Falling Sideways

It starts with a man staring at the portrait of a 17th century witch and the convoluted plot involves alien frogs, clones and green goo. It's confusing but funny and Tom Holt has the Douglas Adams touch when it comes to description.

At one point the protagonist is felled by a giant frog which sits on his back chatting about how important it is to stay in touch with your inner tadpole.

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This is a funny, funny book. It had been sitting on Randal's bookshelf for a while and when I finally asked him about it, he said, 'Yeah, it's good. Read it. You'll like it.' And he was right.

Basically, if you have read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, you know the world is run by mice, right? Wrong! Frogs are actually in charge of the whole shebang. Or perhaps humans are actually frogs who think they are human. Or the frogs are human but think they are frogs. Anyway, something like that. There are also numerous clones involved in the various shenanigans, too, for good measure.

It gets bogged down at a few points, and once or twice I lost track of the storyline almost entirely (as you might have show more guessed from the previous paragraph), but it really is an entertaining read, and a short, breezy one at that. show less

David Perkins has an obsession, one that has haunted him since he was a child, she has a name too; Philippa Levens, marchioness of Ipswich. Besides the small matter of class, there is the additional issue that Philippa was burned as a witch in 1602, which makes it kind of hard to get a date. Still, our hero considers himself lucky to win a lock of Philippa's hair at an auction; even if the cost was a bit steep and there are now these sinister men shadowing him. That's not the real trouble though. That starts when David trips over a hole-in-the-wall operation called Honest John's House of Clones.

Unfortunately, that's when the real trouble starts with this novel too, as much of the book consists of Perkins wandering around and learning show more that everything he knows is wrong, but to no real end. At least no real end that comes with a bit of sizzle, as opposed to groans. What it boils down to is that while there are plenty of amusing passages, the plot just doesn't hang together, even for a shaggy-dog comedy of errors. One suspects that arbitrarily cutting this story back fifty or so pages would have probably done it a world of good. This is particularly since the conspiracy suggested by the blurb is just not that interesting.

Oh well, better luck next time. show less

“If you can’t believe what you see and hear, how can you ever really know anything’s real” Honest John

In a world of clones, telepathy, magic and frogs – knowing what and who is real becomes increasingly problematic. Tom Holt skewers evolution, God, Microsoft, and the princess kissing the frog fairy tale all in one very ‘rivet’ing story.

This was the first Tom Holt book that I read, and still ranks up among my favorite of his. When I first read the book, I was a bit unsure of the ride that he was taking us, his readers, on. It seemed that as soon as you started to figure out what was going on in the book and what may be forthcoming in the book, Tom Holt suddenly switches gears and directions and takes us in a totally different direction. In one sense, I had the feeling that he didn't know where he was going with the story; but another sense tells me that he wanted to keep us guessing and to avoid falling into the same tired stories and formats that you can find in so many different books.

It is also one of the funnier books that I have read in quite some time, along the show more lines of Douglas Adams. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something a little bit different, with a comedic angle to it. show less

Another solid offering by Mr. Holt. Funny and the plot is probably more solid than some of his other stories.

Worth the read.

The plot was interesting, imaginative and unexpected. Unfortunately it started to get too convoluted near the end. Also there were a lot of British references that I didn't understand. It was a fun read, but I wouldn't consider it a must read book.