Customer Reviews

Paint Your Dragon

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Remeber St. George and the Dragon? Turns out the fight was fixed... and now the Dragon is back and is looking for a re-match...

In this book hilarious, Holt explores (and explodes) the Dragon myth, spiced with all of his skills and the memorable character of Kurt Lundqvist - paranormal bounty hunter.

In short -- if you know , and love, Tom Holt's works - buy this one and you won't regret it. For those of you who haven't read him as yet - this could be a good place to start.

The afore-mentined dragon reincarnates, for no apparent reason, in a stone effigy created by a modern sculptor - sorry, "sculptress." And, just for narrative convenience, so does St. George. So, the fight is on: good vs. evil, with handful of demons, the world's greatest bounty hunter, and a few other remarkable individuals. And, because this is Holt, the lines separating good from evil don't always surround who you think they should, and don't surround some participants at all.

It turns out that St. George tends to cheat, but that's OK because he's the good guy. It also turns out that the dragon is honest and hardworking, a man (or whatever) of his word. He never intended to wear the black hat in the original story; in truth, it was probably painted in long after the fact.

Holt at his best is great, and this one is very good. Despite a certain sameness in the reincarnaations, it reprises Holt's in-one-side-and-out-the-other class of humor, where the game is musical bodies this time. It's easy to compare Holt to Pratchett, the master of fantasy humor, but not really fair - Holt's writing is strong and amusing, but Pratchett is so brilliant that comparisons just can't work. But, if Pratchett's next pubication date is too far off for you, this might help you ge through.

-- wiredweird

This is a great example of Holt's writing and a great example of the drier British humour. Though a few jokes may be lost to readers not yet familiar with Kurt Lundqvist this book still reads great on its own. If you can find this book and you like Holt pick it up, even if you have to go to the UK site to find it like had to.