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melbsreads's review
2.0
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 Python and the Holy Grail, Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, and Terry Pratchett's The Last Continent. It was enjoyable enough, but it consistently felt like something I'd read before.
Look, it had its funny moments. But for the most part, it felt to me like a mash-up of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, and Terry Pratchett's The Last Continent. It was enjoyable enough, but it consistently felt like something I'd read before.
smcleish's review
4.0
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 [b:Expecting Someone Taller|1034167|Expecting Someone Taller|Tom Holt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1293580400s/1034167.jpg|1020490] 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 world). This makes all these novels a little too similar to each other, as is also the case with [a:Terry Pratchett|1654|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg]'s Discworld series, but you can certainly say that if a reader enjoys one they will enjoy them all: the standard is much more even than the Discworld novels.
In the case of Grailblazers, the medieval myth is that of the quest for the Holy Grail. In the fifteen hundred years since the quest of the Order of the Grail began, those knights who remain have become resigned to their lack of success, and are holding down normal twentieth century jobs (insurance salesman, pizza deliverer and so on). The major skills of the medieval knight have got rather out of date: who needs chivalry today? Then, when their leader retires to set up an estate agency, a new broom is appointed by Merlin to take over.
Boamund is an anachronism. He drank drugged milk, and has spent the last fifteen hundred years asleep in a cave (where his armour rusted so solid that he had to be released from it with an oxyacetylene torch). He immediately brings new enthusiasm to the knights' quest, to their dismay (especially as they all remember him as a priggish prefect at the school of chivalry).
By the time he wrote Grailblazers, Tom Holt's style was well established. Indeed, nearly all of his novels since [b:Expecting Someone Taller|1034167|Expecting Someone Taller|Tom Holt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1293580400s/1034167.jpg|1020490] 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 world). This makes all these novels a little too similar to each other, as is also the case with [a:Terry Pratchett|1654|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg]'s Discworld series, but you can certainly say that if a reader enjoys one they will enjoy them all: the standard is much more even than the Discworld novels.
In the case of Grailblazers, the medieval myth is that of the quest for the Holy Grail. In the fifteen hundred years since the quest of the Order of the Grail began, those knights who remain have become resigned to their lack of success, and are holding down normal twentieth century jobs (insurance salesman, pizza deliverer and so on). The major skills of the medieval knight have got rather out of date: who needs chivalry today? Then, when their leader retires to set up an estate agency, a new broom is appointed by Merlin to take over.
Boamund is an anachronism. He drank drugged milk, and has spent the last fifteen hundred years asleep in a cave (where his armour rusted so solid that he had to be released from it with an oxyacetylene torch). He immediately brings new enthusiasm to the knights' quest, to their dismay (especially as they all remember him as a priggish prefect at the school of chivalry).
sarah42783's review
3.0
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;-)
thetruthatallhazards's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
gengelcox's review
3.0
I’m glad I didn’t give up on Holt. Although this isn’t his best (I’d probably pick [b:Goatsong|16135688|Goatsong|Patricia Damery|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1352909169s/16135688.jpg|21963746] for that distinction, with [b:Expecting Someone Taller|1034167|Expecting Someone Taller|Tom Holt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1293580400s/1034167.jpg|1020490] close by), it’s a far cry better than the mixed-up hodge-podge that marked [b:Here Comes the Sun|26530351|Here Comes the Sun|Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463185922s/26530351.jpg|46521471] and [b:Overtime|14062133|Overtime|Shana Norris|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1337603675s/14062133.jpg|19700043]. Holt’s back to formula here, and maybe that’s why it works; in this one, a knight from the Arthurian Age is awakened to take charge of the order of the Knights of the Holy Grail. First, he’s got to get the rest of the order interested in the quest again, because they have gotten tired of it and become pizza delivery drivers and would-be West End actors.
Holt also plays with largely literary characters here a la [a:Kim Newman|18879|Kim Newman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1295567489p2/18879.jpg] or [a:Howard Waldrop|113942|Howard Waldrop|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1336251287p2/113942.jpg]. His revisionist history of the jolly old man in the red suit is a special lark, as is his take on Lyonnesse. Well-read fantasy readers (and by that I mean the classics, not the modern stuff) will probably get a lot more out of Holt’s allusion play in this regard than I did. In fact, I felt like I was rereading [a:John Myers Myers|60172|John Myers Myers|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1297381054p2/60172.jpg]’ [b:Silverlock|104069|Silverlock|John Myers Myers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442190335s/104069.jpg|100348] at times because of that distressing feeling that I should know this character, and yet couldn’t place it.
Unfortunately, Holt’s still jumping all over the place in telling the story. Multiple points of view and quick cuts, as I described for his last two books, take a toll on the reader here as well. As I said before, pyrotechnics are fine when one is sure that they aren’t standing in the middle of the firing field. Er, that is to say, it takes a stable base to get away with double-back somersaults.
Holt also plays with largely literary characters here a la [a:Kim Newman|18879|Kim Newman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1295567489p2/18879.jpg] or [a:Howard Waldrop|113942|Howard Waldrop|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1336251287p2/113942.jpg]. His revisionist history of the jolly old man in the red suit is a special lark, as is his take on Lyonnesse. Well-read fantasy readers (and by that I mean the classics, not the modern stuff) will probably get a lot more out of Holt’s allusion play in this regard than I did. In fact, I felt like I was rereading [a:John Myers Myers|60172|John Myers Myers|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1297381054p2/60172.jpg]’ [b:Silverlock|104069|Silverlock|John Myers Myers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442190335s/104069.jpg|100348] at times because of that distressing feeling that I should know this character, and yet couldn’t place it.
Unfortunately, Holt’s still jumping all over the place in telling the story. Multiple points of view and quick cuts, as I described for his last two books, take a toll on the reader here as well. As I said before, pyrotechnics are fine when one is sure that they aren’t standing in the middle of the firing field. Er, that is to say, it takes a stable base to get away with double-back somersaults.
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