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Doughnut
(YouSpace #1)
by
The doughnut is a thing of beauty.
A circle of fried doughy perfection.
A source of comfort in trying times, perhaps.
For Theo Bernstein, however, it is far, far more.
Things have been going pretty badly for Theo Bernstein. An unfortunate accident at work has lost him his job (and his work involved a Very Very Large Hadron Collider, so he's unlikely to get it back). His wif ...more
A circle of fried doughy perfection.
A source of comfort in trying times, perhaps.
For Theo Bernstein, however, it is far, far more.
Things have been going pretty badly for Theo Bernstein. An unfortunate accident at work has lost him his job (and his work involved a Very Very Large Hadron Collider, so he's unlikely to get it back). His wif ...more
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Paperback, 400 pages
Published
March 5th 2013
by Orbit
(first published January 1st 2013)
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Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Doughnut (YouSpace, #1)
"So what's it like?" asked Not.
"What?" said Manny absent-mindedly.
"That book," said Not. "The one Noella gave you."
"Terrible," said Manny after a pause. "Absolutely dreadful. Worst thing I've seen since Harry Quebert."
"So that's why you've been reading it all day?" said Not, as her eyebrows did an impression of two rock-climbers starting a rather tricky ascent.
"Yes," said Manny, without looking up. "It's just not funny. He keeps putting in all these contrived metaphors that are supposed to be am ...more
"What?" said Manny absent-mindedly.
"That book," said Not. "The one Noella gave you."
"Terrible," said Manny after a pause. "Absolutely dreadful. Worst thing I've seen since Harry Quebert."
"So that's why you've been reading it all day?" said Not, as her eyebrows did an impression of two rock-climbers starting a rather tricky ascent.
"Yes," said Manny, without looking up. "It's just not funny. He keeps putting in all these contrived metaphors that are supposed to be am ...more
My opinion of this book declined the further I got into it. It wasn't so much bad--I don't think Tom Holt is ever really bad--as that I just became weary of how Theo was so consistently dumped on by the universe. The whole thing about how everyone wanted him to find Max, his jackwagon brother, and how Max kept getting away with total crap behavior just got on my nerves. Ditto Professor van Goyen, who just became more of a jerk the more we learned about him. And don't get me started on the "roman
...more
Doughnut is in the same basic genre as Douglas Adams. There is a plot of sorts which serves to advance the narrative, but the narrative serves as a sort of Christmas tree ornamented with various clever asides, commentaries, and general weirdness. I don't know if it is fair to compare the author to Douglas Adams, who was in a class of his own. Yet 'Doughnut' compares favorably to the Dirk Gently series, and in particular to 'The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'. It says a lot for Tom Holt that his
...more
Good SF/humor novel that was lacking something. For one, it was overlong. For another, false starts on romance. For a third, no really likeable characters. But I was still pleased, on the whole, and would read another. 3.3 stars.
Here's a good review, by Thomas: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... His reactions were close to mine. Plus, this saves me writing an actual review of a 7 year old book!
And here's a first-rate Tom Holt novel that I recommend, and enjoyed much more than this one: The ...more
Here's a good review, by Thomas: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... His reactions were close to mine. Plus, this saves me writing an actual review of a 7 year old book!
And here's a first-rate Tom Holt novel that I recommend, and enjoyed much more than this one: The ...more
Fun, yet ludicrous, SF farce. I think it's one of those "if this is the kind of thing you like" books. Which I did.
...more
At times I might have given this three stars but for the most part, it’s a 2. Had a little to do with feeling that I’d read it before. Still not sure that I hadn’t. One of the reasons for bothering with this review is to make sure I don’t read it again next year.
Memorable it isn’t.
So it goes.
Memorable it isn’t.
So it goes.
I was looking forward to this one, having heard a lot of good things about Tom Holt's books, and I tried, 100 plus pages of tried, but just couldn't go on.
Doughnut is the first book I have bailed on in memory, I tend to stick with them and often a book has redeemed itself after a bad start and I've been grateful that I had patience, more occasionally I regret my dogged determination. Usually though there is something to keep me clinging on, whereas with Doughnut there was nothing; nothing in th ...more
Doughnut is the first book I have bailed on in memory, I tend to stick with them and often a book has redeemed itself after a bad start and I've been grateful that I had patience, more occasionally I regret my dogged determination. Usually though there is something to keep me clinging on, whereas with Doughnut there was nothing; nothing in th ...more
Strange, English, offbeat. Kinda Douglas Adams (who is better at wry), kinda Jasper Fforde (who plays it straighter, if you can believe it), and not quite Monty Python (who are way sillier), but you can see them from here. Your stomach will not hurt from laughing; you will not marvel at the literary cleverness of it all, and you will not revel in the absurdity of life. You will, however, chuckle often and enjoy bending your head around the Doughnut multiverse.
Jul 09, 2020
Deanna
added it
I finally DNFed this. Douglas Adams seems to be one of the few exceptions to my zany-sci-fi allergy. Thus isn’t one of the exceptions. While it had potential and interesting moments, mostly the humor was exhaustingly not for me.
This is a very strange book. Combining theoretical physics with a klutz of the first order presents an amusing and confusing book. Theo destroys the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider before the book begins. We join him as he is trying to get a job, but there aren’t many jobs available for a person with his job history, not to mention the invisible arm. He is even rejected for a job flipping burgers for fear that he might upset the customers by handing them their food with a hand no one can see. T
...more
Started weak and went downhill from there.
I blame this book for the unreasonable amount of doughnuts brought into the Wells/Tomlinson house over the last couple of weeks.
