In Your Dreams

Tom Holt does a lot of humorous re-telling of famous stories - Faust, Beowulf, etc. He also has a fair number of books that stand more-or-less on their own. In Your Dreams is in the latter category, though it does pull from all the standards of sword-and-sorcery, and is a sequel to The Portable Door (along with Earth, Air, Fire, and Custard and You Don't Have To Be Evil To Work Here, But It Helps, which I haven't read yet).

I generally find that I like Holt better when he is telling his own stories, rather than trying to conform to the formula of a classic. The story seems to flow better, and the humor doesn't feel as contrived. And of those stories, I think I like In Your Dreams best.

The continuing story of the rather gormless Paul show more Carpenter as he tries to cope with office politics and office romance in an office full of sorcerers, fey, goblins, dwarves, etc. finds him trying to riddle out why he is so important to the JW Wells company, and how to fulfill a destiny he isn't sure he's prepared for.

It kind of feels like The Office meets the Monty Python version of Harry Potter. For a fairly sizable book, Holt's easy style and humor make for a quick and entertaining read. show less

Another entertaining book by Tom Holt, although I got a bit bogged down in the middle. This is the middle book in a trilogy, and wasn't quite as entertaining as the first one, but was still worth my time. I'll have to track down the third book to get a resolution to the story, although the reviews on amazon.com seem to think #3 isn't as good. So far Tom Holt seems like a hit-and-miss author. The other two books I've read by him, Flying Dutch and Faust Among Equals, were alternately entertaining and terribly mediocre, in that order. However, something made me pick up "The Portable Door", and I'm glad I did. Holt seems to do better with a nebbishy Englishman for a protagonist, as opposed to Faust or the captain of The Flying Dutchman. I'm show more imagining that it's a sort of "write what you know" phenomenon. Anyways, I've got two other (non JW Wells trilogy) books by Holt waiting in the wings, so it'll be interesting to see how they turn out. He's just entertaining enough that I'll keep checking out his other writing, but he's no Terry Pratchett, not by a long shot. show less

'What's come over you all of a sudden' she asked curiously. 'All the time I've known you, you've been this timid little wimp. Now you're talking about storming the enemy stronghold and killing the queen. Have you been on one of those self-assertiveness weekends or something?'

Paul Carpenter has now been working at J.W. Wells & Co. for nine months, and as part of his training he is moved to the Pest Control department, under Ricky Wurmtoter and Benny Shumway. His new role involves dealing with infestations of dragons, vampires, manticores and water nymphs, as well as hazardous trips to the Bank of the Dead to do the company's daily banking.

As well as the dangers of a hero's life in Pest Control, Paul also has woman troubles. His show more relationship with fellow trainee Sophie is over, his childhood friend Demelza is working on reception, Rosie the goblin (aka Mr Tanner's mother) fancies him and Mr Tanner is threatening to rip his head off if he encourages her, while the head of the Effective Magic department, Judith di Castel'Bianco, seems to have got it in for him for some reason.

But does Paul really know what is happening and how much danger he is in, or is it all going over his head? It would probably help if he got round to reading the office procedures manual and actually paid attention to the weird stuff rather than ignoring it whenever possible. show less

Tom Holt didn't suffer from sequel syndrome with this follow up to The Portable Door.
It was humorous and had some good puns, and some good groaners, too. Twisty plot and some surprises.
Usual bang up job!

At one time or another, we have probably all thought that our boss was a monster and that the company we work for is sucking our life blood right out of us. For our hero, Paul Carpenter, that is no exaggeration.

Do I still want to die peacefully in my sleep after reading this book? I think so but I am no longer absolutely positive about that.

Very enjoyable sci-fi read.

Funny run through familiar territory: a dash of myth, a splash of magic, a nod to Gilbert and Sullivan, and a lot of sympathy for a likeable unlikely hero.

Simply amazing! I love Tom Holt's books especially the J.W. Wells & Co. series. This is my second or third time reading In Your Dreams. It is that good.