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Nothing But Blue Skies (Paperback)

by Tom Holt (Author)
3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
RRP: £5.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Orbit; New edition edition (17 Jan 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 184149058X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841490588
  • Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 10.8 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 165,107 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #22 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > H > Holt, Tom

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

There's a sardonic edge to Tom Holt's novel title Nothing But Blue Skies, since the master of comic conspiracy theories here reveals just why British weather consists of a wide variety of rain. Rather than his usual scapegoat the Milk Marketing Board, the culprits are--of course!--Chinese water dragons.

Young heroine Karen is herself a dragon, but for love's sake has taken on the almost human form of an estate agent. Alas, she's hopeless at romance--unfortunate for Britain, since as the hereditary Dragon Marshall of Bank Holidays she causes rainy side effects of up to 2,000,000,000,000 litres/second/square kilometre whenever angry or upset ...

No wonder rebellious TV weathermen, enraged by sabotaged predictions of sunny days, have kidnapped Karen's father and trapped him in the third shape available to dragons: a goldfish. But the kidnappers fall foul of imperialist conspirators who reckon Britain's weather made it great, inspiring us to go out and conquer all those hot places. Behind this outfit are the even more megalomaniac schemes of an Aussie media baron who for excellent legal reasons isn't called Murdoch.

We also learn about Britain's real state religion, featuring human sacrifices to the Queen, and the North Welsh cult which believes "that when we die, we'll be reunited on the other side with all the used paper hankies we've discarded over the years." Better not to mention the potshots at Microsoft Windows.

Full of comic invention and crazy set-pieces, it's guaranteed to cheer up a rainy day. --David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



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
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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.4 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing But Good Books, 11 Aug 2003
Tom Holt does it again. Manages to please me with another of his fantastic tales of a woman who wonders why it rains so much in Britain. Something we all want to know, surely? Or maybe not, as Tom shows us why it REALLY rains so much in GB.

