{"id":1777,"date":"2004-02-08T10:19:41","date_gmt":"2004-02-08T15:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/journals\/vardibidian\/2004\/02\/08\/1777.html"},"modified":"2018-03-12T16:45:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T21:45:21","slug":"book-report-faust-among-equals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/2004\/02\/08\/book-report-faust-among-equals\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Report: Faust Among Equals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your Humble Blogger has finally finished Tom Holt’s Faust Among Equals<\/i> from The First Tom Holt Omnibus<\/a><\/I> (London: Orbit 2000). While I started it in early 2003, shortly after finishing Flying Dutch<\/i>, I read the bulk of it in 2004. It's a first read, rather than a reread.\n

(Digression: Whilst looking at the Orbit site<\/a>, I discovered that David Brin’s Kiln People<\/I>, which I read in the Tor Fantasy<\/a> edition, was published in the UK as Kil’n People<\/I>. I think it’s a better title. I also like the title for the sequel, Kil’n Time<\/I>. End Digression.)\n

Where was I? Oh, yes, Tom Holt. I think he’s funnier, on average, than Terry Pratchett, and slightly less annoying. On the other hand, I find his stuff even more repetitive; I’ve read three or four, and I’m not sure I can remember which bits are in which books (which is true of Pratchett’s, but Holt’s are in theory set in different places with different characters). In both cases, I’ve found it a good idea to let a couple of months pass in between books.\n

(Digression: also from the Orbit site:

Ever wished you could have a personalised set of Iain M Banks novels in hardcover, or the Anita Blake series in blood-red leather? Well ... give us a shout. Mail us at orbit.uk@timewarnerbooks.co.uk with the dream look for your favourite novel and we'll quote you a price to make it happen. We can't guarantee that the book will be cheap to produce but then, if you want the absolute best...<\/blockquote> Oh, that's a cool thing. End Digression.)\n

Of course, neither Tom Holt or Terry Pratchett are as funny at their peak as the late Douglas Adams at his. Their average is as high, and their low points (that I’ve found so far) not as low. And, of course, Douglas Adams’s career value is based on a few peak years (baseball joke; if you find it a tasteless comment, it’s intended to be a tasteless joke).\n

This is the sort of writing I thought, when I was younger, I could do effortlessly. And so I can, but the results are terrible. Even if Holt and Pratchett are knocking off Adams, even to do it competently is impressive, and the occasional bursts or brilliance are gravy.\n

Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.\n<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your Humble Blogger has finally finished Tom Holt\u2019s Faust Among Equals from The First Tom Holt Omnibus (London: Orbit 2000). While I started it in early 2003, shortly after finishing Flying Dutch, I read the bulk of it in 2004….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-report"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16912,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777\/revisions\/16912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}