Saints and Sinners: Paint Your Dragon and Open Sesame

Tom Holt Omnibus #7

by Tom Holt

Another omnibus contains two of Tom Holt's hilarious fantasy novels. In Paint Your Dragon, Sculptress Bianca Wilson is a living legend. St. George is also a legend, but not living. However, when Bianca’s sculpture of the patron saint and his scaly chum gets a bit too lifelike, it opens up a new can of wyrms. The dragon knows that in the battle between Good and Evil, Evil got a raw deal and is looking to set the record straight. And George (who cheated) thinks the record’s just fine as it is. In Open Sesame, something is wrong. Just as the boiling water was about to be poured on his head and the man with the red book appeared, Akram the Terrible, the most feared thief in Baghdad, knew that this had happened before. Many times. And he was damned if he was going to let it happen again. Just because he was a fictional character, it didn’t mean it always had to end this way.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Comedy, Urban Fantasy

688 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2004

About the author

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 produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt and fantasy novels writing as K.J. Parker.

Reviews

[Rpaul Tho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally starting to make my way through Tom Holt’s old omnibus books. This one has the fry humour I expected. Open Sesame was by far the better of the two though.

[Boulder Boulderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

First one is slightly hard reading...actual both are, but the second is much more entertaining. Definitely not his best work though.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both these stories were fantastic, and I will definitely be picking up more by this author. They made me laugh out loud, I was impressed by his ability to weave different characters through the narrative, and his incredibly imaginative take on these works of fiction

[Ryan Barretto · Rating 4 out of 5]

So yes - enjoyed both the books. Tom Holt didn't disappoint me. It's been a very long time since I picked up his books though they were sitting with me.

What I specifically liked were the liberal number of metaphors used that made me laugh out loud. The story of Paint Your Dragon took some fascinating twists and turns. The vacationing demons made for an interesting side dish. Open Sesame also took some turns, though for me, they felt more meandering than fitting in with the story.

All in all, a good dose of laughter with some fascinating fantastical fantasy twists in both books.

[Jennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started out liking both stories (in Paint Your Dragon, statues of St. George and the Dragon come to life and chaos ensues; in Open Sesame, Ali Baba and the head of the Forty Thieves duke it out - sort of - in London), but the freshness wears off about halfway through each of them. Eventually, it just feels like the same gags over and over (smart alec tooth fairy makes sarcastic comments, kitchen appliances bicker, disembodied spirits jump in and out of statues). I like the idea of characters from fairy stories running amok in the real world, but Holt over-complicates the action and sometimes it's a relief just to get through it.

Jasper Fforde does this much, much better. If you like twisted fairy stories, I highly recommend his The Big Over Easy as a great place to start.

[Wiebke (1book1review) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn't a total disappointment as the two stars might suggest. I really liked Tom Holt's writing skills, how he twisted and turned things and played with puns and ideas was amazing. Unfortunately he overdid it, in my opinion. He kept pushing the idea to the point it got annoying.

In Paint Your Dragon he kept highlighting his thesis that good isn't always good and that evil isn't always evil. In the beginning I really liked the concept and the way he supported his argument, but with time and repetition I was seriously annoyed by it.

In Open Sesame the story kept going around in circles and kind of lost the ending out of sight and bored me, despite being interested what was going to happen and where the characters might end up.

The characters in both stories are well crafted and likeable and they don't feel too flat and stock figurey (is that a word?).

I think I wouldn't have finished the novels if his writing and basic ideas weren't so good. If it were just shorter!

[Bianca · Rating 2 out of 5]

i've only read the first story, paint your dragon, and i only skimmed the last pages.. decided to continue with the second story later on.. a tad boring in the end..
despite the fact that it has the name bianca and a dragon in one of the story, i couldn't bring myself to love it.. a real struggle to finish it.. more than 5 years i think.. ^^'

[Astrid habie · Rating 4 out of 5]

love the first story, painting the dragon (?), love the ending, love the irony, definitely love the ending, YEAY, currently reading the second story, open sesame, hopefully it will be as good as the first story :)

[H R Koelling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of this author before, but I'm glad I stumbled across this book in the library one day. The first story is very inventive.