what would you recommend I read next?
“Tom Holt may be the most imaginative satirist to land on our shores since Douglas Adams.” — Christopher Moore
Funny that Moore (who Tom Holt kind of reminds me of) mentions Douglas Adams (who Tom Holt kind of reminds me of) because this book is in the same genre as Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with the difference being that Holt’s band of motley heroes don’t venture off into the galaxy (although they do visit other space-time dimensions). In other words, this is aggressively silly but smart stuff, and you either like this kind of stuff or you don’t. I do (like this kind of stuff).
Why don’t I try to tell you what the book is about so you can see for yourself? Take a deep breath. Here goes.
My Attempt To Describe The Book’s Plot
The book starts with a sow working out some physics questions in order to determine where her piglets keep disappearing when they go inside a rather large trailer near the pig pen. When she finally makes her way inside, she seemingly vanishes into another dimension. (But more on that later. That is just the warm-up.)
The real start of the book is when we meet Polly, a lawyer at a construction firm who has had some rather odd things happening to her lately: disappearing coffee, work being done without her doing it, strange notes in her files. Plus she can’t seem to find the dry cleaners where she left her dress; it has seemingly vanished into thin air. When she talks to her brother Don about whether she might be going crazy, her fears are allayed by his explanations. That is, until Don picks up clothing at the missing dry cleaners and finds a mysterious pencil sharpener that apparently lets him perform magic—magic that includes accidentally disappearing his annoying upstairs neighbor as well as the ability to create minions out of his hair.
From there, things get a little weird. As Polly and Don try to figure out what is happening, we bounce around meeting other characters, including: the couple who work at the dry cleaners that moves to a new location every night (and don’t think about going in the downstairs bathroom around 10:30 in the morning); Mr. Huos (Polly’s boss) who has a rather unusual back story as well as the headache of having the properties he’s developed disappearing overnight; and Mr. Stan Gogerty, the only man who has a chance of unraveling all the things that are plaguing these poor people (but only if he can escape from a tube station that hasn’t been built until 10 years in the future). Oh, and did I mention that the key to figuring out what is going on comes down to determining which came first … the chicken or the egg?
So????
If reading the book description gave you headache or made you roll your eyes, this book isn’t for you. If, however, you found yourself saying “Yes! Yes! Yes! This sounds like the goofy, abusurdist kind of book I like but just can’t find enough of!“, this book is for you!
I loved this book—although it occasionally caused me a headache trying to keep up with who was doing what and where and when. It is best not to think too much, sit back and let it all come clear in the end. When you read a book like this, it is like getting on a roller coaster: you sit down, strap yourself in, and prepare to have a wild ride that doesn’t always make sense, has lots of twists and turns and craziness but is good, clean, mind-bending fun.
My only real complaint was that I often got confused about who was narrating. “Is this the chicken talking,” I’d think, “or is this the knight stuck in the time warp?” (Yeah … it is that kind of book.) It would have been helpful to have some clearer transitions (for example, a small heading saying “Don” if we are with Don). However, I did read the book in PDF format that I downloaded from NetGalley so it is entirely possible that the non-galley of the version of the book has this information. However, even with that minor quibble, I still very much enjoyed this book. In fact, I actually snorted with laughter a few times. Here are some of the passages that really made me giggle (although it is the kind of book where passage after passage is amusing).
Describing a rather special library: They called it a library, which was a bit like calling croquet on the vicarage lawn a fight to the death.
“Um,” he said, and then his voice stopped working, a failure so abrupt and total it was hard to believe Microsoft didn’t have anything to do with it.
The voice was very loud and when it spoke the ground shook under his feet, but he’d stood up to bigger bullies before. He’d used Windows Vista. He’d installed broadband. Incomprehensible and immensely powerful forces entirely beyond his control were all in a day’s work as far as he was concerned.
I really enjoyed this book and was thrilled to find out that Tom Holt has quite a few other books for me to explore. How did I not hear of this author until now???? Well, at least I’m in the know now. If you’re a Tom Holt fan, what would you recommend I read next?
