Blonde Bombshell [Paperback]

Tom Holt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 18, 2010

The year is 2017. Lucy Pavlov is the CEO of PavSoft Industries, home of a revolutionary operating system that every computer in the world runs on. Her personal wealth is immeasurable, her intelligence is unfathomable, and she's been voted World's Most Beautiful Woman for three years running. To put it simply - she has it all.

But not everything is quite right in Lucy's life. For starters, she has no memories prior to 2015. She also keeps having run-ins with a unicorn. And to make matters even worse, a bomb is hurtling through interstellar space, headed straight for Lucy - and the planet known as Earth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Driven mad by the lethally insidious... toxic aural garbage that is Terran music, the canine inhabitants of the planet Ostar send Mark Two, a bomb so smart it composes violin sonatas, to blow up Earth. Insatiably curious, Mark Two delays its mission, takes human form, and explores Earth to find out why the Mark One bomb vanished. After encountering software revolutionary Lucy Pavlov, a unicorn, two men who probably aren't werewolves, and drunken corporate stooge George Stetchkin, Mark decides not to complete his mission, precipitating confrontations with a third bomb (named Bob) and the entire Ostar war fleet. Holt, well-known in the U.K. for historical flights of fancy, is set to make a splash in the U.S. with this wickedly funny, take-no-prisoners mashup of love, Armageddon, activists, and one of the universe's most valuable commodities: octopi. (June)
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From Booklist

As you’d expect from Holt, Blonde Bombshell is rife with puns, complicated setups for ridiculous gags, and a riveting story that is completely implausible. The bare bones of it: signals from Earth are destroying civilization on the planet Ostar. The Ostarians send a bomb to destroy the clear and present threat. When it fails to do the job, they send another, complete with AI, to check on the situation. Of course, they make the classic mistake of sending an AI that’s too smart to just follow orders. The Mark Two or, more accurately, the probe it sends to Earth, Mark Twain, can’t find the planetary defense network it expected but does find a lot of odd coincidences to occupy itself with, including an unexpected Ostarian presence on Earth. Meanwhile, somebody is stealing vast sums of money, and the only possible means is teleportation. Impossible? Apparently not. Drunk genius mathematician-cum-banker George Stechkin gets caught up in the alien politicking and unexpectedly plays a key role in saving the world. Hilarious and satisfying. --Regina Schroeder

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (June 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316086991
• ISBN-13: 978-0316086998
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great humorous fantasy, June 6, 2010

By 

S. Baskin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blonde Bombshell (Paperback)

What can you say about an author like Tom Holt?

His books are creative, odd, hilarious, and great reads, and Blonde Bombshell is no exception.

Blonde Bombshell takes place in the near future and revolves around computer genius Lucy Pavlov and intergalactic bomb, Mark Two (who takes a body and calls himself Mark Twain), and their efforts to stop the Ostar (an intergalactic race driven mad by the radio music signals humans sent through space) from blowing up Earth.

While at some points Blonde Bombshell is a little hard to follow, its off the wall humor more than makes up for it. Blonde Bombshell jokes about everything from corporate stooges, to the misuse of common expressions, to the idiocy of popular culture, hitting the mark on most of these jokes. But besides the humor, Holt demonstrates his ability as a talented writer in this novel, placing himself in the company of the irreverent Douglas Adams.

All in all readers should read Blonde Bombshell for the humor, and those that give this rip-roarious novel a chance will not be disappointed. An excellent read for fans of A. Lee Martinez, Christopher Moore, Terry Pratchett, and Douglas Adams, as this humorous fantasy novel provides exactly what it promises, a great summer read.

[...]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Barking Good Time, December 20, 2010

By 

kairosguy "Mr. O" (Eastern, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blonde Bombshell (Paperback)

Tom Holt is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. He has the gift of envisioning an alternate world in great detail, and using its differences to illuminate our own. At the same time, he never falls into the sci-fi author trap of explaining how his Master Thesis(tm) actually really *would* work and finally show all those people who picked on him in grammar school what a smart guy he really is. No, Holt just delivers up hilarious punchline after hilarious punchline, while considering what it means to be human (by looking at us through the eyes of super-evolved canines). Douglas Adams and PG Wodehouse would be proud of the absurdities Holt has cooked up, and the excellent use to which he has put them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for sci-fi fans, October 6, 2010

By 

vacation reader - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blonde Bombshell (Paperback)

This is a very cleverly written and funny book and not just for science fiction lovers. Being a dog lover, I found the ending to be superb. It is a very quick read, I have been recommending it to anyone who will listen.