May Contain Traces of Magic

by Tom Holt
339 pgs

It's been awhile since I read a Tom Holt book. I don't know why I don't read them more often. But for some reason I don't seem to get around to reading his books till they've sat on my shelf for months or sometimes even years. He's a British author highly skilled in writing ridiculous comic fantasy books--and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

May Contain Traces of Magic is about a man named Chris. Chris is a sales rep who sells magical goods, things like portable parking spaces that store your car in a parallel universe until you need it again, and instant water (just add water). Chris also has a minor case of infatuation for the female voice of his car's satellite navigation system. Fortunately for him, that voice belongs to a small demon who's been imprisoned in the GPS system, so there's at least a small chance something could one day work out between them.

Chris's life is one day turned upside down when he pays a visit to the shop of one of his clients and finds him dead on the floor with a demon sitting on one of the shelves staring directly at him. That day begins a series of events involving time travel, shape shifting, demon possession, bathroom redecorating, and multiple instances of being flushed down the toilet into alternate realities.

I'll admit to feeling more than a little disoriented through much of the book. But the ridiculousness of the story kept me going. Fortunately, the payoff at the end was well worth it and left me looking forward to one day pulling the next book by him off my shelf.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Nothing But Blue Skies

Nothing But Blue Skies by Tom Holt

In Nothing But Blue Skies, British comic writer Tom Holt takes aim at one of Great Britain's least appealing qualities, the one that occupies the position of second worst, right behind its cuisine: its weather. Most of its residence attribute the oft inclement weather on natural meteorological patterns, but a few of the weathermen have suspected for a long time that there's a much more sinister cause behind it: Chinese weather dragons.

These dragons have the ability to control the weather with their moods and are the real culprit behind Britain's interminable dreariness. The weathermen  have become fed up with what they perceive as the dragons' sabotage of their sunny-weather forecasts in order to make them look foolish and they're ready to exact their revenge.

Their plan is to kidnap the Adjutant General to the Dragon King of the North West and hold him hostage in the dragon's most vulnerable form that it can take: that of a goldfish. Now try to stay with me for a minute because it doesn't get any simpler to explain. The dragon's daughter, who had taken human form prior to her father's kidnapping in order to pursue the man she's fallen in love with - the son of a wealthy newspaper tycoon who is himself trying to capture dragons so that he can harness the power of their third eye to telepathically deliver the news to millions of people worldwide without incurring the unnecessary expense of paper, ink, and delivery services, becomes its only hope for survival. Got all that?


The plot tends to get a little shallow in parts and none of the characters were that interesting for me, but Holt's humor redeemed the book as a whole for me and made it worth reading. I've enjoyed some of his other books more, most notably Falling Sideways and three of his more recent books that featured the company of J. W. Wells, but this one definitely had its moments.


★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Little People

Little People by Tom Holt

Michael Higgins sees elves. At the age of eight he saw his first one smoking in his family's garden. When he told his step-father about it, the reaction he received was so surprisingly abrupt and alarming that he knew what he had seen was real and that his step-father (the owner of a shoe-making factory - can you say "miniature slave labor force"?) was aware of them.

Tom Holt is a British fantasy author that I feel has way too small of a readership on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. He's written thirty-something humorous fantasy novels yet is still widely unknown here in the States. His books are inventive, smart, and oftentimes, the literary equivalent of a Monty Python sketch.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