July 23, 2011
It's simple, really. You start with a perfectly ordinary British Everyman (or -woman, as the case may be) and throw him (or her, in this case, at least to start with) into a situation where Something Untoward is happening, whether it be a law firm full of werewolves (Barking) or a UFO piloted by frogs (Falling Sideways). Hilarity then duly ensues. So this one starts with a pig—a brood sow, to be specific—musing on the existential question of where her piglets go after they're taken away by the men in the big steel box... and then suddenly there are solicitors who work for a very odd real-estate agency, a sleepy little English village with a population of several hundred thousand, and a peripatetic dry-cleaners' shop... and we're off on another madcap ride from England's most consistently funny author, Tom Holt.
The details are what matter, though. Nuances. Seemingly-inconsequential asides that later take on great significance. Holt's deft touch at humour (spelling intentional) is rare and to be treasured—it may look easy, but comedy is hard to get right, much harder than tragedy, perhaps because we mere humans have so much more experience with the latter. There were times while reading this book when I was almost helpless with laughter, and that doesn't happen to me very often these days. And when I got done with it, my teenaged daughter asked me to read it to her... and that doesn't happen to me very often these days either.
Tom Holt's a reliable sort, always good for a laugh... and that's no small thing.
The details are what matter, though. Nuances. Seemingly-inconsequential asides that later take on great significance. Holt's deft touch at humour (spelling intentional) is rare and to be treasured—it may look easy, but comedy is hard to get right, much harder than tragedy, perhaps because we mere humans have so much more experience with the latter. There were times while reading this book when I was almost helpless with laughter, and that doesn't happen to me very often these days. And when I got done with it, my teenaged daughter asked me to read it to her... and that doesn't happen to me very often these days either.
Tom Holt's a reliable sort, always good for a laugh... and that's no small thing.
November 8, 2016
I rediscovered this book while I was cataloguing and realized I'd never read it. Tom Holt isn't, to me, a laugh-out-loud kind of author, but he's funny and clever and I read his books when I'm in the mood for something a little askew. I think this is going to be one of my favorites in the J.W. Wells universe; I liked how the mystery unfolded slowly, through several different POV sections, and while I didn't figure it out before the characters did, I picked up enough clues to be satisfied with the big reveal. It made for an excellent afternoon's read.
January 13, 2019
3.5 stars
This book is completely weird, but in a good way. It tells a story of vanishing houses, magic pencil sharpeners, and the age-old question about the chicken and the egg. It reminded me a lot of Douglas Adams. It shares the same sense of absurdity while being quite fun.
I will say that the many changes in perspective made for an entertaining mystery, but they are probably also the reason why I didn't really feel connected to the characters. They are all interesting and some even charming, but none of them felt emotionally close to the reader. It is more about the story than about character growth which is okay, but made it slightly less enjoyable for me.
Overall, if you enjoye strange tales in the style of Douglas Adams, you will probably like this.
This book is completely weird, but in a good way. It tells a story of vanishing houses, magic pencil sharpeners, and the age-old question about the chicken and the egg. It reminded me a lot of Douglas Adams. It shares the same sense of absurdity while being quite fun.
I will say that the many changes in perspective made for an entertaining mystery, but they are probably also the reason why I didn't really feel connected to the characters. They are all interesting and some even charming, but none of them felt emotionally close to the reader. It is more about the story than about character growth which is okay, but made it slightly less enjoyable for me.
Overall, if you enjoye strange tales in the style of Douglas Adams, you will probably like this.
January 22, 2011
If you're familiar with Tom Holt, all I have to say is, Have fun! If not, I should say a bit more than that. For those who are new to Holt's work, be prepared for a wild ride.
Something odd is happening in the offices of Blue Remembered Hills Development, and Polly Mayer doesn't like it. Someone is drinking her coffee. She's getting phone calls complaining about her failure to follow up on conversations she knows didn't happen. She's finding notes in her work diary that she didn't write, and work done in her files that she didn't do. Polly is not amused--and that's before she discovers that the dry cleaners where she dropped off her dress has disappeared. Not gone out of business--vanished as if it had never been there.
Something odd is happening at BRHD. Mr. Huos has lost his brass ring. And ever since the loss of the ring, clients and customers are starting to complain. Something about the land they bought being missing. Mr. Huos is also missing his past: He has no memory before he woke up on a mountainside in eastern Europe ten years ago, with the brass ring, steel earrings, and $100,000 in US currency. Oh, and the ability to understand any spoke language instantly. And to make deals that are not far off from turning sows' ears into silk purses.
