Dead Funny: Tom Holt [Paperback]

Tom Holt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

This omnibus contains two of Tom Holt's best-loved stories. In Flying Dutch, we learn of the amazing problems drinking can get you into. One little swig from the wrong bottle, and you go from being an ordinary Dutch sea captain to an unhappy immortal, drifting around the world with your similarly immortal crew, suffering from peculiarly whiffy side effects. Little does Cornelius Vanderdecker, the Flying Dutchman, suspect that a chance encounter in an English pub might just lead to the end of his cursed life, one way or another. In Faust Among Equals, the management buy-out of Hell wasn’t going quite as planned. For a start, there had been that nasty business with the perjurers, and then came the news that the Most Wanted Man in History had escaped, and all just as the plans for the new theme park, Eurobosch, were underway. But Kurt “Mad Dog”Lundqvist, the foremost bounty hunter of all time, is on the case, and he can usually be relied on to get his man—even when that man is Lucky George Faustus.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Tom Holt: 'Uniquely twisted ... cracking gags' Rob Grant, THE GUARDIAN, 'Frantically wacky and wilfully confusing ... gratifyingly clever and very amusing' MAIL ON SUNDAY, 'Frothy, fast and funny' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY, 'Dazzling' TIME OUT, 'Wildly imaginative' NEW SCIENTIST

From the Publisher

Flying Dutch: It’s amazing the problems drinking can get you into. One little swig from the wrong bottle, and you go from being an ordinary Dutch sea–captain to an unhappy immortal, drifting around the world with your similarly immortal crew, suffering from peculiarly whiffy side effects. Little does Cornelius Vanderdecker, the Flying Dutchman, suspect that a chance encounter in an English pub might just lead to the end of his cursed life, one way or another.

Faust Among Equals: The management buy–out of Hell wasn’t going quite as planned. For a start, there had been that nasty business with the perjurers, and then came the news that the Most Wanted Man in History had escaped, and all just as the plans for the new theme park, Eurobosch, were underway. But Kurt “Mad Dog”Lundqvist, the foremost bounty hunter of all time, is on the case, and he can usually be relied on to get his man — even when that man is Lucky George Faustus.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 570 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841490253
• ISBN-13: 978-1841490250
• Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 5 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nuggets from the golden age of Holt, November 1, 2006

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dead Funny: Tom Holt (Paperback)

I'm glad to see thse two books back in print, even if they're now printed in one book. (UK readers may see the same two books collected as "Dead Funny," with a different cover but the same ISBN.) They're two of Holt's best, dating back to the early 1990s.

In the first half, "Flying Dutch," Holt traces Cornelius Vandervecker from the fifteen-hundreds on, sailing forever across the loneliest wastes of the seven seas. Yes, Cornelius is the Flying Dutchman. No, he's no myth. And no, he's not exactly cursed - well, not as such. It's more of a blessing, really, if you allow blessings of the mixed sort.

There was an incident involving an alchemist, a hasty retreat from a suddenly-unfriendly shore, and an untested elixir of eternal life. And alcohol, lots of alochol. (Well, everything around Vandervecker seems to involve alcohol.) That elixir just happened to work, but has a teeny little side effect - a personal pong that would knock a buzzard off a dungwagon. On the whole, it's a good idea to put a few thousand miles between the crew and anyone with a normal sense of smell. There's that alchemist, though, who's still trying to fix that little problem. There's also Danny Bennett, an enthusiastic journalist with a nose for news, and whatever else it is that surrounds the Flying Dutchman. And there's also this little matter of Vandervecker's long-term investments - I mean, very long term, with compound interest.

The second half reprints "Faust Among Equals." In it, the Devil's lien against Faust's soul resulted in repossession long since. But the Devil has moved on, and a new consortium is handling the business. They're the modern devils - they're demonic management consultants, bean-counters who've mastered accursed accounting, and lawyers. No, no special kind of lawyer, just the usual. During the management reorg, Faust escapes. He and Helen of Troy have settled down to shear-it-yourself sheep farm in Australia, with only occasional disruptions of the world's technological infrastrucutre. This one blemish on their otherwise spotless record isn't good for hell'snew corporate image, so they take on a bounty hunter ("acquisition consultant") to wipe out that blemish. Or to wipe out Faust, they don't much care. He does, though, and the chase is on.

Both of these are Holt at his best, with chases across continents, across centuries, and sometimes across planes of being. His characters are caricatures, living exaggerations of painfully familiar people. They're great good fun.

//wiredweird

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars finally...good modern fiction, December 3, 2008

By 

Christine (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Funny: Tom Holt (Paperback)

I've been searching for modern fiction that is the perfect escape into fantasy for over a decade, but I always go back to my old favorites like Kafka or Tolstoy. Tom Holt is on par with the great authors of history. He takes subjects of complete impossibility and makes them seem feasible. If you want to exercise your imagination while having a good laugh, this book is for you.

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mismatched Set, September 7, 2010

By 

David A. Lessnau (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Funny: Tom Holt (Paperback)

Unfortunately, "The First Tom Holt Omnibus" contains a mismatched set of stories. The first one, Flying Dutch, is very good. But, the second one, Faust Among Equals is merely OK. I'm rating this Omnibus at the truncated average of the two books: an OK 3 stars out of 5. Below are my individual reviews for each of the books:

- Flying Dutch: "Flying Dutch" is the first of Tom Holt's books that I've read. I'm pretty impressed. His writing is very much in the style of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (clever dialog and storylines that nicely interconnect). Most of the book exudes the care Holt took to mesh everything together. Unfortunately, the last quarter of the book feels a bit rushed: people don't stay in character, a main storyline and character appear without earlier preparation, and a sort of "then a miracle occurs" tie-up. But, the book is written well enough that this "lesser writing" is still acceptable and the book as a whole is clever, interesting, and fun to read. So, overall, I recommend it and rate it at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.

- Faust Among Equals: Tom Holt's "Faust Among Equals" is the 2nd of his books that I've read (Flying Dutch being the first). Unlike "Flying Dutch", this one lacks most of the cleverness and all of the intertwined storylines that made that other book so good. What we're left with here is merely a somewhat clever idea (Faust escapes) and a lot of haphazard activities that wend their way to an eventual close. Because of this, the best I can rate it is only an OK 3 stars out of 5. It's good for filling up some spare time. So, get it from the library and save some money.