Grailblazers [Import] [Hardcover]

TOM HOLT (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 298 pages
• Publisher: ORBIT (1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857231929
• ISBN-13: 978-1857231922
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,107,164 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars Back in form!, October 26, 2002

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GRAILBLAZERS (Paperback)

I'm glad I didn't give up on Holt. Although this isn't his best (I'd probably pick Goatsong for that distinction, with Expecting Someone Taller close by), it's a far cry better than the mixed-up hodge-podge that marked Here Comes the Sun and Overtime. Holt's back to formula here, and maybe that's why it works; in this one, a knight from the Arthurian Age is awakened to take charge of the order of the Knights of the Holy Grail. First, he's got to get the rest of the order interested in the quest again, because they have gotten tired of it and become pizza delivery drivers and would-be West End actors.

Holt also plays with largely literary characters here a la Kim Newman or Howard Waldrop. His revisionist history of the jolly old man in the red suit is a special lark, as is his take on Lyonnesse. Well-read fantasy readers (and by that I mean the classics, not the modern stuff) will probably get a lot more out of Holt's allusion play in this regard than I did. In fact, I felt like I was rereading Myers Myers' Silverlock at times because of that distressing feeling that I should know this character, and yet couldn't place it.

Unfortunately, Holt's still jumping all over the place in telling the story. Multiple points of view and quick cuts, as I described for his last two books, take a toll on the reader here as well. As I said before, pyrotechnics are fine when one is sure that they aren't standing in the middle of the firing field. Er, that is to say, it takes a stable base to get away with double-back somersaults.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jacket Description, August 31, 2006

By 

HCL (South Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GRAILBLAZERS (Paperback)

1500 years have passed and the Grail is still missing, presumed ineffable; the Knights have dumped the Quest and now deliver pizzas; the sinister financial services industry of the lost kingdom of Atlantis threatens the universe with fiscal Armageddon; while in the background lurks the dark, brooding, red-caped presences of Father Christmas.

4.0 out of 5 stars Typical Holt, May 22, 2011

By 

Hank Quense (Bergenfield, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grailblazers (Kindle Edition)

A typical Tom Holt book: hilarious and off-the-wall. Not for readers who want a straight-forward plot and story. Holt's story takes a number of devilish turns. One of the characters is a count who has been cursed by having to deliver toys to all the kids in the world one night a year.