Snow White and the Seven Samurai

It makes perfect sense that Snow White should live with seven samurai, once you've got the hang of Tom Holt's latest twisted fantasy comedy. Youngsters from our real world hack into fairyland's Mirrors operating system--which naturally runs on the wicked queen's magic mirror--and crash it so disastrously that all the stories get tangled. A spaghetti-western Dwarf With No Name (actually he's Dumpy) is hired to save three little pigs from the big bad wolf by recruiting a Magnificent Seven Dwarves' defence team, starting with Rumpelstiltskin and Tom Thumb but goingdownhill from there. Meanwhile, Fang the wolf has problems with Frog Prince transformations, Snow White learns from her own mirror that she has excellent wicked-queen potential and Baron Frankenstein's latest unholy creation proves to be Pinocchio. We also meet three colour-blind mice, the Beast fleeing in terror from Beauty, an elf who insists she's an "Indigenous Fairylander" and the Grimm Brothers--unconvincingly claiming that they're mere independent observers. After which, things become really complicated and silly, as Storyland is further fragmented by various mirror-users' efforts to gain control, until it seems quite reasonable that one little pig should find himself saying, "I am not a number. I am a free pig." Splendidly deranged entertainment, with quips galore. Holt's in good form. --David Langford. This review refers to the hardback edition

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OK - Rated
I wasn't that keen on this book. I liked all of the other Tom Holt books but this was a bit of a let down. The ideas are brilliant but its a bit busy and you forget whats happening in each story. Still worth a read.

Not quite as good as I expected... - Rated
When I bought this book I must admit I had high expectations. I've read comic fantasy before, and had always enjoyed it.
It's not to say this book is really bad, but it's not really good either. This is why:
In comic fantasy, there has to be comic, of course, but there also has to be a neat and fitting storyline. The comic was there, he had some quite good oneliners and jokes, but I sometimes got the idea that it was all about the joke, not the story. The story could be bended and twisted _around_ the joke.
This made it a hard read at times, sometimes even fuzzy and hard to keep track off. I disliked the clue, it was, in my opinion horribly unclear and too quickly written. Once again, bad storyline for a good punchline.

It did have some good points, don't get me wrong. The ideas are good, the jokes are funny at times, but it is not a book I couldn't put away or have to read a second time. For really good comic fantasy I'd have to advice Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams.

Maybe I caught him at a bad book, I'm not sure because I only read one of his books and it's really not that bad, as long as you don't excpect a excellent book.

Hit and Miss - Rated
For me Holt seems to show pieces of promising brilliance and then, often, fails to pull it off. This one, though, twisting fairy tales, inside out and back again manages on the whole to be a reasonbly entertaining read. Not classic Holt, but knocks on the door... Running DOS!

Yet another disappointer from Tom Holt. - Rated
Sigh. Tom Holt used to put out such wonderful fantasy novels... This book starts with a decent premise - the classic fairy tales get scrambled - but goes down hill so rapidly that both my husband and I had to force ourselves to finish the book. The characters for the most part are just boring, and it is almost impossible to dredge up any real interest in their adventures, if the narration can be so termed. The ending isn't just contrived, it is absurd without being at all fun. Oh, what I would give for another Tom Holt book even half as good as Flying Dutch or Grailblazers or Expecting Someone Taller!

Snow White Which one - Rated
Very humorous and witty book. If you've ever seen or read the 10th kingdom this book is just as funny. An excellent twist on the fairy tale market