Another convoluted story from Tom Holt. Breath-taking in scope, this book spans time from the big bang to somewhere in the future (from the here and now). Tom Holt indulges his imagination to explain many unlikely events, in the life of the main character, in terms of pseudo logic. Tom Holt excels at proposing scenarios then explaining them through a series of assumptions to reach the desired conclusion. Many great discoveries of science have started as thought experiments. Who's to say if some
...more
Jan 18, 2019
Kathy
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
time travel or alternate reality fans; fans of quirky science fiction
Shelves:
kansas-library-catalog
Quirky. This is my first Tom Holt and during my reading I thought of these at times:
1) Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
2) Some of Terry Pratchett's works
3) Waiting for the galactic bus ...more
1) Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
2) Some of Terry Pratchett's works
3) Waiting for the galactic bus ...more
Aaahhh, I love Tom Holt and I really wanted to like this book :( Honestly, it gave me a really really hard time and took more than a couple of weeks to finish it.
I think I’m partially responsible for not enjoying this book because I opted for the audio and the random incidents in the scenes were harder to connect. Anyhow, I’m glad this is over. It took a delayed flight to finish this book since I wasn’t interested in carrying on. In some ways, I enjoyed the dry humour. I just feel books of this ...more
I think I’m partially responsible for not enjoying this book because I opted for the audio and the random incidents in the scenes were harder to connect. Anyhow, I’m glad this is over. It took a delayed flight to finish this book since I wasn’t interested in carrying on. In some ways, I enjoyed the dry humour. I just feel books of this ...more
Fun, in a very Hitchhikers Guide way.
I'm a big fan of K.J. Parker, so I was stoked to listen to this book. For those unaware, Tom Holt is K.J. Parker, with the difference being that Parker writes fantasy intrigue novels, and Holt writes ... modern-day satirical science fiction? Is that accurate?
Doughnut is about Theo Bernstein, a down-on-his-luck ex-physicist with one arm that's there, but invisible, trying to get his life back together after being responsible for blowing up the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider. Turned down for a j ...more
Doughnut is about Theo Bernstein, a down-on-his-luck ex-physicist with one arm that's there, but invisible, trying to get his life back together after being responsible for blowing up the Very, Very Large Hadron Collider. Turned down for a j ...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Theo Bernstein accidentally put a decimal point one place to the left instead of the right and, thusly, caused the Very Very Large Hadron Collider to explode, thereby disintegrating an entire Alp and becoming one of the most hated men alive. Coincidentally, Shliemann Brothers, the company that held all his investments, went bust at just about the same time, so, well, things aren’t going great for Theo.
After Theo receives an apple, a seemingly empty bottle and a small pink powder compact as part ...more
After Theo receives an apple, a seemingly empty bottle and a small pink powder compact as part ...more
I’m not adding anything another review doesn’t say, but this book is funny and quirky enough not to put down, and not in a good way. More in the last-picked-for-a-baseball-team way, where it’s not BAD per say, but not the one you’d want batting off for your team. I never reached a point of complete frustration, so I kept reading and made it to the end. But I will say I appreciated the creativity in worldbuilding the different universes mentioned in the books!!
Funny, totally weird, at times unintelligible.
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/201... ...more
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/201... ...more
Tom Holt is fun to read. Nothing to serious and certainly not great literature, but full of laughs, bad puns.
Should’ve been titled “Everyone Dump On Theo” because obviously.. that’s what the book was about. I enjoyed the premise and the saucy nonsensical humor, but it started to get to be too much in the end and I felt bad that not a single damn person in the entire book was straight with our boy Theo. He had a rough go.
Oh well. It was an easy read, I'll give you that. Dumb puns from beginning to end. Somehow addictive, and hard to stop devouring, yet it was obvious from the beginning it couldn't be very special, just a sort of "well not I've had that"-experience. Like a doughnut. Also very classic man writing, sorry to say. But it was okay.
...more
This book deserves higher than four stars but not quite 5. Beautifully strange, and mind stretching...the kind of humor that only the few really appreciate. Yes, I loved it, it could have moved a little more quickly is my only critique.
I have changed my mind about this book. It's actually really cool but a bit confusing. It's really quite funny too but some parts are a bit boring. But I like it, everyone should read this book.
...more
deserves 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed his writing. Love his original way of saying common things.
kinda confusing?? but funny :)
I'll make this quick.
Doughnut is a pretty off the wall novel by Tom Holt, and that's not to say that Tommy hasn't written previous off the wall type books. He has. I've read two only. While they were interesting and funny at times, something about them still didn't stick with me. Clearly tagging this one as "gave up on" on my GR shelf, I now wonder why we (people) sometimes feel as though we need to finish books that are less than good, after starting to read them. It must be an accomplishment t ...more
Doughnut is a pretty off the wall novel by Tom Holt, and that's not to say that Tommy hasn't written previous off the wall type books. He has. I've read two only. While they were interesting and funny at times, something about them still didn't stick with me. Clearly tagging this one as "gave up on" on my GR shelf, I now wonder why we (people) sometimes feel as though we need to finish books that are less than good, after starting to read them. It must be an accomplishment t ...more
Comic fantasy, horror and science fiction can be tricky sub-genres and I've found in the past that they sometimes fall flat for me. With Doughnut I certainly started off enjoying the story of Theo and his adventures with various eccentric supporting characters, YouSpace and the alternative realities but then found that my interest and enjoyment was starting to tail off about half-way through. By the fifth and final section I really only continued because it was a reading group selection and I wa
...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Realistic Fiction | 1 | 5 | May 23, 2015 12:50AM | |
| Realistic Fiction | 1 | 3 | May 23, 2015 12:49AM |
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Tom Holt (Thomas Charles Louis Holt) 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 humorous ways. He has also pro ...more
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 humorous ways. He has also pro ...more
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