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Jump to navigationJump to searchBlonde Bombshell by Tom Holt (view source)
Revision as of 11:46, 7 October 2020
, 11:46, 7 October 2020no edit summary
The plot is somewhat complicated and convoluted - it manages to somehow take in the odd unicorn and octopus as it goes - but how it plays out is part of the joy of the book so I won't attempt any further explanations here. Suffice to say that if the UK government's recent announcement that every dog owner in the UK would have to take out insurance against their pet attacking someone, then the financial implications if Tom Holt's vision comes true would make the recent economic crisis seem like a minor inconvenience! That's one of the problems with being a sci fi writer - you invent ludicrous situations and then governments go and make them reality.
Blonde Bombshell is very much a comic book rather than the more fantastical side of the sci fi genre. Much of the comedy comes from observational humour on the human condition, the cultural references of mankind and our interaction with computers as well as the idea of computers with a moral conscience. He has a fine eye for the absurdities of human behaviour and culture. But he also maintains a strong level of plot development. He has several strands of plot running at the same time and it is far from clear until very late on if, or how, these are going to come together. OK, there might be some gaps in the logic now and then, but this is sci -fi, after all.
Blonde Bombshell is an easy to read and frequently very amusing book. It would be a fantastic holiday read and it's great escapism.
And dog-owners would be well advised to be particularly nice to their pets after reading this book - you never know if they are passing information about you back to their home planet!
Many thanks to the kind folk at Orbit Books for inviting The Bookbag to review this highly entertaining book. We also have a review of Holt's [[The Better Mousetrap by Tom Holt|The Better Mousetrap]].
For an insight into the mind of one of the finest comedy sci -fi writers, I'd highly recommend [[The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams and Stephen Fry]].
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