Mightier Than the Sword

View books by Tom Holt.

Cracking Stuff! - Rated
Before stumbling upon this book in my local bookshop I'd never read a Tom Holt novel before; hell, I had never even heard of the chap! All that has changed now and after reading this omnibus of material written almost a decade apart I have become a big Tom Holt fan.

The first book featured in the omnibus titled 'Who's Afraid of Beowulf?' tells the tale of how an American Archaeologist, thirteen bickering Norse warriors, two chess-playing spirits and a lowly BBC film crew attempt to thwart the powers of darkness...

The jokes come thick and fast and there are some truly laugh-out loud moments. The characters are nicely drawn and interact with each other, propelling what there is of the plot, forwards.

'My Hero' on the other hand features a larger, more diverse cast of characters. The plot is far more ambitious. The tone and pace of the piece is more dynamic and the writing in comparison to 'Beowulf' is more confident and assured.

There are a lot of neat ideas with regard to literary conventions. The story involves many famous literary characters getting themselves marooned in the real and other imaginary worlds. Holt describes the physics of literature (complete and utter nonsense!) well and this sets up some nice encounters with such figures as Captain Kirk, Mr Darcy, Sherlock Holmes and Toad of Toad Hall.

Once read, you get the impression that Mr Holt had great fun writing this - almost as much as I had reading it. Buy it now!!!