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Grailblazers
by
Tom Holt
Fifteen hundred years have passed and the Holy Grail is still missing, presumed ineffable. The knights have dumped the quest and now deliver pizzas, while the sinister financial services of the lost kingdom of Atlantis threatens the universe with fiscal Armageddon.
ebook, 368 pages
Published
September 4th 2012
by Orbit
(first published 1994)
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Originally published on my blog here in May 1999.
By the time he wrote Grailblazers, Tom Holt's style was well established. Indeed, nearly all of his novels since Expecting Someone Taller have followed its successful format: a comic re-evaluation of themes and characters from a well known medieval legend set in the twentieth century, comedy being provided by the attempts of the characters to fit into a culture alien to them (and allowing Holt to satirise the more ridiculous aspects of the modern...more
By the time he wrote Grailblazers, Tom Holt's style was well established. Indeed, nearly all of his novels since Expecting Someone Taller have followed its successful format: a comic re-evaluation of themes and characters from a well known medieval legend set in the twentieth century, comedy being provided by the attempts of the characters to fit into a culture alien to them (and allowing Holt to satirise the more ridiculous aspects of the modern...more
Considerably funnier and more enjoyable than "Overtime" (with which it is packaged in the Omnibus version), "Grailblazers" somehow manages to provide an explanation for the Holy Grail, Atlantis, and Santa Clause, all wrapped up in a single package. Occasional cameos from Shakespeare's Ghost and a whole host of dead philosophers - not to mention a country-full of incredibly boring bankers / insurance salesmen - round out the action, which is set in the present day.
The griping, incompetent, but s...more
The griping, incompetent, but s...more
1500 years ago, a knight is put into a magical sleep. He awakes in the present, and is charged with finding the Holy Grail. His fellow grail hunting knights apparently couldn't die, because they'd never completed their quest. But they've given up grail hunting in favour of delivering pizzas and being accountants and what have you. The return of their long lost companion sees them grail hunting once again.
Look, it had its funny moments. But for the most part, it felt to me like a mash-up of Monty...more
Look, it had its funny moments. But for the most part, it felt to me like a mash-up of Monty...more
I loved this story. It was the first Tom Holt novel I read, and I read it fairly soon after studying the Grail story at school in depth. Although there is plenty of scurrilous humour, somehow it seems to me that Holt keeps faith with the essentials of the deep and meaningful Grail Knights' quest. Others may disagree, but I found it at once extremely funny and also moving.
Holts books finally became available as Nook ebooks and I snapped this one up. It's entertaining, but not up to the standard of the J.W. Wells series. The concept of knights of the grail continuing their quest in modern times is funny, but they quickly drift off into a total fantasy domain. I think this makes the book less compelling, but I still read and enjoyed it.
While a step up from the last couple of Holt's novels, this one still isn't Holt hitting on all cylinders. This is a quest novel. And sometimes the quest is the thing. But you still hope for a payoff and there really isn't a payoff at the end. The journey is generally entertaining. And I liked the use of St. Nicholas. But the ending is so weak that it taints what came before and yields mediocrity.
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.
Okay, I guess, but doesn't live up to Blonde Bombshell or Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages. Kind of get lost along the way.
Good read...i suppose it blew out towards the end
Grailblazers by Tom Holt (2000)
Didn't ever really get into it. Good bubblegum for the mind is probably the best I can say for this one
The premise is quite funny, and there are some humorous sections, but it doesn't tie together well. Some scenes seemed repetitive. I found it better to read in small portions instead of trying to get through a big chunk at once.
Yet another fun Tom Holt read:-) I just loved the general wackiness of the book (typical Tom Holt!) but what I enjoyed most was the part about Atlantis & Santa, great ideas there;-)
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Tom Holt (Thomas Charles Louis Holt; born September 13, 1961) is a British novelist.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humor...more
More about Tom Holt...
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humor...more
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