Something odd is happening outside BRHD. Don Mayer, Polly's brother, found a brass pencil sharpener in the pocket of a suit he picked up from the dry cleaners' shortly before Polly discovered that that shop not only didn't exist anymore, it never had. Suddenly he can Make Things Happen, including the return of his sister's dress, and the disappearance of his annoying neighbor--whom he only wanted to go away, not cease existing.
Meanwhile, there are the hens who used to be lawyers, and Mr. and Mrs. Williams, the dry cleaners whose shop has been moving to new locations every couple of days for the last ten years.
And all of that is before things start getting weird.
If you're a Tom Holt fan, definitely pick up this one. If you've never heard of Tom Holt before, be adventurous and pick it up anyway! It's weird and wonderful and a lot of fun.
I received a free electronic galley of this book via NetGalley.
Something odd is happening in the offices of Blue Remembered Hills Development, and Polly Mayer doesn't like it. Someone is drinking her coffee. She's getting phone calls complaining about her failure to follow up on conversations she knows didn't happen. She's finding notes in her work diary that she didn't write, and work done in her files that she didn't do. Polly is not amused--and that's before she discovers that the dry cleaners where she dropped off her dress has disappeared. Not gone out of business--vanished as if it had never been there.
Something odd is happening at BRHD. Mr. Huos has lost his brass ring. And ever since the loss of the ring, clients and customers are starting to complain. Something about the land they bought being missing. Mr. Huos is also missing his past: He has no memory before he woke up on a mountainside in eastern Europe ten years ago, with the brass ring, steel earrings, and $100,000 in US currency. Oh, and the ability to understand any spoke language instantly. And to make deals that are not far off from turning sows' ears into silk purses.
Something odd is happening outside BRHD. Don Mayer, Polly's brother, found a brass pencil sharpener in the pocket of a suit he picked up from the dry cleaners' shortly before Polly discovered that that shop not only didn't exist anymore, it never had. Suddenly he can Make Things Happen, including the return of his sister's dress, and the disappearance of his annoying neighbor--whom he only wanted to go away, not cease existing.
Meanwhile, there are the hens who used to be lawyers, and Mr. and Mrs. Williams, the dry cleaners whose shop has been moving to new locations every couple of days for the last ten years.
And all of that is before things start getting weird.
If you're a Tom Holt fan, definitely pick up this one. If you've never heard of Tom Holt before, be adventurous and pick it up anyway! It's weird and wonderful and a lot of fun.
I received a free electronic galley of this book via NetGalley.
March 9, 2011
Tom Holt rarely disappoints, and this book is far and away one of his finest. Wonderfully creative, steadily funny with just the right amount of taking the piss out of everyday life, to use a perfectly apt British phrase. Pursuit of Sausages starts with what I can only characterize as "field interference" between parallel universes and devolves from there. One of my favorite of Holt's writing quirks is his fondness for setting up an increasingly obvious Deus ex Machina, only to blow the entire thing up with a single sentence. You really never know where you're going to end up with a Holt book, but it's almost certainly not the place he has you looking at. A wonderfully entertaining read.
July 26, 2011
My Thoughts:
A book that will surely beloved by science enthusiasts. And a story that is unusual and comical. At first I thought that I wouldn’t finish this book because I’m not into this kind of story. But when I started reading it I got curious on where the story will gets, that I realized it’s a page-turner book for me. Bizarre things started when Polly off to pick up her dress on the dry cleaners, that the dry cleaners was the one which is missing. Then to her brother and even on her work, things seem a bit odd. The story is very new to me; I mean I thought it is really that serious (I mean the unusual thing that going on in the life of Polly). It is serious, but…it’s just that, I keep smiling every time I remember how the story ends and the whole truth about the eerie things that’s happening to Polly. You just have to read it and I know that you will surely going to adore it. I now agree that Tom Holt is the most imaginative satirist in modern times. There’s just one question that every man I know, knew and that I will left for you to answer, “Which came first? The chicken…or the egg?”
