Tom Holt – VoVatia (original) (raw)

Category Archives: Tom Holt

Santa and the Asteroid

I’ve finished several books as of late, but I kind of want to space them out a bit, and haven’t been able to think of much else to write about in between. Here are my thoughts on a few of them. Be … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Babylonian, Book Reviews, Christmas, Fairy Tales, History, Holidays, Humor, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, october daye, seanan mcguire, Tom Holt | Tagged ahriman, andrew lang, arabian nights, asteroids, be the serpent, chronicles of pantouflia, cyrano de bergerac, dragons, dwarves, fairies, fountain of lions, giants, gilbert and sullivan, j.w. wells & co., luidaeg, moon, oberon, orlando furioso, paflagonia, pantouflia, paribanou, prince charles edward stuart, prince prigio, prince ricardo of pantouflia, remora, santa claus, such dangerous seas, the eight reindeer of the apocalypse, the rose and the ring, the sorcerer, tiamat, titania, wild hunt, william makepeace thackeray |

Give Yourself a Hand

It’s been a while since I’ve written about movies, as traveling hadn’t left us a lot of time to watch any of them. In this post, I’m looking at one movie we saw in the theater, and two others we … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Magic, Monsters, Tom Holt, VoVat Goes to the Movies | Tagged cenobites, demons, doug bradley, heather o'rourke, hellraiser, hellraiser revelations, horror, lament configuration, miranda otto, occult, pinhead, poltergeist iii, talk to me, zelda rubinstein |

The Mistress of Misdirection

In my Oziana reread, I thought I might say a bit more about the 2012 issue, made up of a round robin story based on the brief fragment known only as “An Oz Book.” Robert Stanton Baum credited it to … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Art, Atticus Gannaway, Authors, Characters, Chris Dulabone, Dennis Anfuso, Dick Martin, Jared Davis, Jeff Rester, John R. Neill, L. Frank Baum, Magic, Magic Items, Maps, March Laumer, Marcus Mebes, Music, Names, Oz, Oz Authors, Phyllis Ann Karr, Places, Plays, Poetry, Rachel Cosgrove Payes, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Tom Holt | Tagged aging, ahriman, an oz book, betsy bobbin, carter green, chow bird, dorothy gale, emerald city, gilbert and sullivan, glinda of oz, good witch of the north, h.p. lovecraft, john wellington wells, kabumpo, kim mcfarland, krumbic witch, lake quad, lurline, magic belt, magic dishpan, magic picture, mike conway, mycroft mason, nikki haladay, oziana, ozma, paul dana, paul ritz, percy the personality kid, queen coo-ee-oh, red jinn, robert stanton baum, ruddigore, sam milazzo, shawn maldonado, the baum bugle, the boy baronet in oz, the green dolphin of oz, the hollyhock dolls in oz, the lost princess of oz, the sorcerer, tik-tok of oz, time travel, witches, yips, yith |

Tell Me About the Dragons, George

I had a few other things I wanted to write about, but since I found out Saturday was St. George’s Day, I thought he might be worth looking into. As someone who didn’t attend a church where saints were really … Continue reading →

Posted in Anglicanism, Authors, Catholicism, Christianity, Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Crusades, Diana Wynne Jones, Eastern Orthodox, England, Greek Mythology, History, Holidays, Humor, Islam, J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Monsters, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors, Religion, Roman, Roman Empire, Stan Freberg, Tom Holt | Tagged dragons, edith nesbit, emperor diocletian, gordon r. dickson, hercules, kenneth grahame, king edward iii of england, medusa, order of the garter, ovid, paint your dragon, perseus, prince marvel, smaug, st. dragon and the george, st. george, st. george's day, st. patrick, st. theodore tiron, the deliverers of their country, the enchanted island of yew, the hobbit, the reluctant dragon, unicorns, witch week |

Last Exit from Reality

The Tyrant’s Tomb, by Rick Riordan – In the fourth book in the Trials of Apollo series, Apollo and Meg McCaffrey reach Camp Jupiter in California, which has recently been the site of a deadly battle, and another one is … Continue reading →

Posted in African, Authors, Book Reviews, Egyptian, Greek Mythology, Humor, J.R.R. Tolkien, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Rick Riordan, Roman, Tom Holt, Trials of Apollo | Tagged an orc on the wild side, apollo, brexit, caligula, camp jupiter, cumaean sibyl, cyclops, dwarves, ella, frank zhang, goblins, harpies, harpocrates, lavinia asimov, lucius aurelius commodus, lucius tarquinius superbus, meg mccaffrey, nymphs, sibylline prophecies, the tyrant's tomb, theo bernstein, tyson, youspace |

Hell-thy, Wealthy, and Dead

The expression “you can’t take it with you” apparently dates back to the first half of the nineteenth century, but the idea is older than that. Not all cultures have believed this, however. We know that the tombs of wealthy … Continue reading →

Posted in African, Authors, Buddhism, Chinese, Christianity, Egyptian, Greek Mythology, Mythology, Norse, Religion, Taoism, Tom Holt | Tagged afterlife, bank of hell, bank of the dead, charon, eight immortals, hades, hell money, jade emperor, joss paper, obols, sarcophagi, yama, yanluo |

The Wages of Sin

Snuff Fiction, by Robert Rankin – While Rankin often employs dark humor, this one is even darker than most, focusing on the narrator’s unfortunate friendship with tobacco magnate, terrorist, and generally underhanded guy Doveston. He’s constantly helping out Doveston with … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Characters, Chinese, Conspiracy Theories, Humor, L. Frank Baum, Magic, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors, Religion, Robert Rankin, Roman, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Tom Holt | Tagged aeneid, christopher stasheff, dido, don quixote, dorothy gale, fletcher pratt, harold shea, journey to the west, kaliko, l. sprague de camp, nome king, ozma, paradox, santa claus, snuff fiction, the enchanter reborn, the management style of the supreme beings, virgil |

Meer Adventure

Barking, by Tom Holt – This was the last of Holt’s comic fantasies that I had to read, and it’s pretty typical of him in many ways. The main protagonist is a lawyer who, when fired from his firm, joins … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Magic, Marcus Mebes, Oz, Oz Authors, Places, Tom Holt | Tagged a box of gargoyles, anne nesbet, barking, derek landy, dragons, joe bongiorno, judy pike, meerth, playing with fire, scepter of the ancients, skulduggery pleasant, the cabinet of earths, the faceless ones, the moons of meer, undead, vampires, warren hollister, werewolves |

The Resident Jinn, Number Seventy St Mary Axe

I’ve now finished with Tom Holt’s series of books centered around J.W. Wells and Company, the magical firm from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Sorcerer. I had previously read The Portable Door, In Your Dreams, and The Better Mousetrap. The first … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Humor, Magic, Mythology, Norse, Tom Holt | Tagged audhumbla, demons, earth air fire and custard, gilbert and sullivan, goblins, may contain traces of magic, odin, paul carpenter, you don't have to be evil to work here but it helps |

Everybody Poops Genius Pieces

Little People, by Tom Holt – This fantasy story, rather less epic than many of Holt’s works, is narrated by a boy who sees elves in his garden. After being sent away to boarding school by his stepfather, he falls … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Greek Mythology, Greek Philosophy, History, Humor, Mythology, Oz, Philosophy, Tom Holt | Tagged alexander the great, barbara graziosi, betsy bobbin, dorothy gale, elves, euhemerus, euripides, homer, j.w. krych, little people, michael showalter, mr. funny pants, ozma, the flight to oz, the gods of olympus, trot griffiths |