Top quality stuff again. Easier to follow than Valhalla or Falling Sideways, but still as good a read as the others. Enjoy the book. You will.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars The only book I've never been able to finish., 1 Sep 2009
By Craig Skinner "{insert your own joke here}" (Sheffield, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Nothing But Blue Skies (Hardcover)
I'd not heard of Tom Holt before reading this book, and I certainly won't be checking out any of his other titles in the future.
As the title of my review states; this is literally the ONLY book I've never finished - and I've read a lot of books in my 27 years.
The plot sounds relatively bizarre and amusing but Holt's writing style is absolutely abysmal. I managed to read maybe a sixth of the book before I couldn't take it any more, and the whole time I was reminded of something that I couldn't quite place... eventually I realised what it was: all the failed attempts at 'writing a book' I made between the ages of about 9 and 14. The characters are awful and all extremely irritating in their actions; there is little or no development of these characters, the focus is just on whatever series of events is taking place (and this just goes on and on getting nowhere). The sentences are long-winded and almost seem to suffer from bad grammar (I know mine isn't perfect but this is supposed to be a published book for god sake!). As for comedy, I certainly didn't see any. The whole thing just has such an immature feel to it that I wonder if Holt, during a period of writer's block, didn't go back through all of HIS failed attempts at writing when he was a teenager, found this and hand it in to his publisher!
And I didn't give up easily - I really forced myself to read on, determined to find something I liked about it. It almost makes me mad - no, infact it DOES make me mad - that I wasted a portion of my life reading this appalling piece of writing when I could have been reading something so much better, i.e. anything.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Far from the standard of "Odds and Gods", 23 Jul 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Nothing But Blue Skies (Hardcover)
In Tom Holt's latest mainstream comic fantasy "Nothing But Blue Skies" he manages to offer the reader a biting satire of fierce proportions. What Holt is lampooning in this new annal into the world of Danny Bennett is the climate; the bloody British weather to be exact. We've seen in past Holt volumes his penchant for going on tangents about how much he personally hates the Microsoft computer system, and how similar to a dog's breakfast Australia seems to him, so this time the fact that Britain is eternally accosted with horrendous conditions seems a funny concept to thumb his nose at. It *is*. Hilarious in some respects. In the zany pseudo-Britain of Holt's imagination in "Nothing But Blue Skies", weathermen are reminiscent of biblical-age prophets: people believe they have the ability to control the weather. When a fellow says on TV that he forecasts a shower tomorrow, and there is one, it's bloody well his *fault*. Or so it seems. The guilty parties in fact aren't the benign weathermen at all: Holt blames irritable Chinese Water Dragons, who, with a simple mood-swing can alter a nice, peachy day into a sleet-driven rain bucket. In a world where weather-weary forecasters are blamed for something they aren't responsible for, one can sympathize why Gordon and Neville, two such fellows go and capture the culprit, the Adjutant General to the Dragon King of the North West, to be precise, and trap him in the form of a goldfish. Karen, rebel estate agent and superbly wet fish, goes out in search of her goldfish-bound father, so that Britain can return to being a slop bucket of abysmal showers. Unfortunately, Gordon and Neville give the goldfish to a rabid militia man, who plans to *flood Britain*, invade Tasmania, and colonize the Moon--huh; meanwhile, Gordon and Neville are, themselves, captured by an equally insane whacko who has founded a State religion which worships Queen Elizabeth the 2nd. Strange? Not really... So it's no wonder why a group of hired guns wearing Ray-ban shades and pressed double-breasted suits go and prepare for the second Noah's flood, commissioning a fellow to build an Ark, and attempting to acquire two of every species of animal (yes, even okapis). Holt throws in silly gags with further complications; but the novel seems to wear thin at points, and at other points it drags on. He also seems somewhat short on characters--in previous comic fantasy novels he's offered us up to 24 main characterizations; in "Nothing But Blue Skies", he gives us 10, and most of these aren't all central to the plot (three of them don't even have *names*). If you had a restricted amount of cash in your wallet, you desired a good read, some winsome jokes, some quirky characters, all rolled into a novel published for this year only, than I'd suggest you go purchase Terry Pratchett's "Thief of Time" rather than this. Holt's new fantasy is the consolation prize: he manages to offer us an abundance of perceptive observations, and some new funny highlights, and the plot continues to struggle on through the farce. I'm wondering if he'll ever bring back Kurt Lundqvist, expert assassin, or Danny Bennett, BBC TV executive, his two only recurring characters. In the days of "Odds and Gods" and "Only Human" Holt was sublime. He works a lot of strengths into "Nothing But Blue Skies" but as the adage says: two many cooks spoil the broth.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars So thats why it rains
This is my first foray into Tom Holt and I find that its a good place to be! I will certainly be buying and reading more and that is the best review that anyone could give... Read more
Published 16 months ago by aceadrian

4.0 out of 5 stars GET RID OF THE BLUES!
This is the first Tom Holt book i have read - it is a funny and quirky book which is easy to read and has some very inventive situations and inversions of normal expections which... Read more
Published 22 months ago by M. Drake

4.0 out of 5 stars Annoyingly Good
God Tom Holt gets on my wick. Not that I confess any personal knowledge of the man but somehow he writes books that I start to enjoy, am not enamoured with in the middle but... Read more
Published on 19 Dec 2006 by Chris Chalk

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing But Blue Feelings
Chaz and Dave's hit, 'Rabbit', tells of a woman who talks and talks and talks. Well if this song was made into a form of writing it may have produced Tom Holt's 'Nothing But Blue... Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2006 by Sam

2.0 out of 5 stars Mmmmmmmm!
Wasa told good things about Holt. Story was a little flat but it was funny in places. Reminded me of the Goodies sketch show. Ending was a little wet as well. Read more
Published on 14 Nov 2002 by Pig Daddy

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, buy it immediately!
Comparable to "Flying Dutch" and "Expecting Someone Taller," this book brought back to me why I have read all of Tom Holt's books: marvelous writing. Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2001

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