A book that will surely beloved by science enthusiasts. And a story that is unusual and comical. At first I thought that I wouldn’t finish this book because I’m not into this kind of story. But when I started reading it I got curious on where the story will gets, that I realized it’s a page-turner book for me. Bizarre things started when Polly off to pick up her dress on the dry cleaners, that the dry cleaners was the one which is missing. Then to her brother and even on her work, things seem a bit odd. The story is very new to me; I mean I thought it is really that serious (I mean the unusual thing that going on in the life of Polly). It is serious, but…it’s just that, I keep smiling every time I remember how the story ends and the whole truth about the eerie things that’s happening to Polly. You just have to read it and I know that you will surely going to adore it. I now agree that Tom Holt is the most imaginative satirist in modern times. There’s just one question that every man I know, knew and that I will left for you to answer, “Which came first? The chicken…or the egg?”
September 23, 2012
I've been disappointed by my last two Holts; they seemed carelessly done. Not this one. It's been very carefully crafted indeed, for all the apparent silliness.
Folks, I am not going to summarize the plot. Dozens have already done so. Life's too short.
Let's just say that Holt piles up the odd occurrences, while his characters TRY to behave rationally. It gets to the point where you have to wonder how he's going to explain it all, and then with a more or less straight face he tells you what's been happening and it all falls into place. Not unlike an Agatha Christie novel.
Good fun. I'll read his next one.
Folks, I am not going to summarize the plot. Dozens have already done so. Life's too short.
Let's just say that Holt piles up the odd occurrences, while his characters TRY to behave rationally. It gets to the point where you have to wonder how he's going to explain it all, and then with a more or less straight face he tells you what's been happening and it all falls into place. Not unlike an Agatha Christie novel.
Good fun. I'll read his next one.
April 12, 2014
God, that was so enthralling and interesting! I don't think I've finished a paperback so quickly in ages! :P Very much interdimensional fun and the way it's revealed, all the different characters, mixed in time and space continuum. Wouldn't have expected it to be this good, but I think I'd recommend it to anybody who likes a bit of fantasy and a good laugh! A really really good read!
August 27, 2018
one of my favourite books of all time, which is weird because it's got a pretty low rating, and is "part of a series" (hint: it's not)
it's got holes-like intersecting storylines + a wrinkle in time scifi dimension-hopping + the most crotchety characters ever + some really dry snarky humour, so basically everything i like
it's got holes-like intersecting storylines + a wrinkle in time scifi dimension-hopping + the most crotchety characters ever + some really dry snarky humour, so basically everything i like
August 10, 2015
Whoever said that Jasper Fforde's fans would enjoy this book was seriously out of their mind.
July 18, 2015
Delightfully bizarre, hilariously logical and respectably prim an proper like only the English can be. Hours of delicious entertainment.
February 6, 2019
What if you could bend the space/time continuum to create more real estate to sell?
August 13, 2017
Really I give it 3.5 stars. It's an oddball humourus book which I enjoyed. However, I didn't realize until part way through that it is partially part of a series of books and so maybe would have got some of the references and humour more if I'd read the earlier books?
January 31, 2024
Pretty funny, went in some directions I wasn't expecting. A bit hard to hold onto at a few points in times but it all came together nicely.
February 6, 2019
An interesting book along similar vein of Douglas Adams where everything seems to become possible once you know how.
September 4, 2016
Talk about jumping all over the place, Tom must have been smoking the good stuff when he wrote this, LOL. But like all his books, he takes you into worlds that are wild, woolly, funny and bizarre and characters that match. You wonder what happened to the pig you're introduced to in the beginning and if you stay with it, you'll find out. I liked "Doughnut" better, but still enjoyed this one.
April 30, 2018
This book wanders through time and space, but in a far more whimsical way than Dr Who could ever aspire to. With characters such as chickens who used to be lawyers and the brilliant ruse of employing people to work at the same desk at the same time, but in different dimensions, this book is both engaging and funny.
Yes, I liked it.
Yes, I liked it.
April 20, 2021
I read this ages ago as a standalone. Just as funny the second time, even though I didn't remember anything about my first read. Perhaps the best book in the series, I wish they were all this funny. Not sure why the low ratings.
November 18, 2018
I have no idea what I just read, but it made me laugh, so that's all that matters.
September 12, 2023
Fairly toothless and not compelling. This book feels written by an engineer who considers themselves better than others because they took an intro to string theory class, and understood about 45% of the material.
Not a single enjoyable character, no clever story beats, and just a few jokes that land. If the entire point of the book is that no one can take responsibility or step up to work through or solve an issue - everyone just expects "a professional" to come along and right the wrongs - then why backtrack entirely by giving such a neat, wrapped up, and unearned ending?
