Tuesday, July 20, 2010

[Books] The Portable Door

Oh, my name is John Wellington Wells 
I'm a dealer in magic and spells

In blessings and curses
And ever-filled purses

In prophecies, witches, and knells
If you want a proud foe to "make tracks"
If you'd melt a rich uncle in wax
You've but to look in on our resident Djinn
Number seventy, Simmery Axe


The Sorcerer, Gilbert and Sullivan
I've been reading a book by Tom Holt called The Portable Door. Using J. W. Wells and Co. from Gilbert and Sullivan's third comic light-opera, Tom succeeds in mixing a bit of recent mythology (from The Sorcerer) with some excellent dry British humor.

I heartily recommend this book (first in a series of 6 books) as well as his other funny novels (23 more, which I am slowly working my way through). The 3 or 4 that I've read are very enjoyable, enough so that I read out certain passages in them to the annoyance of the woman (she's busy with her own novels).

2 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed his two historical novels, Goat Song and The Walled Orchard. They are set in Classical Greece and the protagonist is a historical playwright named Eupolis. Have you read them?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, not yet but I will check them out and add them to my very long reading list.

    ReplyDelete

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