Little People [Paperback]

Tom Holt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

“I was eight years old when I saw my first elf.” And for unlikely hero Michael it was his last. Cruella, Michael’s unfortunately named girlfriend, doesn’t approve of his obsession with the little people. But the problem is that they won’t leave him alone. And who can blame them when it’s Michael’s own stepfather who’s responsible for causing them so much misery? Oh yes. Daddy George knows that elves can do so much more than gardening. This is a wildly imaginative fantasy from Tom Holt.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When a lad of eight or so, Michael saw an elf in the garden. This made an immense impact on his life. He became a boy with Something to Hide, and it showed. Unfortunately, the first wasn't the last elf he saw. After confessing to his girlfriend Cruella that he saw an elf--a revelation she isn't terribly enthusiastic about--he somehow ends up with an elfin attendant who, in the process of explaining what really goes on at his stepfather's shoe factory and why there was an elf in the garden, takes him to Elfland, as dangerous a place as fairy tales would have one believe. Although it involves losing whole years and getting arrested often, Michael determines to rescue the elves from their shoe-factory servitude. Regrettably, he does almost everything without first thinking it through, so any success he enjoys tends to be more accidental than intentional. Chattily entertaining, his story also moves along at quite a clip, rather like Elfland, in which dull bits can be fast-forwarded. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“… Hitchhiker’s Guide aficionados will relish every line.” -- Publishers Weekly, for Falling Sideways

“The best similes since Douglas Adams.” -- SFX

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841491853
• ISBN-13: 978-1841491851
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,034,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing, July 12, 2004

By 

Megan "Megan" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little People (Paperback)

I am a big fan of Tom Holt, who writes "intelligent" fantasy in an incredibly funny style. He is best when he sticks to subjects related to mythology (classical, Aurthurian... just about anything, actually) and history, as that is what his background is. This book, on the other hand, felt like a rush job. Parts of it made no sense (even for a book about elves), the characters were one dimensional and trite, and the book dragged on f-o-r-e-v-e-r and should have ended about five times before it actually did.

If you are interested in reading a laugh-out-loud fantasy book by someone who knows his mythology, read "Flying Dutch" or "Expecting Someone Taller" or "Odds and Gods" or anything that has a historical or mythological basis before you form an opinion of Tom Holt. He really does have his brilliant moments: this book, however, is not one of them.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Little Quality, November 26, 2003

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Little People (Paperback)

This book never reaches any great literacy heights. The story is boring and nothing substantial ever really happens. I first thought I was reading about a little girl who encountered elves due to the front cover having a picture of a girl with an elf burger on it. To my surprise the girl just turned out to be an extremely pathetic guy. The story is written as a recount of his experience with him as the third guy. Basically he is a social outcast whose stepfather hates him (understandably) and who has no friends. He sees an elf in his garden one day. His parents want to get rid of him and send him away to a boarding school. There he meets a girl who for some reason becomes his friend but he wants more. He also accidentally kills an elf and encounters a few others. One female one kidnaps him and takes him back to elfland where he is told he is half elf. He must rescue the others from the human world who have been made to work in a shoe factory. Only thing is every time he comes back to the human world he is ten years older. Pathetic book. Do not waste your time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Lines, Not Great Ending, February 27, 2005

By 

-TMcN- (Snohomish, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little People (Hardcover)

Tom Holt stories are typically more than a bit eccentric and fantastic, with a hefty dash of humor - word play and situations that might be at home in Terry Pratchett (Guards,Guards or Witches Abroad period more than the more-recent novels) or Douglas Adams book - almost always in the displaced-fish-out-of-water mold. Like Pratchett, Holt stories often have a large dose of supernatural or magic in them, but many of them take place in England. Great ingredients for light hearted fun.

This book has some of the best individual lines and a great premise, but the characters aren't as engaging as usual or even likable, and even worse, the ending is flat-out depressing. I found it the least re-readable of his books.

For an introduction to his funner, lighter-escapism with great humor, try Snow White and the Seven Samauri, or Who's Afraid of Beowolf.