As an interesting "what's going on" novel, it spits in your face. As a satire on the current state of human greed and complacency, it loses itself in attempted cleverness.
Also pigs can't look up from a standing position.
Not a single enjoyable character, no clever story beats, and just a few jokes that land. If the entire point of the book is that no one can take responsibility or step up to work through or solve an issue - everyone just expects "a professional" to come along and right the wrongs - then why backtrack entirely by giving such a neat, wrapped up, and unearned ending?
As an interesting "what's going on" novel, it spits in your face. As a satire on the current state of human greed and complacency, it loses itself in attempted cleverness.
Also pigs can't look up from a standing position.
October 13, 2021
My issue with Tom Holt is usually the pacing. Things are either moving too fast with massive exposition dumps in between to actually explain things, or it's too slow with every little thing stretched out in order to properly explain things.... then massive exposition dumps because this is Tom Holt so no way you're going to get it without him explaining it to you!
This one falls in the later category. The pacing is slowed down to a crawl with a zoom in on every little detail. The frustrating part is that the details don't make any sense until we reach the exposition part so it kindda feels like I'm wasting my time with them.
This one is ok but has surprisingly little to it so the material feels stretched out.
This one falls in the later category. The pacing is slowed down to a crawl with a zoom in on every little detail. The frustrating part is that the details don't make any sense until we reach the exposition part so it kindda feels like I'm wasting my time with them.
This one is ok but has surprisingly little to it so the material feels stretched out.
January 2, 2018
My first Tom Holt.
This was a hoot. And a clever and stylishly written one at that. He not only is endlessly imaginative but has an impressive mastery of language to boot.
That said, as the ending of the book approached and all the madcap nonsense had to somehow be explained and all the loose ends tied up, I started to lose interest. And I very much doubt I'll remember all the complicated detail of the plot when I have to discuss the book in ten days' time, let alone by the end of the year.
Still, I was overall impressed and will read more.
This was a hoot. And a clever and stylishly written one at that. He not only is endlessly imaginative but has an impressive mastery of language to boot.
That said, as the ending of the book approached and all the madcap nonsense had to somehow be explained and all the loose ends tied up, I started to lose interest. And I very much doubt I'll remember all the complicated detail of the plot when I have to discuss the book in ten days' time, let alone by the end of the year.
Still, I was overall impressed and will read more.
May 15, 2023
Great read, a guaranteed laugh at least every couple pages and some proper belly laughs in here too. Apparently part of a series but as a series-sceptic this didn't suffer from reading like one to those who are unfamiliar with the series. Characters are compelling and interesting, the plot is whacky but true enough to life for the comedy to hit a resonant tone. The mystery unravels in a satisfying way. Loved Polly and her observations on office life.
February 6, 2020
I struggled to get through this book. The title and byline drew me to it, but I found it to be laborious in some places. Although the premise was interesting, I didn't find it nearly as engaging or amusing as I was expecting. That being said, the idea was novel and as the connections began to be made, the book became easier to read, though I found the final tie-in a bit of a disappointment.
October 26, 2020
This certainly qualifies for a place as one of the strangest books I've ever read. And it was pretty funny too.
I've never read anything like it before, though I find, upon looking that there are several authors who write in this genre. I'm just trying to figure out what to call it.
Written, I think, with Dr Who fans in mind.
I've never read anything like it before, though I find, upon looking that there are several authors who write in this genre. I'm just trying to figure out what to call it.
Written, I think, with Dr Who fans in mind.
June 19, 2022
Oh ny SO slowwwww.Drags and drags .I tried speed reading and also skipping 10 pages at once if useless babble. still SO slow.
.Also not that funny a book that I had an interest t .keep going.
Quit at 75% .maybe ill.finish it but really don't care about the ending. Bet its just as boring as the rest.
.Also not that funny a book that I had an interest t .keep going.
Quit at 75% .maybe ill.finish it but really don't care about the ending. Bet its just as boring as the rest.
October 29, 2018
I tried. I really tried all the way to page 109 but I just could not finish this. What the hell is it meant to be? Sci fi? Fantasy? Comedy? Sorry but there are no redeeming features. This is just plain nonsense.
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